construction of the two seven-story houses. Even before the construction of the foundations, two banners were hung out on the border of the site. A lot of old banners were gathering dust in the storeroom of the department’s office. Sepentai pulled out two of them by the shafts, scraped off the faded obsolete words, and began to write out new ones. Instead of the appeals: “Let’s catch up and overtake America!” and “Let’s con- tribute to the construction of communism in 1980!” He instead wrote: “We will eliminate the differences between the city and the village at an accelerated pace!” and “Thank you to the party for existing in the era of developed socialism!” Then he hoisted the banners on two tall poles so that the proclamations could be seen from afar. Pashat, the manager of the department, contacted the centre every Monday by radio to report that the construction of buildings was proceeding at a marvellously unprecedented pace, and if these rates were maintained, two buildings would be erected not in a year, but in five months. He reported that the ‘Socialism’ branch would again come to the forefront in the yearly report, having completed everything ahead of schedule regarding the instructions of the party and the government to eliminate the differences between the city and the aul. Still, Pashat and Sepentai kept their word – five months flew by like dashing horses, and the villagers began to prepare for the move. During the move, both leaders vigilantly ensured that the settlers did not turn out to be representatives of only one nationality, they solved this important task with great skill. Mostly Kazakhs lived in their department, though there were five or six families of Russians, three Uzbek, two Azerbaijani, one Turkish, one Georgian, one Armenian, and for some unknown reason, one Kyzylbash family, who arrived from Iran last year, one Dungan and one Korean. First of all, Pashat gave appropriate orders to these nationalities, he recorded the rest of the Kazakhs as representatives of all other nations living in Kazakhstan, and set a date for the move. In total, the department consisted of eighty-four families, huge seven-story buildings swallowed up these families in one sitting. Only two or three old women remained in the one-story huts, who did not want to live on the floors, and a few peasants who did not want to part with