Karaganda, a coal-producing city in central Kazakhstan, is presented as an alternative to heavily promoted tourist destinations. The article argues that its unpolished character offers a more direct encounter with the country’s Soviet past and everyday life, at a time when tourism to Kazakhstan is growing.

The city was built in the 1930s to support coal mining, and nearby Dolinka was the centre of Karlag, a vast Soviet labour camp where more than one million prisoners were held between 1931 and 1959. Visitors can explore the Karlag museum and a mining museum, as well as Central Park and Soviet-era monuments, including a statue of Lenin. Karaganda also has links to the Soviet space programme: cosmonauts passed through on their way to Baikonur, and the city retains the historic Cosmonaut Hotel and a statue of Yuri Gagarin.