This short story was conceived as a story about bygone years through the mouth of a child. Its main idea was to reflect the spirit and morals of the era, the life and customs of the city, the mood of the people and various other details that make up the true history, and not a picture varnished and tailored to the order of those in power.
Therefore, I tried to remember all sorts of details, funny and sad, heroic and not so heroic, and perhaps those that were even immodest to talk about.
But anyway, it was an honest story. For those who love such stories, who are interested in the disappearing past, I flatter myself that this story would be of interest to them. At least, I personally like such stories.
And I also hope that one of the many descendants of my family in the distant future, or perhaps not so distant, will plunge with emotional excitement into the completely forgotten history of a once common country, empathize with their ancestors and be imbued with the strange life and the orders under which they lived.
I must admit that I still turned out to be more a story about childhood, and not about a bygone era. However, this does not sadden me at all. This means that, latently, I was more interested in just such a story - a story about the distant years of life of a primary school student with all the big and small problems, joys and sorrows, games and incidents inherent in it. Moreover, I also managed to display some touches of that city life that has sunk into oblivion.
The history of a person’s life is inseparable from the surrounding reality. And the little man too. For some time now I have been increasingly regretting that I did not ask my grandfather about his life, which included famine and two wars. I’m talking only about global, tragic phenomena known to the whole world. And how many other events happened... There is no one else to ask...
It’s hard for me now to stir up my father, who doesn’t have the fire to dig deep into his memory, pull something out of the bygone years and tell him something true, not embellished. But here it’s my own fault, I caught it too late. Although I still preserved some of his life. I hope that my descendants will be grateful to me.
And I have no doubt that my heirs will be amazed at our past life, which is not at all similar to their present. Because I myself am surprised at how the city in which I spent several happy childhood years has changed, how life, customs and moods have changed in it. And only half a century has passed since the times described. The city of Krasnovodsk has disappeared from the map. Now it is called Turkmenbashi. And this name completely neutralizes the very history of the city and the region as a whole.
It becomes completely inexplicable who, why and how laid the first stones on the shores of the Caspian Sea, who developed this region, how they transformed the dull nature for almost two centuries and what they succeeded in. And the most paradoxical thing for me is the new name of the city.
But there is nowhere to go, the life of another country continues according to its own laws, and it is not subject to our emotions and historical truth. However, my conviction that something unnatural happened along with the renaming of the city only deepened at the beginning of work on the story.
The fact is that I had to deal with the memories of people who lived in Krasnovodsk in their young and not so young years. There were an incredible number of them for me. I could not even imagine how many people I would meet who were in love with Krasnovodsk, the Caspian Sea, the mountains... It is clear to me that for most of them these feelings are evoked by the young years they spent there. And therefore, this was the only way they could react emotionally when they remembered their life in this city.
But there were others who were born there, lived here for a long time, and lived for more than one generation. And now they had to leave for other lands. Forever. This is how life turned out. They are not the first, and they are not the last of the people who have to change their established way of life, life, and even leave expensive graves in order to leave an environment that rejects them. Nobody could have expected this, but it happened. The city was changing before our eyes. And not only in the population structure.
An old friend of mine who lives in Turkmenistan, familiar with my story and knowing about my craving for my native childhood places, recently visited this city. She visited on her own personal business, but took photos of my iconic places. The main one is our house in Kirov. I saw him... But before that, I would like to return to my story and make important clarifications and clarifications.
Firstly, regarding the legend of Japanese prisoners. And this, it turns out, is not a legend at all!.. I was simply shocked when I found out the truth. In Krasnovodsk there were several thousand Japanese prisoners who worked on construction sites. Yes, our house was really built by Japanese prisoners!
Moreover, they built it from stone, which they themselves mined in the local mountains and hewed it by hand, giving them the correct shape. On the first houses they built, traces of manual processing of these stone blocks were visible to the naked eye. They built more than one house like ours. And I remember these houses. Almost the entire city center and embankment are built up with them. True, later the Japanese used a special machine to polish the blocks.
The most beautiful building - the Oil Workers' Palace - was also built by them! And in my childhood, he looked fantastic. It was so huge and representative, and there were so many rooms for various purposes in it, that not every palace or theater in Ashgabat could compete with it.
But that mountain road from the airport that I wrote about? After all, the Japanese started building it too! They stubbornly carved a road path in the rocks, spent a lot of hard manual labor, but did the main job. True, the construction was completed and the road was commissioned by domestic prisoners. Domestic manufacturer...
But, perhaps, for me today, the most vivid knowledge about the Japanese was how they behaved in captivity. It’s impossible to believe it, but they say that they went to work with their national flag!.. The Japanese prisoners believed that they were helping the Soviet Union in construction, so they worked honestly and diligently.
Quite a few of them died in Krasnovodsk. There was even an entire Japanese cemetery, which, like many burial places of “enemies” during the Soviet era, was destroyed and consigned to oblivion. But in recent years, through the efforts of relatives of those same prisoners, the burial site was found. There is now a memorial sign there. A sad and amazing story.
Let's return to our time and the current city. So, I’m looking at a photo of modern Krasnovodsk... Is this really my dear house on Kirov Street? I couldn’t recognize it at the first moment... It would seem that what could have changed when a house was made to last, from such and such blocks and with such hardworking hands? But it could.
The remarkable high roof was demolished. Perhaps the time has come to repair it. But, apparently, they decided not to bother themselves with preserving the appearance of the house and at the same time save money. Judging by the photo, the attic has shrunk significantly, and the dormer windows where we often sat with the older boys have disappeared. The entrance to our entrance disappeared, it was simply walled up. Perhaps the landings were added to some apartments because new windows appeared.
Those same handmade stone blocks can no longer be seen. The outside of the house was plastered, and on the facade there were some stucco decorations in a pseudo-oriental style, which the Japanese could not attach in any way... And there was no front garden “made of non-broad-leaved trees.” There is one tree, which, perhaps, is from my time. It is very clumsy and twisted over the years. But mostly low-growing trees and shrubs dominate here. And they are not that old.
My school is located opposite the house. She most likely hasn't changed at all. But, since the photo was taken from the front entrance, which I only entered a couple of times, it looks unfamiliar to me.
This discovery amuses me. I have a cool attitude towards school: I didn’t get used to it in the short time that I studied there. I would probably look at the schoolyard and building where I was in first grade with great trepidation. God bless her and the school.
And here is the most iconic building - the Oil Workers' Palace. It is impossible not to recognize him! But the scale of the transformations that have befallen the iconic building of Krasnovodsk is amazing. Moreover, not only the palace itself was transformed, but also the adjacent area. It is unknown what has been done inside the Palace, but the outside is magnificent.
However, the houses surrounding the square also look decent. Glamorous, I would say so. Here I remember videos about the modern city of Turkmenbashi. They were made by old-timers who came here to visit, and local residents. They, these videos, gave me an ambivalent feeling. I liked some things, but others put me into a state of stupor.
The remarkable old railway station, which corresponded to the spirit of the ancient Slavic town, has been transformed into a modern structure, but has lost its ancient charm. Perhaps this is what they were trying to achieve. On the other hand, there are a lot of good roads, the airport looks very solid, some memorial buildings...
