Semey

Semey Семей
Seal
Semey Location in Kazakhstan
Coordinates: 50°26′0″N 80°16′0″E
Country	Kazakhstan
Province	East Kazakhstan Province
Urban okres
Founded	1718
Incorporated (city)	1782
Government
• Akim (mayor)	Aybek Karimov
Area
• Total	210 km2 (80 sq mi)
Population (2006)
• Total	298,100
Time zone	BTT (UTC+6)
Postal code	071400
Area code(s)	+7 7222

New bridge in Semey.

NASA satellite photo of Semey.

Semey (Kazakh: Семей / Semey), formerly known as Semipalatinsk (Russian: Семипала́тинск, until 2007) and Alash-kala (Kazakh: Алаш-қала / Alaş-qala, 1917–1920), is a city in Kazakhstan, in the northeastern province of East Kazakhstan, near the border with Siberia, around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) north of Almaty, and 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of the Russian city of Omsk, along the Irtysh River.

History

The first settlement was in 1718, when the Russians built a fort beside the river Irtysh, near a ruined Buddhist monastery. The monastery's seven buildings lent the fort (and later the city) the name Semipalatinsk (Russian for Seven-Chambered City). The fort suffered frequently from flooding caused by the snowmelt swelling the Irtysh, and in 1778 the fort was relocated 18 km upstream to less flood-prone ground. The small city grew around the fort, largely servicing the river trade between the nomadic peoples of Central Asia and the growing Russian Empire. The construction of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway added to the city's importance, making it a major point of transit between Central Asia and Siberia.

Between 1917 and 1920, it was the capital of the largely unrecognized Alash Autonomy, a state formed during the Russian Civil War. The city was called Alash-qala during the Alash Autonomy years. It was recaptured by Red Army forces loyal to Petrograd in 1920.

In 1949, a site on the steppe 150 km (93 mi) west of the city was chosen by the Soviet atomic bomb programme to be the location for its weapons testing. For decades, Kurchatov (the secret city at the heart of the test range named for Igor Kurchatov, father of the soviet atomic bomb) was home to many of the brightest stars of Soviet weapons science. The Soviet Union operated the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) from the first explosion in 1949 until 1989; 456 nuclear tests, including 340 underground and 116 atmospheric tests, were conducted there.

Semey has suffered serious environmental and health effects from the time of its atomic prosperity: nuclear fallout from the atmospheric tests and uncontrolled exposure of the workers, most of whom lived in the city, have given Semey and neighboring villages high rates of cancer, childhood leukemia, impotence and birth defects.

Modern Semey is a bustling university town with a population exceeding 300,000. Its proximity to the border, and the large expatriate scientific community attached to the university and the STS labs, gives Semey a more Russian character than other Kazakh cities.

The oblast of Semipalatinsk has been merged with the bigger East Kazakhstan Province, whose capital city is Oskemen.

The Semipalatinsk Bridge, a suspension bridge across the Irtish River, connects two major parts of Semey. It has a main span of 750 metres (2,460 ft) and a total length of 1,086 metres (3,563 ft). It was built between 1998 and 2002 and is currently in use by road traffic.^{[citation needed]}

Climate

Climate data for Semey
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	−12 (11)	−11 (12)	−4 (25)	11 (52)	22 (71)	27 (80)	29 (84)	27 (81)	21 (69)	11 (51)	−2 (29)	−10 (14)	9.0 (48.3)
Average low °C (°F)	−23 (−9)	−22 (−8)	−16 (3)	−3 (27)	6 (43)	12 (54)	14 (58)	12 (54)	6 (43)	−2 (29)	−11 (12)	−19 (−3)	−3.8 (25.3)
Precipitation mm (inches)	15 (0.6)	25 (1)	30 (1.2)	15 (0.6)	23 (0.9)	30 (1.2)	48 (1.9)	30 (1.2)	15 (0.6)	30 (1.2)	25 (1)	25 (1)	315 (12.4)
Source: Weatherbase

Famous residents

• Abay Qunanbayuli, father of modern Kazakh poetry, received his Russian schooling at Semey.
• Writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, whose exile included five years military service as a corporal in the Seventh Line Battalion at the Semipalatinsk garrison, beginning in 1854. Residents claim the details of particular descriptive passages in Dostoyevsky's subsequent books, including his highly acclaimed The Brothers Karamazov, are recognizable as taken from his time in Semey.
• The Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, who was born there in 1976.

The city has a museum to commemorate Abay Qunanbayuli, and has both a museum of and a street named after Dostoyevsky.

Population

Year	Population
1881	17,820
1897	26,353
1910	34,400
1926	56,100
1939	109,700
1959	149,800
1979	270,400
1989	317,100
1999	269,600

See also

• Anti-nuclear movement in Kazakhstan

Higher education

Semey is famous for its intellectual medical community with leading Semey State Medical University which provides region and country with highly professional health specialists.

External links

• Semey Tourism Site
• Semey Net
• Detailed City History (in russian) in Gorodok
• City statistic (in russian) at year 2003
• Semey State Medical University site
• Photo of Semey
• Detail map of Semey
• Semeyde.kz - city site
• Semey news
• photos The Monster of Semipalatinsk