7-th Asian Games | Astana Almaty 2011

What became the significant step that has changed the city’s destiny and that of our country as a whole, is a political decision by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to transfer the capital from Almaty to Akmola. When, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, enterprises stopped, one after another and huge masses of workers and employees just only started to study survival experience in new market conditions, that decision caused many disputes.

However, the first decade of the new capital’s life has evidently shown that, thanks to this decision, there appeared the town on the map of Kazakhstan which all the country is proud of and the whole world admires.

The image of the new capital of Kazakhstan contains the deepest political, spiritual and even philosophical sense. It is not just a bright modern megalopolis. It is the symbol of revival for our state, the symbol of renovation and appropriation of deep and original spirituality by the people of Kazakhstan. Astana became the city to which dreams, hopes and outlooks of all Kazakhstan generations are linked.

Ancient Settlement Bozok

The military headquarters of the Kipshak sultan that appeared more than one thousand years ago in the left-bank valley of the Ishim river, took its right place in the history of the new capital of Kazakhstan - Astana. Owing to the discovery and research of the ruins on the site of ancient settlement Bozok, it was possible to find out that the history of the city has roots in the past for more than one thousand years ago.

Searches of the medieval towns settled at one time in catchment basins of rivers Nura and Ishim, were started as early as from the beginning of the 20th century by both outstanding scholars and local ethnographers. However, it is only after the transfer of the capital from Almaty to Akmola that systematic archeology research was started of the Upper Priishimye. The ancient settlement of Bozok was discovered in 1998 by K. A. Akishev - the head and founder of the Ishim archaeological expedition.

The settlement appeared as the military headquarters, the residence of the Kipshak sultan who controlled an important junction of trading caravan ways of the Steppe Silk Way. The looks, the military and defense properties of ancient settlement Bozok mismatch the level of military science dating back to the Golden Horde times, that testifies in favour of the fact that the ancient settlement was founded in the Pre-Mongol period, that is, when oguz-kypshak tribes started to dominate over the Saryarka steppes.

Centuries passed, the place was abandoned by its first settlers. The second step in the history of the ancient settlement is in the period when the Kipshak Khanate was augmented in the steppe (10th-11th centuries). The Kipchaks that settled in the place, cleaned the ditches, built houses from clay bricks and wood. There were yourts standing in the centers of sites. Their foundations were discovered during excavations. The new inhabitants of the ancient settlement filled the ditches and constructed their first mausoleums and minaret over here. There is nothing surprising in it, as since high antiquity towns were formed in the steppe around holy places, around forefathers’ tombs.

The third step of development of that place started in the epoch of the Golden Horde (13th-14th centuries) and proceeded until the new time. The ruins of ancient settlement Bozok were acquiring the status of the religious center and becoming the burial place for the nobility. Probably, it is over here that one of the first Muslim missionaries was buried, whose tomb became a sanctuary. In ancient settlement Bozok the remains of five mausoleums have been studied, constructed from mud and burnt brick. Brick kilns are were discovered by the mausoleums. In one of those tombs they found a silver coin which was probably issued in year 1321.

Probably, the life in ancient settlement Bozok also went on during the Kazakh Khanate. The burials made as per Muslim rite have been discovered: the dead buried in lining -lyakhad - head to the West, face to the South, without any belongings. The latest burials are probably related to the 17th-18th centuries. On the southern border of the archaeological monument ruins of the Kazakh winter huts dating to the 18th- 19th centuries are located . The date is established by the parts of the Kuznetsk porcelain.

Ancient settlement Bozok has unique value for the capital of Kazakhstan, as acknowledgement of its ancient sources. The establishment of the military headquarters in the place of the modern Astana more than one thousand years ago is caused by the geo-strategic factor - an opportunity to control caravan routes of the Steppe Silk Way. Ancient settlement Bozok, judging by the concentration of mausoleums in the area, was spiritual Mecca for the Nura-Ishim region’s medieval population.

Decision to Create Akmolinsk Fortification

Formally the history of the steppe military fortress which was subsequently predetermined to become a trading intersection in the steppes of Earmark, the center of virgin land area and the capital of the independent Kazakhstan, started with an administrative imperial reform: in 1822 Alexander I accepted the Charter on the Siberian Kirghiz. The Middle Zhus, traditionally moving in Akmola area, was included in the structure of newly established Omsk Region and divided into administrative districts and auls (villages). In 1824 two first district orders were opened, Kokchetav and Karkalinsk Prikaz (Orders). Due to financial shortage the establishment of other external districts was postponed for a while.

