Kazakstan (also spelled Kazakhstan,
Qazaqstan, pronounced ; ), officially the
Republic
of Kazakhstan, is an Asian country which is ranked as the
ninth largest country in
the world. It is also the world's largest
landlocked country. Its territory of
2,727,300 km² is greater than
Western Europe.
It is neighbored
clockwise from the north by Russia
, China
, Kyrgyzstan
, Uzbekistan
, Turkmenistan
, and also borders on a significant part of the
Caspian
Sea
. The capital moved in 1997 to Astana
from
Almaty
, Kazakhstan's largest city.
Vast in size, the terrain of Kazakhstan ranges from flatlands,
steppes,
taigas,
rock-canyon, hills, deltas, in part
snow-capped mountains and deserts. With 16.4 million people (2009
census), Kazakhstan has the
62nd largest population in
the world, though its
population density
is less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq.
mi.).
For most of its history the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan has
been inhabited by
nomadic tribes. By the
16th century the
Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into
three
hordes.
The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century all of Kazakhstan was part of the
Russian
Empire
. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and
subsequent civil war, the
territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times before
becoming the Kazakh
Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, a part of the USSR
.
During the
20th century, Kazakhstan was the site
of major Soviet projects, including Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign, the Baikonur
Cosmodrome
, and the Semipalatinsk "Polygon"
, the USSR's primary nuclear weapon testing
site.
Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16,
1991, the last Soviet republic to do so. Its communist-era leader,
Nursultan Nazarbayev, became
the country's new president. Since independence, Kazakhstan has
pursued a balanced
foreign policy and worked to
develop its
economy,
especially its
hydrocarbon industry.
While the country's economic outlook is improving, President
Nazarbayev maintains strict control over the country's
politics. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan's
international prestige is building. It is now considered to be the
dominant state in
Central Asia. The
country is a member of many international organizations, including
the
United Nations,
NATO's Partnership for Peace, the
Commonwealth of
Independent States, and the
Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation. In 2010, Kazakhstan will chair the
Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Kazakhstan is ethnically and culturally diverse, in part due to
mass
deportations of many ethnic groups to the country during
Stalin's rule. Kazakhs are the largest
group. Kazakhstan allows
freedom of religion, and
many different beliefs are represented in the country.
Islam is the primary religion. The Kazakh language is
the
state language, while Russian is
also officially used as an "equal" language (to Kazakh) in
Kazakhstan's
institutions.
History
Kazakh Khanate
Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the
Stone
Age: the region's climate and terrain are best suited for
nomads practicing
pastoralism.
Historians believe that humans first
domesticated the horse in the
region's vast steppes.
While ancient cities Taraz
(Aulie-Ata)
and Hazrat-e
Turkestan
had long served as important way-stations along the
Silk Road connecting East and West, real
political consolidation only began with the Mongol invasion of the
early 13th century. Under the
Mongol Empire, administrative
districts were established, and these eventually came under the
emergent
Kazakh Khanate.
Throughout this period traditionally
nomadic
life and a
livestock-based economy
continued to dominate the
steppe. In the
15th century, a distinct
Kazakh identity began to emerge among the
Turkic tribes, a process which was
consolidated by the mid-
16th century
with the appearance of a distinctive
Kazakh language, culture, and economy.
Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes
between the native Kazakh
emirs and the
neighbouring
Persian-speaking
peoples to the south. By the early
17th
century, the Kazakh Khanate was struggling with the impact of
tribal rivalries, which has effectively divided the population into
the Great, Middle and Little (or Small)
Hordes (
jüz). Political disunion, tribal
rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes
between East and West weakened the Kazakh Khanate.
During the 17th century Kazakhs fought
Oirats, a federation of western
Mongol tribes, among which the
Dzungars were particularly aggressive. The
beginning of the
18th century marked
the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little
Horde participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungars,
following their "Great Disaster"
invasion
of Kazakh territories. Under leadership
Abul Khair Khan the Kazakhs won major
victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River, in 1726, and at
the Battle of Anrakay in 1729.
Ablai Khan
participated in the most significant battles against the Dzungars
from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared a "batyr"
("hero") by the people. Kazakhs were also a victims of constant
raids carried out by the Volga
Kalmyks.
Russian Empire
In the
19th century, the Russian Empire
began to expand, and spread into Central Asia. The "
Great Game" period is generally regarded as
running from approximately 1813 to the
Anglo-Russian Convention of
1907. The
tsars effectively ruled over most
of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of
Kazakhstan.