In the same Avaza, where I was only once, a wonderful resort area was built. And construction continues on such a scale that it cannot but surprise. A comparison with the resorts of Egypt or Tunisia, and perhaps even the resorts of the Emirates, immediately comes to mind. At least the authorities’ desire in this direction is obvious to me. I don't argue, it's a good thing. And people feel good, and the budget is filled. And some have pockets.
But one thought did not leave me when I looked through photos, videos and read reviews from travelers. This is a different city. THIS IS NOT KRASNOVODSK ANYMORE. And the people living there don’t care at all. They live their own lives and in their own environment. And, by the way, the people living there are completely different.
This is no longer a Slavic city, as it once was in my “golden years”. Nostalgic types like me can only remember, write down, find old photographs and exchange with similar subjects to whom it is dear. Life took a turn and the city went off the rails. He now has a completely different fate from his previous life.
Are there many similar examples in history? That's it!.. It's just that this story happened before our eyes, but we read about other stories in textbooks or historical novels, and they were pushed away from us for centuries. And not just pushed aside. The time of change was also extended over many decades, and more often even centuries.
And then everything happened instantly and changed in less than a quarter of a century! And we will have to get used to the fact that there is a city of Turkmenbashi, and Krasnovodsk has disappeared in the memory of old people.
And a little more about personal things. I'm glad I finished my short story, which forced me to delve into my own memories, read many stories of other people, rummage through historical essays and even fictional narratives about times and people long gone.
The main thing is that I spilled onto the pages those memories that for many years constantly forced me in my thoughts and dreams to return to my house, yard and even school. I’ll say it more categorically – these memories simply tormented me. And now I leave it all on paper. I won't be nostalgic about those times anymore. All in the past. And I’ll probably never see my city again.
I wrote these notes, but I didn’t think that at the same time I was saying goodbye to my Krasnovodsk. It turned out that I really broke up with him. He disappeared. And the unfamiliar city of Turkmenbashi appeared.
At one time it seemed to me that I would be able to overcome interstate barriers and find myself in the city of my childhood, which I had dreamed of for many years. Now I understand - I don’t need it. I have nothing to do there. Farewell, Krasnovodsk!..
One of the districts of Krasnovodsk
New photographic documents from the city of Turkmenbashi, sent by our sources, indicate that the city on the Caspian Sea is eking out a miserable existence. Next to the pompous tourist Avaza with a series of white marble hotels and blue bathtubs, the streets, houses and roads of the former Krasnovodsk resemble slums, where the communal infrastructure has not seen repairs for years, and local residents experience acute pain every day. And these are not all the problems of residents of the western region of Turkmenistan.
Railway hospital area
The area of the railway hospital (Gogol and Nagornaya streets) resembles a place where air bombs or artillery shells fell, although, thank God, there was no war here. Take a closer look at these pictures: no normal roads, no sidewalks, no children's playgrounds. Everything that is captured in the photographs of our readers and still remains behind the scenes is the result of the absolute inaction of the city khyakim, his deputies and other officials who, according to Krasnovodsk residents, are busy dividing the profits from the seaport and building facilities that are not the first necessity of the city residents. People in power simply do not appear here, which means no roads are needed. The route of the first person of the state does not pass through these slums, although he quite often visits the western region of the country. The President, whose intervention in the current situation the residents of Krasnovodsk are counting on, prefers to admire his brainchild - .
The lack of water in Krasnovodsk, and even in the Balkan velayat, is a separate issue. On these hot days, residents are supplied with water to their apartments every other day in the evenings for 3-4 hours. On Wednesday, June 24, there was no water for the fourth day. In the area of the new airport, there is no life-giving moisture even longer - a week or ten days.
People complain, write, call even Ashgabat, but no one cares about this problem. One resident of the city of Turkmenbashi, describing the life of her family by the sea without water and electricity, said that she had to collect accumulated dirty laundry in a trunk and send it to her relatives in Ashgabat so that they could wash it there.
Another problematic aspect of the city is the excessively high cost of products on the local market. Some of our readers blame this on visitors from other regions of the country, in particular from those who work in the hundreds at construction sites in Avaza.
“There are so many of them that they now make up half of the total population of our city. Locals say this: if all migrant workers are sent home, then prices at the bazaar will return to normal, and it will become easier to get a job,” writes our reader.
But the visitors themselves do not feel guilty. They say that they came here, leaving their homes and families for a long time, not because of a good life, but because in Dashoguz there is a shortage of jobs.
In this report we did not talk about all the problems of the city by the sea. In the following materials we will touch on another headache of Krasnovodsk residents - or rather, their absence. In the meantime, local residents are asking how, in the presence of such problems, the day of the khyakim and his deputies, among whom there are probably those responsible for solving social issues of Krasnovodsk residents, goes.
More photos from Turkmenbashi in the section on our pages in
In memory of AMZ, friend and colleague
1) Airport. When you first approach Krasnovodsk, the desert-steppe stretches below with many roads intersecting and going in different directions. An interesting sight is the multi-colored Kara-Bugaz Bay. During the first flights, one could see how the Caspian Sea threw its waters into the bay, evaporating sea water and concentrating sulfates and other salts, and thereby seeming to lower the sea level. To simplify the solution to the issue, they filled up the Caspian stream with bulldozers, creating a dam, without building a gateway to change the degree of outflow. Then, a few years later, when the coastal lands began to be flooded, they simply dug a dam and released water into the dehydrated Kara-Bugaz.
After landing, the plane takes more than half an hour to reach the parking lot, and from the window you can see how caponiers are dug in next to the landing strip, in which military aircraft are hiding. The airport is at the top, and the city is at the foot of the red mountain, so you can always see how military aircraft first, spreading their wings, leave the mountain, and then, gradually pressing them to the body, show their variable sweep.
The Krasnovodsk air terminal first struck us with its simplicity, a two-story building for engineering services and a small wooden shed like a waiting room. There were quite strong passages, welded from pipes, into the field, in which luggage was checked. This was the first time we, sent from many cities of the Union, encountered such a deep inspection here. They checked everything here, suitcases, bags, briefcases were opened, things were pulled out, or the inspector herself, with a tenacious, incorruptible gaze, unceremoniously rummaged, looked for something from our belongings, looked at it, thought, and again took up a new thing. At first we thought that only us, those on business trips, were treated like this, but then we saw that everyone was being checked in full. It was always interesting how a book was pulled out and turned over one leaf at a time, and we carried with us several purchased volumes of fiction. Our guys always advised her to read quickly, and next time take a couple of identical books, and one for her as a gift. Yes, we didn’t understand a lot because of our complete darkness, learning much later that Krasnovodsk was one of the transshipment bases for all kinds of drugs, which is why such, in our opinion, strange checks were carried out.
Flights from Krasnovodsk were carried out not only to the European cities of the Union, but to the cities of Turkmenistan and Central Asia. Therefore, among the passengers there are many Kazakhs, Turkmens, Uzbeks and Azerbaijanis. It was especially interesting to look at Turkmen families, when the head of the family walked ahead in boots, despite the terrible heat, and, mainly, in a European suit, and behind him trailed his wife in the obligatory headscarf and a long velvet dress of green or blue, worn on painted embroidered shalwars, which carried suitcases or bundles in both hands, and the children held on to them with dirty little hands. The man walked like a bai, waving his arms and leading his wife to check-in and board the plane. Kazakhs have always been more democratic and we have not noticed such a gender-male advantage.
