Burabay - Kazakh Wonderland

Among the yellow, sun-scorched, endless steppe, the green wall of the forest grows. And beyond that, a truly wondrous landscape opens up: Huge ancient trees, rock ridges, fantastic bends of rocks, quiet "bewitched" lakes, full of fish. Burabay or Borovoye - a truly mysterious and mysterious place. "Bura" in Kazakh means "camel". An old legend about a camel living in these places is connected with this. Having learned that people are coming here, the camel turned into a tulpar (winged horse) and flew to the peak of Kokshetau, thus, to escape from people, as from advancing misfortune.

On the territory of Burabay, archaeologists have discovered a storage of tools of the Bronze Age. This indicates that Burabai was inhabited not only by hunters, but also by farmers and pastoralists. Here the Scythian tribes, marching on the extraction of gold and ore, often passed. Burabay is not too rich in monuments of material culture. But its amazing nature makes an impression no less than some great castles and palaces.

Kokshetau is translated as "Blue (heavenly) mountains" meaning that the sky above it is blue, and the air in these places is clean and transparent. In ancient times in these mountains lived a proud, free, lonely white camel - Bura. He was tall, strong and handsome.

The wool on it was thick, white. This huge camel - Bura always walked alone, did not communicate with anyone, did not obey anyone. His home was a thick thicket of Kokshetau forests. He drank water only from one lake, which in people for the purity of cool water and its transparency called Kumiskol, that is, Lake Silver. Every day the white camel of Bura came at noon to drink water from a silver lake, and he came here on the same road. This camel was sacred. He sensed in advance the approach of enemy hordes, and with his loud shout warned people about the invasion of strangers. Bura also felt the approach of illnesses to the khan, and on such days became particularly restless and noisy. Before the troubled days of Bura, the white camel, without ceasing, roared loudly. The roar was heard by the inhabitants of the surrounding forests and steppes, and hastily assembled in detachments to repel the raid of enemies. People well treated the white camel, worshiped him as a deity, considered him a sacred animal, which was sent to them by the god of Heaven Tengri to protect them from adversity. The locality in which the white camel of Bura dwelt was called Burabai, and the lake with silvery water, where it quenched thirst, was named Borovoe.

Now among the people there was one bloodthirsty villain. He collected a gang of the same mean and evil people like himself, they robbed the poor and killed the defenseless. They ruthlessly exterminated wild animals, birds and animals. After learning about them, Bura - a white camel became a roar to warn animals and people about their approach. And the robbers did not become lucky, the animals began to flee from the evil hunters. But the bloodsuckers also learned that Bura warned of their hunting of animals and animals, and began to hunt after him himself. They decided to kill him. And one day, Bura walked, cutting the thick forest with his powerful white breast, and stumbled directly into the hunters. The leader of the robbers immediately seized a large arrow and, pulling it on the bow, aimed straight at the chest of the white camel, and fired.

In the twenties of the XIX century, when the governor of the province M.Speransky was preparing a draft "charter of the Siberian Kirghiz", in some of his paragraphs he reflected the idea of ​​introducing haymen among nomads. This document was made responsible for all Russian officials and linear Cossacks planting in the steppe agriculture, gardening, persuading the Kazakhs in the advantages of a settled way of life, helping them to master the unknown tillage to them. But at that time the farming in the steppe was not properly developed again.

The governor of the steppe region Kaznakov in 1875 raised the question of the abolition of the ban on the settlement of the Kazakh steppes by the peasants of the central provinces of Russia before Tsar Alexander III. It took the emperor fourteen years to publish "the highest notices" that the Akmola steppes were declared open to a free peasant settlement. It was 1889. Approached the end of the XIX century, for which Russia counted forty hungry years. Crop failure simultaneously comprehended up to 60 provinces. Starving people were removed from their homes and sent to distant unknown lands. A wave of immigrants from different provinces of Russia poured into the free lands. Although resettlement to the east and approved by the government, but local authorities were not ready to receive and accommodate so many people. The settlers had no choice but to settle in places that were assigned for settlement somewhere on the shore of a lake, a river, or near a forest. They united, formed hamlets and began to settle. Names of settlements were given the most different. More often they were called so that they reminded of the edges from which the bulk of the settlers arrived. So Poltavka, Kievki, Saratovka appeared ... Other new settlers called their settlements places for their accommodation - Zarechnoye, Podlesnoye, Berezovka, Krasny Bor, Borovskoye, Borovoe and others.

Following the Russians in Burabay, foreign capital also penetrated. On the shore of Lake Ainakol (Big Chebache) a large meat-canning factory of the English concessionaire Berghl appeared. The structure of the plant was made of stone on a lime mortar, so it was almost impossible to disassemble it. The stone skeleton of the building stood until the end of the 60s of the last century and then was blown up, and the stones were used for construction.

