Belovodye

  (Text provided by the East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of History and Local Lore)

According to legend, Belovodye is located behind some high mountains, separated by the sea, and "twelve days' journey and    three days' journey across the barren steppe." The inhabitants of "the promised land live independently and allow no one into their land." There is no theft in Belovodye, no wars, no army, no soldiering. The land's nature generously rewards farmers; "grapes and Sorochin millet grow there," and its inhabitants are fabulously wealthy: "They have countless gold and silver, precious stones and precious beads in abundance." Such legends inspired people to seek out such an abundant land and settle there. The real Belovodye was an independent community of runaway peasants, dissenters, and soldiers who resettled in the 18th century in the Altai Mountains, in the Bukhtarma Valley.