2)City and people. The city was founded in the 19th century by General Stoletov as an outpost of the Russian Army against Turkmen nomads and for campaigns of conquest against the Bukhara and Khiva khanates. Only after the construction of the Trans-Caspian Railway and the creation of a ferry connection with Baku, this small town, inhabited by Russian military personnel and officials, began to grow, turning into a significant transport hub. The city acquired a rebirth during the Patriotic War, when the Krasnovodsk Oil Refinery was built on the basis of equipment evacuated from Tuapse in a short period of time (autumn 1942 - spring 1943).
The city itself was small (a little more than 50 thousand inhabitants) and consisted of two parts, a center, and Krasnovodsk Cheryomushki located behind a small pass. In the center there were the buildings of the regional committee, the Neftyanik cultural center, a hotel, a pre-revolutionary railway station building, a small embankment, several houses built in the 50s in the style of Stalinist pseudo-classicism, several cottages for the leadership of the region and the plant, a cinema, a museum of the 26 Baku commissars, of course there is a market, and the rest of the houses are like mud huts. The predominant color of the city is white, with the exception of some special inclusions, such as a recreation center, regional committee, etc. Cheremushki beyond the pass was a faceless mass of houses, mostly made of sand-lime brick with a virtual absence of vegetation. Tyndyrs were dug inside residential areas, in which flat cakes were baked. A Turkmen or Kazakh woman sat among the quarter dust, lifting up her dress, she formed a piece of dough, slapping it on her bare leg or shalwar, and then quickly lowered it onto the wall of the oven.
The main trees in the city are Central Asian elms - elms, which were not afraid of the heat and did not need watering, since water was given twice a day, morning and evening, for two hours. The desalination plant was working, but there was not enough desalinated water; it was mixed with well salt water, so the taste of Krasnovodsk tea can be remembered for a lifetime. Around the city there were ancient soda machines with flasks filled with syrup, which were operated by either women or Azerbaijani men, manually pouring soda into glasses or half-liter beer mugs. Therefore, it was interesting to watch the Turkmen women, dressed in their full gear, how she, after drinking two half-liter mugs of soda, then carefully wiped herself with her scarf. How these glasses and mugs, and in general all the utensils in public catering, and especially in pubs, were washed - it is clear that there were no real sanitary standards there. I myself experienced this myself when such a misfortune happened to me, having already come home completely “green” after a flight with stops in Mangyshlak and Astrakhan, having caught a “bacillus” somewhere. Local people have always said that it is necessary to disinfect the body with ordinary vodka, but how to do it in the heat is incomprehensible.
According to the story of a friend of our family, the former director of the Krasnovodsk oil refinery, when he arrived at his new duty station in 1952, the city was in a depressing state. There was a mountain inside the city, so the local Turkmens climbed it with jugs for ablution, and this place always smelled disgusting, not even smelled, but stank. And first of all, he gave the order that this mountain be doused with fuel oil, and the smell of fuel oil is a hundred times more pleasant than the smell of toilet work. And in general, the Turkmen at that time had an established order that such things could be done right on the street, for this only a Turkmen woman needed, for example, to cover her head with a dress, she doesn’t see anyone, and she doesn’t care what others see, she calmly does it thus their physiological needs. When receiving a new apartment, when national personnel began to be moved into houses, the first thing the recipient of housing did was drive three nails into the wall, and then drag his entire yurt there with his carpets and belongings.
Then, already in the 90s, after the collapse of the Union, Russian residents began to be thrown out of their habitual apartments; criminal cases began to be opened against plant managers and shop managers, forcing them to leave the city to which they had given their lives. But that was later. In the meantime, the “occupiers” built Palaces of Culture, hospitals, housing and operated only the equipment of an oil refinery, oil depot, port, railway station, instilling European culture in the Turkmen people, leading them out of tribal dependence.
The Russian people of Krasnovodsk, for the most part, due to their remoteness from the metropolis, seemed to us surprisingly generous, sociable, good-natured and surprisingly quickly responded to all questions. There was no national hostility then, but it seemed to us that all the clans (Russians, Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs, Turkmens) lived separately, at some distance from each other. Although it was clear how, when meeting in shops, on the street, in the bazaar, people of different nationalities talked to each other very calmly. Interestingly, many Russians spoke with a Baku accent.
70 years of cohabitation of the Turkmen people with the Russians did not allow the elites to get closer. The first person in the republic, region, city was always a Turkmen national cadre, and the second secretary of the Central Committee of the republic, or regional committee, or district committee, the same for the executive branch, was appointed a communist of necessarily Russian origin. They were communists of the same party, but their mentality was significantly different. In addition, the first was under the constant supervision and party control of the second. At the same time, when the national moved from a low-rank office to the main one, a complete metamorphosis happened to him. From a servile, as is customary in the East, official or party worker, he immediately turned into the dominant one in his place, to whom everyone was in debt. Everyone was obliged to bring him decisions that he only approved, everyone had to give him offerings of various types, and he reigned according to the Bai traditions. And only the Russian “second”, knowing the whole underside of Eastern life, spoiled his “blood”, at times guiding him on the true path. But when the Union collapsed, nationalist feelings that had long been stored in the soul, which there was no one to direct in a certain direction, arose, Turkmenbashi appeared in full guise with his “Rukhnama”, monuments with gilding, majestic speeches with a full range of flattery and threats. Even in Soviet times, in remote and so-called “collective farms”, the chairmen of the collectives were fully established bais who mercilessly exploited their collective farm slaves, working for their own benefit, and then the bribes went to the center to other masters of life. Such socialism was inherent in almost all Central Asian republics. It is only necessary to note that there were no armed conflicts on the territory of Turkmenistan during the 90s, they went along with the quiet option, and Big Brother at that time was minding his own business, so many disadvantaged people remained on the outskirts of the Union, who in their own way solved their problems at their own discretion. Who decided, who didn’t decide, parting with the feeling of the Motherland. Medvedev was also there, judging by the photographs at the airport in Turkmenbashi, formerly Krasnovodsk. Turkmenistan remains a completely closed country to the outside world, so it is difficult to say now how things are in Krasnovodsk. But, according to photographs and Google maps, there are noticeable changes, these are new houses, hotels, an embankment with palm trees, built with oil and gas money. There is, apparently, a lot of dust in the eyes for foreigners who work at the reconstructed oil refinery, since Turkmenistan remains an extremely poor country with a minimum of information to the outside.
3)Refinery. The plant is located to the right from the exit from the mountain on the road from the airport. It was in the fuel sector, it contained vintage electric vehicles with some American instrumentation from around the end of the 30s, there was catalytic cracking, a coke plant and French calcination. Our area was the production of detergents, and more specifically the transfer to a continuous mode of the process of sulfonation of dodecylbenzene together with higher alcohols, which was in an extremely neglected state and was managed using old-fashioned methods. This is where I end with the technical description, since everything is set out in the relevant literature. On the other hand, at present the plant has been completely reconstructed and our installation is no longer in sight.