The Russian Empire introduced a system of administration and built
military garrisons and barracks in its effort to establish a
presence in
Central Asia in the
so-called "Great Game" between it and the
British Empire.
The first Russian
outpost, Orsk
, was built
in 1735. Russia enforced the Russian language in all schools
and governmental organisations. Russian efforts to impose its
system aroused the extreme resentment by the
Kazakh people, and by the 1860s, most Kazakhs
resisted Russia's annexation largely because of the disruption it
wrought upon the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livestock-based
economy, and the associated hunger which was rapidly wiping out
some Kazakh tribes. The Kazakh national movement, which began in
the late 1800s, sought to preserve the native language and identity
by resisting the attempts of the Russian Empire to assimilate and
stifle them.
From the
1890s onwards ever-larger numbers of settlers from Russian Empire
began colonising the territory of
present-day Kazakhstan, in particular the province of Semirechye
. The number of settlers rose still further
once the Trans-Aral Railway from
Orenburg
to Tashkent
was completed in 1906, and the movement was
overseen and encouraged by a specially created Migration Department
(Переселенческое Управление) in St. Petersburg
. During the 19th century about 400,000
Russians immigrated to Kazakhstan, and about one million Slavs,
Germans, Jews, and others immigrated to the region during the first
third of the 20th century.
The
competition for land and water which ensued between the Kazakhs and
the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during
the final years of Tsarist
Russia
, with the most serious uprising, the Central Asian Revolt, occurring in
1916. The Kazakhs attacked
Russian
and
Cossack settlers and military garrisons.
The revolt resulted in a series of clashes and in brutal massacres
committed by both sides. The Russians' revenge was merciless.
A
military force drove 300,000 Kazakhs to flee into the mountains or
to China
. When
approximately 80,000 of them returned the next year, many of them
were slaughtered by Tsarist forces. During the 1921–22
famine, another
million Kazakhs died from starvation.
Kazakh SSR

Almaty, the Soviet-era capital of
Kazakhstan.
Although
there was a brief period of autonomy (Alash
Autonomy) during the tumultuous period following the collapse
of the Russian Empire, many uprisings were brutally suppressed, and
the Kazakhs eventually succumbed to Soviet
rule.
In 1920,
the area of present-day Kazakhstan became an autonomous
republic within the Soviet Union
.
Soviet repression of the traditional elite, along with forced
collectivization in late
1920s–1930s, brought
mass hunger and led to
unrest (See also:
Soviet famine of
1932–1933). Between 1926 and 1939, the Kazakh population
declined by 22%, due to
starvation,
violence and mass emigration. Today, the
estimates suggest that the population of Kazakhstan would be closer
to 20 million if there had been no starvation or massacre of
Kazakhs. During the 1930s, many renowned Kazakh writers, thinkers,
poets, politicians and historians were slaughtered on Stalin's
orders, both as part of the repression and as a methodical pattern
of suppressing Kazakh identity and culture. Soviet rule took hold,
and a
Communist apparatus steadily worked
to fully integrate Kazakhstan into the Soviet system. In 1936
Kazakhstan became a
Soviet
republic.
Kazakhstan experienced population inflows of
millions exiled from other parts of the
Soviet
Union
during the 1930s and 1940s; many of the deportation victims were deported to Siberia
or Kazakhstan merely due to their ethnic heritage
or beliefs, and were in many cases interned in some of the biggest
Soviet labour camps, including ALZHIR camp
outside Astana, which was reserved for the wives of men considered
"enemies of the people". (See also:
Population transfer in
the Soviet Union,
Involuntary
settlements in the Soviet Union.)
The
Kazakh Soviet
Socialist Republic contributed five national divisions to the
Soviet Union's
World War II effort.
In 1947,
two years after the end of the war, the Semipalatinsk Test Site
, the USSR's main nuclear
weapon test site was founded
near the city of Semey
.
The period of
World War II marked an
increase in
industrialisation and
increased
mineral extraction in
support of the war effort. At the time of Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin's death, however, Kazakhstan
still had an overwhelmingly agricultural-based economy. In 1953,
Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
initiated the ambitious "
Virgin Lands"
programme to turn the traditional pasture lands of Kazakhstan into
a major grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin
Lands policy brought mixed results. However, along with later
modernizations under Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev, it accelerated the
development of the agricultural sector which remains the source of
livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan's population. By
1959,
Kazakhs made up 30% of the population.
