Today, any resident of Kyrgyzstan can familiarize themselves with the exhibition by visiting Viktor Yartsev's store.
He has been creating and organizing the store for many years. Viktor Yartsev is a well-known sports hunter and weapons expert in Kyrgyzstan.
He himself is originally from Russia. Viktor Yartsev was born in the Orenburg region nearly 60 years ago. He started hunting at the age of 6.
“We were sledding on the edge of the village, and suddenly I noticed a flock of white partridges sitting on a haystack nearby. I ran home, took my father's gun. I remember it was a single-barrel IZH-17, and I rushed into the field. I ran up to the partridges, settled down – aimed, shot. The flock took off, but one remained on the ground. ‘I aimed too low,’ I thought at that time. That was my first hunt in life,” Viktor recalled.
In 1957, the Yartsev family moved to Kyrgyzstan. Viktor studied at the Chon-Aryk secondary school. He served in the Soviet Army, in the strategic missile forces. He graduated from the journalism faculty and worked for a long time in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz SSR. Throughout his life, he carried a passion for sports hunting.
But when asked who he feels he is more – a journalist, a weapons expert, or a sports hunter, he usually answers – a journalist. Indeed, Yartsev is known to many Kyrgyzstanis for his memorable bright articles about hunting and the nature of Kyrgyzstan. His passion for hunting prompted him to seriously study and collect hunting weapons, which in turn became the beginning of creating a unique collection that could adorn a historical museum.
“The pride of the collection is a unique huge gun – a duck gun or a duck shooter of the 2nd or even 1st caliber. Friends told me that there was a man living at Issyk-Kul who had a huge antique gun. I went, talked, and the duck shooter appeared in the collection. Probably, the first settlers from Russia brought it with them and used it for duck hunting. Almost a whole pound of black powder was poured into the barrel of the duck shooter, a handful of shot was added, and a shot was fired from a boat at a flock of ducks. Special cushions were used to soften the recoil. Sometimes, this way, they would catch 15-20 ducks at once,” Yartsev shared.
Also interesting is the Arab musket presented in the exhibition. However, the spears and axe are not authentic; they were given to Viktor after participating in the filming of the movie "Genghis Khan." The bow also came from the filming location. The collection includes flintlock guns and hunting weapons produced 100 years ago.
“The PPSh was sent from the factory; it has no barrel. The Colt was completely broken; I cleaned the parts from rust when I was assembling it,” Viktor Petrovich explained.
Hunting snares and traps, original panels, and stuffed animals are also a natural addition to the exhibition and create a memorable atmosphere for a long time.
“The idea of collecting and preserving weapon artifacts arose back in the 70s. While working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz SSR, I once saw how a huge pile of confiscated illegal weapons was being smashed and crushed by a tractor before being sent for pressing and recycling. There was everything in those piles: trophy hunting weapons brought from Germany, products by Russian masters, Kyrgyz kara-multuks – all were sent for disposal. No one even tried to make a historical assessment of the confiscated weapons – what is a priceless artifact and what really should be sent for recycling. Thus, historical specimens were forever lost. ‘The less weapons in the hands of the population, the fewer ‘flaunts’ we have,’ one of the police officials told me then. A weapons museum should have been established in Kyrgyzstan back in Soviet times. It would be one of the most visited today, but this was not done. As a result, an entire layer of material culture has been irretrievably lost. Weapons are an integral part of Kyrgyz history, as one cannot consider the events of the struggle for independence and territorial integrity without showcasing weapons. Unfortunately, today all historical weapons that are dug up as a result of excavations or stored at someone's home settle in private collections, some are destroyed. There are practically no interesting weapon artifacts left in Kyrgyzstan. My task, as a weapons expert, is not to become famous, but to preserve the material culture of the peoples living in Kyrgyzstan, its significant part in the form of historical weapons, to pass on to future generations items of material culture, often unique,” Yartsev shared.
Viktor Petrovich Yartsev passed away at the age of 73 on January 4, 2025.