We completed the contractual documents quickly enough; our acquaintance with the former management of the plant helped us establish relations with the plant employees; the rest was in our hands. And this, too, we accomplished quite quickly, according to Krasnovodsk standards, sent the equipment to the plant, received an author’s certificate, a year later the installation was done, and my colleague and friend AMZ started setting up the system.
Life at the plant at that time went on in a leisurely manner; there was no such haste and fussiness at similar factories in the metropolis; they always had problems with raw materials and processing plans; management very rarely received the due (or rather not due) quarterly-monthly bonuses. Therefore, we had to do a lot to encourage the plant management so that they would pay attention to us, although they also needed it, and not only for reports on the introduction of new equipment, but in technical terms of improving technology. Finally, the issue was resolved. For a whole week, together with employee A, who was hired to help, from early morning until late evening in 40-45 degree heat, we supervised the installation and did some things ourselves with our own hands. And the head of workshop D, a very good guy, didn’t think that the installers and I could handle it so quickly and gave us, like, bonuses for a vacation to the factory camp site in Avaza. My co-worker A, a divorced guy who knitted woolen things in his free time, met a lady in the warm waters of the Caspian Sea whom he really liked, and therefore asked me for advice on what to do with all this. In the end, he remained in Krasnovodsk; after a lot of time, I don’t know for certain where he is now, maybe in Volgodonsk. But, I turned out to be an indirect accomplice in how our office lost a valuable personnel overnight, although I had been monitoring the system for some time, working in the instrumentation department of the plant.
There were few national personnel at the plant at that time. I remember how one of the deputy chief engineers said that “we need to make a hole here,” and the elderly senior operator at our installation, sitting in the required skullcap and a bowl in his hands, always insisted that we need to rest and drink green tea, but the work is going nowhere won't run away. The most that Turkmen personnel were allowed to do was digging the earth, while the formwork and concrete pouring were done by workers of other nationalities. The Turkmens did not want to work in production; they were busy with their other affairs.
It was also difficult for AMZ to teach operators, even Russians, to work in a new way. Any elementary failure would put them in a trance. At first, the interconnected three-circuit system was difficult for them to perceive and was not easy for them to control. I remember that we also had a hard time at first, and then AMZ stood next to the console and spent long hours, with the help of his great technical erudition and colossal intuition, calming the instrument needles, telling me not to touch the selected settings. He, AMZ, had something that not only affected technology, but also people, who are much more complex than technical devices, but some of his manipulations worked, gave relief, or vice versa, but there was always an effect. At times, like any equipment, there were failures, then they called us and waited for AMZ like a god. After a while, the economic effect was also calculated; it was difficult to determine only the indicator by which our ministry would not put its “paw” on and increase the requirements for the plant. Together with the factory workers, we dealt with these problems with dignity and for several years we had a certain personal benefit (and the factory workers too), and our office also gave a decent report.
4) Hotels. The central hotel seemed good in appearance, but only the second floor was bearable for living; it was impossible to stay on the other floors even for us business travelers, the complete lack of water, shower - all this caused a lot of inconvenience. We had a good stay in the so-called “French” factory hotel, which was a two-room apartment where business travelers to the factory stayed. When there were no places there, we had to move into a factory dormitory, the doors of which had practically no locks, and the doors were closed with strings, it was great! Welders and installers from our Petrov plant lived in that hostel for several months, who welded the shells of coke chambers. They were very unique guys, and when they learned that we were from Volgograd, they always wanted to help us with something. The welders from the Petrov plant were very qualified workers, had the appropriate approvals and categories, although some were completely illiterate, and one of them could neither read nor write. One day he came and asked me to write a letter to his daughter. I wrote that hello daughter, I live well and everything is fine with me, and first I listed greetings and that’s it. Saying "thank you very much" he left. The welded ones received money once a month, quickly drank and ate it, and then went to the sea to catch gobies. Once with me and in this hostel was one of our mechanics, an ulcer, but he loved vodka very much, he hid bottles from me, I found them, poured them out, and so we lived, but in the morning at work he asked me to turn the small screws because they were shaking hands.
From the French “hotel” it was easy to go to work, you didn’t have to wait for the bus, a short trek over the pass and after 20-30 minutes of hiking - you were at the entrance to the factory checkpoint.
At the hotel we always got acquainted with the masses of people sent to the plant; we mainly talked about life in our cities, the same problems, and shortcomings in life. One day, a married couple from Fergana, seeing that AMZ and I had bought New Zealand lamb, told us their recipe for making Fergana pilaf with “Khan’s” long rice, which we could only dream of. Then AMZ agreed with a Kazakh saleswoman who got us this product. For almost three decades, this recipe has been held in high esteem in our family. Another neighbor, out of boredom, tried to play preference with me every day, at least for a penny. There were two programs on TV, and often it was broken, and on the radio the akyns sang their drawn-out monophonic songs all day long. People told how one day, on a live national television program, one of these akyns went into a trance and fell from the chair on which he was sitting with his legs crossed and a musical instrument with one string stretched. After a slight darkening, direct filming showed this musician already sitting on the carpet and on the floor, where nothing threatened him. Other types of cultural program included walks around the city, to the cinema and of course to the bazaar. It was also possible to fish, for example, in the canal leading to the desalination plant. The locals also had other cultural trips, such as hunting or fishing in the Kara-Bugaz region, or to protected places at sea where flamingos lived and live.
5) Animals. Flies were everywhere, in stores, public catering, in installations at factories, in soup, compote. You drink a glass, and at the bottom there is additional fly meat. There were duct tapes covered with flies everywhere in public places. There were also ants in the factory hotel, which paved the road and walked calmly along it. The owner of the hotel, a grandmother who lived nearby in the house, watched the people living there all the time. So she put dust in the kitchen for the ants, on which it had no effect, it was quietly sold, despite the very long-standing ban on use and sale, information took a long time to reach the southern borders of the Union.
In the evenings, a huge number of bats flew on the embankment. And during the day, huge dogs with large heads walked the streets, always hungry and extremely good-natured, which was contrary to their size. We also joked that with their kind souls, these dogs resemble those people of Russian origin who live in this city.
6) Bazaar. The market was similar to oriental bazaars, but not very much, it did not have that oriental charm that is inherent in such places, it was rather poor there. Although there were Turkmens in hats there, there were mountains of melons and watermelons grown by watering with salt water and seeds placed in cut saxaul for rapid germination and replenishment with moisture from this biological pump. They brought bright yellow carrots and potatoes. In summer and winter there were a lot of grapes, pomegranates, apples, pears, and nuts. Various herbs and spices were sold. An old Turkman in a fur hat sat near a bag of green snuff and offered everyone to sniff tobacco to improve their eyesight. One of my economists even tried this remedy, then until the evening she could not come to her senses from its effects. There was a small tavern there, they made very tasty piti soup, and they had some good lamb stuff. There is a special question about shish kebab, and only thanks to my colleague AMZ, who in his native language could negotiate with the Azerbaijani kebab maker, then we were firmly confident in the correctness of the prepared product. In any other case, you could run into trouble. There were stories in the city about barbecue makers, about the dogs from which this food was prepared. Even once, they said that one of these businessmen was put on trial, and in order to justify his perfect action and thanks to his darkness, he stated in court that he did not feed normal citizens with dog food, but only drunk officers. For these words he was sentenced to an increased term.
