Almaty, Kazakhstan

🇰🇿 Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Ata and Verny, is the largest city in Kazakhstan. Its built-up area that encompasses Talgar, Boraldai, Otegen Batyr and many other suburbs. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1997, when the government relocated the capital to Akmola (renamed Astana in 1998, and Nur-Sultan in 2019).

Almaty is still the major commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan, as well as its most populous and most cosmopolitan city. The city is located in the mountainous area of southern Kazakhstan near the border with Kyrgyzstan in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau at an elevation of 700–900 m (2,300–3,000 feet), where the Large and Small Almatinka rivers run into the plain.

The city has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the area of music since November 2017. The city was the host for a 1978 international conference on Primary Health Care where the Alma Ata Declaration was adopted, marking a paradigm shift in global public health.

History: Prehistoric During 1000–900 BC in the Bronze Age, the first farmers and cattle-breeders established settlements in the territory of Almaty. During the Saka period (from 700 BC to the beginning of the Christian era), these lands were occupied by the Saka and later Wusun tribes, who inhabited the territory north of the Tian Shan mountain range. Evidence of these times can be found in the numerous burial mounds (tumuli) and ancient settlements, especially the giant burial mounds of the Saka tsars. The most famous archaeological finds have been "The Golden Man", also known as "The Golden Warrior", from the Issyk Kurgan; the Zhalauly treasure, the Kargaly diadem, and the Zhetysu arts bronzes (boilers, lamps and altars). During the period of Saka and Wusun governance, Almaty became an early education centre.

History: 15th–18th centuries In the 15th–18th centuries, the city was in decline as trade activities were decreasing on this part of the Silk Road. European nations were conducting more overseas trade by shipping. This period was one of crucial ethnic and political transformations.

The Dzungar invaded, dominating the Kazakh people for a period. The Kazakh fought to protect their land and preserve independence. In 1730 the Kazakh defeated the Dzungar in the Anyrakay mountains, 70 km (45 miles) north-west of Almaty. During the eighteenth century, the city and region was roughly on the border between the Khanate of Kokand and Qing Empire. It was then absorbed as part of the Russian Empire in the 1850s.

History: Foundation of Verny To defend its empire, Russia built Fort Verny near the Trans-Ili Alatau mountain range between the Bolshaya and Malenkaya Almatinka rivers. Construction began on 4 February 1854 and was nearly completed by the autumn of that year. The fort was a wooden palisade, shaped like a pentagon, with one side built along the Malaya Almatinka. Later, the wood fence was replaced with a brick wall with embrasures. The main facilities were erected around the large square for training and parading.

In 1867 Verniy Fort was developed as a town called Almatinsk; the town soon returned to the name Verny.

By 1906 the population of the city had grown to 27,000, two-thirds of whom being Russians and Ukrainians.

History: Soviet era In 1918 following the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Bolshevik government, Soviet power was established in Verny. The city and the region became part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (RSFSR). On 5 February 1921, Verny was renamed Alma-Ata, one of the city's ancient names, by a joint consultation of regional government representatives, professional trade associations, and local faith-based groups.

In 1926, the Council of Labor and Defence approved the construction of the Turkestan–Siberia Railway that was a crucial element of the future growth of Kazakhstan, especially in the east and south-east of the region. The Turkestan–Siberia Railway construction also had a decisive economic impact that strongly influenced the destiny of Alma-Ata as the capital of the Kazakh ASSR. In 1930 the construction of the highway and railway to Alma-Ata was completed.

On 29 April 1927, the government decided to transfer the capital of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from Kyzyl-Orda to Alma-Ata, within the RFSFR. This attracted more trade and people working with the government, stimulating intensive development in the city.

On 31 January 1928, Leon Trotsky, leader of the 1917 October Revolution, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and his son Lev Sedov, was exiled to Alma-Ata by Joseph Stalin, then head of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in Moscow. Trotsky was expelled from Alma-Ata to Turkey in February 1929, and went into exile in Mexico City.

The Alma-Ata airport was opened in 1930, opening up a direct connection from Alma-Ata to Moscow, the centre of the Soviet government. Alma-Ata became the main entry by air to Kazakhstan, a status which it retains today. Transformation of this small town into the capital of the Kazakh SSR was accelerated by the large-scale construction of new administrative and government facilities and housing. The Great Purge of 1936–38 extended to Kazakhstan, where numerous intellectuals, activists, leaders, teachers and others were killed. The Soviet government dominated the population. During the 1930s Kazakh nomads suffered starvation after disruption of their traditional living patterns.

In 1936 the Architecture and Planning Bureau developed a plan to enhance Alma-Ata as the new cultural capital of the Kazakh SSR. The plan was based on the existing rectangular system of districts. They were to be strengthened and reconstructed.

