Museum of Kurmangazy Sagyrbayev

The idea to create a museum in the village of Altynzhar was born from the local teacher of history and social studies Gabdulgafur Zhangalievich Dosov in 1979. He turned for help to two local farms: a kolkhoz and a state farm named after Kurmangazy Sagirbayev. One of them singled out people, the second — building materials, and boiled the work. The building was built, exhibits were gathered in parallel. Throughout the district, they were looking for items of the departed household of steppes, dishes, things, musical instruments.

On December 21, 1986, the museum was inaugurated. At first there were only two halls - one told about the work of Kurmangazy Sagirbayev, the second - about his followers. However, they also attracted a lot of tourists. People came here to get acquainted with the composer’s work, to visit the grave of the great Kazakh. It is even believed that the burial of Kurmangazy Sagirbayev has a mystical power capable of healing and solving life problems.

In 1990, the area of the museum expands, there is another exposition dedicated to the life of Kazakhs on the Lower Volga. And it is part of the Astrakhan State United Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve in the status of a branch.

Since 1996, a snow-white mausoleum has been erected over the burial of Kurmangazy, which can be seen from afar - it has become a place of pilgrimage for the composer's admirers, as well as the only Russian mausoleum in the oriental style. Many visitors, however, did not know about the existence of a museum in the center of the village, and therefore simply drove past it.

Museum today

And in 2003, in the steppe, near the mausoleum of Kurmangazy Sagirbayev, the construction of a new cultural center began. It was conceived in the form of three round buildings made in the style of Kazakh yurts. The center included a hotel, a conference hall, a music school, an open concert venue and a museum. The museum is located in the right "yurt". The central round hall is completely dedicated to Kurmangazy Sagirbayev, and in the corridor surrounding it there is an exhibition telling about the life of Kazakhs in the lower reaches of the Volga. Temporary mobile displays are also displayed here.