The recent shift in political winds in Almaty has been somewhat unpredictable.

However, this is not a big problem for Kunanbayev, deputy chief engineer of the Almaty Railway Design Institute. It is not that there was a huge gap in his life after the Soviet Union, in fact, on the contrary, his life did not get worse.

As for the reason, it is actually simple, life in the Almaty Railway Design Institute has fallen to the bottom ten years ago.

Kazakhstan was heavily dependent on the USSR for railway construction, and of course, Kazakhstan, as a union republic during the Soviet era, was not opposed to this dependence. Similar to China, the railway construction in the western provinces must also be extremely dependent on the central financial support, and the planning and construction must also meet the needs of the whole country, and the local provinces will certainly not oppose this kind of systematic dependence, and it can even be said to be a matter of course and naturalness.

However, after the seventies, the construction of railways in Kazakhstan has almost come to a standstill. As the railway planning and design unit of Kazakhstan, the importance of the Almaty Railway Design Institute is naturally declining.

In the 80s, for some well-known reasons, Kazakhstan's railway system struggled to maintain. Life at the Almaty Railway Design Institute is almost lackluster. Under the Soviet system in the past, there was nothing to say about the subordination of the localities to the central government, and the Kazakh side naturally had to obey the planning of the Soviet railway system.

Only now Kazakhstan is no longer a republic of the Soviet Union, but an independent state. It is absolutely impossible for the railway planning of an independent state to be exactly the same as that of the Soviet Union.

Kunanbayev expertly flipped through the Almaty daily newspaper, a habit he had developed for almost half his life.

Since 1977, the Almaty Daily has been his main window into the world on a daily basis. And in this city, there are at least 100,000 people who have the same habits as him.

As a city daily newspaper in the capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty Daily has always served as a guide and test for the social trend of the upper echelons of power. It's just that this invisible enormous power, which used to be firmly in the hands of the CPSU, is now quietly changing.

"The reconstruction of the railway line in the south of Kazakhstan?"

Kunanbayev keenly noticed the large article on the second page of the Almaty Daily today, which is obviously an unusual signal.

In the past, if such an article appeared in the Almaty Daily, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper would receive a phone call from Moscow, drenching him in blood.

The unspoken policy of the Soviet Union in railway construction was resolutely opposed to the completion of the railway line in southern Kazakhstan.

But now, no matter what, the second page of the Almaty Daily has really put such an article on it. The meaning of this has to be pondered.

Is there any benefit to Kazakhstan itself in connecting the southern railway lines of Kazakhstan? This question does not require much expertise to answer, the benefits are just too great!

The northern part of Kazakhstan is a vast Kazakh hilly desert and semi-desert terrain, while the southeastern Balkhash Lake and the Seven Rivers Valley are the traditional nomadic areas of the Kazakhs. The oil-producing region of the Caspian Sea in the southwest, which is the lifeblood of Kazakhstan's economy, is not directly connected to the traditional pastoral areas in the southeast.

Connecting traditional pastoral areas with emerging oil-producing areas could extend the benefits of oil to the vast majority of Kazakhs.

Isn't such an advantage enough to support the construction of such a railway line?

Kunanbayev crumpled up the article in the Almaty Daily almost word for word and analyzed it, hoping to see more of the meaning behind it.

In fact, there is no need to do this, and the article's advocacy for the transformation of the southern railway line is almost a red fruit.

An article calling for the state to rebuild the southern railway line was published in the Almaty Daily, but is there really a plan to push forward with the project?

Although Abishevich won the presidency of Kazakhstan as he wished, he also faced constant challenges in the drafting of the constitution and the struggle between the presidential and parliamentary systems. He has just brought about the merger of the Agrarian Party and the People's Party, which has strengthened the pro-government political forces, and it is he who can breathe a sigh of relief.

However, in the spacious office of the presidential palace, Abisevic's face at this time was a little cloudy.

What he opened in his hand was today's Almaty Daily, and the article on it about the reconstruction of the southern railway line can be said to be quite wonderful. The arguments are lofty and rigorous, and it is impossible to find fault with all aspects, from history, politics and national sovereignty to specific investments, data, and the ability to pull the economy.

