Situated on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, Fort Shevchenko serves as the administrative center of Tupkaragan District, Mangystau Region, located 130 kilometers northwest of the regional center, Aktau. This historic site traces its roots to the medieval port of Ketik-Kala, where archeological findings reveal trading links between Ketik-Kala and major economic centers across Europe and Central Asia from the 10th to 15th centuries.
Fort Shevchenko lies approximately 250 kilometers from Astrakhan, Russia. To the north of the Tupkaragan Peninsula lie the Tyulen Islands, the location of the earliest Russian settlement in 1667–1668—a pirate stronghold of rebellious Cossacks led by Stepan Razin.
In 1716, an expedition led by Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, on orders from Tsar Peter I, founded the first Russian fortress on the eastern Caspian shores, named “Saint Peter.” Later, in 1846, under Captain M.I. Ivanin, the Novopetrovskaya Fortress was built. In 1857, a city near the fortress was named Fort Alexandrovsky, later known as Fort Uritsky in the early Soviet years, and finally renamed Fort Shevchenko in 1939. On the city’s outskirts stand remnants of an ancient fortress on Mount Korgantas.
In 1870, the Adaev Rebellion broke out in response to governmental reforms, and in 2010, the monument “Isa-Dosan” was erected in honor of the rebels. In 1882, Fort Alexandrovsky became the center of the Mangystau Uyezd, and in 1896, it was officially granted city status.
From 1850 to 1857, Fort Shevchenko became the place of exile for the renowned Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko. In 1932, a memorial museum dedicated to his life was established here. Over the years, Fort Shevchenko has hosted other notable figures, including scientists, writers, and commissars like Bronislav Zaleski, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Alibi Zhangeldin, and Richard Karutz.
Fort Shevchenko also became home to prominent figures like Tolessin Aliyev, a regiment commissar, and the Turkmen poets Dauletkerey and Khatam-shayir, as well as Muryn Zhyrau, the last Kazakh narrator of the heroic epic “The Forty Warriors of Crimea.”
Opened as the first museum on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, the Shevchenko Museum houses paintings, documents, and everyday artifacts illustrating the life of the esteemed Ukrainian poet and artist. Visitors can step inside Shevchenko’s modest dugout or stroll through the garden he planted.
Shevchenko was born on March 9, 1814, in Kyiv Province, and though he lived only 47 years, ten of them were spent in exile in Kazakhstan. During his exile, between 1851 and 1852, he participated in the Karatau Expedition, focused on studying Mangyshlak’s natural resources. In these two years alone, he created about 140 sketches and paintings, amassing over 350 works throughout his ten years in exile.
In March 2016, the museum inaugurated an exhibition dedicated to the work of Esbol Omirbayev, the first “Shevchenkologist,” whose research on the Karatau Expedition led to the publication of The Steppes Will Come Alive, which features a recreated map of the expedition’s journey.
The museum also includes a model of Novopetrovsk Fort, the town’s original fortress, which featured a commandant’s house at its center. Behind it stood a gymnasium for officers’ children, as well as barracks and a church. Shevchenko contributed an altarpiece titled The Resurrection of Christ for the church, although only the ruins of the commandant’s house remain today, visible from the monument “Isa-Dosan.”
Built in 1863 atop the high shore of the Tupkaragan Peninsula, the Upper Lighthouse casts its light up to 30–40 kilometers into the Caspian Sea. More than a simple tower with a beacon, this complex includes a house, a stable, and a kerosene storage building, resembling a small fortress. It has withstood many attacks, notably being burned during the Adaev Uprising in 1870 and targeted again in 1929 by Basmachi rebels. This lighthouse holds strategic significance, as it offers sweeping views over vast stretches of the Caspian Sea.
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