In 1829 sultan Konyrkuldzha Kudajmendin, the great-grandson of Semeke-khan - the governor of the Middle Zhuz, addressed the Russian government the request to protect his auls (villages) against the attacks by  “brigand gangs” and on the formation of the Prikaz (Order) in the Karpyk and Kuandyk Volosts (Regions) that were under his government. Besides the application to protect trading caravans coming from Turkestan to border areas and back, was repeatedly addressed both by other sultans and imperial officials. The same question was addressed to the administration of Western Siberia by sultan Gubajdulla Valiev, who governed the headed the Kokchetav Prikaz (Order), in 1829. Also, in September, 1829 Major General S. B. Bronevsky, Chief of Staff, Separate Siberian Corps, pointed out in his report to Omsk that “in the Karpyk Volost (Area) governed by sultan Konurkulzhey Khudajmendin they wish to establish a district by the Ak-Mola natural boundary”.

Soon the issue of the construction of the Akmolinsk fortification was settled. On May, 28th, 1830, F. K. Shubin’s group of 200 people, with vehicles, went from Petropavlovsk to the construction of the District Order. That summer sultan K.Kudajmendin was moving with his auls in natural boundary Karaotkel. It was over here that F.K.Shubin’s group arrived becoming the first camp at the mausoleum of biy Niyaz. Here, to the well-known height with a lonely mazar, surrounded the May high water, the patriarchs of local family lines were invited for the discussion of the issue where the administrative centre of the future district, Akmolinsk fortification, would be located.

Aksakals (the patriarchs) convinced Shubin to build an outpost at Karaotkel, the most convenient for communication between inhabitants on both banks of the Ishim. The officer took it to heart, and on June 18, 1830, the document was set forth, signed by competent and tamgas-aksakals - illiterate patriarchs. It was some kind of a letter of receipt by sultans and foremen of the Kazakh volosts (regions). They decided not to change the name, and the place appeared in all papers of imperial administration as Akmola, Akmolinsk. And it is possible to consider this day birthday of the future capital of Kazakhstan with good reason. Then inhabitants of the fortress totaled only 313 people.

Construction of Steppe Fortress

Erection of the fortress became complicated due to shortage of building materials, they had to be brought from Petropavlovsk and Omsk. After Shubin’s group finished the construction of objects necessary for the center, on August, 22, 1832, Akmolinsk Prikaz (Order) and the external district was officially opened. The influential sultan of the region, Konyrkuldzha Kudaimedin, was elected the senior sultan who subsequently enjoyed the greatest authority and trust by the imperial colonial administration. The senior sultan, volost sultans, foremen, the Kazakh assessors and biys took the oath on the Koran. The holiday ended up with gift distribution, mass entertainment and horse racing - baiga. Celebrations were accompanied by baiga (horse racing), competition of fighters, akyn’s atys (competition of poets). Artillery salute was made in a volley of 31, from all the guns.

A separate command of soldiers and officers was made up for construction, totally 52 people, under the supervision of Engineer-Second Lieutenant Popov. In 1835 the district numbered 15 Kazakh Volosts with population of 71262 people and one Russian settlement with 9 wooden houses. The closed-type field fortification was constructed in 1840, which plan had the form of a polyhedron with five towers. In the north of the bastion fortification the central tower was erected. Its lower part, with a large porthole to fit a gun, was made from straw brick. Today the gun is stored in the Presidential Centre of Culture in Astana.

Eventually people were settled around the fortification, areas of the future Akmolinsk started their formation. Up to the Soviet days old memorable names were kept. “Fortress” was within the limits of modern Zheltoksan and Kenesary streets, “Central Tower” was in the place of the gate of modern Kh. Munajtpasov Central Stadium. The expanded fortification became in 1845 the Akmolinsk Cossak village. Then, from a military line of fortification Orenburg-Petropavlosk-Omsk, by a toss-up, 100 Cossack families were moved to Akmola. They formed a Cossack settlement, or “Cossack” village, under the eastern wall of the fortress.

