Trips around Mangyshlak.

“On the dead Mangyshlak land, where only stones can live, traces of high culture have been preserved. The remnants of the flourishing Mangyshlak era have been preserved in the rather frequent ruins of stone fortifications, buildings, grave monuments and deep wells lined with ashlar”

P.S. Saveliev.

History of Tupkaragan.

Anticipating the story of one of the famous first immigrants, it should be said that in the middle of the 19th century, a call was made to hunters to settle on the sandy spit of the bay to populate the desert peninsula of the Eastern Caspian.
To develop fishing on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea Tupkaragan From the Orenburg, Saratov, Astrakhan provinces, new settlers arrived, whom the Russian government granted mercy: free fishing in the waters of the Caspian Sea, exemption from of compulsory military service and state taxes, free salt production from local salt lakes at 150 pounds per family.
Moreover, each family was given a equipped pod with sails, ropes and anchors and 70 rubles for fishing equipment. A government ration was also provided. And so the village of Nikolaev, now the village of Bautino, appeared in Tupkaragan Bay.
You look at bleached mud huts with wooden Russian carvings two hundred years ago and catch yourself thinking that you’ve got into a distant Russian village. But no, this is the closest and dearest village of our hero Viktor Nechaev. It was there that he was born 85 years ago.
Viktor Vasilyevich was pleased to talk about his noble relative Zakharia Dubsky. With his granddaughter, the daughter of the son of Zakharia, Mikhail, Nina Mikhailovna (born 1911), the older sister of Viktor Nechaev, Vera, studied in the same class.
Having moved to live in Volgograd, Nina Mikhailovna came to visit relatives on Tupkaragan. During her next visit to Bautino in 1979, she told some details from the life of her noble grandfather. I also recalled a parable which was especially fond of the inhabitants of Mangistau. The winter that year was harsh.
Once, one poor man decided to steal a bag of flour from Zachary’s barn. "The merchant will not be impoverished," the poor man thought, and began to unload the bag onto the cart. Then suddenly a man came up to him and began to help, saying:
"Quickly take it away until Kuzmich sees it."
The poor man, using the service of a stranger, conveniently packed his bag, and when he turned to thank him, he was astonished: Dubsky himself was standing in front of him. Along the entire coast of the Caspian, Dubsky equipped fishing points.
Zakhar drove the king himself a fish in barrels of honey. Fishermen from Sai Utes, Beineu, Kyzan came to him and were sure of his support: “It cannot be that Kuzmich could not find one boat for us.” And indeed, there was a boat, there were gear.
Dubsky created a cash loan system with a repayment obligation, thanks to which the residents of Tupkaragan resolved their financial problems, built houses, bought livestock, and fishing equipment. And Zakhar Kuzmich promoted his business and strengthened the respect of the people and authority. In 1888, a philanthropist of local fishermen married Anastasia Georgievna.
They had 11 children, but only their daughter Nina and sons Mikhail and Anatoly survived. The family of Zakhar Kuzmich had a large house, a trading shop in the village of Nikolaev. These buildings have survived to this day.
Another house was built in the center of Astrakhan, which burned down in the 1917 revolution. Davyd Nikiforovich Dankov was the clerk in the Nikolaev trading 12 Geologists, the discoverers of the Mangistau shop. His daughter Antonina Davydovna Volkova recalled how Zakhar Kuzmich instructed his father to put pluses in front of the names of the poor villagers in the book of debtors.
Seven kilometers from Bautino, Zakhary Kuzmich bought a large garden, which is currently called the Dubski Garden. In 1909, the first civilian hospital, as well as a school, were built at the expense of the fishery. And in the early 80s of the XIX century, the idea of ​​building a temple arose in the village of Nikolaevskaya (now the village of Bautino).
Zakhary invited nikolayevets to organize a gathering for the construction of the temple. Everyone eagerly responded, and donations flowed. Half of the funds were invested by Zakhar Dubsky himself and his relatives. It is known that if you strive for a goal, then chance always comes to the rescue.
Once Dubsky found out that a stone church was being built in the village of Gorodofortinsky, Astrakhan province, and the former wooden church, almost new, was being sold. How much joy there was when this disassembled church was brought to the village.
November 30, 1884 the church was assembled and lit. Father Vasily Logvinovich was appointed priest. He was commissioned to consecrate the church in the name of the Savior and Miracle Worker Nicholas. So the Nikolaev parish arose in the village of Nikolaev.
Nikolai the Miracle Worker, or Nikolai Ugodnik, has since become the patron saint of Russian settlers in Bautino. Today, from this church there are ruins along which the wind freely walks. But they remember the old-timers of the shrine of their land, remember their story.
During the years of dispossession, Zakhar Kuzmich voluntarily gave the Soviet government his fishing fleet, a salt processing plant. Local residents wrote petitions of the new Bolshevik authorities to save Z.K. Dubsky from all kinds of repression and persecution. These petitions were worth much at that time.
For some time Dubsky worked as a consultant in the Astrakhan State Fish Trust, and then he moved with his whole family to Makhachkala, where he died in 1937. Local old-timers Zakhary Dubsky say that shortly before his death, Dubsky came to the village of his friend Seytakhmet Karagulov to say goodbye and pick up the icons hidden during the revolution.
The people of Dubsky retained a good memory. A house was built near the Dubski estate, where the dining room was located. Every day, the local kids were looking forward to the end of the dinner when the fishermen were fed.
The children knew that food was also mandatory for them, they would be given free drink and food. Dubsky’s wife, they say, was angry about this: they say, eaters of the good gentleman. But Zahar answered:
- These are future fishermen. Today I feed them, and tomorrow they feed me. Old-timer Bautino Ivan Bobrinsky remembered Dubsky with special inspiration:
- Everything in Bautino Kuzmich smells, everything is built by Dubsky’s hands. He built a school for children, a hospital for patients, a church for believers. He accustomed people to this land by good. He was lucky in business, he did not offend others, he helped everyone.
That Kazakh, that Rusak - for him all were one - people.

Authority: 
Zaderetskaya Natalia. "Geologists, the discoverers of Mangistau." Almaty, 2011.220 s. ҚАЗАҚ МҰНАЙЫЫҢ ARDAҚТЫЛАРЫ імірбаян series of Bastaluy - 2006 zhyl. https://munayshy.kz/upload/products/27/demo.pdf

Photos
from the museum of the history of the city of Aktau