7) The shops. In all stores, grocery or department stores, there were a lot of things or products that we in Russia had already forgotten about in the 80s. When our female half of the department found out about this, they began to ask to go on business trips to Turkmenistan in order to combine work with something enjoyable and useful for their families. Even at home, they prepared bags for parcels, so that there, in Krasnovodsk, they could buy various rags and send them in bags by mail.
In grocery stores there was an abundance of sausage, huge carcasses of New Zealand lamb, which local Muslims did not take, considering them some kind of cross with a pig, chickens, ducks, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, mainly from powder, various canned food, etc. has long disappeared from our impoverished shelves. The wine and vodka products were of Central Asian production; if they were wines, then only fortified, vintage, Uzbek ones; they did not know how to make dry wines from the sweetest grapes, or they did not like them. There were ports and Madeiras, the taste of which was many heads higher than our Russian swill.
8)Avaza. Not far from the city on the sea, and not on the bay, it was a wonderful place with amazingly clean sand, slightly greenish and transparent sea water, where on Sundays the Krasnovodsk people directed their feet to relax. If at the beginning of June the water was a little cold, some currents did not allow it to warm up and, despite the general air temperature of at least 30 degrees, then in the middle of summer the warmth of the water itself reached 30 degrees. The filming of “White Sun of the Desert” took place in this place, and Sokurov did not disdain the Avaza beach, filming his films there. There were camp sites on the shore, sturgeon kebabs were being fried, and it was nice to relax there, despite some inconveniences. There are seals in the Caspian Sea, and according to the story of one of the business travelers, when he swam out to sea, a male seal attacked him, mistaking him for a rival, and almost on the shore bit him. The man experienced sufficient shock and consulted a doctor; fortunately, there was a Turkmen doctor at the camp site. The doctor examined the bitten man, noticed with a sufficient Turkmen accent that the seal never brushes its teeth, and prescribed him a series of injections for rabies, which he completed at home in Ufa.
9) UFRA. It stands for a fortified fort of the Russian army, it is located near the city and there is an oil depot there (although according to some sources this is toponymy, and the meaning is somewhat different). We came there for the sake of general interest, we looked at this small village with a store, the houses standing on oil-soaked soil, the people in extreme poverty living in these mud hut houses, we looked at the complete absence of vegetation, we looked and left.
10) Port. We were there only in connection with the ferry crossing to Baku or back, we came there to buy tickets, which were considered very difficult to get, not to buy, but, namely, to get. The ferry crossing was always busy, and for us this was one of the chances to get to Baku or Krasnovodsk, because for some time there was no direct connection with Krasnovodsk and we had to fly through the capital of Azerbaijan. For AMZ, flying to Baku and then walking around the city was a real pleasure. The guy from Nakhichivan had to study for several years at the Oil Institute, and then come as a young specialist to CHPP-2, Volgograd, with a practical minimum of Russian, become here in Russia, an excellent specialist, get married, create an excellent family and raise children. Upon arrival in Baku, AMZ gave me a tour of the city, along the embankment, I saw the old city with the Maiden Tower, climbed the mountain, to the park, from where the entire panorama of the city was visible. Of course, it was possible to fly from Baku to Krasnovodsk by plane, which we did many times over three years, but by ferry it was more interesting, night - and you are on the other side of the sea. Air travel across the sea was also fraught with great difficulties; even if you get a ticket for the appropriate flight, this does not mean that you will fly away. A huge crowd of suffering local residents with guttural voices pushes you away from boarding, whether they have tickets or not - no one cares, only then they only tell you that you will fly off later on the next plane. This is the east and the order here is different!
Once AMZ and his colleague T, after the work they had done, could not leave Krasnovodsk, either the direct flight was canceled, or there was some other misfortune, I don’t remember. Despairing from the hopelessness of the situation, AMZ recognized the most famous surname in Krasnovodsk and called the ferry ticket office, introduced himself as “Kurbanov” and ordered two ferry tickets. The cashier, in a humble voice, affirmatively said that he was booking two tickets and come get them, then they went to the port and colleague T successfully bought these ill-fated tickets, the guys sailed across the sea, and then flew home from Baku.
11) Conclusion. Many years have passed, a lot of water has flown under the bridge, even the brackish water from Krasnovodsk. So you remember certain moments in life, the faces of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, some are no longer in this life, but the memories remain. Life still goes on.
Excursion around the city of Turkmenbashi.
“I demand from my city: asphalt, sewerage and hot water. As for culture, I myself am cultured.”
Karl Kraus.
This November marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the city of Krasnovodsk (present-day Turkmenbashi). Krasnovodsk is the oldest modern city in Turkmenistan.
The history of the city is inextricably linked with the history of Russian-Turkmen relations, which had both white and black pages.
The first Russian military-scientific expeditions to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea were organized at the beginning of the 18th century, in particular three times in the period from 1715 to 1717.
In 1716, three fortresses with small garrisons were built on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, one of which was located in the Kizyl-Su Bay.
In 1717, a large expedition was organized under the leadership of Bekovich-Cherkassky.
Up to 3 thousand people, 6 thousand horses, and a large number of camels took part in it. Despite the fact that Bekovich-Cherkassky sent ambassadors to the Khan of Khiva Shirgazi, that he was the ambassador of the Russian state, the latter attacked him 120 kilometers from Khiva.
As a result of the fighting, the Khivans suffered heavy losses, despite their multiple superiority. Russian troops were better armed and disciplined. Realizing that it would not be possible to win in a fair battle, the Khan of Khiva resorted to cunning.
He expressed regret about what happened and invited Bekovich-Cherkassky and his entire squad to visit. The detachment was divided into five parts. Soon they were dealt with separately.
Bekovich-Cherkassky himself was beheaded. This is how the first major Russian expedition to Central Asia ended sadly. The events of 1717 did not become a big obstacle to the further expansion of relations between the Turkmens and Russia.
In 1719 and 1726, new expeditions were launched, as a result of which the first scientific map of the Caspian Sea was created. In the second half of the 18th century, the Russian state several times sent expeditions to the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea.
In 1773 and 1781, expeditions led by S. Gmelin and Count M. Voinovich were on the island of Cheleken. They emphasized that their people were received cordially and friendly by the Turkmens of the coast.
In 1801 - 1802, representatives of the Turkmen of Mangyshlak arrived in St. Petersburg with a request to accept them as Russian citizenship. In May 1802, Alexander the First, by a special decree, announced the acceptance of the Turkmen of Mangyshlak under the protection and citizenship of Russia.
In 1811, part of the Turkmen of Mangyshlak moved to Astrakhan, where their ancestors still live. According to the 2002 population census, about 2,200 Turkmens lived in the Astrakhan region.
