Almaty · Architecture · Society
One of the centres of the tragic events in Kazakhstan has been the republic's former capital, the city of Alma-Ata. The footage from the world news agencies illustrating the destructive nature of the disorders shows Republic Square. It is the very place where the December uprising of
Almaty · Observations · Society
Today one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the lovely Almaty, is gripped by alarming and terrible events. Kazakhstan, which I had always thought the safest place on earth, is shaken by disorder: public and government buildings are being seized, and there is gunfire, banditry, looting and violence
Almaty · Art · Cinema · Observations · People
There is a film called “Sergei Kalmykov: A Man Visible from the Stars”. It is about an incredible Soviet artist and mystic who lived in Alma-Ata. Kalmykov moved to Kazakhstan in the late 1930s, when storm clouds began to gather over the circle of mystics, and in Alma-Ata
Almaty · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage · People
Today Itkind's sculptures are displayed in many museums around the world and held in private collections, while a considerable part of the master's legacy is in Kazakhstan, where the most productive decades of his life were spent. Unfortunately, for a time some of the wooden sculptures
Almaty · Archive · Art · Society · People
I have been fortunate to hear about Itkind from people who were his friends, who knew him and his family, and who could shed light on the misconceptions largely introduced into circulation by a popular sketch by the journalist Eduard Topol, who met Itkind. The brief biography of the truly
Almaty · Art · People
The Jew who died twice. The rabbi who became an artist. The eccentric old man, a half-wild sorcerer-elder who lived on roots and gathered old tree stumps, dwelling in a dugout on the outskirts of Alma-Ata. The best-known Soviet sculptor of the 1930s, who vanished into
NB! · Almaty · Heritage · Society
A monument to the polutorka in Alma-Ata. Caption: the GAZ-AA lorry, a symbol of the labour and martial glory of veteran motorists. The vehicle was erected by Akan Kamelbekov, Honoured Innovator of Kazakhstan
NB! · Almaty · The East · Art · Cinema · Observations · Ethnography
Remember how in "Kavkazskaya plennitsa" [Kidnapping, Caucasian Style] they called bride abduction a beautiful custom? I stand before Kasteev's 1937 painting "Bride Abduction" and cannot see what is beautiful here; it is simply dreadful!
NB! · Almaty · Archaeology · Observations · Humour
I dropped into the numismatic shop at the Green Bazaar, where I have been buying for 15 years, and added ducats from the Semirechye hoard to my collection. If you don't know how to spend a million, ask me
Almaty · Books · Society · People · Saint Petersburg
Jambyl Jabayev Leningraders, my children! Leningraders, my pride! In the current of the steppe stream I see a glint of the Neva's current. If along the snowy ridges I glide my aged gaze, I see the arches of your bridges, The blueness of the Baltic dawns, The swarms
Almaty · Books · Moscow · Observations · Society · People
The Kazakh poet Dzhambul won fame very late: he became known only in 1936, when he was already very old. It cannot be said that nothing had been heard of him before. Dzhambul Dzhabayev was surrounded by a large family and was, by all accounts, a distinguished akyn, the victor