“In 1936, my parents moved from Kazan to Alma-Ata. And already on January 13, 1937, my father got a job at CHPP-1 as a lineman on a steam locomotive. When dad came to the station, about 350-400 people were working here. And only one person served from the 1st to the 4th boiler.

I remember when we still lived in a dugout near the station, I saw that coal was brought by train and delivered to the boiler by conveyors. As a child, I also saw how the ash workers from each boiler loaded hot ash onto carts, took them to the other side and dumped them out. And then cars came and took it to the ash dump. Only when the 5th and 6th boilers were turned on did they begin to build an ash dump.

The station had its own houses from the very beginning. Before the war – mostly barracks. For example, we lived in a barracks on Remeslennaya Street, there was also a separate house for engineers. And then they built several two-story 8-apartment buildings, and people still live there. The station had its own kindergartens, a rest house, a dispensary, and children’s camps. When I was studying at a technical school, during the summer holidays, I worked as a teacher at the Energetik children’s camp.

Then for many years our family, like the families of other power engineers, lived in a two-story station building. We had a large family – seven children, and only my father worked. I remember when I was 18 years old, I went out into the street, laid out books on a bench, wrote my graduation project – I was studying to become a chemical technologist at an industrial enterprise.

Then I was very thin, small… One day, the director of CHPP-1, Ivan Ivanovich Ovchinnikov, came down to me – he also lived in our house on the second floor, and asked what grade I was in. I replied that I was graduating from technical school, and my dad worked in the fuel and transport workshop as an assistant driver.

And then Ivan Ivanovich asked: “Do you want to work at the thermal power plant?” I answered: “Yes, I would like to.” “Let father come to me,” said the director. “I will prepare a letter so that you will be sent to CHPP-1.” So, after graduating from technical school, on July 21, 1958, I immediately went to work in a chemical shop, as a laboratory assistant for water and coal selection.

I worked as a laboratory assistant for a year, and I was transferred as an operator to a chemical workshop for water treatment. When a new water treatment plant was built at CHPP-1, I was made shift supervisor of the on-duty operators, where I worked for about 9 years. There were 4 women and 7 guys on duty. The mechanics only worked during the day, so on the night shift the women had to do everything themselves. There was no automation at the thermal power plants then. And I had to work with alkali, sulfuric, hydrochloric acid, phosphates, ammonia. There were huge tanks in the turbine shop. And in order for the filters to clean the water, it was necessary to load 50 buckets of salt into the tanks. Frail women had to do this. Therefore, in order to raise the buckets to a height of one and a half meters, we were helped by the turbine and boiler shop foremen and shift supervisors. People were responsive…

And then suddenly I was transferred to work in the production and technical department. It happened like this: the director of the thermal power plant, Alexander Parfentievich Saraev, came through our chemical water treatment plant and saw me using an iron key to open a meter-long valve. He simply called me over and said: “Tomorrow you are going to work as an engineer in a technical department.” The head of the department at that time was Mikhail Abramovich Vaisman. The director explained the transfer by the fact that work in a chemical shop is shift work and is physically difficult for a woman, while work in a technical and technical department is a day job.

In the department, I calculated heat, trained personnel, and worked with students. I maintained contacts with the Energy Institute and the scientific and technical library. I worked there until I retired, and even after retirement until 1996.

My whole life is connected with the station. And I am glad that ties with AlES are still maintained. At one time, I had to collect archival documents on the construction of the station, select photographs… From them I learned a lot of interesting things about CHPP-1. Then a poster was made for the 50th anniversary of the station.

The station began to be built in 1932 by Russians and local Kazakhs, as well as Poles, Jews and Japanese prisoners. It was put into operation on October 25, 1935, and launched on December 31. Then there was a tradition – to launch a new enterprise for the holiday, the station was launched on New Year’s Eve.

K.B. worked at the station at different times. Iskakov (head of the electrical department), A.Zh. Zhakutov, E.A. Abitaev, who later became the first vice minister of energy, industry and trade. In the first years of the station’s operation, there were few experienced workers, so young specialists were immediately appointed deputy heads of workshops and foremen. We learned new things on the spot; few people were sent to courses back then. The young workers were helped by engineers on duty and shop managers. I was familiar with all the equipment, so it was easier for me. I learned everything myself and taught others.

In the second half of the 50s, highly qualified specialists began to appear. Including from Russia, for example, after the Tomsk and Ivanovo institutes. Gradually, the station expanded: one after another, boilers No. 5, 6, 7, 8 were built. I remember that in the turbine shop there were 4 low-power turbines, and therefore then a fifth powerful turbine was built.