Expeditions were organized in 1819-1821, 1832, 1836. In 1836, the Maslakhat of the Caspian Yomuds took place in Esenguly. It was attended by 118 representatives selected from approximately 180 thousand population of the region.
After a general exchange of views, it was decided that it was necessary to ask Russia for protection. In 1859, an expedition was organized to explore the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, as well as to select a site for the construction of a fort.
Krasnovodsk was examined in detail
bay, depth measurements were taken. In November 1869, a military detachment led by N.G. Stoletov founded the city of Krasnovodsk, on the site of the ancient Shagadam well. The process of Turkmenistan joining the Russian Empire begins, which was not always voluntary.
In 1870-1872, several expeditions were organized from Krasnovodsk deep into the Turkmen lands. In 1874, the Trans-Caspian Military Department was created, the center of which became Krasnovodsk.
Earlier in 1873, the Krasnovodsk police station was created. On the basis of the department, the Trans-Caspian region was created in 1882. In June 1880, construction of the first railway in the history of Turkmenistan began.
The highway started from the shore of the Mikhailovsky Bay of the Caspian Sea and already in September 1881 was brought to Kizylarvat. Krasnovodsk becomes a sea trade port.
Being an important transshipment point for goods, it is turning into the “gateway of Central Asia”. In 1908, the number of workers in the city reached 1.5 thousand people. In 1913, about 1 million tons of cargo were transported along the Trans-Caspian Railway.
By 1913, 7,000 people lived in Krasnovodsk. The ethnic composition of the population, both at that time and subsequently, was varied - Russians, Persians, Tatars, Poles, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Kazakhs.
Not many Turkmens lived, mainly in nearby villages. The city has trading warehouses, a bazaar, hotels, port facilities, offices of companies and communities, including oil production.
In 1917, after the October Revolution, power in the city passed to the Bolsheviks. In July 1918, power was seized by the right-wing Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks as a result of a coup.
In February 1920, the Red Army again captured the city. In the 1930s, Krasnovodsk, as well as throughout Turkmenistan, experienced rapid industrial growth. In 1939, 21 thousand people already lived in the city.
The development of the city required qualified specialists. Due to their influx, the city's population grew. In 1943, during the difficult years of the war, the Krasnovodsk oil refinery produced its first products.
The country at that time was especially in need of petroleum products. In 1940, the TSSR was already producing 540 thousand tons of oil per year. In the 50s and 60s, Krasnovodsk became a major industrial center of Turkmenistan.
The oil refining, food industries, construction materials production, and energy industries are developing here. In 1972, 51 thousand people already lived in the city.
There is a pedagogical and medical school in Krasnovodsk. In 1989, the population of the seaside city reached 58,900 people. It should be noted that in the 70-80s, population growth slowed down significantly.
In Krasnovodsk, even then, trends towards an outflow of population to Ashgabat and the central regions of the USSR became clear. Until 1987, the city was the administrative center of the Krasnovodsk region, which was subsequently abolished and re-created in January 1991, but with its center in the city of Nebit-dag.
Since 1992, it has been renamed Balkan. In 1993, the city was renamed in honor of the President of Turkmenistan - Turkmenbashi. In the 90s, there was a strong outflow of residents to the republics of the former USSR and to Ashgabat.
According to the 1995 census, Krasnovodsk is the only settlement in Turkmenistan where Russians made up the majority of the population (32.8%). Krasnovodsk continued to remain one of the most multinational cities in Turkmenistan.
Numerous communities of Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Germans, Lezgins, Uzbeks, and Kazakhs were represented here. In 1999, the five millionth resident of Turkmenistan was born in the city.
In 2005, the city had 68,300 inhabitants. Krasnovodsk is in many ways a unique city in Turkmenistan. And it's not just its seaside location. It is the only one where entire blocks built up with buildings that are a hundred or more years old have been preserved.
The architecture of the city is also original, which has certain Caucasian features, somewhat similar to Baku. As before, the main problem of the city is water supply.
Despite the fact that a lot of work has been done in this regard, this problem continues to occur. In the second half of the 20th century, Krasnovodsk grew significantly in size.
New microdistricts were built - Cheryomushki, as well as residential areas to the west of the city. However, over the past 20 years, not a single new multi-storey residential building has been built in the city, but there are logical explanations for this, including due to the strong outflow of population during this period.
An important problem for the city is ecology. This issue is especially relevant due to the proximity of the city oil refinery and thermal power plant. In 2010, large-scale work began to clear the city port of old ships.
There were dozens of the latter. In 2000, the first two modern hotels were built in Krasnovodsk and its surroundings - Turkmenbashi and Serdar. In 2007, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov put forward the idea of building a National Tourist Zone in the town of Avaza, 12 kilometers west of Turkmenbashi.
Over these 4 years, 10 new hotels, several holiday homes, two children's health camps, cottage holiday homes, cafes, amphitheaters and other facilities have already been built here.
Among them is a seven-kilometer canal. In the future, it is planned to build a water park, an indoor ski complex, parks, hotels and other tourist facilities.
There are plans for the construction of a new city, announced by the country’s president in 2008. A big event for the city was the opening of a new international-class airport that meets all requirements, with a runway of almost 4 kilometers.
Currently, international and local flights are operated from the airport, in particular to Istanbul and Moscow. This year a major transport interchange was opened, as well as new highways.
The city is home to one of the oldest Orthodox churches, founded in 1895. Walking through the streets of the old part of the city, you are immersed in the unique atmosphere of Krasnovodsk of the past, the way it was when it appeared.
Despite the fact that many buildings are a hundred years old or more, they are all functional. Many are still residential buildings.
HISTORY OF PRE-REVOLUTION KRASNOVODSK (1869–1917)
Krasnovodsk is located on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, in the northwestern part of the Krasnovodsk Bay, on the shores of Muravyovskaya Bay, protected from the north by the rocky Kuba-Dag mountains, from the south - by the Cheleken Peninsula, from the west - by the Northern, Cheleken and Krasnovodskaya spits. It is closed literally on all sides from gusty winds and sea waves and arose in a place that the Turkmens called Shagadam.
As for the origin of the name of the city of Krasnovodsk, it has not yet been precisely established. Some compare this name with the local brown rock, while others - with the sources of drinking water extracted in that area. But, in all likelihood, the name of the city comes from the literal translation of the word “Kizil-Su” - “Red Water” - because the drinking water in it had a reddish tint, due to the presence of red algae in it.
The emergence of Krasnovodsk is closely connected with the policy of the Russian government, aimed at strengthening the military-strategic, political and economic positions of tsarism in the vast Turkestan region. It was supposed to serve not only as a starting point for the advance of Russian tsarism into the depths of Turkestan in order to implement its aggressive, predatory policy, but also to contribute to the expansion of Russia’s trade relations with Central Asia and the countries of the Near and Middle East. It is economic and political interests that can explain the relatively rapid development of the Krasnovodsk region at that time.
With the landing of Colonel Stoletov's expedition, the deserted shores of the Krasnovodsk Bay began to be populated and built up. The first step was to build a small fortification to ensure the security of both trade relations and the personnel of the Krasnovodsk military detachment. The contours of this fortification, later named Krasnovodsk, can be traced to this day. The building of the regional museum of local history has been preserved, which even now, after repeated alterations, retains the features of that time: thick walls, the first floor with walled-up cannon embrasures. The border of the military fortification ran approximately along the current Karl Marx Street, down Kirov Street to the Oil Workers' Palace of Culture.