Ethnic
Russians accounted for 43%.
Growing tensions within Soviet society led to a demand for
political and economic reforms, which came to a head in the 1980s.
A factor
that has contributed to this immensely was Lavrentii Beria's decision to test a nuclear
bomb on the territory of Kazakh SSR in Semey
in
1949. This had a catastrophic ecological and biological
effect which was felt generations later, and Kazakh anger toward
the Soviet system has escalated.
In December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs,
later called
Jeltoqsan riot, took place in
Almaty to protest the replacement of the
First Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR
Dinmukhamed Konayev with
Gennady Kolbin from the
Russian SFSR. Governmental troops suppressed
the unrest, several people were killed and many demonstrators were
jailed. In the waning days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to
grow and find expression under Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of
glasnost.
Independence
Caught up in the groundswell of Soviet republics seeking greater
autonomy, Kazakhstan declared its
sovereignty as a republic within the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics in October 1990.
Following the August
1991 aborted coup attempt in
Moscow
and the
subsequent dissolution of
the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991. It
was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence.
The years following independence have been marked by significant
reforms to the Soviet-style economy and political
monopoly on power. Under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who
initially came to power in 1989 as the head of the
Communist Party of Kazakhstan
and was eventually elected President in 1991, Kazakhstan has made
significant progress toward developing a
market economy. The country has enjoyed
significant economic growth since 2000, partly due to its large
oil,
gas, and mineral
reserves.
Democracy, however, has not gained much ground since 1991. "In June
2007, Kazakhstan's parliament passed a law granting President
Nursultan Nazarbayev lifetime powers and privileges, including
access to future presidents, immunity from criminal prosecution,
and influence over domestic and foreign policy. Critics say he has
become a de facto "president for life."
Over the course of his ten years in power, Nazarbayev has
repeatedly censored the press through arbitrary use of "slander"
laws, blocked access to opposition web sites (November 9, 1999),
banned the
Wahhabi religious sect (September
5, 1998), and refused demands that the governors of Kazakhstan's 14
provinces be elected, rather than appointed by the president (April
7, 2000)."
Government and politics
Political system
Kazakhstan is a
presidential republic. The president is Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The president also is the
commander
in chief of the armed forces and may
veto
legislation that has been passed by the
Parliament. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet
of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There
are three deputy prime ministers and 16 ministers in the Cabinet.
Karim Massimov has served as the
Prime Minister since January 10, 2007.
Kazakhstan has a bicameral Parliament, made up of the
lower house (the
Majilis)
and
upper house (the
Senate). Single mandate districts
popularly elect 67 seats in the Majilis; there also are ten members
elected by party-list vote rather than by single mandate districts.
The Senate has 39 members. Two senators are selected by each of the
elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's 16 principal
administrative divisions (14 provinces, plus the cities of Astana
and Almaty). The president appoints the remaining seven senators.
Majilis deputies and the government both have the right of
legislative initiative, though the government proposes most
legislation considered by the Parliament.
Elections
Elections to the Majilis in September 2004 yielded a lower house
dominated by the pro-government
Otan Party,
headed by President Nazarbayev. Two other parties considered
sympathetic to the president, including the agrarian-industrial
bloc AIST and the
Asar Party, founded by
President Nazarbayev's daughter, won most of the remaining seats.
Opposition parties, which were officially registered and competed
in the elections, won a single seat during elections that the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said fell short
of international standards.
In 1999, Kazakhstan applied for observer status at the
Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly. The official response of the Assembly
was that Kazakhstan could apply for full membership, because it is
partially located in Europe, but that they would not be granted any
status whatsoever at the Council until their
democracy and
human
rights records improved.
On December 4, 2005, Nursultan Nazarbayev was reelected in a
landslide victory. The electoral commission announced that he had
won over 90% of the vote. The Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded the election did not meet
international standards despite some improvements in the
administration of the election.
Xinhua News Agency
reported that observers from the People's Republic
of China, responsible in overseeing 25 polling stations in Astana,
found that voting in those polls was conducted in a "transparent
and fair" manner.
On August 17, 2007, elections to the lower house of parliament were
held with the ruling
Otan Party coalition
winning every seat with 88% of the vote. None of the opposition
parties have reached the benchmark 7% level of the seats. This has
led some in the local media to question the competence and charisma
of the opposition party leaders. Opposition parties made
accusations of serious irregularities in the election.
