Museum of Abai «Zhidebay-Borili»
The State Historical-Cultural and Literary-Memorial Reserve-Museum of Abai “Zhidebai-Borili” was organized by the resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kazakh SSR on April 1, 1940 on the eve of the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the poet’s birth and opened to visitors on October 16. In the history of Kazakhstan, this is the first literary and memorial museum.
In the early years, the museum was located in the houses of Bekbai Baisov (Abai Street 83, now Zhamakayev Street) and Aniyar MoldAbaiev (Komissar Street 132, now Bogenbai Batyr Street). Abai stayed in these houses during his visits to Semey. Since 1967, the museum has been located in the house of the merchant Roman Ershov.
In 1947-1951. was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. By the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR dated April 5, 1990, No. 141, it was transformed into the State Historical, Cultural and Literary Memorial Museum-Reserve named after Abai.
On the eve of the 150th anniversary of Abai, in 1990, the literary-memorial museum of Abai was reorganized into the State Historical-Cultural and Literary-Memorial Museum-Reserve of Abai. It includes: the city complex and departments located in the Abai and Urzhar regions. The city complex includes: the main museum, the mosque-madrasah of Akhmet Riza, an administrative building.
House-museum of Abai in Zhidebai, house-museum of M. Auezov in Borili, exposition “Hunting house of Shakarim”, mausoleum complex “Abai-Shakarim” the village of Kundyzdy, located in the Abai region and the museum of Aset Naimanbaev, located in the village of Makanchi, Urzhar region, are departments of the reserve-museum.
The city complex includes: the main museum, the mosque-madrasah of Akhmet Riza, an administrative building.