“Akmolinsk”  - Crossroad of Trade Routes

Akmolinsk, as a transit point, connecting Russia with Central Asia, was always very convenient to develop commerce, industry and culture. That is why that place was chosen once in a while for a steppe outpost. Merchants from Siberia, the Urals, and Central Asia moved here. Subsequently that little military fortification was turned to a small town. Using the modern language, Akmola started gaining investment appeal. As early as in 1863 the town registered 51 permanent residents, Russian citizens of the merchant class, and 340 foreigners. The total number of tradesmen reached 1236 people. The status of a town was attributed to the Akmolinsk Cossack village after the Resolution by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire of May 7, 1862.

In 1868 the imperial edict had it that a vast Akmolinsk Region be formed, including five districts: Akmolinsk, Kokchetav, Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Atbasar. According to the requirements of the time, the region’s coat-of-arms was approved. The original of the first coat-of-arms will never be able to be shown to the inhabitants of Astana: the Armoury, where it was stored, was closed in 1917. Only the copy of replica of the graphic picture of that invaluable historical relic is available: on a green shield there is the image of biy Niyaz Mausoleum, with two peaked towers and a silver dome, with a golden crescent in the middle.

Upon merchants’ arrival, new trading premises, manufacturing facilities and banks were opened. The population of Akmolinsk was continuously increasing. Totally, in 1869 5172 people inhabited Akmola, and in 1910 the population consisted of 13000 people representing various nationalities. Essential changes in the life of Akmola were introduced by the town reform, as a part of transformations all over Russia. Thus, in 1870 the town started the Municipal Duma (council) with its executive body, the administrative board. Elections of the deputies selected to the Duma for a four-year term, were made on the basis of property qualification, by ballot. Most members of the Municipal Duma represented the merchant class.

The industry of Akmolinsk was of artisan nature. In 1913 the city numbered 9 brick works, 2 tannages, etc., totally 40 enterprises with the general number of workers - 208 people. Besides, there were more than 100 windmills in the town. Running forward, let us say that in 1916 the population of the whole region made over one and a half million people. Aboriginals and representatives of other Asian peoples made about 228 thousand, and almost 1 million people were migrants from Russia and the Ukraine.

In 1897 the town was still fairly small: there lived 9707 people there. They included 5105 males and 4602 females. There were 3020 Kazakhs, 4619 Russians, 1035 Tatars, 223 Mordovians, 205 Germans, 173 Jews, 101 Ukrainian, etc. Only 7 town inhabitants had higher education, only one woman among them. The literate made only 22.5% of the total Akmola population. Those were the results of the first national census of the Russian Empire found by the capital’s oldest archivist Nikolay Ivanovich Baychikov.

Gradually the town began to be developed with stone houses, many of which are still preserved in the capital’s old center. The education system was gradually extending. In 1898 there were 3 municipal schools, 12 church schools and several agricultural schools were in the region. What played an important part in the development of education were the carriers of a new progressive idea: political exilees. As per incomplete data, from 1882 to 1906 45 people were exiled here. Their education level enabled them to go to service to the town’s various institutions.

Akmolinsk Before Revolution

In old Duma Street (later Komodo, later on - Zheltoksan) there was the building of the town’s administrative board that played an important political, public and economic part in the town’s life. It is from here that the management of all Akmolinsk affairs was carried out. After the February Revolution and transition of authority to the Provisional Government, the members of the administrative board formed the District Executive Committee in Akmolinsk which held on for not too long, though. The Initiative Bolshevik group, headed by T. I. Bochkov, on December 27, 1917, formed the Akmolinsk Town Sovdep (Soviet department), and at the first district congress of worker, farmer, soldier and Muslim deputies, on March 2, 1918, the Akmolinsk district Sovdep was elected, and the decision was taken to establish uniform Soviet authority in the district. After the congress was closed its participants went to the administrative board of the town and solemnly cut the pillar with a double-headed eagle.

Continuous change of authority is one of the components of the vague time. Kolchak came, and the administrative authority renewed its activity. The position of the municipal head was executed by S. A. Kubrin, a merchant, who, having typhus, deceased in the autumn of 1919. On November 24, 1919, before Cossack Chieftain Dutov left Akmolinsk for good, the merchant class and local intelligentsia arranged a farewell ball in the premises of the board, abandoned by the military headquarters. And on the evening of next day, November 25, the northwest town suburb saw the avant guard of the Kokchetav Force Command - 1st Akmolinsk and 2nd Kustanay Rifle Regiments of the Separate Steppe Brigade of the 59-th division commanded by G.Yu.Neumann. The new authority occupied the board- the headquarters of the 59-th Rifle Division (K. I. Kalinin, the Chief of the Kokchetav Group of Armies). Later different Soviet establishments occupied that building, including the city and regional libraries.

