Members of the local history club of the Department of History of Kazakhstan and Social and Political Sciences visited Karkaraly on the weekend of January 19-21.  L.V. Kovalenko, the head of Physical Education Center of NCJSC "KMU", kindly provided our group of students, residents, and teachers with sports equipment, including skis and ski boots. The minibus brought us to Karkaraly, where we spent the late afternoon of Friday admiring the sights of the snow-covered mountain slopes around the town, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year!

In fact, the goal of such visits is to encourage a healthy lifestyle among our university's students, residents, and faculty members, as well as to familiarize them with the sights of our region, the history, and geography of Eurasia! Following a walk and dinner at the Orman Guest House, we listened to interesting speeches and presentations by members of our club.

It's excellent that teachers attend such offsite club meetings; for example, Assistant Professor A.S. Lamanova delivered an engaging talk. We saw images of historical and geographical landmarks of Western Kazakhstan, which Aleksandra Sergeevna introduced us to; she also informed us about the historical sites of Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, which she visited with her son on a tourist trip.

My colleague's speech was met with applause. It is remarkable that new, young members of our little community, including one of the best students of Karaganda's gymnasium No. 1 and 6 "A" grade student Gaufler Arkady, participated in the trip to Karkaraly. Also there was the youngest participant, Aldiyar, who is just one and a half years old and the son of two young doctors who are residents of our university and have been long-time members of the club, Assel and Shakhmadiyar. He took part in hiking with his parents in the nearby mountains and woodlands and attended club meetings in the evenings.

The next day, we went skiing in Sosnovyi Bor: the sun shone through the thick, snow-covered tree branches, and the clean air energized and strengthened us. Falling into soft snow brought delight. In the evening, regular club members proceeded to deliver interesting presentations on a variety of topics. For example, Zhuldyz Issina, a Master of Law who has attended many club meetings and trips, described a journey to the famous Diveyevo Convent for a scientific conference on deportations and repressions in the USSR. Psychotherapist Timur Makhanov told us about the peculiarities of his job and the challenges that patients come him with, which sparked our curiosity.

According to Lev Bazilev, a third-year student, skiing in the winter in Karkaraly woods and club meetings in the evenings sparked his interest. Other regular members of our group, including teachers Evgeny Kotov, Assistant Professor of the Department of Morphology, and A.S. Lamanova, Assistant Professor of our department, shared the same opinion. It should be noted that new members of our club were awarded badges with the symbols of the local history club (which were prepared and ordered by our club's monitor, Adel Abenova in Astana), and all speakers were awarded special certificates from the department signed by the head of the department, Svetlana Nikiforova.

  Head of the local history club, A.B. Dolgopolov