Intelligence Services
Kazakhstan's
National
Security Committee (KNB) was established on June 13, 1992. It
includes the Service of Internal Security, Military
Counterintelligence, Border Guard, several Commando units, and
Foreign Intelligence (Barlau). The latter is considered by many as
the most important part of KNB. Its director is
Major General Omirtai Bitimov.
Geography

Map of Kazakhstan
With an area of 2.7 million square kilometers
(1.05 million
sq. mi),
Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world and the
largest
landlocked country in the
world. It is equivalent to the size of
Western Europe.
It shares borders of
6,846 kilometers (4,254 mi) with Russia, 2,203 kilometers
(1,369 mi) with Uzbekistan
, 1,533 kilometers (953 mi) with China,
1,051 kilometers (653 mi) with Kyrgyzstan
, and 379 kilometers (235 mi) with
Turkmenistan
. Major cities include Astana, Almaty,
Karagandy
, Shymkent
, Atyrau
and Oskemen
. While located primarily in Asia, a small
portion of Kazakhstan is also located west of the Urals in Eastern
Europe.
The
terrain extends west to east from the Caspian Sea
to the Altay Mountains
and north to south from the plains of Western Siberia
to the oases and deserts of Central Asia. The
Kazakh Steppe (plain), with an area of around
804,500 square kilometres (310,600 sq. mi), occupies
one-third of the country and is the world's largest dry
steppe region. The steppe is characterized by large
areas of
grasslands and sandy regions.
Important
rivers and lakes include: the Aral Sea
, Ili
River
, Irtysh
River
, Ishim River, Ural River, Syrdariya
, Charyn River and gorge, Lake Balkhash
and Lake
Zaysan
.
The climate is
continental, with
warm summers and colder winters.
Precipitation varies between
arid and semi-arid conditions.
The
Charyn
Canyon
is 150–300 metres deep and 80 kilometres long,
cutting through the red sandstone plateau
and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan
("Heavenly Mountains", 200 km east of Almaty)
at . The steep canyon slopes,
columns
and
arches rise to heights of 150–300 m. The
inaccessibility of the canyon provided a safe haven for a rare
ash tree that survived the
Ice Age and is now also grown in some other areas.
Bigach crater
is a Pliocene or Miocene asteroid impact crater, in diameter and estimated at 5
±3 million years old at .
Provinces
Kazakhstan is divided into 14
provinces ( ). The provinces are
subdivided into
districts (
).
|
Province |
Capital |
Area (km.²) |
Population |
Akmola |
Kokshetau |
121,400 |
829,000 |
Aktobe |
Aktobe |
300,600 |
661,000 |
Almaty(1) |
Almaty |
324.8 |
1,226,300 |
Almaty Province |
Taldykorgan |
224,000 |
860,000 |
Astana(1) |
Astana |
710.2 |
600,200 |
Atyrau |
Atyrau |
118,600 |
380,000 |
Baikonur (2) |
Baikonur |
57 |
70,000 |
East Kazakhstan |
Oskemen |
283,300 |
897,000 |
Jambyl |
Taraz |
144,000 |
962,000 |
Karagandy |
Karagandy |
428,000 |
1,287,000 |
Kostanay |
Kostanay |
196,000 |
975,000 |
Kyzylorda |
Kyzylorda |
226,000 |
590,000 |
Mangystau |
Aktau |
165,600 |
316,847 |
North Kazakhstan |
Petropavl |
123,200 |
586,000 |
Pavlodar |
Pavlodar |
124,800 |
851,000 |
South Kazakhstan |
Shymkent |
118,600 |
1,644,000 |
West Kazakhstan |
Oral |
151,300 |
599,000 |
|
|
|
Notes:
- (1) Almaty and Astana cities have the status of State
importance and do not relate to any province.
- (2)
Baikonur
city has a special status because it is currently
being leased to Russia with Baikonur cosmodrome
until 2050.
Each province is headed by an Akim (provincial governor) appointed
by the president. Municipal Akims are appointed by province Akims.
The Government of Kazakhstan transferred its capital from Almaty to
Astana on December 10, 1997.

Transport Tower of Astana
Economy
Buoyed by high world
crude oil prices, GDP
growth figures were in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005:
9.8%, 13.2%, 9.5%, 9.2%, 9.4%, and 9.2%, respectively. Other major
exports of Kazakhstan include wheat, textiles, and livestock.
