• Energy Research

The article focuses on the initial stage of the virgin and fallow lands development in Pavlodar region. The authors elaborated on the climatic features of the region, noting that this territory was characterized by complex natural and climatic zones and had huge deposits of minerals. The climate in north-eastern Kazakhstan was sharply continental, arid, and the soils were mostly unsuitable for farming, so the cultivation of grain crops was fraught with huge risks and difficulties. The authors conclude that, despite the natural, climatic and other difficulties encountered, the virgin land development activities were completed successfully and in the first years the sown area of grain crops in the Pavlodar region was significantly increased.

This paper examines the environmental problems of the Kyzylorda region associated with the industrial enterprises’ activities in the region. The article notes along with economic growth in the mining industry, which is one of the main sectors of the regional economy, the level of pollution in the surrounding ecosystem is increasing. On the one hand, the authors are convinced the growth of the economic potential in the mining industry, space activities and the transition to market mechanisms for the economy development have generated a major growth in the potential of the region turning it into one of the largest developed regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan. On the other hand, an increase in industrial production without taking into account the ecological characteristics of the region with an increase in deformations of sectoral proportions and socio-economic structure, anthropogenic impact on the environment gave rise to a crisis in the regional ecology. According to the authors, reducing the harmful impact of the Baikonur complex on the environment, preserving the Aral ecosystem, competently using the historical experience of irrigated agriculture, as well as work in the field of environmental awareness and education of nature users will create a favourable environment for a significant improvement in the environmental situation in the region.

This article examines the environmental problems of the oil and gas sector in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The authors emphasize that for many decades the oil fields of Kazakhstan have developed mainly a raw material management system with extremely high technogenic loads on the environment. It is noted that for Kazakstani economy, oil and gas production and especially their export play a key role in generating income and growth within the gross product. At the same time, the authors point out that the impact of the oil and gas field on the environment in recent years has been characterized by its intensity, diversity and significant scale. The issue of developing new hydrocarbon raw materials deposits is considered, which is accompanied by geological exploration, drilling and construction works, laying of pipelines and roads. The authors come to the conclusion that a strong anthropogenic impact on all components of the environment causes an active change in the chemical and physicochemical properties of the soil, disrupts the hydrological regime of territories, leads to impoverishment and changes in the species composition, structure and productivity of phytocenoses, a reduction in the spatial distribution and number of animal populations. In conclusion, the authors put forward a number of fundamental tasks for solving environmental problems of the industry.

Development of virgin and fallow lands in Kazakhstan has highlighted a number of problems in the economy of the republic. Introduction of huge territories into land turnover in extreme conditions required search and creation of irrigation system in the North-Kazakhstan region. Authors note that in the North-Kazakhstan region, having difficult natural-climatic conditions caused by sharply continental climate, there was a deficit of fresh artesian water. Therefore, one of the main directions of agrarian policy in the North-Kazakhstan region was to increase the efficiency of irrigated land use, liman irrigation, water supply to settlements, watering of the territory and qualitative improvement of irrigation and reclamation works. The authors conclude that despite the measures taken, the established irrigation systems did not meet the needs of agriculture and the population of the region.

