Petropavl, alongside Karaganda, are two of the best destinations in all of Kazakhstan for those who are interested in the country’s Soviet past. These places kept their Soviet spirits intact, and in fact, perhaps due to its proximity to the Russian Federation, Petropavl kept it even more alive than Karaganda, at least that was my experience. Read on to find out why I say so!
My mood could not be better when I arrived at Petropavl after a short three-hour train ride from Kokshetau. What started as the worst train journey of my life turned out to be the best one yet, when a childhood dream of mine came true! Just as I read in the works of numerous Russian authors and watched in videos of many YouTubers, I finally had the chance to enjoy some vodka shared with me by three random Russian men who were travelling in the same cabin. Both the conversation and the drinks were much welcome, preparing me for the trip ahead!
I knew quite well that Petropavl would host a ton of Soviet mosaics and memorials, unlike most other Kazakh towns that got rid of them over the last thirty years. However, I was not necessarily ready for this level of quality and quantity in a relatively small town. This piece will be full of displays like this one, and even better ones!
On the other corner of the street, one could find a much more recent street art, in the form of a mural dedicated to Kazakh national poet Abai. It seemed bored, if not a bit frustrated, perhaps because it was not in the right position to get some direct sunlight for the majority of the day.
Though the city seems more Russian than any other one I have been to in Kazakhstan, it still keeps its ties with Kazakhstan quite visible. A statue of Pushkin alongside Abai is in one of the more central parts of the city. Just behind them, you can see the preparations for Nowruz celebrations ongoing, we will get to that in a bit as well.
Unlike Kokshetau, you cannot find anything written in English in Petropavl’s local history museum. In fact, even Kazakh seems to be in limited quantity. The museum itself was quite lacklustre anyways, so I feel like foreigners would not be missing out a lot without enjoying it to the fullest.
The real historical gems are all free of charge and found plastered on sides of huge Soviet building blocks anyways. Some of them, like this one, are very difficult to photograph without a drone since views of them are often obstructed by other shorter buildings but hey, I did my best.
Despite it being so rich in Soviet mosaics, city’s eternal flame is one of the most uninspired one I have seen to date. Two simple sculptures welcome you to a small square of sorts, where the flame roars surrounded by four simple pillars. After telling a grandma what time it is and seeing her scurry away into the distance, I too made my way north where I wanted to visit a church.
Though the church itself would be a decent distraction, I realized that the route I picked for it was the real treat of the day. Names like Comintern, International, and Proletarian, are still valid street names in Petropavl. Though this building is in ruins and the street sign looks like it was put up there when Gorbachev was still in charge, the street’s name is still, in fact, Comintern. At times it feels like decommunization never visited Petropavl.
Eventually, I made my way to Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. It was prayer time inside, where I caught a glimpse of the grandma I ran into before. Finding out why she was hurrying before, and realizing that I had to hurry a bit myself if I wanted to have a timely lunch, I left the church and went back the way I came.
Since I used the main road this time to go back to the city center, I visited Residence of Abylai Khan on my way to lunch. It was an exceptionally well-organized museum, though one that lacked English and at times even Russian descriptions of things on display. It was small, free, and people were friendly. Certainly a nice diversion to see how the old Kazakh nobles lived.
After a fulfilling meal at a local restaurant, I made my way up the Soviet Street where I was greeted with even more Soviet era murals.
Not all mosaics were huge and came with bright colours. Some were humbler in size and design and yet managed to impress in different ways.
However, the ones that were in fact huge and vibrant were the most memorable ones. Found on the side of a mall and depicting a lot of professions, this mosaic turned out to be one of the best ones I have seen until now, though it would be rivalled by an even better one soon.
Since I was already in the area, I also made my way to the city’s Victory Park. This was, more or less, a waste of time. For some reason, it was poorly maintained, there was very little to see, and the actual military equipment (though reportedly there on recent online maps) were either removed or buried under the snow.
After returning to city centre for a quick stop at my room, I noticed this lovely building on the opposite side of the street. I am pretty sure something like “October” once wrote instead of Kazakhstan atop this building some thirty years ago, but I could not find any evidence to back that up just yet.
A short walk away from that theatre, one can find this cute little house which houses the city’s art museum. There is practically nothing to see inside (rude, I know) but the building itself is well worth a diversion.
I mean, it was free to visit, so you can definitely walk in and see what they have on offer. Just know that when I was there, the best thing they had available were these portraits of BTS members, a K-Pop group for those who are unaware.
I knew something was fishy with those articles on Wikipedia and so on which wrote that there were only five Lenins left in all of Kazakhstan. How could they be so limited, and why did not a city like Petropavl have one? Well, of course it has one, actually two of them. I could not bother to walk an hour to find the second and smaller one, but this gorgeous interpretation of Lenin can be found quite easily by visiting the park across the city’s stadium.
In the same park, one can even find a good old Red Star. These are as limited as it goes even in Russia, so this was a much welcome surprise.
When I was in Petropavl, Nowruz celebrations were at their height. There were concerts everywhere, and people were flooding the streets despite them already being flooded by waters gushing out of rapidly thawing ice. There were a few decent spectacles, and some of the Kazakh artists really knew how to put up a good show.
Other than these concerts and shows, there were also a lot of yurts with vendors inside. They sold anything from trinkets to old Soviet books. They also had numerous shashlik vendors lining up the streets going to these central locations, thought it was funny to see that despite there being well over fifty different shashlik sellers, no one bothered to sell something sweet.
As I made my way to the train station to leave the town, I laid my eyes on the finest example of Soviet mosaic that Petropavl has to offer. I do not know if it was its size, or its bright colours that were brought to life thanks to the sun that shone right on them, but something about this one captivated my eyes. You can find out about how to find all these mosaics and more in an upcoming article of mine, where I will discuss the best tips and tricks to travel around Kazakhstan for those who are interested in Soviet mosaic hunting.
Petropavl was a treat for me, letting me end my Nowruz trip on a very high note. It was also where I may have had the best food that I had in Kazakhstan. To find out more about that, come back next week to read about Petropavl’s finest eateries!