I often remember working at the station only on the good side; everyone treated me well and respected me. In addition to my father, my brother from our family once worked at the station, and my cousins ​​worked as repairmen. Although the work was difficult, there were a lot of good things here. For example, we had our own houses in Issyk-Kul. A trip for two weeks cost… 5 rubles! We didn’t pay for the houses, only for food in the dining room. I went there almost every year. We were rewarded not only with money. I remember that the district party committee gave me a trip to the Baltic countries, and then for good work I was awarded a trip to Bulgaria. Thanks to the station, thanks to my work, I was able to visit these places.

…In 1996, the station and the entire energy complex were sold to the Belgians. There was a big commotion. Then, at all stations, almost 1,700 people were left without work. Since I was previously involved in Komsomol, party, and then public work, people came to me so that I could talk with the leadership.

But the Belgians did not fire only those who serviced the boilers and water treatment. And only 2-3 people were left in management. After some time, the station director was removed. And I left in November, having worked at the thermal power plant for almost 40 years.

For me, leaving the station was the most difficult period in my life. As, probably, for many of our energy workers…”

“I come from the family of a repressed military man. Therefore, I came to Kazakhstan with my family against my own will in 1953, when I was 7 years old. This is where we stayed to live. From here I was drafted into the army. He served in Belarus, in the special forces.

I remember that since childhood I wanted to become a diesel locomotive driver. After the army he worked at the Almaty-1 depot. And from 1969, when I was 24 years old, until retirement, I constantly worked at CHPP-1. I got a job in the fuel transport shop, because they needed a driver for the TGM1 diesel locomotive. The diesel locomotive “dragged” 4-5 cars with coal to the fuel supply. The average yield was 240-250 tons.

It was a difficult and dirty area of ​​work: the boiler room, noise, dust… It was very hard work here, especially for women. The picture is still in my memory: women standing on the reception bars. And when the scraper winch drags coal, not all of it passes through the grate to the feeders. That’s why the women – Maria Kataeva and Ulyana Mitina worked here at the time – hammered him with a sledgehammer so that he wouldn’t get stuck in the bars.

Then the station decided to lease the T3 mainline diesel locomotive. More modern, powerful, but it is very heavy, I also worked on it. Subsequently, the thermal power plant acquired the TGM3 diesel locomotive with serial number 627. Its braking system made it possible to pump out and supply air to 43 gondola cars of coal. And this is the weight of the trains that go to Almaty-2, CHPP-1.

At that time we received coal from Kuzbass. Compared to Ekibastuz, whose ash content was 60%, Kuzbass was very good. It is low-ash, the ash was only 10-12%. And then they started supplying us with the Karaganda mine, RKSh. It was also of high quality and good. Its ash content was no more than 30% ash. And although we did not yet have ash collectors in the 80s, they did not greatly affect the ecology of the city.

The situation worsened sharply in the 90s. Then Karaganda began to export concentrates. This meant that dust was being washed into sludge settling tanks. And selected Karaganda coal was exported, and what was accumulated in sludge sumps was shipped to us. To understand: sludge ponds are a backwater with reeds, ducks, other living creatures and garbage… And all this – feathers, reeds, twigs, garbage – was part of the coal. I had to go there several times to resolve this issue.

I would like to say that the topic of ecology was raised at our station back in the early 80s – after all, the station is located within the city. Tursun Mukaramovna Zhakupova, being a trade union leader, raised this issue at various forums, including in Moscow. The heads of the station and the Ministry of Energy and Electrification of the Kazakh SSR spoke about the same thing, so back in the 80s, at the level of the leadership of the union department, it was planned that the Almaty CHPP-1 would be switched to gas. But it didn’t work out – we didn’t get around to it, so this issue was finally resolved only in 2017.

I was born in the village of Merke, Zhambyl region. In 1967 he moved to Almaty and from September 12 of the same year until retirement he worked at CHPP-1. He started as an electrician of the 2nd category and ended up working as a shop manager. In 1985, I moved to the fuel transport department and worked in fuel supply for 29 years. Even after retirement, I worked at a thermal power plant for another 5 years.

When I first arrived at the station, boilers and turbines were still working here. Working with solid fuel means emissions and coal dust: it was impossible to stand under the chimney, and residents constantly complained about the station because of the black dust.

Previously, before the new boilers, the coal warehouse was designed for 200-250 tons. During my time, the 10th and 13th boilers were already built. When the boilers were built, there was no room to store additional coal. Therefore, they began to prepare coal even in winter. But the station was not adapted to this. And then the Belgians, who bought the Almaty energy complex in 1996, made a hothouse to heat frozen coal.