The article examines the work, scientific achievements, and contribution of Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Viktor Rafailovich Faitelberg-Blank and Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor Maria Vasilievna Kropelnitskaya to the development of the Tselinograd State Medical Institute in the 1960s. Authors used the methods of microhistory and comparative historical analysis to achieve the goal of the study, which made it possible to comprehensively reveal the activities of scientists and organizers of medical education V. R. Faitelberg-Blank and M. V. Kropelnitskaya in the Virgin Land. The authors used archival funds and documents, and brief historiographical reviews during the research. For the first time, a set of sources have been introduced into scientific circulation that allow a new look and an objective assessment of the activities of Ukrainian scientists at the Tselinograd Medical Institute. Based on documentary materials from the State Archives of Astana, information from the surviving personal files of V. R. Faitelberg-Blank and M. V. Kropelnitskaya, the main stages of their formation as scientists and teachers in the territory of Ukraine, as well as the reasons for their appearance in Kazakhstan to work at the medical institute have been specified. The activities of V. R. Faitelberg-Blank as the founder of the Department of Pathological Physiology contributed to forming a scientific school that received recognition in Kazakhstan. Also he was engaged in the general development of the problems of “physiology and pathology of digestion”. Despite the short time of V. R. Faitelberg-Blank's work at the institute (1965–1967), he was one of the first scientists at the university who contributed to instilling in his colleagues’ scientific skills of experimental work with animals. The article focuses on the fact that the scientist's many years of experience led to the development of long-term scientific interests of the department in the study of functional and somatic muscles and the gastrointestinal tract under static load and exposure to high-frequency physical agents. V. R. Faitelberg-Blank laid the traditions of teaching students, which has become the foundation for the training of qualified medical personnel in Kazakhstan. The authors have proved the enormous role of M. V. Kropelnitskaya in the formation of the Department of Internal Diseases Propaedeutics, which received recognition as a scientific school engaged in the study of specific methods of treating patients with pathologies of internal organs. M. V. Kropelnitskaya paid students great attention to the study of many physiological processes in norm and pathology. For the first time at the university, she accompanied theoretical material with a demonstration of patients during classes and gave relevant clinical examples. In conclusion, a resume has been made about the enormous contribution of the scientific and pedagogical heritage of V. R. Faitelberg-Blank and M. V. Kropelnitskaya to the development of medical education in virgin Kazakhstan.

The article examines the outbreak of infectious hepatitis and typhoid fever in 1964 in the city of Tselinograd. During the development of virgin and fallow lands a large number of people arrived in northern Kazakhstan. The urban infrastructure that existed at that time was not always able to provide the population with the necessary services, which often led to failure and the emergence of a difficult epidemiological situation. On the basis of statistical materials, the authors show an increase in the incidence of hepatitis and typhoid fever in the population in a short time, and also analyse the accompanying reasons. It is concluded that a gross violation of sanitary rules when choosing a place for the technical water intake and its connection to a drinking water supply on the territory of the railway junction was the main cause of the epidemic.

This article discusses issues related to the environmental problems in various sectors of the Central Kazakhstan’s economy at the present stage. It is emphasized that the level of environmental pollution is increasing along with industrial progress in coal, non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy, chemistry, engineering, and the growth of the transport highways network and numerous communications. The authors of the article give examples of how the transition to market mechanisms of economic development generated, on the one hand, the growth of the republic’s powerful economic potential. On the other hand, the increase in industrial production with energy and resource-intensive production has led to a real threat of an environmental crisis in the region. It is concluded that the solution of the environmental problem is possible by preserving and restoring natural systems, a complete social transition to sustainable development by practical implementation of the environmental concept, including natural-resource, techno-economic, demographic and sociocultural aspects. According to the authors, these measures will contribute to the way out of the current environmental crisis, a radical improvement of the environment, will be the key to preserving the ecology of space. The methodological basis of the study was the principle of scientific objectivity, which allowed to analyze the subject under study taking into account the realities of economic changes in the industry.

This article examines the history of the Karaganda metallurgical plant construction. The authors emphasize that the issue of building large objects of heavy industry for the war effort became urgent during the Great Patriotic War. Due to the fact that Kazakhstan possessed large minerals reserves, in 1942 in the Karaganda region the People’s Commissariat of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR initiated the construction of a metallurgical plant for the production of iron, steel and rolled products. However, the start of the plant construction was delayed for several years. First of all, the delay was due to the fact that the plant site, construction base, railway tracks were not prepared for operation for a long time. In addition, the construction of the Atasu iron mine, which was the ore base of the plant, was carried out at a slow pace. Only in 1957, the project of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant was approved by the Government of the USSR. The authors note that in 1958 the plant became an all-Union Komsomol construction site, in the construction of which seven specialized enterprises participated. The modern Karmetkombinat is one of the largest metallurgical and coal bases in the republic. At the same time, it gives rise to a complex of environmental problems in the region, the solution of which remains permanent.