History of cities of Kazakhstan.

“A city covered with snow,
In the yellow light of the lanterns ...
There are laws in mind
More precisely calendars."

Mikhail Shapovalov.

Visiting to Kurchatov.

The city of Kurchatov was born during a tough, implacable ideological, political and military confrontation between East and West, at a time when the Soviet Union, bleeding from an unprecedented battle with fascism, was forced to create its own nuclear shield.
It was necessary to prevent the possibility of using atomic weapons that the United States of America possessed. In this regard, by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of August 21, 1947, construction of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site with an area of ​​18.5 thousand square kilometers was started. for testing, research, processing systems and equipment in the interests of the defense complex of the former Soviet Union.
The city of Kurchatov is one of 60 cities in Kazakhstan with the status of a city of regional subordination. The city in the north-west of the East Kazakhstan region, on the left bank of the Irtysh river in a dry agro-climatic zone (a subzone of desert wormwood and feather grass steppes), borders on Pavlodar and Karaganda regions.
The city is named after the Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov, who lived and worked in this city and at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The city has a harsh history. In 1947, the builders of the military unit were the first to arrive here.
Then it was a military garrison, the city, as such, was not planned. The garrison had a name - Moscow-400. At the same time, the construction of a residential town (site M) was started, which was entrusted to military unit 31516, which included 2 construction regiments.
The military builders were tasked with constructing a modern, well-maintained, well-equipped military camp. This task was carried out by 53 engineering and construction regiment. Gradually, the town grew and people improved.
Personnel moved from dugouts to residential buildings and barracks, and the first to build houses were along Lenin Street, the TPP building, the garrison headquarters at military unit 52605. A two-story cottage was built for the head of the training ground, but when testing the first explosion, L.P. . Beria with the guard.
In 1949 the House of Officers was commissioned. In 1950, the construction of a water intake station with the entire complex of water treatment facilities was completed. The very first 36-apartment buildings were laid in the summer of 1952.
This is Pervomaiskaya, 22 (House of the builder) and Youth, 2 (Victory). The construction of the two-story barracks, the surgical department of the hospital was completed in 1953. The embankment on the banks of the Irtysh River with stairs and a stone rower was built in 1954.
Permission for families to enter the city, most of the officers of the garrison, was given only in 1952 - 1953. To solve the housing problem, the construction of a block of large-porous concrete houses was started, which were built in 2 - 3 months.
In 1956 - 1958, a bath and laundry complex, a bathhouse, a new bakery and a department store were built in the garrison. Since 1955, the improvement and landscaping of a residential town began on a large scale.
Green spaces in 1960 occupied an area of ​​95 hectares, there were 35 thousand ornamental and 2 thousand fruit trees, as well as many flowers. Almost simultaneously with the builders, scientists began to gather here.
They lived in tents and temporary huts, reconciling with the disorder of life. Time passed. The scope of work at the training ground expanded, drawing more and more people into its orbit. The settlement also grew: people had to be accommodated and, as it turned out, not for temporary, but for permanent living.
Next to the built, hastily, headquarters, dormitory and dining room, objects of the social sphere began to appear and work. Now it was no longer a military garrison, as previously planned, but a city with all its inherent signs.
In 1974, the settlement received the status of a city. From now on, the serial number Semipalatinsk-2I was changed to the city of Kurchatov.
Initially, the administrative and scientific center, the residential town functioned as a military garrison, due to its special secrecy, it changed its names at different times: it was conventionally called "Moscow-400", "Nadezhda", "Bereg", after the construction of the railway from the city of Semipalatinsk was completed - Station "Final".
The history of the city is inextricably linked with the history of the creation of a nuclear weapons test base. Almost everything is connected with the name of Kurchatov, they know a lot much, this is primarily the central street of Kurchatov.
It is a majestic monument dressed in granite, a symbol and pride of the city. The city owes its appearance and formation to this great man. In the center of Kurchatov stands a two-story hotel. It was built as a hostel in the early fifties.
The greatest scientists lived there: I.V. Kurchatov, Yu.B. Hariton, K.I. Schelkin, Ya.B. Zeldovich, A.F. Ioffe, A.D. Caxapov, and others. They lived without families. Young design scientists worked and lived in the most severe regime - nothing more, just a deal.
Moreover, everyone knew only his own site. They were young, and everything inherent in youth was not alien to them. However, the established strict schedule did not allow any entertainment. The only thing that was allowed was from time to time to go to Zhana-Semey (the left-bank part of Semipalatinsk).
Before each such trip, they received strict instructions: not to communicate with the local population and parting words: "Be modest." The atomic pioneers led an ascetic lifestyle. Work and only work. Yakov Zeldovich, chief theoretician, one of the outstanding scientists in the field of nuclear physics, an extremely talented, sparkling man, they say, was indignant: “What kind of life is this, neither take a walk nor drink ...” And yet Zeldovich managed to run away sometimes in the evenings on a date with a girl - got out through a window (he lived on the ground floor).
hat kept them at the landfill? Earnings? But the earnings were not so great and hardly compensated for life as prisoners. If desired, each of these talented people could earn more and live for their own pleasure. They were kept by the chosen ones once and for all by the business with which they were passionate. 
These are true science fans. In those years, the country's outstanding minds flocked to the Semipalatinsk steppe in the field of nuclear physics. Kurchatov is the former center of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site closed in 1991.
Kurchatov is located 45 kilometers from the Experimental Field site, on which the first atomic and thermonuclear bombs of the USSR were tested. In this city, scientists forged the nuclear shield of the USSR. Thanks to Kurchatov, the balance of power of the two superpowers was maintained.
In Soviet times, the city was closed with the strictest access control, surrounded by barbed wire around the perimeter, and was designated on the maps as the terminal railway station “Konechnaya”. All experimental sites of the training ground had a soldier’s club, a bathhouse, their own central heating, water supply, and sewage.
In Kurchatov, scientific and research laboratories, centers of physicians and biologists, mathematicians and physicists were concentrated, as well as production bases of mine builders, drillers, prospectors, builders.
It was a cozy town, carefully planted with trees, with fountains, parks and playgrounds, an airfield, railway and bus stations, as well as a Palace of Culture, a museum, its own television and newspaper. After the collapse of the USSR, the military contingent in the city declined sharply and its population fell from 50 to 8 - 9 thousand people.
This hit the entire infrastructure of the city: a lot of residential buildings were abandoned, the soldier's town (north-western part of the city) was completely empty, and its objects, including remarkable architectural structures, were sold out and later destroyed.

Authority:
kurchatow.ru