Kyzyl-Orda – The Red Capital (to the 100th Anniversary of the Transfer of the Capital)

Abstract

The article presents an analytical overview of the situation in the city of Kyzyl-Orda during 1925–1926, authored by S. D. Akaev – a member of the Commission of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kazakh ASSR on the transfer of the republic’s capital and a research fellow of the State Planning Committee of the Kazakh ASSR. The idea of moving the capital from Orenburg to another city – one located within the heartland of the Kazakh population, situated in the newly acquired southern territories, and possessing reliable transport connections with the rest of the republic – arose in 1924 following the national-territorial delimitation of Central Asia. As a result of this process, vast regions were incorporated into Kazakhstan, including the Semirechye (Jetysu) and Syr-Darya provinces as well as the Karakalpak Autonomous Region. Among the potential locations for the new capital were Aktyubinsk, Ak-Mechet, Tashkent, Chimkent, and others. The issue was also discussed in Moscow but remained unresolved due to the lack of consensus among numerous commissions. Eventually, it was referred to the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) Regional Committee of the RCP(b), which instructed the State Planning Committee of the republic to provide the necessary economic justification. After thorough consideration, the choice was made in favor of Ak-Mechet (known as Perovsk until September 1922 and renamed Kyzyl-Orda in April 1925). In the first half of 1925, the principal government institutions of the republic were transferred there. For four years, Kyzyl-Orda served as the capital of Kazakhstan – a period that became a significant milestone in the development of both the city and the republic as a whole. Archival documents from the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan indicate that the city’s harsh climatic conditions, the inadequate state of its essential infrastructure, and the absence of reliable communication with the vast northern and eastern territories of the republic eventually compelled the government of Kazakhstan to reconsider the location of the capital.