n a low level, houses were mainly built of adobe.
During the first two decades following the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, Aulie-Ata remained a small town. It was renamed Mirzoyan in 1936, after Levon Mirzoyan an ethnic Armenian head of the Communists of Kazakhstan. In 1938, after Mirzoyan lost power, the city was renamed Dzhambul after Zhambyl Zhabayev, a Kazakh akyn (folk singer). Starting in the 1930s, Dzhambul, along with other places in Kazakhstan, became the destination for large numbers of the deported peoples who were subject to internal exile. Millions of Volga Germans, Chechens, Ukrainians, Koreans and other ethnic minorities, along with other marginalized subjects (former kulaks, members of the aristocracy, families of convicted "enemies of the people," etc.) were forced to relocate to Kazakhstan, many of whom settled in Dzhambul. Some were evacuated to Kazakhstan, and to Dzhambul, during WWII from the areas that were, or were feared to come, under German occupation. The city's population continued to grow throughout the 1960s and 1970s in spite of the end of exiles, due to an industrial spurt the city received during that time. As a result, Dzhambul had a highly diverse population composed of multiple ethnic groups, the largest being the Russians, followed by the Kazakhs. Fast-paced industrialization brought many amenities of modern urban living to the city, previously largely unknown, such as typical Soviet apartment blocks as well as condo-style houses, now all supplied with electricity and running water; roads and public transport; several higher education institution; large public parks, department stores, etc.
Although chemical and construction industries made up the core of the city's economy, Dzhambul continued to function as an unofficial trade post with its proximity to the other Central Asian republics and a relatively mobile population. The city was known in the area