Kazakhstan forecasts that it will become the world's leading
exporter of uranium by the year 2010.
Its principal challenge since 2002 has been to manage strong
foreign currency inflows without sparking
inflation. Since that time, inflation has not been
under strict control, registering 6.6% in 2002, 6.8% in 2003, and
6.4% in 2004.
In 2000
Kazakhstan became the first former Soviet republic to repay all of
its debt to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), 7 years ahead of schedule.
In March
2002, the U.S.
Department of Commerce
granted Kazakhstan market economy status under U.S. trade law. This change in
status recognized substantive market economy reforms in the areas
of currency convertibility, wage rate determination, openness to
foreign investment, and government control over the means of
production and allocation of resources.

Astana city

Hotel Kazakhstan

Hotel Dostyk
In September 2002 Kazakhstan became the first country in the
CIS to receive an
investment-grade
credit rating from a
major international credit rating agency. As of late December 2003,
Kazakhstan's gross foreign debt was about $22.9 billion. Total
governmental debt was $4.2 billion. This amounts to 14% of GDP.
There has been a noticeable reduction in the ratio of debt to GDP
observed in past years; the ratio of total governmental debt to GDP
in 2000 was 21.7%, in 2001 it was 17.5%, and in 2002 it was
15.4%.

Almaty city
The upturn in
economic growth,
combined with the results of earlier
tax
and financial sector reforms, has dramatically improved government
finances from the 1999
budget deficit
level of 3.5% of GDP to a deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2003.
Government revenues grew from 19.8% of GDP in 1999 to 22.6% of GDP
in 2001, but decreased to 16.2% of GDP in 2003. In 2000, Kazakhstan
adopted a new
tax code in an effort to
consolidate these gains.
On November 29, 2003 the Law on Changes to Tax Code was adopted,
which reduced
tax rates.
The
value added tax fell from 16% to
15%, the social tax from 21% to 20%, and the personal
income tax from 30% to 20%. (On July 7, 2006 the
personal
income tax was reduced even
further to a flat rate of 5% for personal income in the form of
dividends and 10% for other personal income.) Kazakhstan furthered
its reforms by adopting a new land code on June 20, 2003, and a new
customs code on April 5, 2003.
Energy is the leading economic sector.
Production of crude oil and
natural gas
condensate in Kazakhstan amounted to 51.2 million
tons in 2003, which was 8.6% more than in 2002.
Kazakhstan raised oil and gas condensate exports to 44.3 million
tons in 2003, 13% higher than in 2002. Gas production in Kazakhstan
in 2003 amounted to 13.9 billion cubic meters (491
billion
cu. ft), up 22.7%
compared to 2002, including natural gas production of 7.3 billion
cubic meters (258 billion
cu. ft);
Kazakhstan holds about 4 billion tons of proven recoverable oil
reserves and 2,000 cubic kilometers (480
cu mi) of gas. Industry analysts believe
that planned expansion of oil production, coupled with the
development of new
fields, will enable the
country to produce as much as 3 million barrels (477,000 m³) per
day by 2015, lifting Kazakhstan into the ranks of the world's top
10 oil-producing nations. Kazakhstan's 2003 oil exports were valued
at more than $7 billion, representing 65% of overall exports and
24% of the GDP.
Major oil and gas fields and their
recoverable oil reserves are Tengiz
with 7 billion barrels (1.1 km³); Karachaganak with 8 billion barrels
(1.3 km³) and 1,350 km³ of natural gas); and Kashagan
with 7 to 9 billion barrels (1.1 to
1.4 km³).
Kazakhstan instituted an ambitious
pension
reform program in 1998. As of January 1, 2005, the pension assets
were about $4.1 billion. There are 16 saving pension funds in the
republic. The State Accumulating Pension Fund, the only state-owned
fund, could be
privatized as early as
2006. The country's unified financial regulatory agency oversees
and regulates the pension funds. The pension funds' growing demand
for quality investment outlets triggered rapid development of the
debt
securities market. Pension fund
capital is being invested almost exclusively in corporate and
government
bonds, including
Government of Kazakhstan Eurobonds.
The Kazakhstani banking system is developing rapidly. The banking
system's capitalization now exceeds $1 billion. The
National Bank has introduced
deposit insurance in its campaign to strengthen the banking sector.
Several major foreign banks have branches in Kazakhstan, including
RBS,
Citibank, and
HSBC.