History: World War II During World War II the government dramatically affected the city's population and structures. To better organize the home front and concentrate industrial and material resources, the government evacuated 26,000 people and numerous industries from the European theatre of war. Alma-Ata hosted over 30 industrial facilities removed from the European section of the USSR, eight evacuated hospitals, 15 institutes, universities and technical schools; and around 20 cultural institutions. Motion picture production companies from Leningrad, Kyiv, and Moscow were also moved to Alma-Ata at this time. This brought in so many ethnic Russians that the Kazakhs became a minority in the region.

History:Industrialization

During the years 1941–1945 the industrial potential of the city increased significantly. Development increased during the postwar years. The population of the city grew from 104,000 in 1919 to 365,000 in 1968. By 1967 the city had 145 enterprises, with the bulk of these being light and food industries.

The main industries in Alma-Ata were: ** food processing (36% of gross industrial output), based largely on locally abundant fruit and vegetable raw materials, light industry (31%), and heavy industry (33%). The main products of the region were**History:Urban development

** From 1966 to 1971, 1,400,000 square metres of public and cooperative housing were built. Annually, around 300,000 square metres of dwellings were under construction. Most of the buildings constructed during this time were earthquake-proof multi-story buildings. The Soviet government tried to diversify architectural forms to create a more varied cityscape. During this period, many schools, hospitals, cultural, and entertainment facilities were constructed, including Lenin's Palace, the Kazakhstan Hotel, and the Medeo Sports Complex.

The supersonic transport Tupolev Tu-144 went into service on 26 December 1975, carrying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services; these began in November 1977. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the 55th and last scheduled passenger flight of the Tu-144.

Alma-Ata was the host city for a 1978 international conference on Primary Health Care. The Alma Ata Declaration was adopted, marking a paradigm shift in global public health.

On 16 December 1986, the Jeltoqsan riot took place in the Brezhnev Square (now Republic Square) in response to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Kunayev.

On 7 September 1988, the subway Almaty Metro project started construction; the subway was opened on 1 December 2011 after 23 years.

**History:Post–independence

** Kazakhstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 16 December 1991 (Kazakhstan Independence Day), and one year later, on 28 January 1993, the government renamed the city from the Russian Alma-Ata to the Kazakh name Almaty.

In 1997 the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev approved the decree to transfer the capital from Almaty to Astana in the north of the country. On 1 July 1998 a law was passed to establish the special status of Almaty as a scientific, cultural, historical, financial, and industrial centre.

The new general plan of Almaty for 2030 was released in 1998. It is intended to create ecologically safe, secure, and socially comfortable living conditions in the city. The main objective is to promote Almaty's image as a garden-city.

It proposes continued multi-storied and single-housing development, reorganization of industrial districts or territories, improving transport infrastructure, and expanding the Almaty Metro. The first line of the Almaty metro was launched on 1 December 2011, two weeks ahead of schedule. The extension of the line to Qalqaman was opened in 2015.

Nevertheless, Almaty has developed a major problem with air pollution. Already in 1995, particulate emissions, then mostly from the city's thermal power station, exceeded Kazakh and EU standards by over 20 times. In 2008, Almaty was ranked the 9th most polluted city in the world. A 2013 study identified cars as a major source of pollution, and it was noted since 2003 and 2013 morbidity had increased by a factor of 1.5, and that the city takes the first place in the republic on respiratory, endocrine and blood diseases, cancer and bronchial asthma, even though there are no major industrial installations. An independent local air quality monitoring system with a mobile app was launched in 2017.

The area of the city has been expanded during recent years with the annexation of the suburban settlements of Kalkaman, Kok Tube, Gorniy Gigant District (Mountain Giant). Numerous apartment blocks and office skyscrapers have transformed the face of the town, which has been built into the mountains. Squatter settlements such as Shanyrak have resisted eviction in the face of these development plans.

Almaty was the site of a notorious terrorist attack in July 2016, when Jihadist Ruslan Kulikbayev killed eight police officers and two civilians in a shootout and car chase. Kulikbayev was wounded during the shootout and later sentenced to death for the attack.

In March of 2020, the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the city. Soon, Almaty was transformed, as the pandemic led the city into a changed behavior. The government imposed lockdowns of most institutions.

In January 2022, Almaty was plunged into unrest as part of a national political crisis.

**Geography

** Almaty is located in south-eastern Kazakhstan, almost 1000 km from the capital Astana. Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek is 190 km to the west, while Ürümqi in China is almost 1000 km east.

The region is also home to the Mynjylky mountain plateau, an elevated plain located at the source of the Malaya Almaatinka river at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level.

