Route: Astana-Kurchatov-Karkaralinsk-Karaganda (Central Kazakhstan)
Season: June-October
DAY BY DAY ITINERARY
Day 1. Astana, Arrival
Arrival to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Meeting and greeting at Astana International airport. Transfer to the hotel. Accommodation and breakfast. Half-day excursion around the city, including sightseeing at objects of Soviet period: Memorial of victims of political repression, Congress-Hall, Yesil hotel, Pioneers’ House, National Security Committee, Oktyabr cinema, Molodezhniy palace, steam locomotive monument, Presidential Center of Culture, the new administrative center on the left bank of the river Ishim. Lunch. Trip to the Akmol (Malinovka) village to the museum of the former ALZHIR correctional camp.
"ALZHIR" is Akmola camp for the wives of traitors of Motherland - one of the largest camps of Soviet women and one of the three islands of the "Gulag Archipelago". The camp was opened in the beginning of 1938, when it received the first stages of the prisoners - mostly members of the families of traitors. According to incomplete data, the number of repressed exceeded 18,000 convicts.
Return to Astana. Dinner. Overnight in Astana.
Day 2. Astana - Aksu - Kurchatov
Breakfast at the hotel and check-out. Transfer from Astana to Aksu (about 6 hours). Lunch and visiting the public garden, where monuments of the Soviet period are kept together. Transfer from Aksu to Kurchatov (about 2,5 hours). Accommodation in Kurchatov. Walking tour around the town, being the former center of the Semipalatinsk test site, including sightseeing at general directorate of the National Nuclear Center, National Security Committee building, house of Lavrentiy Beria, abandoned part of the town.
Situated on the bank of the Irtysh River, the city of Kurchatov is named after Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov, who lived and worked in this city and together with other scientists “forged” Soviet nuclear shield. Kurchatov - former center of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, closed in 1991. The city is located 45 km away from the experimental field, where the first atomic and thermonuclear bombs of USSR were tested. In Soviet times the city was closed, with to the strict access control, barbed with wire around the perimeter, and depicted on the maps as railway station "Ending". After the collapse of the Soviet Union number of troops in the city was reduced sharply, and its population decreased. As a result - many houses have been abandoned, the soldier's camps are completely become empty, and its objects, including the ones of the remarkable architecture, were sold and later demolished. Dinner. Overnight in Kurchatov.
Day 3. Kurchatov
Breakfast at the hotel. Excursion to the museum of the test site. Lunch. Trip to the “Experimental Field” test site (4 hours), where the first nuclear explosion was made in 1949, with short-term stay on the spot. Return to Kurchatov. Lunch. Excursion to the ghost-town Shagan, where the aerodrome of long-range aviation was situated (about 3 hours). Return to Kurchatov. Dinner. Overnight in Kurchatov.
Day 4. Kurchatov - Karkaralinsk
Breakfast at the hotel and check-out. Transfer to Karkaralinsk (290 km, 7 hours). Road to Karkaralinsk partially lies along the territory of the former Semipalatinsk test site through the mountain oases Yedrey and Ku. Short stops are expected in the most picturesque places, as well as lunch in the field. Arrival to Karkaralinsk. Accommodation and dinner. Overnight in Karkaralinsk.
Day 5. Karkaralinsk - Karaganda
Breakfast at the hotel. Excursion around Karkaralinsk with sightseeing at objects of the Civil War period: general Kornilov house, Memorial of 78 Communards, people's commissariat building. Excursion to the history museum, short tour to the mountains (on request). Lunch. Transfer from Karkaralinsk to Karaganda (4 hours). Accommodation in the hotel. Sightseeing tour around the city: Lenin monument, the Miners’ culture palace, Stanislavskiy theatre, city administration, Chaika hotel, Nurken Abdirov monument, Circus, industrial part of the city, old town. Dinner. Overnight in Karaganda.
Day 6. Karaganda, Departure
Breakfast at the hotel. A half-day trip to Dolinka village – the former center of the Karlag correctional labour camp - one of the largest labor camps of the Gulag. Excursion to Karlag museum, building of former Karlag administration, Maternity hospital and Mamochkino child cemetery and to the Spassk memorial, located in the place, where the former camp of prisoners of war was situated. Return to Karaganda. Lunch. Excursion to the Karaganda Ecological Museum (1 hour). Free time, purchasing souvenirs. Dinner. Transfer to the airport for departure flight.