In 1874, by the “Temporary Regulations on the Management of the Trans-Caspian Military Department,” Krasnovodsk was given the status of a city with benefits and privileges granted to urban settlements in the steppe regions of the Orenburg and Turkestan General Governments.
In 1875, construction began on buildings for the military administration. By 1876, private individuals, mostly merchants, had built more than a dozen stone and wooden houses and up to fifteen shops in the city. A small wooden pier was also built for unloading goods brought by ships.
Items imported to Krasnovodsk were barley, wheat, building materials, various wine and vodka products, fruits, groceries, metal products, and salted fish, caviar, viziga, salt, fox fur, Turkmen horses, etc. were exported. Some of the goods going to in both directions, was implemented in the city to local residents and Turkmens of villages close to the city.
Trade connections between Russia and Central Asia through Krasnovodsk were carried out through the caravan road, which hampered its development. For the rapid penetration of goods into Central Asia, Russian commercial and industrial capital needed a railway. The construction of this road began in November 1880, and already in 1886 it was brought to the Amu Darya station (Chardzhou). Such a rapid construction of the railway is explained mainly by the fact that the road was supposed to provide the Akhal-Teke military expedition with military equipment. Therefore, initially it was called the Trans-Caspian Military Railway. The Transcaspian (since 1899 Central Asian) railway began from the town of Uzun-Ada in Mikhailovsky Bay, 50 kilometers south of Krasnovodsk. The starting point of the railway was, however, unsuccessfully chosen. Uzunadinskaya Bay, where the station and port were located, was shallow and poorly protected from the wind. Passengers and cargo arriving in Krasnovodsk had to be transported on flat-bottomed boats to Mikhailovsky Bay, and then to the railway for further travel into the interior of Central Asia. Because of these inconveniences, it was decided to move the starting point of the Trans-Caspian Railway from Uzun-Ada to Krasnovodsk, which is the best and most extensive port on the entire eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. The issue of moving the starting point of the road to Krasnovodsk was decided on June 11, 1894. Construction of the Krasnovodsk section of the Transcaspian Railway lasted from November 14, 1894 to October 1896.
The construction of the railway was a major event in the history of the peoples of Central Asia. It made a complete revolution in the economy and trade of the vast region; in the words of V.I. Lenin, the Transcaspian road began to “open up” Central Asia for capital. [Lenin P.I. Poli. collection cit., vol. 5, p. 82]
The construction of the railway was the most important factor for the development of the internal life of Krasnovodsk itself. The road connected it not only with remote areas of the region, but also with the central provinces of Tsarist Russia, contributed to the further development of urban construction, and increased its commercial importance. Krasnovodsk began to grow noticeably. In 1895, more than two dozen residential buildings and many different (cotton, oil, kerosene and other) warehouses had already been built in Krasnovodsk.
Since 1896, Krasnovodsk began to be divided into a “new” and “old” city. In the area of the old city, which arose on the site of a former military fortification, there were the district administration, customs, postal and telegraph offices, the district treasury, a school, and there were also the offices of shipping companies, trading companies and agencies “Caucasus and Mercury”, “Airplane”, “ Eastern Society", joint-stock companies "Rus", Russian, "Nadezhda", partnership "Kizyl-Su", military and public meetings. From here, along the seashore, the “embankment part” of the old city began, where transport piers, warehouses and other structures were located.
Above, parallel to the piers, was the railway station building. Thanks to its original architecture, it served as a decoration for the entire city. From the station there was a panoramic view of the old city, a beautiful view of the sea and the piers with steamships standing next to them. The station building has been preserved to this day in its original building.
The new city was built up at the foot of the mountains, approximately from the current Maxim Gorky Street and up along the 1 May and Violetov streets, without any plan or architectural style, the houses were surrounded by stone and wooden fences.
Here is what is written, for example, about pre-revolutionary Krasnovodsk in the “Review of the Transcaspian Region” for 1904: “Krasnovodsk, if you look at it from the sea, makes a rather pleasant impression, it is located in a beautiful amphitheater on the shore of a sea bay and is surrounded on all sides by mountains, upon closer acquaintance with it, the whole illusion disappears; first of all, one is struck by the almost complete absence of greenery in the city, although there is a city garden in the city, but its stunted and somewhat grayish greenery makes an extremely depressing impression; the city itself is being built and expanded, rebuilt and does not have a completely definite physiognomy.” This characterizes the dynamics of development of the entire pre-revolutionary Krasnovodsk,
Despite the economic policy of tsarism, which hampered the development of industry in the colonies, industrial enterprises began to appear in the city. In 1896, in connection with the completion of the construction of the Krasnovodsk section of the Trans-Caspian Railway, a depot was opened in the city. In 1902, a city desalination plant was built. In 1906, industrialist Kucherov, founder of the Kizyl-Su partnership, opened an artificial ice plant, a mill and a power plant. In the same year, entrepreneur Barkhudarov received permission to set up a telephone exchange. In addition, the city also had a military and railway desalination plant, a power plant owned by the railway department, and a printing house. Enterprises producing gypsum, lime and other building materials appeared near the city. In 1895, 76,000 poods of gypsum were mined, and in 1913 - 200 thousand poods. In 1917, the products of Krasnovodsk quarries entered the international market. More than 188 thousand pounds of stone and alabaster were exported.
It should be noted that, with the exception of the railway depot, the enterprises that arose in the city were of a handicraft nature. They employed a little over 500 people.
With the development of Krasnovodsk as a commercial and industrial center, the population of the city grew every year. If in 1901 there were 6,375 people living in the city, then in 1909 their number increased to 7,722 people. The national composition was varied: mainly Russians, Persians, Armenians, Tatars, Poles, etc. There were few representatives of the indigenous population - Turkmen - living in the city - only 51 people.
By the nature of the inhabitants' occupations, pre-revolutionary Krasnovodsk was a trade and craft city: in 1910 there were many traders and more than 90 artisans (blacksmiths, tinsmiths, tinkers, watchmakers, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, etc.). They served mainly the local market.
In 1910, the city had two two-class railway schools, two two-class city schools, one Armenian parochial school, with a total student population of 469 people. In 1915, a four-class men's gymnasium was opened here. The educational institutions were attended mainly by the children of wealthy people - merchants, townspeople, and city nobility.
Medical care for the population was also poor. Three medical institutions - a military hospital, a railway and a port emergency room, which had a small number of beds and medical personnel, were not able to serve the population of the city.
It is impossible to fully reveal the history of the seaside city of Krasnovodsk without highlighting the role of the port, which began with the seaport moved from Uzun-Ada in 1896. Being in an advantageous geographical position, at the junction of two highways - water and railway - it becomes a kind of window from Central Asia to Europe and back, the most important point for cargo transshipment. Already in the same year, several piers were built in the port for the parking of ships, loading and unloading of cargo by private shipping and transport companies. The number of piers, the construction of which was carried out by joint-stock shipping companies, as well as commercial and industrial companies, increased to 24 by 1910. These piers were connected to each other by horse-drawn narrow-gauge railways. There was no mechanization; all loading work was done manually. The port's cargo turnover consisted mainly of transit cargo.
