The First Train to Alma-Ata

This picture was made on the 19th of July, 1929. Alma-Ata, which recently became the capital of the young Kazakh Republic, meets its first train. According to national tradition, the steam engine has passed through the arch, symbolizing the yurt, while the hair fetter was cut. The festively decorated train embodied two important events: the move of the center of the country from Kzyl-Orda to Alma-Ata and the completion of the construction of the Turkistan-Siberian railway.