A train ride through Kazakhstan

Most long-distance journeys begin and end in the former capital, Almaty

Photographer Mario Heller took to the railways to better understand the people and landscapes of Kazakhstan

Geo-Gallery

In December 2021, Kazakhstan celebrated the 30th anniversary of its independence from the former Soviet Union. Just before the milestone, photographer Mario Heller took a 7,500-kilometre train journey around the country, spending 225 hours over 17 days on Kazakh railways.

The state railway company is the country’s largest employer, with 146,000 employees. However, the railway network is only 16,000 kilometres long – far less than Germany, even though the area of Kazakhstan is the same as that of Western Europe. The majority of the country consists of vast plains, sometimes merging into hills, and almost half is covered by sand or gravel desert. The only mountainous area is in the southeast, where the Tian Shan range runs along the border with China and Kyrgyzstan, and where the snow leopard, Kazakhstan’s national animal, lives within spruce forests.

To learn something about the history of the country, Mario talked via a translator to his fellow passengers. These included Marat, who has worked as a conductor for more than 30 years and who talked about his early life in Turkmenistan; 83-year-old Adylet, who gave his opinion on politics: ‘Anyone who still mourns the Soviet Union today is out of his mind’; and 52-year-old Mayra, who challenged Mario to an arm wrestling match, which she duly won.

Younger passengers gave their views on the state of Kazakhstan today, taking a more philosophical approach: ‘Most of the time, the train runs on time, but every now and then it makes extraordinary stops… It’s the same in real life, you should always be ready to stop at the right time, even if it seems an unusual halt,’ said Aliya. In some ways, her journey mirrors the rocky 30 years of Kazakhstan’s independence, the first of which were especially hard. In 1991, the country’s GDP fell by 11 per cent and inflation reached 147 per cent. Between 1992 and 1994, a sharp rise in unemployment saw 1.1 million people leave the country.

Today, Kazakhstan is ruled by an authoritarian regime. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the octogenarian former president who steered Kazakhstan to independence, only resigned in 2019 and still rules in tandem with his handpicked successor, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev. Rumblings of discontent with the regime have become increasingly apparent in recent years. Mass protests in January 2022 rang with chants of shal ket! (‘old man out!’), a phrase referring to both Nazarbayev and the regime at large. But although newcomer Tokayev talks a lot about political reform and has promised a move to democracy, signs so far are distinctly unpromising.

In Semey, east Kazakhstan, passengers walk across the train tracks

Marat, 63, a conductor, stands beside a train. ‘For 30 years, the moving trains have been my second home. My grandmother worked as a train conductor. As a child, I often accompanied her with shining eyes. My job goes far beyond ticket control. Sometimes I feel like a psychologist. Over many years, I have observed all different kinds of people. Some seem happy, others sad. Sometimes I give people advice, sometimes I laugh with them, sometimes I just listen and keep quiet.
‘Often I think that nothing can make me astonished anymore and then something completely surprising happens again – be it an old man who fell out of his bunk bed and had to have his broken hand bandaged, or a woman who gave birth to her child in a train. Soon I will retire. My seven daughters are already married and have children of their own. I don’t think I will get bored. And if I do, I’ll just start gardening!’

‘In Kazakhstan, it does not make sense to follow politics. Everything is ruled by one man. I am concentrating on my computer science study in Nur-Sultan. This is the future of humanity. I am very privileged to be able to study in a good university. Compared to young people in Europe, we are maybe much less educated on average, but we are much more attached to our family and way more patriotic. I live in a typical Kazakh family. My parents think everything is good and we have to thank god for the great politicians and I often find myself debating with them’

A young woman walks along rusty train tracks in Aralsk, in the Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan. The Aral Sea is one of more than 48,000 lakes in Kazakhstan. It has almost dried up as a result of large-scale cultivation of cotton during the Soviet era

‘Anyone who still mourns the Soviet Union today is a complete idiot! At that time there was no freedom whatsoever – society was godless and lived under constant brainwashing. When the Soviet Union slowly fell apart, our family mostly ate only bread. We only survived because our ancestors had a farm that they built up under years of hard work! Today’s Kazakhs have all the possibilities, but all they do is complain. It seems that the virtue of hard work has been forgotten. Today’s politics are not perfect either and the retired president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, still promises, as he did 25 years ago, that the best times are yet to come, but at least there is peace, open borders and enough food

At Khromatu station a stall sells barbequed meat to train passengers

A woman walks through the train selling freshly baked goods

A man looks through a train window at night in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997

Mayra, 52, looks out of her carriage window. ‘I know everything about the European lifestyle. And also I know that we are completely different. I am going to Karaganda to visit my husband’s younger brother. The Kazakhs are experts in hospitality. When a big event is planned, we all gather together and butcher a lamb for the guests. We have been travelling for more than 12 hours and there is still as much time ahead, but we will not get tired because there is an opportunity to relax on the train.
‘Kazaly is the small homeland of our ancestors. Here is the harsh climate with dust storms and strong heat in summer reaching temperatures up to 50°C. But autumn and winter are quite comfortable. Conditions are better now, because gas and water are connected. The big advantage over urban life is that here we all know each other; we practice and keep our Kazakh traditions that the city does not even care about preserving. This is important for us. I was born, grew up and still live in one village, so I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. It is a pity that in the multinational Soviet Union we were more united than nowadays. I studied at a Russian school, so I had Tatars, Koreans, Germans, Jews, Chechens, Kazakhs, Russians as my classmates. Now, everyone is divided; no-one else talks to anyone in such a friendly way.’

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