This pre-revolutionary photograph depicts Kazakhstan’s modern capital’s merchant past. Back then, Nur-Sultan was called Akmolinsk. At the end of the 19th century, it was no more just a fortress on the border of Russian Empire but a city - the whole Akmolinskaya oblast of Stepnoy Governorate-General was named after it, oblast that was spread over a wide area of Central and Northern Kazakhstan.
In the times when Akmolinsk still was a fortress, many caravans from Central Asia and merchant wagon trains from Western Siberia cities were passing through here. Nomads exchanged their animal products to factory goods. Caravan owners would buy local-ground flour.