The train arrived from Karaganda and Ekibastuz, where large blocks were loaded. In addition, the coal was compressed on the way, and it was impossible to unload it at the station. It was necessary to warm it up, crush it, unload it… Only then could it be sent for feeding. The work was hard, the pressure on us was great…

Then a special structure was even created that was responsible for this – the Fuel Reception and Unloading Center. This is a separate department, which will be 26 years old in 2024. Before that, this service was inside the station. I remember in 1997 the Belgians asked what kind of coal we needed. The shop manager ordered three bulldozers, and then we were given Russian coal concentrate. I stood near the unloading: pebbles were flying, but no dust. And when ordinary coal was unloaded, so as not to cause too much dust, we increased the humidity. We pumped about 3 thousand tons a day into the boiler shop.

During my work, I repaired all the electric motors in the power plant. From the emergency situations of the Soviet era – at the end of the 80s – I remember how at one moment all the flood pumps that were buried fell under water. There, in the boiler shop, there is a low point. And there were three engines. Water also flooded the ash dump – it was tens of thousands of liters. I remember that she was already the height of a man, and the water kept coming and coming. We needed to pump it out constantly…

It was these engines that I worked on. It was necessary to quickly dismantle them, pull them out, install new ones, and if not, then dry them. Then the task was to start at least one engine. Then the boiler workers worked on the pump, the electricians worked. There were about twenty of us in total to eliminate this emergency. It took us 4-5 hours to remove and replace the pump. Fortunately, I had reserves. The backup system was turned on so that at least one pump out of three would work and the emergency situation could be removed. Then we managed…

And I was also among those who unloaded and fed the last batch of coal into the furnace… Then the station switched to gas. Everything went smoothly, there was no event or celebration. We were simply told: “Don’t serve coal” – that’s all.

But now everyone understands that this was probably the most important environmental event for Almaty and the station!”

“I got a job as a fuel supply mechanic at CHPP-1 in the 80s of the last century. At that time there were still workers here who participated in the construction of the central power station or saw how its construction was going on. One of them is Maria Maksimovna KATAEVA, who saw the construction site with her own eyes as a child.

The Kazakhs have a good custom of “asar”, when people, getting together, provide free assistance to one of their neighbors or fellow villagers. For example, after a fire, or during the construction of a house. And, as Maria Maksimovna recalled, during the construction of the station, Kazakhs came from nearby villages, with their families, in carts, to feed the builders. Everyone was waiting for the station to give light to their homes.

Women prepared food, and men poured the foundation by hand… Even children helped, carrying water. Maria Maksimovna said: “We knew that then everyone would have glass light bulbs hanging! There will be light for everyone, and there will be no need to clean the lanterns. The children were happy about this, because they always had to clean the glass of the kerosene lamp from soot, and their parents explained to them that there would be no more such lamps.”

Maria Maksimovna worked at CHPP-1, even when she was retired, and we often communicated with her. Recalling those times, she said that then coal and ash were transported on carts, and burning coals often fell on horses…

And then the war broke out. During the war they worked continuously, everyone was afraid to leave, because then there was very strict discipline…

I started working on the fuel supply. This is the beginning of the power generation process at the station. At this stage, we supply fuel, fill the bunkers with raw coal… This was the so-called chemical water regime. After such preparation, the chemical shop prepares fuel for the boilers.

From the point of view of physical activity, this was probably the most difficult stage of the work. However, there were older women working here. Their standard was to load 7 tons of coal, but it could have been more. For example, we had Zina, she had very poor eyesight. And in order not to make a mistake with the volume of coal poured into the receiver, she lowered her hand into the receiving sleeves (choke) – a special pipe for filling coal, under which there was a warehouse. The coal fell vertically into one place and then had to be pulled away. So, as soon as the end of Zina’s finger touches the coal, she begins to slow down the backfill. Because if it touched, it means that we have already begun to “fall over.” That is, the pipe is about to clog.

Coal came regardless of the time of year – both in summer and winter. But to unload 43 wagons, women were given 2.5-3 hours. I had to rush along the conveyor belt, because if Aunt Zina or Aunt Sonya missed, then all 120 tons of coal would already be there. And due to untimely response, the estrus was clogged.

There are 5-6 such flows along the conveyor line. In one I have collected the required volume, I need to run and transfer the next heat to coal intake. At this time, the bulldozer begins to pull it away to make room for the next batch of fuel. And while he is pulling it away, you need to run back very quickly. So you jump along the line between the receivers, just so as not to fail the heat.

The work in this fuel supply area was very hard, completely unladylike. But even there we remained women and found good things. I remember we lubricated the rollers on conveyors with grease, after which the skin on our hands became soft. We joked then that this was our first cosmetic product for coal…”