**Geography:Administrative divisions

There are 8 official Almaty city districts: **     Alatau district

    Almaly district

    Auezov district

    Bostandyk district

    Jetysu district

    Medeu district

    Nauryzbay district

    Turksib district.

**Economy

** Almaty generates approximately 20% of Kazakhstan's GDP (or $36 billion in 2010). The city accounts for above 20% of government revenues and 60% of bank credits. The nation is the most powerful economically in Central Asia and Almaty is a key financial centre.

One of the largest industries in Almaty is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to Kazakhstan's balance of payments. Almaty is home to Halyk Bank, which is the largest bank in Central Asia, Kaspi Bank, and other major banks. The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange is based in Almaty.

Almaty is also developing as a regional financial and business centre (RFCA).

Under construction is the 'Almaty Financial District and Esentai Park'. This was designed by T.J. Gottesdiener, who designed both 7 World Trade Center in New York City and Tokyo Midtown. Its goal is to become the largest business centre in Central Asia. Esentai Tower, a 37-floor building in the park, is the tallest mixed-use building in Kazakhstan, housing offices of companies such as Ernst & Young, HSBC and Credit Suisse. The first Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kazakhstan opened in 2013 in Esentai Tower.

Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in Almaty. The media distribution industry has been growing rapidly since 2006. Major broadcasting channels KTK and NTK are based in Almaty, as are several national newspapers.

There are plans to construct a Western Europe-Western China highway, passing through Almaty. A new airport in Almaty expects to handle about 45 million tonnes of cargo each year. Air Astana is headquartered in the Air Astana Centre 1 in Almaty. Prior to their dissolution, Air Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan Airlines were also headquartered in Almaty.

The economy of Almaty and Almaty Region continues to grow, and is expected to increase by nearly 6.5 percent per year until 2020. To mitigate the rapidly increasing electricity demand caused by this growth, the Kazakh authorities decided to upgrade the power system by building the new transmission line and modernising the substations. The Alma Transmission Project, supported by the World Bank, has helped achieve this goal.

**Culture

** Almaty is largely considered to be the heart and soul of Kazakhstan's classical and popular cultures. The Almaty Region and the city itself have a distinct vibe and pace compared to other regions and cities in Kazakhstan. Contemporary Almaty has a more European vibe due to more cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating and public green space. Kazakh culture and zeitgeist identify as the genetic origin, or fatherland, of the wild apple Malus siversii. Almaty is the historical and contemporary capital of intellectualism in Kazakhstan as a result of Almaty's location along the Ancient Silk Road and that many Russian intellectuals were exiled to the region and to Karlag. The Abai Kazakh State Opera and Ballet Theatre has anchored the city's theater scene since 1934 and was founded around a community of local performance artists. The Kasteyev State Museum of Arts was founded in 1935, is the largest museum in Kazakhstan, and has the largest collection of artworks by Kazakh classic and contemporary artists.

**Theaters

Theatrical art began to develop in the city of Verny a few years after the construction of the Russian fort. On 21 November 1872, the Society of Dramatic Art Lovers staged the first production in the city: ** A. N. Ostrovsky's play, "Stay in Your Own Sled". Later, plays were performed at public, military, and commercial gatherings. An abridgement of Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" was the first opera staged in the city, by the Kolpakovsky three-year city school on 23 February 1913 at the Commercial Assembly, to commemorate the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty.

The flowering of theatrical art in the city began during the Soviet period of Alma-Ata, resulting from the transfer of the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic from Kyzylorda to Alma-Ata. Thus, the Kazakh Drama Theater, the first Kazakh professional theater, moved to the city. In the 1930s, the Opera and Ballet Theater (1934) and the Puppet Theater (1935) were established in the city. Also, theater companies founded in different cities of the republic began to move to the capital**Culture:Museums

A significant contribution to the study of the history of culture, ethnography of southern Kazakhs in the late 19th–20th centuries was made by Turkestan scientists and local historians, united around the scientific societies and cultural and educational institutions of Tashkent. In 1874, from the private collections of travelers who visited Semirechye with a scientific and regional purpose and with the help of the local intelligentsia, a museum was first created in the city of Verny, which was later transformed into a village museum of the Semirechye Cossack Host. This date is the day of the foundation of the first museum in Semirechye. The foundation of the A. Kasteev Museum of Arts was laid by the Kazakh State Art Gallery named after T.G. Shevchenko, founded in 1935. Its main tasks were to collect the best works of Kazakh artists and organize their creative business trips. In 1936, museums in Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) donated a significant number of paintings, graphics, sculpture and applied art to the gallery. By the end of the 1950s, the gallery's funds numbered over 5,000 exhibits, including paintings, reproductions of works by pre-revolutionary and Soviet artists, Western European and Eastern masters of art. In the 1970s and 1980s, new buildings were built for existing museums, and new thematic museums were opened: ** books, musical instruments, archeology, and others. A significant contribution to the development of the museum business was the opening of the Museum of the History of Almaty, which created an association of museums in the city of Almaty and the state institution "Gylym Ordasy", which united 4 museums, which allows to systematize scientific work.

