Lines of history: Faina Zakaryevna YUSUPOVA, chemist-technologist, PTO engineer at CHPP-1 named after. B. Orazbaeva, pensioner

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

I remember when we were still living in a dugout near the station, I saw that coal was brought by train, and delivered to the boiler by transporters. As a child, I also saw how the ash workers from each boiler loaded hot ashes on a cart, took them to the other side and poured them out. And then the cars came and took her to the ash dump. Only when the 5th and 6th boilers were turned on, they began to build an ash dump.

 

The station had its own houses from the very beginning. Before the war, they were mostly barracks. We, for example, lived in a barrack on Remeselnaya street, and there was a separate house for engineers. And then they built several two-storey 8-apartment houses, people still live there. The station had its own kindergartens, recreation centre, preventorium, children’s camps. When I studied at the technical school, during summer holidays, I worked as a teacher at the children’s camp “Energetik”.

Then for many years our family, like the families of other power engineers, lived in a two-storey station house. We had a large family – seven children, and only my father worked. I remember when I was 18 years old, I used to go outside, spread my books on a bench, and write my diploma project – I was studying to be a chemical technologist at an industrial enterprise.

Then I was very thin, small… One day Ivan Ivanovich Ovchinnikov, the director of CHPP-1, came down to me – he also lived in our house on the first floor – and asked me what class I was studying in. I replied that I was finishing technical school, and my dad worked in the fuel and transport shop as a machinist’s assistant.

And then Ivan Ivanovich asked: “Do you want to work at the CHPP?” I replied, “Yes, I would like to”. “Let your father come to me”, said the director. – I will prepare a letter to send you to CHPP-1″. So, after graduating from the technical school, on 21 July 1958, I immediately went to work in the chemical shop, as a laboratory assistant for water and coal sampling.

I worked as a laboratory assistant for a year, and I was transferred to the chemical shop for water treatment. When a new water treatment plant was built at CHPP-1, I was made shift supervisor of on-duty apparatchiks, where I worked for about 9 years. There were 4 women and 7 guys on watch. The fitters worked only during the day, so during the night shift the women had to do everything themselves. There were no automatics at the CHPP back then. And we had to work with lye, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphates, ammonia. There were huge tanks in the turbine shop. And for filters to clean the water, it was necessary to load 50 buckets of salt into the tanks. This had to be done by fragile women. Therefore, in order to lift the buckets to the height of one and a half metres, we were helped by the masters of the turbine shop, boiler shop, shift supervisors. People were responsive …

And then suddenly I was transferred to work in the production and technical department. It happened like this: Aleksandr Parfentievich Sarayev, the CHPP director, came through our chemical water treatment plant and saw me using an iron key to open a metre-long gate valve. He just called me over and said: “Tomorrow you will go out as an engineer to work in the PTD”. The Head of the Department at that time was Mikhail Abramovich Vaisman. The director explained the transfer by the fact that work in the chemical shop was shift work and physically demanding for a woman, while work in the PTD was a day job.

In the department, I counted heat, was involved in personnel training, and worked with students. I kept in touch with the Energy Institute and the Scientific and Technical Library. I worked there until my retirement, and even after my retirement until 1996.

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

The station was started to be built in 1932 by Russians and local Kazakhs, as well as Poles, Jews and Japanese prisoners. On 25 October 1935 it was put into operation, and it was launched on 31 December. At that time it was a tradition to launch a new enterprise by a holiday, the station was launched on New Year’s Eve.

K.B. Iskakov (Head of the electrical shop), A.Zh. Zhakutov, E.A. Abitayev, who later became the First Vice-Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade, worked at the station at different times. In the first years of the station’s operation there were few experienced workers, so young specialists were immediately appointed deputy shop managers, foremen. We learnt new things on site, not many people were sent to courses at that time. Young workers were assisted by engineers on duty, shop managers. I was familiar with all the equipment, so it was easier for me. I learnt 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: boilers No.5, 6, 7, 8 were built one after another. I remember that there were 4 low-power turbines in the turbine shop, and then the fifth powerful turbine was built.

I often remember working at the station only from the good side, everyone treated me well and respected me. Besides my father, my brother worked at the station, and my cousins worked as repairmen. Although the work was difficult, but there were many good things here. For example, we had our own cabins on Issyk-Kul. A trip for a fortnight cost… 5 roubles! We didn’t pay for the cabins, only for meals in the canteen. I went there almost every year. We were rewarded not only with money. I remember I was given a trip to the Baltic countries from the district party committee, 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. At that time almost 1700 people were unemployed at all stations. As I was previously engaged in Komsomol, party and then public work, people came to me to talk to the management.

But the Belgians did not fire only those who serviced boilers and water treatment. And they left only 2-3 people in the management. After a while they removed the director of the station. And I left in November, having worked at the CHPP for almost 40 years.

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