The territory of the hotel "Seagull" closely adjoined to a high fence, fencing us from the city park-arboretum - an object of special pride of Karaganda botanists. The fact is that to break such a rich forest park in Kazakhstan is an incredible effort. Only at a depth of 1 meter in Karaganda soil there are deadly solonchaks for all plants that do not allow the roots of trees to go deep into the soil, and, therefore, do not give the opportunity to draw from it the necessary for life juices and minerals. Therefore, the work of local botanists, who turned the steppe Karaganda into a green oasis, certainly deserves all due respect. Perhaps, except Barnaul, which is rightly called the "Green Athens", and a glorious city on the Amur of Khabarovsk, drowning in lush greenery as a real southern city, I did not meet such greened cities in the vastness of our then immense homeland. Park - arboretum with a wide ribbon stretched for many kilometers across the city and ended with a botanical garden, next to which was our new five-story house on Erzhanov Street. Looking back at the years I lived, I can say with certainty that in Karaganda at that time there were two genuine miracles of the Light: one man-made is the Botanical Garden, and the second is not made by hands - the Fedorovsky Reservoir. Once in the Botanical Garden, you could fully feel yourself in the forests of the middle part of Russia, get lost among the numerous birch trees and oak groves. The young birch trees were so delicate and thin that their snow-white trunks caused a full sense of human flesh to touch, and touching them was almost erotic. The pride of Karaganda botanists, of course, was a greenhouse in which palm trees, baobabs and other exotic trees of the tropical flora grew. But the object of the "carnal" lust of boys in the Botanical Garden, of course, were berries irgi, which in Kazakhstan is called, for some reason, Irgis. It is a very beautiful tree, a small grove of which was a real decoration of the Botanical Garden. Irga in May is covered with white foam flower brushes, reminiscent of bird cherry. By the way, and its astringent taste, the irge also resembles a bird cherry and a chokeberry at the same time. The bushes are plentifully hung with tassels of green, red and almost black color, which the bird's and boy's brothers greedily fall into early autumn. Especially good is the autumn iride, when its foliage is painted in orange-red and purple tones. Let me remind you that all this miracle was created by people in a practically lifeless solonchak zone, which cost them truly titanic efforts; Labor and efforts of these beautiful people, fanatically devoted to their work.
Another miracle of nature is the Fedorov reservoir, named after Fedorovka, a suburban settlement. Despite the fact that this lake was located on the territory of the coal mine, that is why it reached a depth of up to 200 meters in places, it had a unique, non-manual nature. Once it was a prosperous state enterprise - a coal mine in which coal was mined in an open way. But in one of the unlucky days a giant excavator touched and damaged the water artery of the earth; The water poured into the cut with a powerful stream, burying under its thickness all the machinery and tons of coal that had already been mined. However, despite the rapidity of the events, people managed to evacuate on time. Scuba divers, who occasionally plunged into the depth of the reservoir, told that there, at the bottom, you see a completely surreal picture of a fantastic blockbuster - excavators, trucks and other mining equipment rests under the water almost intact, as if left and abandoned by people on Fate of fate only yesterday.
Fedorovskoe reservoir has always been a favorite place for Karaganda residents. The cleanest, almost spring water, which has the properties of self-purification and regeneration, was pleasantly cooled in hot summer days, and an improvised boat station on which it was possible to rent a boat "Kazanka" inexpensively, made the rest simply unforgettable, especially for a thirteen-year-old teenager who " Sweeter "dirty pond in the Melange Park of Barnaul did not even try.
One day, my dad and I, like two captains, took the boat for two hours and set out on an open voyage between the islands formed by former waste tanks, on which the luxuriant vegetation settled for a long time already. Landing on these uninhabited islands, we fully felt like Robinsons, but on one of the islands we were waiting for some disappointment - there was already a mighty sporting party of drunken young guys, thus depriving us of our "sea" journey adventure fleur. "Eduard Ionovich, Comrade Major, join us!" One of the young men shouted, waving a friendly hand to us. This guy turned out to be Seryozha Girko, a cadet of the Karaganda Higher School of the USSR Ministry of the Interior. I imagine how surprised we would have been if we had learned that in 30 years I, the police colonel and doctor of law, will work in Moscow under the rank of Major General of Militia Sergei Ivanovich Girko at the All-Russia Research Institute of the Ministry of the Interior. "Lesha Shirvanov caught crayfish once and we will cook them now!" - Sergey reported joyfully, preparing a smoked pot for the future "exquisite" dish. - True, it's - well, very small crayfish, but three rubles, like Roman Kartsev! "
Surprising pirouettes still sometimes write Fate - with Colonel Militia Aleksey Amirbekovich Shirvanov we will sit in the Research Institute in one office, putting "our precious lives" on the altar
