The only city

By Sergey Abakshin

If you were spit on the back, remember – you are ahead.

Almaty is the only city in Kazakhstan, which can survive and develop even in untoward conditions, Whatever happened, it is towing the country, appearing as the source of innovations. All attempts to decrease the importance of the City are doomed to failure. It lives by its own way, pulling surrounding territories, squabbling neighbors of the region. The future of Kazakhstan in many respects is the present Almaty. In fact, it can be a distant future.

From its birth, city is a product of sensible design of people. And then people are following construction plans, including general ones. But as far as it goes, as stronger the inertness of collected. A city is starting to live by its own rules. A careful observer will notice that the objective way of development is put on the number of personal decisions. But their common line isn’t directed from some single center, though it is objectively most powerful on other participans background.

Presence of city development plan, activity and ability of citizens, chaotic deeds of builders, land prices, increase or decrease of population, price and accessibility of means of existence – it is far incomplete list of any somehow large community. In Verniy-Alma-Ata-Almaty three ages has changed: Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Independent Kazakhstan. City is young – over155 years. It is paradox, but one among the other cities of Central Asia with real, not mythologised, date of birth is feeling itself properly developed and grown up.

It seems that the time passing differently, depending of the place. Somewhere it stopped, and elsewhere it goes backwards. Almaty stays in avant-garde yet, hugely going forward by time from the environment surrounding it – both Kazakhstani and foreign. The south capital of Kazakhstan is the solid city, that’s why its rhythm and style of its life is often completely different from the rest of the country, where there’s no other Cities. For example, even in the boiling period of migration processes, Almaty experienced no such event as depopulation.

Either in Tsar or Soviet period the feature of Kazakhstan stayed the same – the center was on the periphery, and the periphery was on the center (geographically). In 1929, Alma-Ata was given by the status of the capital of Soviet Republic, which then only enforced status-quo. The feature of planning system was always that the amount of material and spiritual benefits, accessible to a common person, was directly dependant of where he is living. Inarguable leadership was held by the capital of USSR – Moskow. Almaty was situated in the second row as the capital of one of Union’s republics. Then following by the closed towns, the capitals of autonomous republics, resort cities and then falling to distant auls and villages.

The capital had the main priority in Kazakhstan. The love of Dinmukhamed Kunaev (the 1st secretary of the Central Committee of Communistic Party of Kazakh SSR, actually the first face in the republic) to Almaty had the most advantageous after-effects. The “Kazakhstan” highrise hotel, luxurious baths of “Arasan” and many other very important architectural, infrastructural and social building were constructed precisely in that period. Then was the basis built, thanks for which the Almaty nowadays stays as the City, and exploding in this quality. It’s enough to say that in terms of water supply, energetic and road network the metropolis lives at the expense of the resource, founded in Kunaev’s epoch.

It’s obvious that USSR had a mass of disadvantages; otherwise it would not fall into non-existence so fast (from the point of view of historian). However, even there the own rules and norms was working. The state had certain “red line” with its relations with citizens, and never allowed itself to step behind it. The situation with territory of KNB Almaty and Almaty district department, when the traffic road was surrounded by fence, was unbelievable in those times. The fact that they removed the fence after several years after all, and the street was opened to traffic, is witnessing that the City is able to call its guests to order. It is turn of the sharp ecological problems of metropolis.

In the Soviet period Alma-Ata was the center of power under command of Moskow, even in matters of republic scale. Nevertheless, the technologies of power relations in that period were worked out, and no other community in Kazakhstan had so much “capitalness”. Along with receiving independency the metropolis quickly gained the qualities of full-size capital of independent country, because it already had all essential for this.

This begun not nowadays, but fact stay as the fact: the power and the property going together in the country. Market (pseudo market) relations didn’t make substantial changes here. The status of regional capital was taken from Taldykorgan, and it is dying in the eyes, because former finance from country’s budget is going out of it together with the status. Status returned, and city quickly returns to life.

The principle above is just for any of communities in Kazakhstan, but not for Almaty, because it is the City. Firstly, they carry the capital to Astana, but this decision was not stopped metropolis’ development. Then the major office of Almaty district was carried to Taldykorgan; however, the City continued to flammable growth even after this. Then the national companies started to move to Astana (control stock, until 100% inclusively, in the hands of the State), and prices for the land and estate were still growing up. In the time of social-economical crisis again it is easier to survive in the City. The City is the City, because it lives by its own rules.

Administrative resource here has its own segment, which not consuming or cancelling other moments. And there is a mass of different enough factors in the biggest community of the republic. Landscape, climate, amount of people, development of infrastructure, quality of the human resources, and cultural traditions and many other things are here. Market relations and technical progress but its nature is systematically reinforcing the “other” factor.

Almaty had money from the very beginning of market reforms of 90’s. Developing economy of young state demanded the presence of the City, in which the rudiments of modern city infrastructure could be developed. The founder boom has started, opening of diplomatic representations, currency exchange offices… The City globalized in the eyes.

Almaty loves the money, and the money loves it too. The City by its nature is not oil, but stabile attracts to itself the huge part of oil dollars. Here is the most high coefficient of commercial estate on the first floor of the buildings among the country, the most biggest part of tax income from small and middle business. Even in times of crisis Almaty suffers luck of money much less than any other community in the country.

When the city becomes a City, the meaning of such subjective fact is falling, as the person of major. On this level it is not so important, what he loves or hates which problems he considers as primary, and something he makes little of. Here’s the qualitatively different parameters, which are aiming the reality and its intensiveness.