However, it is precisely because of this that the article is doubly stressful that Abisevic feels even more stressed, because the reconstruction of the southern railway line is not in line with his established policy. The completion of the southern railway line will greatly enhance the discourse power of the Kazakh forces in the south, and will cause unpredictable disturbances to win over and deter the Russian ethnic population in the north, to the possible future relocation of the capital, and even to the current distribution of benefits in the oil fields along the Black Sea coast.

"Let Rustimov come to my office. ”

Not long after Abisevic put down the phone, the cabinet of ministers of communications, Rustemov, knocked softly on the door of his office.

"Comrade Abishevich, you look for me. Stymev stood at the door of his office with some nervousness, cautiously staring at the serious-looking comrade of the President of Kazakhstan behind his desk.

Yes, Abisevic's status today is somewhat strange.

Unlike the sudden collapse of the CPSU in the past, Schernin with the orthodoxy of the CPSU is now in Komsomolsk. Although the Soviet Union has dissolved, it is not necessarily the case in law.

Kazakhstan, which did not support and was reluctant to disintegrate the Soviet Union, was not as it once was, adding the last handful of soil to the CPSU. On the contrary, Kazakhstan has been slow to launch a blow against the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, making it the last country among the countries of the former Soviet Union where the CPSU was able to operate openly.

The presence of the CPSU in the Far East was a deterrent, and the Alma-Ata Declaration, which declared the end of the Soviet Union, was stillborn. In the past, Kazakhstan wanted to convene the CIS summit in order to pick peaches from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and establish its status as a political power in Central Asia without risk.

However, in the face of a CPSU that has been cornered, does Kazakhstan still have the courage to touch the ass of a dead tiger this time? Whether or not it has this courage, in terms of the political input-output ratio, this is obviously a high-risk and low-return business.

It is precisely because of the strong presence of the CPSU in Kazakhstan that the Knesset still stubbornly uses the name "Supreme Soviet" in Kazakhstan, and the people's congress is held every four years, even though the Soviet Union no longer exists.

As one of the former high-ranking leaders of the CPSU and the supreme leader of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Abisevich will retain his party membership, which is also in line with his current goal of stabilizing the situation and striving for the implementation of the presidential system.

After all, in terms of the level of centralization alone, the support of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan for the presidential system still belongs to the decentralization of power in the original Soviet system!

In Abisevic's current cabinet, there are many ministers who retain their membership of the Kazakh Communist Party like him, and the Minister of Communications such as Stephen is such a person.

"Sit down, Comrade Styemov. ”

Abishevich spread out the Almaty daily newspaper on the table, pointed to the article on it and said: "Have you read this article?

As soon as Stepemov glanced at it, sweat immediately broke out on his forehead, and he quickly explained.

"This is a self-initiated action of the Almaty Daily, which was not previously known to my communications department. ”

"If you don't know about this, it's a remiss of your duty!"

Abisevich's tone was rather dissatisfied: "Such an article is by no means something that a journalist can write by hiding in a room. It requires a lot of investigation, a good understanding of the internal situation, and a lot of data to back it up. You didn't notice it during the investigation and writing, so I have to be skeptical about whether you have control over the media under the Ministry of Communications!"

"Comrade Abishevich, you are right in your criticism, this is my job not done well. ”

Rustimov hurriedly made a statement and sincerely accepted Abisevic's criticism. It wasn't until he waited for a moment that he cautiously said, "Comrade Abishevich, I would like to give you a specific report on this matter. ”

Abisevic nodded expressionlessly, "Okay, I'm listening." ”

"Since last year, we have suspended the financial allocation to the Almaty daily newspaper for financial reasons. At present, the income of the Almaty Daily mainly depends on social donations, advertising, and paid publishing, and relying on the development of these market-oriented businesses, in the third quarter of 1992 they not only generated $300,000 in foreign exchange profits, but also added more than 20 editorial posts. ”

As a result of that achievement, you also signed a journalism awards last month honoring them as pioneers of reform. The Ministry of Communications has also considered regulating major media outlets, but the means available to it are scarce. We ourselves are strapped for money, and we are also worried about political rhetoric that will undermine press freedom. ”

"In general, we really do not have the ability to detect it in advance, nor do we have the power to prevent the Almaty daily from publishing this type of article. Given the current sensitive political situation, we have to admit the fact that ......"

。