Karaganda

Saint Joseph Cathedral

Modern-day Karaganda dates back to 1833, when local shepherd Appak Baizhanov allegedly found coal on the site of the city, prompting a coal mining boom.[6] By the late 19th century, the local mines had attracted workers from nearby villages, Russian merchants, and entrepreneurs from France and England.[6] After this initial boom, the mines were abandoned, but is often still labeled on city maps as the "Old Town", but almost nothing remains on that site.

Coal mining in the area resumed in 1930, and temporary structures were built for miners and their families.[6] The new area for the city was to the south of the initial mines. In 1931, Karaganda was incorporated as a village, and in 1934, was declared a city.[6] Lead by planner Alexander Ivanovich Kuznetsov, masters plans for Karaganda were laid out from 1934 until 1938.[6]

During the late 1930s, the Karlag Prison was built.[6] During the Stalinist purges, peoples from many different nationalities, including Germans, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Greeks, and Crimean Tatars were sent to Karlag.[6]

Robert F. Kennedy (later US Attorney General and US Senator), alongside US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, visited "five Soviet Central Asian Republics": Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirghizia, and Kazakhstan. While on the six week trip (e.g., Bukhara, 300 to 1 mosque after Soviet rule), his biographers reported that their delegation was not allowed to visit the city of Karaganda which was one of the sites of the most notorious labor camps within the confines of the Soviet Union. The delegation was diverted to Siberia after four denials of visas.[7]

Nurken Abdirov Street at the corner of Gogol Street.

Karaganda suffered the most severe electromagnetic pulse effects ever observed when its electrical power plant was set on fire by currents induced in a 1,000 km (620 mi) long shallow buried power cable by Soviet Test ‘184’ on 22 October 1962. The test was part of the Soviet Project K nuclear tests (ABM System A proof tests), and consisted of a 300-kiloton high-altitude nuclear explosion at an altitude of 290 km (180 mi) over Zhezkazgan.

Prompt gamma ray-produced EMP induced a current of 2,500 amps measured by spark gaps in a 570 km (350 mi) stretch of overhead telephone line to Zharyq, blowing all the protective fuses. The late-time MHD-EMP was of low enough frequency to enable it to penetrate 90 cm (35 in) into the ground, overloading a shallow buried lead and steel tape-protected 1,000 km (620 mi) long power cable between Aqmola (now called Astana) and Almaty. It fired circuit breakers and set the Karaganda power plant on fire.[8]

Kuznetsov's master plan for the city was intended to accommodate 300,000 inhabitants, which was surpassed by the late 1960s.[6] This prompted planners to devise a new plan with the goal of accommodating 600,000 people.[6] By the 1980s, the city's population surpassed 600,000 people, creating the need for further expansion.[6] In 1983, the Karaganda Circus was constructed, which was criticized for its high cost.[6]

In the early 1990s, Karaganda was briefly considered as a candidate for the capital of the (then) newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan, but its bid was turned down in favour of Astana.

In July 2019, remains of a young couple buried face to face dated 4,000 years back were unearthed in Karaganda region in central Kazakhstan by a group of archaeologists led by Igor Kukushkin from Saryarka Archaeological Institute in Karaganda. It is assumed that the Bronze Age couple were 16 or 17 years old when they died. Kukushkin supposes that they were from a 'noble family' thanks to the buried gold and jewelry artifacts, ceramic pots, woman's two bracelets on each arm beads, remains of horses and knives found in the grave.[9][10][11]

Karaganda has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with warm summers and very cold winters. Precipitation is moderately low throughout the year, although slightly heavier from May to July. Snow is frequent, though light, in winter. The lowest temperature on record is −42.9 °C (−45.2 °F), recorded in 1938, and the highest temperature is 40.2 °C (104.4 °F), recorded in 2002.[14]

Russian Orthodox Church in Karaganda

The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Karaganda.

The Miners Palace of Culture is a major landmark in Karaganda.

FC Shakhter Karagandy players

FC Shakhter Karagandy is a football club based in the city who play at Shakhtyor Stadium. They finished 7th in the Kazakhstan Premier League in 2022. They last won the competition in the 2012 season and also won the Kazakhstan Cup in 2013. One of the biggest accomplishments of the club is a victory against Celtic from Scotland in the Champions League qualifying rounds in 2013. The score was 2–0. Saryarka Karagandy is a very successful ice hockey team who are the current Kazakhstan Pro Hockey League champions and who used to play in the Russian-based Supreme Hockey League (VHL)

On May 28, 2011, a monument to the famous catchphrase "Where-where? In Karaganda!"[16]

On May 31, 2022, on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions in the Karaganda Ethnopark, a new monument to the victims of the Holodomor was opened.[17] The monument is located near the mosque on the territory of the Ethnopark, created from granite by Zharmukhamed Tlegenuly. The height of the monument on the pedestal is 1.2 m.

• Qaraghandy Zoo

• Karaganda Technical University
• Karaganda University
• Karaganda State Medical University

Karaganda was often used as the punchline in a popular joke in the former Soviet Union. Karaganda is fairly isolated in a vast area of uninhabited steppe, and is thought by many to be "the middle of nowhere". When used in the locative case (Караганде), the final syllable rhymes with the Russian word for "where" (где), as well as with a Russian obscenity used to answer to an unwanted question "Where?". Thus the exchange: "Где?" — "В Караганде!" ("Where is it?" — "In Karaganda!")