**Cinemas

** The first film screening in the city of Verny took place in 1900, when the physicist K.O. Krause arrived in the city. On it, hand-painted glass transparencies were demonstrated with the help of an overhead projector. The film show took place on 25 January in the Pushkin Garden. In January 1911, the building of the first private cinema "Twentieth Century" was opened at the intersection of Pushkin and Gogol streets, which belonged to the entrepreneur A. R. Seifullin. For the demonstration of films, the cinema was equipped with the first power plant in the history of the city, produced by the British company "Petter", with 14 horsepower. The cinema building burned down in February 1918. Starting in the 1930s, summer cinemas began to appear in the parks of the city, which were later transformed into full-fledged cinemas. Thus, the Rodina Cinema was first opened in the Central Park in 1937. In 1957, it was rebuilt from a seasonal venue into a wide-screen cinema with an auditorium for 712 seats. In another park of the city, the Park of the Federation of Soviet Republics, the Progress Cinema was opened, later renamed Alma-Ata. By the early 1990s, there were 21 cinemas in the city. All cinemas were divided into first, second and third screens. The cinemas of the first screen, in which the premieres of new films took place, were "Alatau", "Tselinny" and "Arman". Film films arrived at the cinemas of the third screen in a deplorable state, with glues and cuts. That is, the quality of showing the film depended on the screening of the cinema. Cinemas in the city were single-screen, two halls were owned by the cinema centres "Kazakhstan", "Arman" and "Tselinny". In the 2000s, cinemas began to open in shopping and entertainment centres, and as a result, existing stationary cinemas began to lose popularity and close.

**Education:University

• Kazakh National Medical University, named after Asfendiyarov (former: ** Almaty Governmental Medical Institute; AGMI) • Almaty Management University (ALMU) • International Information Technology University (IITU) • Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU) • University of International Business • Kazakh National Medical University • Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Telecommunications • Kazakh National Technical University (KazNTU) • Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) • Suleyman Demirel University (SDU) • KIMEP University (KIMEP) • Kazakh-American University (KAU) • Kazakh National Academy of Arts named by T.Zhurgenov • Kazakh Academy of Sciences • Kazakh Academy of Labour and Social Relations • Kazakh National Pedagogic University (named after Abay) • Turan University • Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages • Central Asian University (ЦАУ) • Kazakh-German University (КНУ) • Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering • Kazakh National Agrarian University (SHI, AEZVI) • Narxoz University • International Business Academy.

**Sport

** The historic bandy team Dinamo won the Soviet Championships in 1977 and 1990 and the European Cup in 1978. Their home ground was Medeu. Bandy was introduced for the first time at the 2011 Winter Asian Games. Medeu was the main arena at the 2012 Bandy World Championship. The second arena built for the championships is an alternative field at Almaty Central Stadium. The city is now a candidate to host also the 2020 Bandy World Championship. The Federation of International Bandy has opened an office for Asia, which is located in Almaty.

Almaty was the host of the 2017 Winter Universiade with bandy on the programme.

The 2011 Asian Winter Games were held jointly in Almaty and Astana. The ice hockey and ski jumping competitions were held in the city at the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace and Sunkar International Ski Jumping Complex respectively. The biathlon, cross-country skiing, and ski orienteering competitions were held at the nearby Soldatskoe Valley Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon Stadium; the Alpine skiing and bandy competitions were held in nearby Shymbulak and Medeo respectively.

The Yenbek Almaty ice hockey team played from 1965 to 1985 and from 1999 to 2009. HC Almaty currently plays in the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship.

The city's primary football team is FC Kairat founded in 1954 and one of the most successful Kazakh clubs. Futsal club AFC Kairat hs won the UEFA Futsal Cup in 2012–13 and 2014–15. Basketball team BC Almaty won the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Kazakhstan Basketball Cup.

**International organizations

** The International Monetary Fund announced in October 2019 that it would launch a new regional technical assistance centre (RTAC) in Almaty. The centre will provide capacity development services to nine IMF member countries in the CCAM region. The centre is expected to cover the fiscal policy, central bank operations, financial sector supervision, and macroeconomic statistics.

**Transport:Air

** The closest airport to Almaty is Almaty International Airport located 15 km (9+1⁄2 mi) north-east of the city centre.

**Transport:Urban