Almaty · Archaeology · Observations · Science
According to a collective paper recently published in Science Advances, high status among the early nomads of Eurasia was inherited along family lines rather than won anew by each generation. The researchers analysed whole-genome data from the remains of 85 Iron Age individuals from across the Scythian-Siberian world,
Almaty · Faith · Society · People
Metropolitan Joseph was a man whom many tipped as Patriarch of All Russia after the death of Alexy I. He is also the author of the legendary retort to the remark that Yuri Gagarin had flown into space and not seen God, which ran as follows: Yuri Gagarin did not
Almaty · Archive · The East · Society
The photographs of the 2nd and 3rd Separate Sotnias of the 2nd Semirechye Cossack Regiment were taken in the vicinity of the city of Mashhad in the province of Khorasan. The Semireki knew the local realities perfectly well, drawing on their experience of life in Turkestan. They found their way
Almaty · Archive · Books · Observations · Mores
I happened to read a fragment of the memoirs of Lyubov and Boris Fedotov, animal trainers quite well known in the USSR. It is a very sad story, I say at once. So if you fear pain, do not read the text that follows. The Fedotovs write of the hardships
Almaty · Archive · Society
The Declaration on the Aims and Principles of the CIS and its Foundations confirmed the Belovezha Accords, stating that with the formation of the CIS the USSR ceases to exist. The document was signed at a meeting of presidents in Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan
Almaty · Archive · The East · Geography · Nature
The Caspian tiger, which ranged from the Caucasus to the north-west of China and had made its home across vast territories along the southern shore of the Caspian, the Aral Sea, the rivers of Central Asia and the mountain massifs, vanished for good in the middle of the twentieth
Almaty · Coming Up · Interviews · Art · Museums · People
Valery Ivanovich Yurlov is a leading figure of Russian neo-avant-garde and non-objective painting, author of the "para-forms" method and of series in which he explores the relations of forms, their interaction and transformation. Valery Yurlov's works are held in the collections of
Almaty · Faith · Society · People
Metropolitan Joseph was a man whom many tipped for Patriarch of All Russia after the death of Alexy I. He is also the author of the legendary retort to the remark that Yury Gagarin had flown into space and had not seen God, which ran thus: “Yury Gagarin did not
NB! · Almaty · Art
Almaty · Faith · Cinema · Museums
The film was shot while Mosfilm was evacuated to Alma-Ata. At the same time the city was also sheltering, in evacuation, the collection of church textiles of the New Jerusalem Museum, the foremost assemblage of Russian antiquities of the seventeenth century. The film's production designers obtained permission
Almaty · Architecture · Faith · Heritage
The construction of the cathedral, to a design by the architect Borisoglebsky and the engineer Zenkov, was completed in 1907. The church withstood the devastating Vernyi earthquake of January 1911. Legend describes the cathedral as built without a single nail, but this is not quite so: the church is indeed
Almaty · Observations · People
It is with sorrow that I learnt that on 13 December the outstanding ballet master and dancer Bulat Ayukhanov died in Almaty. He would have turned 85 this year. Bulat Gazizovich and I had been acquainted since 2011; I often spoke about this remarkable artist and wrote about him. I