The Cossacks were eager to settle the fortified Borovka places: in 1849 they founded the village of Koturkul, and the next year - a small settlement - Shchuchye (now the town of Shchuchinsk). Twenty years later in 1870 an enterprising Cossack Zubov looked after a stormy channel between the lakes Borovoe and Bolshoy Chebache for business, and placed the first water mill in it. Behind the miller the Gromotukha and other new settlers were pulled to the river, they cut down the huts from the age-old pines. So there was a village Borovskaya.

And yet the rumor about the picturesque region that gives health, grew. And the inhabitants of Omsk and Petropavlovsk began to come here, and who from living far away - to be treated with miraculous koumiss and curative air, marvel at the fresh beauty of Borovoy, walk along the untouched nature trails, fish in clean blue lakes rich in uninvited fish.

A piece of life a hundred years ago, we kept the notes of the Russian geographer and traveler Ivan Yakovlevich Slovtsov, who made a trip to Kokchetavsky district of Akmola region in 1878. Reading his little book, you can form an idea of ​​what was a reserved place in the last century.

How did Borovoe Slovtsov see it? The uncomplicated syllable of the scientist narrates the joyful feeling of the discoverer of the unique beauty of the earth: "It is hardly possible to find in the whole Kyrgyz steppe such a picturesque and rich in diverse lands, as the ... neighborhoods of the Kokchetau mountains and especially the last on the east side. land, about 20 versts in diameter, mountain cliffs reminiscent of the Caucasus and Altai, overgrown with needles entered into a wonderful combination with the elements of water, which represents here a lot of large and small oceans er, with clear water as a crystal, and surrounded by barricades of rocks of the most fantastic outlines: in the form of mushrooms, churches, pillars, ruined roofs, etc. A strikingly wonderful picture is this combination of land and water during sunrise, when inimitable reflections of light reflect off the surface of blue waters".

It is no wonder that when studying the nature of Borovoy, the traveler more and more succumbed to the charm of the wild delights of the forest and lake regions. He walked around the deserted shores of the lakes Borovoe, Chebache, Shchuchye, overgrown with impenetrable forest, climbing the rocky peaks where, as if by the will of a magician, pine grew, explored the richest forest and meadow vegetation, admired the green-blue scenery.

By this time, Borovoe was thoroughly settled: in the district there were stanitsa Shchuchin, Aleksandrovskaya, Koturkulskaya, the village of Yelenovka, Dorofeevka. According to the testimony of such a solid edition of the beginning of the century, "Russia: A Complete Geographical Description of Our Fatherland," there were about 400 Cossack residents in the village of Shchuchin. The village was considered to be well-off: it has four shops with a large selection of goods, a church, a male and female school, a postal and telegraph office, private and state warehouses of agricultural implements, small dairies, stanitsa management and, importantly and very important for this region, forestry. "Many summer residents come here for koumiss to come here," remarked the author in a book.

They aspired to these regions, attracted by a remarkably healthy climate and koumiss of high quality from afar, say, from Tobolsk, Tomsk, Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk. But, alas, few people who wanted to rest in Borovoye could take the cramped cottages of the campers. "Unfortunately, there are no comfortable rooms for visitors to come to, no permanent doctor, and one can not even hope for cheap food: the sale is in the hands of several families, and prices are always higher than even in large cities of the region," - complains the author of the article in the "Full Geographical Description" (note that the book containing this article appeared in 1903). Did the two wooden barracks built for summer cottages as early as the 1980s provide shelter for everyone who wanted to rest and restore health in Borovoye? th years of the century However, most of all the development of the resort town was impeded by the remoteness of the railway line and the extreme unsettledness of the settlements stretching from Petropavlovsk to a good two hundred versts.

Yet the retired general correctly predicted the resort future of Borovoe. Since the beginning of this century, the far-sighted Siberian official, managing agriculture and state assets of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk provinces, VV Baryshevtsev, was engaged in the improvement, in fact, of the wild corner, to which God himself ordered people to serve as a health center. At his suggestion, roads were built along the shore of Lake Borovoe and along the eastern slope of Sinyuha, a solid bridge was built across the Gromotukhu River.
Incidentally, during the construction of this bridge and the road, captured Austroenegrs were used, which came to us during the First World War, one of which remained in the village and died in my memory somewhere in the late 50s of the last century.

Since the beginning of the 1970s (the first mention of Zavalishin, dates back to 1867), patients from neighboring provinces began to come to the Borovskoy region in the summer to treat koumiss. Time from 1894 to 1919 can be called a dacha period Borovoe. It is characterized by the fact that in 1894 the management of the state property of the Steppe Regions was organized, which began to improve Borovoe.

