Thank you for all, Kazakhstan!
My personal experience of visiting the country when I was in a trouble
Yes, this is not the kind of story that fits the blog’s main topic. But I want to show my gratitude to the people of Kazakhstan for their hospitality and shelter provided to Russian refugees. I want to describe a personal impression of visiting Kazakhstan during challenging times for my compatriots.
On September 21, 2022, the mobilization started in Russia after several severe losses on the battlefields in Ukraine. It is a real threat to most Russian men between 18 and 60 to be killed or hardly wounded as well as to become war criminals. Knowing that the recruitment will be total and assuming the potential closure of the borders, many Russians leave the country.
There were several major ways to abandon Russia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus (transit country), Finland (transit country), Georgia, Kirgizstan, Mongolia, and Turkey. Societies of these countries saved thousands of lives of Russian people, kudos!
Crossing the border
According to Wikipedia, the most crucial hub for refugees became Kazakhstan; it opened the door for more than 100 thousand people in the first nine days since the start of the mobilization.
My brother and I crossed the border with Kazakhstan on September 26. We had no trouble leaving Russia because the bureaucracy had no instructions to stop people. But there was much gossip that Russian officials do not allow to leave the country. Hopefully, that was not the case.
Petropavl: a town near the border
I have never been to Kazakhstan before without my impression of the country. I started my acquaintance with Kazakhstan with Petropavl, where I met kind people of different nationalities. They gave us advice and showed us directions to move further. Our subjective thought was these guys are more kind than our compatriots. Later I encountered on the news that Petropavl people deployed field canteens for refugees. We saw similar information from other regions of the country. It means a lot to me.
Astana: the capital and city to visit
We lived in a hostel and met many compatriots with different backgrounds. Most guys think of getting a local residence; some plan to move further to, e.g., Korea or the USA, and others hope things improve and they return home. Guys are from numerous towns and have different professions and political views. Alya, the administrator, was very kind to us and helped tackle everyday problems.
We met a strange guy who was a member of the Mormon Church in Russia (it is a rare case since the Russian government treats the church as a sect). Moreover, he had worked at a state military plant in Siberia and simultaneously hated the Russian political system. He believed he was invulnerable to propaganda but left the church because they refused to provide him with a religious visa to the USA nearly five years ago. I cannot imagine that I meet a guy like this in my previous everyday life.
What to do in Astana? Well, it depends on many factors. My brother and I have notebooks and free time, so we search for a working space to play around with words and numbers. Over ten coworking sites were at our disposal. We visited two of them and met highly skilled professionals from Russia. They blow up prices by 50% in one week. An exciting thing about coworking places is an advertisement for remote jobs in America for developers. Local marketers are worth their salt, for sure.
Using networking, we found a free space with unlimited WiFi and a canteen — the Library of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev. It is definitely worth visiting as you want to see a modern library, which looks like a palace with artifacts from the President. It has a museum, classes for children, and convenient reading rooms. I liked the place so much.
Astana has a good infrastructure with relatively cheap public transport, trade centers, and catering. The city provides an opportunity to travel inside and beyond the country as the transportation center.
Final thoughts
We were in Kazakhstan for two weeks and got a positive impression, so I am going to visit the country in the future.
Random fact: Kazakhstan is in the process of switching from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet. And they write the country’s name on new maps as “Qazaqstan”.
P.S. Nowadays, we are in a hostel in Turkey. On one of the evenings, I met a company of two good-looking ladies from Kazakhstan who were convincing an Englishman to visit Kazakhstan. I approached them and supported the position of girls. I hope it will work!
Stay safe and healthy, do not allow war.