Akmolinsk During World War II

In October 1939 Akmolinsk became the center of the region. And there was a good ground for it: by the beginning of World War II it was a rather big city with widely developed industry. Six enterprises operated over here, out of them three were of republican importance, three more represented local and cooperative industry. The total number of the population engaged there made 801 people. By that time 32.5 thousand townspeople lived in Akmolinsk. Attributed a new status, Akmolinsk opened new tempting outlooks.  The Akmolinsk Region as a whole after the revolution, in the years of first five-year plans was developed as an agricultural area. Large industrial enterprises appeared here only during World War II, with the relocation of industrial enterprises from Soviet Union’s republics, occupied by the Nazi.

All adult population had training for antiaircraft and gas defense, and men in the age from 16 up to 50 had mandatory military training. It is over here that 310, 387, 29 Rifle and 106 Cavalry Divisions were completed. Out of 9783 Akmolinsks people who went to the front, for the whole war period, 7414 never returned. Thirty-eight soldiers - Akmolinsk inhabitants - were awarded title Hero of Soviet Union; seven were decorated with three degrees of the Order of Glory.

Virgin Land Development

One of the most significant stages in the history of the northern provincial town started with the decision by the Communist Party and the government of the U.S.S.R. to develop virgin and derelict lands. Young enthusiasts from all cities of the Soviet Union started to implement the idea by Nikita Khrushchev, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On March 2, 1954 there arrived the first echelon with volunteers from Alma-Ata, and on March 5, the one from Moscow. According to historical data, only from 1953 until 1958 about 270 thousand people arrived in the Akmolinsk Region . Till now here, already in the young capital of Kazakhstan, there live the children and grandchildren of those first enthusiasts.

Owing to the development of virgin lands the Akmolinsk Region was turned to one of the country’s main granaries and a large center of agricultural mechanical engineering. In 1953-1956 3.5 million hectares of virgin lands were developed in the region. The city was being rapidly developed, and on December 26, 1960 the edict on the formation of the Virgin Krai was issued. And, since 1961, it was already called Tselinograd (Virgin Land City).

To implement one more idea of Nikita Khrushchev - formation of Virgin Krai in Kazakhstan, with its capital in Tselinograd, the Decision of Council of Ministers of the USSR was accepted, and the master plan for the city’s development was worked out, also, the plan of reconstruction of the old and developments of the new development area in the Southeast direction. On November 6, 1963 the television center started its operations in Tselinograd. It was also at the same time that the Palace of Tselinniks was opened, constructed to the design of Latvian architects P. Y. Fogels, O. N. Krauklis, D. K. Danneberg. It was designed for 2355 seats. By its size and equipment system it was considered the second in the U.S.S.R. for the time, after the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

New Capital

At the time the plan by the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev, did not come true - the city never became the official capital of the virgin land area. However, it was the city that was to become a new capital of the independent Kazakhstan. And, to historical measures, it was not too long for the city to wait for such a high status. In 1992 Tselinograd was renamed into Akmola. And, on July 6, 1994 the decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan was accepted, to transfer the capital from Almaty to Akmola.

In 1997 the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev took the decision to transfer the capital from Almaty to Akmola. It was dictated by a favourable geopolitic location of the city in the center of the country, at the crossing of the largest transportation routes, availability of the necessary transport and telecommunication infrastructure, availability of free sites to develop the capital. A city with the population of 319 thousand people has become the country’s new capital. The area of the city as of 1997 made 258 sq. km, and today Astana covers 710.2 sq. km.

On May 6, 1998 according to the Edict by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akmola was renamed into Astana. In 1998 after the decision by UNESCO, the capital of Kazakhstan was awarded the medal and the high rank “City of Peace”. Today Astana is the center of the Eurasian space where various meetings on political, economic, social and cultural issues of the present take place, involving more and more foreign investments, where architectural masterpieces are erected and the most courageous projects are implemented.