With the organization in 1898 of the Borovskoye forestry from Omsk to Borovoye, a forest school was moved (now the agro-industrial college). Teachers and pupils of this school played a big role both in the accomplishment, and in the study of its natural resources.
According to the memoirs of the old-timers Maslov, who worked as a forester from 1909 to 1945, Togybaev Kazgozhi, a forester who worked from 1921 to 1965, the territory of the Borovsk forest reserve until 1919 was populated by the local population - Kazakhs. In the central part of the resort area was the village of Kyrpik, in the area of ​​the Vorobyevka settlement the Kadir family was located, in the area of ​​the cordon "peaceful valley" lived Orazaly by bai. There were several settlements in other parts of the resort area. Auyl Karakistau, located on the shore of Lake Bolshoy Chebachye on the northern side of the city of Kokshe, existed until 1930 and totaled up to 40 yards. In 1911, at the command of the uyezd and volost authorities, all local Kazakhs, at the request of the forestry department, were evicted from the forest zone to the steppe areas of Zhanatalap, Madeniat and other areas adjacent to the forest.

The first sanatorium with kumisolechebnitsy was opened in Borovoe in 1910 by the doctor of medicine Emelyanov. Only in 1913, 2,000 people adjusted their health here. Soon the departmental sanatoria of some Omsk institutions began to open. In 1916, an uprising broke out in Kazakhstan under the leadership of Amangeldy Imanov. In one formation, Kazakhs and Russians fought against the tsarist oppressors and Bai arbitrariness.

During the Civil War, a brutal and bloody struggle was taking place in the region. At the end of 1917, Soviet power was established in the village of Shchuchinskaya, but at the beginning of July 1918 Kolchak troops led by Ataman Annenkov entered it. A group of revolutionary workers is being created at the cannery of Borovsk. In Borovoye, revolutionary soldiers-front-line soldiers F.Polienko and P.Sokolovsky are hiding from the village of Kotyrkolsk, occupied by Kolchakists. A partisan detachment is organized, it includes workers of the cannery Shindin, Sechkin, Yevtushenko, elected immediately after October to the Soviets of the village. In 1919, the village of Shchuchinskaya was occupied by Ataman Dutov. Many Bolsheviks and their sympathizers were slaughtered. Soon, the Borovo partisans liberated Borovoye from the White Guards, and on November 21, 1919 the Red Army liberated the village of Shchuchinskaya. In April, foodstuffs arrived from Ivanovo-Voznesensk, from Petrograd and Moscow; bread is seized not only from kulaks and well-to-do Cossacks, but also from the middle peasants and even the poor. This caused discontent among the peasants and Cossacks. At the beginning of 1921, using the difficulties with bread, the dissatisfaction of the population with food surplus was raised by the counter-revolutionary insurgency, which was later suppressed in March. After the introduction of the New Economic Policy, adopted by the Tenth Party Congress, small private trade begins to revive, the socialist sector is growing, and a new culture is developing.

The history of the Borovsk region has repeated all the difficult and tragic stages of the history of Kazakhstan: the creation of the Borovo commune in 1922 and its disintegration, the terrible years of Stalin and Holoschokin collectivization, the repression and death of honest sons and daughters of the nation who tried to protect their land from the communist regime, to preserve their national, original culture. The land of Saryarka was generously drenched in blood of our ancestors.

In 1920, the construction of the railway Petropavlovsk-Kokchetav began, and in 1925 it was already brought to the Borovoye resort. In the same year, Borovoye was nationalized and recognized as a resort of national importance. In 1926 the People's Building of the dirt road Schuchinsk-Borovoye began. It was built by all residents of the surrounding villages on schedule. Without any technique, pickaxes and crowbars, carts and wheelbarrows dragged the earth, boulders, filled up the marshes, cut down the clearing - they understood: without development the development of the Borovo zone is impossible. Have built (of course, so far without a firm covering) in a short time - for a year and a half. And the first Borovans on carts, they rode off to Shchuch'ye to look at the "iron horse" - a locomotive with wagons - it was not a "miracle" for them to see.

With the arrival of the railway, the rapid development of the resort begins. Since 1927 the sanatorium "Barmashino" (now - the "Svetly" pension) is opening on the shore of Lake Shchuchye. Since 1928 on the shore of the river Sary-Bulak begins to work holiday house "Vorobyovka." In 1934 a children's sanatorium was opened on the south-eastern shore of Lake Borovoe.