The development of the city and port depended entirely on the state of trade between the Russian Empire and the Turkestan region. The discovery of new deposits of oil, coal and other natural resources, the development of cotton growing in Turkestan contributed to the rapid growth of cargo turnover of the Krasnovodsk port. If the total trade turnover of the Krasnovodsk port in 1896 was equal to 18,000 thousand poods, then in 1903 it already reached 46,264 thousand poods, that is, in more than six years since the creation of the port it increased by more than 2.5 times, and in In 1904 alone it increased by 6,287 thousand poods compared to 1903.
The further development of cargo exchange between Russia and the Turkestan region led to the creation of a commercial port administration in Krasnovodsk in January 1903.
True, the opening of traffic along the Orenburg-Tashkent railway in 1906 deprived the Krasnovodsk port of its dominant position in trade with Russia, and its cargo turnover in 1906 fell to 39,259 thousand poods, and in 1908 decreased to 34,911 thousand poods .
However, in subsequent years, cargo turnover maintained an increasing trend.
Russia's trade with Turkestan was colonial in nature.
Mainly petroleum products were imported, the import of which increased from 21,953 thousand poods in 1899–1901. increased to 42,202 thousand poods in 1911–1913, i.e., it almost doubled. During the same period, the import of grain products increased significantly (from 4,860 thousand to 14,339 thousand poods). But the import of forest materials decreased from 13,393 thousand poods in 1899–1901. up to 11664 thousand poods by 1911-
1913, and manufacture during the same time - from 3815 thousand to 2173 thousand poods.
In turn, through the port of Krasnovodsk, mainly raw materials were exported to the European part of Russia - cotton, wool, leather, etc. A significant part of the cargo exported to Russia was cotton, the export of which during the period from 1899–1901. until 1911–1913 increased from 16,867 thousand to 19,129 thousand poods. During this period of time, the export of cotton seeds increased sharply (almost 18 times), and the import of vegetable oil increased by more than one and a half times. In other export items, a decrease is noticeable: salt from 1549 thousand in 1899–1901. to 507 thousand poods in 1911–1913, i.e. more than three times, and wool from 1709 thousand to 1322 thousand poods.
The Krasnovodsk port was also important in the export of Russian industrial goods abroad, in particular to Iran. The main place in exports was occupied by textiles, groceries and haberdashery. In turn, grain, leather, silk, fruits, etc. were imported into Russia. The total cargo turnover of the Krasnovodsk port for the export of various goods to Iran and import from there increased from 209 thousand pounds in 1897 to 395 thousand pounds in 1914.
Thus, the founding of the city of Krasnovodsk, despite the colonialist, predatory policies of tsarism, had an objectively progressive significance for Turkmenistan. First of all, it marked the beginning of the voluntary entry of Turkmenistan into the Russian Empire, which subsequently played a historical role in the destinies of the Turkmen people. The emergence of cities such as Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan, with the development of industry in them, led to the formation of the working class, including the first labor groups from the indigenous population, who, together with Russian workers, fought for their national and social liberation.
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From the book V.I. Lenin and the Cheka. Collection of documents (1917–1922) author Lenin Vladimir Ilyich1917 1 ADDRESS BY THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE PETROGRAD COUNCIL OF WORKERS' AND SOLDIERS' DEPUTIES TO THE CITIZENS OF RUSSIA October 25 (November 7), 1917 TO THE CITIZENS OF RUSSIA! The Provisional Government has been overthrown. State power passed into the hands of the body of the Petrograd Soviet
From the book 100 Great Novels author Lomov Viorel MikhailovichLev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) “War and Peace” (1863–1869) Russian writer, philosopher, ideologist of the social movement at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. - Tolstoyanism, public figure, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) reflected in his work all the harmony and all the dissonances of the Russian (and not
From the book I hear everything... Ilya Ehrenburg's mail 1916 - 1967 author Frezinsky Boris YakovlevichMartin Andersen-Nexø (1869–1954) “Pelle the Conqueror” (1906–1910) Danish writer and public figure, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Denmark, Martin Andersen-Nexø (real name Andersen, pseudonym Nexø - the name of a city on the island of Bornholm, where he lived in
From the book At the Head of the “Wild Division” [Notes of Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov] author Khrustalev Vladimir Mikhailovich1917 2. M.A. Voloshin<Из Коктебеля в Москву,>August 13 (26), 1917 Dear Ilya Grigorievich, for a long time I could not find out anything about you from anyone, and news about you immediately began to come from different directions: the artist Rakitsky said that you had returned through Germany, young
From the book Echo of Moscow. True story author Ryabtseva Lesya1917 January 1st. Sovereign Nicholas II with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich had a trip to the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, where they received congratulations from the Council of Ministers, members of the Retinue and the diplomatic corps. January 6. The Supreme Decree on the postponement was published
From the book Pushkin in life. Pushkin's Companions (collection) author Veresaev Vikenty VikentievichOlga Bychkova “You have your own history, and we have our own history” Olga Bychkova October 21, 2000 K. LARINA: Good afternoon again. The “Employees” program, which we have dedicated to the glorious anniversary of the radio station “Echo of Moscow”, we are celebrating 20 years this year. Therefore, we decided to go through
From the author's bookEkaterina Pavlovna Bakunina (1798–1869) Maid of Honor. “The first platonic, truly poetic love was aroused in Pushkin by Bakunin,” says Komovsky. “She often visited her brother and always came to the lyceum balls. Her lovely face, wondrous figure and
From the author's bookIvan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov (1792–1869) The son of a wealthy Kolomna merchant, who went bankrupt after being arrested under Paul I. In 1812, against the will of his parents, he joined the militia and took part in the campaign against Paris; later he was an adjutant under Count Osterman-Tolstoy in St. Petersburg. He lived on the ground floor
From the author's bookPrince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1803–1869) A cramped room filled with unusual tables with mysterious drawers and recesses; on the tables, on the sofas, on the windows, on the floor - tomes in ancient parchment bindings; human skeleton with the inscription: sapere aude (dare
From the author's bookAlexander Nikolaevich Mordvinov (1792–1869) Son of a colonel, Porkhov landowner. He served in the police department, transferred to military service in 1812, and participated in a number of battles. At the end of the war, he again served in the police, and with the establishment of the Third Division, he entered there. When
From the author's bookPrince Mikhail Alexandrovich Dondukov-Korsakov (1794–1869) Before his marriage, simply Korsakov. In 1819, as captain of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, he married Princess Dondukova-Korsakova, who was descended from the ruling Kalmyk princes Donduk-Ombo, and received the highest permission
From the author's bookMikhail Ivanovich Pushchin (1800–1869) Brother of Pushkin’s lyceum comrade, Decembrist I. I. Pushchin, also a Decembrist. From 1824 he commanded the Guards Cavalry Pioneer Squadron with the rank of captain. In the case of the Decembrists, “for the fact that he knew about the preparations for the rebellion, but did not inform”, he was deprived of ranks,
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