'Landscaping' in Almaty

Complaints about urban development and the condition of roads in Almaty are nothing new. Even in the pages of the Semirechenskie Oblastnye Vedomosti (Semirechye Provincial Gazette), a newspaper published in Verny (now Almaty) from about 1870, readers regularly voiced concerns about the dirt and mud, as well as the unwillingness of the authorities to implement changes. In issue № 57, in the ‘Sketches of Our Life’ section, a letter was published from an outraged resident of Verny with the telling title ‘Less Naming, More Action’, and it read:

Verny has no shortage of flashy names. If someone were to publish a guide to Verny, and it fell into the hands of some metropolitan dweller or other resident of the empire, they would be quite astonished to learn that Verny, despite lacking a railway and any other means of communication, is practically a paradise. The guide would include Gryaznov's Europe, Mialoblichvili's Byzantium, Prokofiev's Hotel, Seifullin's Twentieth Century, Rumsha's Renome, etc.iTool tip: These were the names of shops, restaurants, hotels, and a cinema in Verny at the timeIf one were to add Titov and Zhilenkov's Thermae and Belov's Hygiene Barbershop, then Verny would undoubtedly outshine any cultured city located along the railway. It wouldn't be surprising if many were tempted to move and take up residence in Verny. After all, word of Verny’s ‘legendary cheapness’ has already spread throughout Russia and Siberia, even without the help of guidebooks …

The author's irony quickly reached its peak as he transitioned to openly criticizing the state of the roads throughout the region and the city's infrastructure.

But it's easy for us locals to debate the merits or flaws of our establishments with grandiose names. Put yourself, however, in the shoes of visitors who have read the Verny City Guide and . . . well, actually, there’s no need to worry about ‘visitors’ at the moment: we can be sure that no one will make it to Verny; they’ll likely kill themselves along the way. And if some extraordinarily determined person does manage to reach Verny, after enduring all the hardships and ‘pleasures’ of traveling on our region's ‘convenient’ roads, even Gryaznov’s ‘Europe’ will seem like paradise to them—until they snap out of their ‘delirium’. And then … they'll still hang themselves because they won’t dare make the return trip the same way they came.

What good does it do to have the city adorned with grand, glittering names and titles? What’s the point of having a General Kolpakovsky Avenue, Pushkin Street, Gogol Street, or even Gourdet Street? How are these streets any different from the others?

The streets are just roads with a dirty stench and filth with no paving or sidewalks. The lighting consists only of flickering lanterns. To name such streets after great people who deserve to be remembered with honor is an insult to their memory.

‘Well, Mr Pushkin, what a street they’ve dedicated to you! You must have committed quite a few sins in your lifetime for us to be atoning for them now,’ a sarcastic local might say.

What's the use in loudly renaming the market square (flea market) as Concord Square? The streets won't miraculously turn into boulevards and flea markets into ‘Concord Square’ just by changing their names; they will continue to be distinguished by the same ‘charms’ they currently possess. This will continue until we stop trying to figure out what names might finally transform their condition to at least satisfactory and instead focus on real improvements. The names, if necessary, will come on their own.

The Semirechenskie Oblastnye Vedomosti was launched in 1870 in Verny (Almaty), and it was published once a week at that point and twice a week between 1884 and 1918. The publication frequently covered world and national news, local events, crime reports, and advertisements, being printed in both Russian and Kazakh, and the Kazakh version was called Tuzemny Otdel.