When the Great Patriotic War began, in the summer and autumn of 1941, research institutes from western and central Russian cities were evacuated to Borovoye. Soon more than thirty academicians and doctors of sciences came here with their families. The largest figure among the arrivals was a naturalist and thinker - Vladimir Vernadsky. Settled together with other scientists at the Borovoe sanatorium, Vernadsky managed to complete his capital work here, which he could not print on in his younger years, the book "The Chemical Structure of the Earth's Biosphere and Its Environment", begun as far back as 1937.

Vernadsky in Borovoy worked not only on the book. He wrote in a note to the president of the Academy of Sciences Komarov: "In a storm and a thunder-storm, the noosphere and the neon era will be born in the life of mankind, when the human mind, directed at the common good, becomes the main force." Honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the largest microbiologist Nikolai Gamaleya during his stay in Borovoe worked on topics of great importance for practical medicine: "Dialectics of Infections", "Treatment of Malaria", "Flu". Three academicians - N. Zelinsky, S. Bershtein, L. Mandelshtam became then laureates of the Stalin premium of the I-degree.

Some scientists, immediately after their arrival, connected to the exploration of the zone - the pearl of Kazakhstan. N.Gamaleia, having studied the natural conditions of the resort, prepared the work "Medical factors of Borovoe". Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences L.Berg was engaged in the acclimatization of wild carp in the reservoirs of the region. Professor Sukachev conducted studies of local forests, and Professor Ivanov water regime of pine, birch and other species, the most common here.

The most extensive and famous lakes are Big and Small Chebache, Shchuchye, Borovoye and Maibalyk. In Borovoye there are no monuments of material culture. But the very nature of a combination of majestic mountain landscapes, blue mirror lakes, coniferous forests and deciduous groves has created unique and unique beauty of natural landscapes. Long ago, on the site of this mountain-forest oasis splashed an endless ancient sea. At the end of the glacial era, as a result of mining and educational processes, the sea disappeared, and the landscape acquired modern outlines. Under the influence of the sun, winds and rains in the rocks, as if composed of giant slabs, depressions, hollows, through holes were formed, so they acquired a quaint and unusually picturesque appearance. There is some mysterious, attractive force in the granite sculptures created by Mother Nature. It is worth to step back to the side, and a little strain on the imagination, as the stone "comes to life."

Lake Borovoye (Auliekol) is located at an altitude of 319 m above sea level. On the transparent surface of the Blue Gulf is the rock-riddle Jumbaktas (Sphinx). If you look at Jumbaktas from different angles, you can see how its image changes from the profile of the young girl to the image of the old woman. A lot of fun brings a generous summer. But a quiet, sad autumn is no less generous and piercingly beautiful. Gold of birch copses, crimson ashes of aspen are subtly shaded by dark needles of eternally green pine forests and spruce forests. The smells of the fading grass are mixed with a spicy mushroom flavor. In Borovoye, there are about a hundred varieties of edible mushrooms. "Mushroom hunting" is very exciting and useful for a positive emotional mood. Borovoe is beautiful at any time of the year. Winter covers the snow with a snow-white linen, each twig stands out clearly on a white background, fluffy pine trees stand in drifts and loose spruce, dressed in sparkling frost, breathe with frosty snow and it seems that everything is frozen in a bewitched dream. But life goes on.

Tourists are waiting for fascinating ski walks, snowmobiling and sledging, ice fishing and magnificent winter landscapes. In the spring, the forests are elegant and tender, filled with a spicy fragrance of herbs and flowers, young shoots are born on dark coniferous paws of spruces, fragile cones appear and the breeze carries fragrant resinous waves. The height of Borovoye above sea level is 250 m. The dome of Mount Kokshe (Sinyuha), the height of it is 997 m above sea level, was the closest to the blue sky. Kokshe Mountain is popularly called the mother of the Three Sisters - three neighboring rocks.

Next to them is the mountain rock cliff of Okzhetpes. This is one of the most famous rocks of Sinegorye, and it has many legends connected with it. A wonderful place is the glade of Abylai-khan. It is always quiet here, and the air temperature is several degrees higher than in the neighborhood. A favorite place for hiking is the Ybrai trail, it winds at the very foot of Mount Kokshe, along the western shore of one of the most beautiful lakes of Borovoe - the Greater Chebachev. Lake Bolshaya Chebachev is unique beauty. Its waters are deep (up to 30 m) and transparent. There are many kinds of fish in it, and large crayfish hide under the rocks. Big Chebache and Little Chebacheye connects a small noisy little river Gromotukha. Especially handsome Imanayevsky key, originating high in the mountains. Along its bed, huge ferns grow, birches and quivering aspens bend over it, and a cascade of waterfalls brings tourists to admiration. The dense forests of Borovoye are full of life, the fauna counts more than 300 species, the vegetation is very rich and diverse. Pine forest gives healing air, rich in coniferous aroma.