Stepnaya street (present M. Auesov str.)

With the flow of time, houses, barracks, and stores arose outside the fortress. Handicraftsmen, petty merchants, exiled individuals, and soldiers who had served their time settled there. On May 7, 1862, it was decided to turn stanitsa Akmolinskaya into a peripheral town.

        In 1897, the town wasn't very big - 9,707 people, among them 5,105 men and 4,602 women. There resided 3,020 Kazakhs, 4,619 Russians, 1,035 Tatars, 223 Mordvinians, 205 Germans, 173 Jews, 101 Ukrainians, etc.

        At that time, when town darkness was interrupted by a few kerosene and spirit lamps, in the streets one could see only two autos, one of which belonged to an Englishman from Spassky plant and the other to the merchant Matvey Kubrin.