Raiffeisen Zentralbank and
UniCredit have both recently entered the
Kazakhstan's financial services market through acquisitions and
stake-building.
Despite the strength of Kazakhstan's economy for most of the first
decade of the 21st century, the global financial crisis of
2008-2009 has exposed some central weaknesses in the country's
economy. The year on year growth of Kazakhstan's GDP dropped 19.81%
in 2008. Four of the major banks were rescued by the government at
the end of 2008 and real estate prices have sharply dropped.
Agriculture
Agriculture accounted for
10.3% of Kazakhstan's GDP in 2005.
Grain
(Kazakhstan is the seventh-largest producer in the world) and
livestock are the most important
agricultural commodities. Agricultural land occupies more than
846,000 square kilometres (327,000 sq. mi). The available
agricultural land consists of 205,000 square kilometres
(79,000 sq. mi) of arable land and 611,000 square
kilometres (236,000 sq. mi) of
pasture and hay land.
Chief livestock products are
dairy
products,
leather,
meat, and
wool. The country's major
crops include
wheat,
barley,
cotton, and
rice. Wheat
exports, a major
source of
hard currency, rank among
the leading commodities in Kazakhstan's export trade. In 2003
Kazakhstan harvested 17.6 million tons of grain in gross, 2.8%
higher compared to 2002.
Kazakh agriculture still has many
environmental problems from mismanagement during its years in the
Soviet
Union
. Some
Kazakh wine
is produced in the mountains to the east of Almaty.
Kazakhstan is thought to be one of the original homes of the
apple, particularly the wild
ancestor of
Malus domestica,
Malus sieversii. It has no common name
in English, but is known in Kazakhstan, where it is native, as
'alma'. In fact, the region where it is thought to originate is
called Almaty, or 'rich with apple'.
This tree is still
found wild in the mountains of Central
Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
, Tajikistan
, and Xinjiang,
China.
Natural resources
Kazakhstan has an abundant supply of accessible mineral and fossil
fuel resources. Development of
petroleum,
natural gas, and mineral extraction has
attracted most of the over $40 billion in foreign investment in
Kazakhstan since 1993 and accounts for some 57% of the nation's
industrial output (or approximately 13% of gross domestic product).
According to some estimates, Kazakhstan has the second largest
uranium,
chromium,
lead, and
zinc reserves,
the third largest
manganese reserves, the
fifth largest
copper reserves, and ranks in
the top ten for
coal,
iron,
and
gold. It is also an exporter of
diamonds. Perhaps most significant for economic
development, Kazakhstan also currently has the 11th largest proven
reserves of both
oil and
natural gas.
In total, there are 160 deposits with over 2.7 billion tons of
petroleum.
Oil explorations have shown that the
deposits on the Caspian
shore
are only a small part of a much larger
deposit. It is said that 3.5 billion tons of oil and 2.5
trillion cubic meters of gas could be found in that area. Overall
the estimate of Kazakhstan's oil deposits is 6.1 billion tons.
However,
there are only 3 refineries within the
country, situated in Atyrau
, Pavlodar
, and Shymkent
. These are not capable of processing the
total crude output so much of it is exported to Russia. In 2006,
Kazakhstan was producing approximately of oil and 23.5 billion
cubic metres of natural gas annually.
Foreign relations and armed forces

Kazakhstani President Nursultan
Nazarbayev with then U.S.

Kazakhstan within Europe (light blue
represents territory considered to be located in Asia)
Kazakhstan has stable relationships with all of its neighbors.
Kazakhstan is also a member of the
United
Nations,
Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
Euro-Atlantic Partnership
Council and
Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC).
It is an active participant in the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation
Partnership for
Peace program.
Kazakhstan is also a member of the
Commonwealth of Independent
States, the
Economic Cooperation
Organization and the
Shanghai Cooperation
Organization.
The nations of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus
, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan established the Eurasian Economic Community in
2000 to re-energize earlier efforts at harmonizing trade tariffs
and the creation of a free trade zone under a customs union.
On December 1, 2007, it was revealed that Kazakhstan has been
chosen to chair
OSCE
for the year 2010.
Since independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has pursued what is known as
the multidimensional foreign policy (многовекторная внешняя
политика), seeking equally good relations with two large neighbors,
Russia and China, and the United States and the West generally. The
policy has yielded results in the oil and gas sector, where
companies from the U.S., Russia, China, and Europe are present at
all major fields, and in the multidimensional directions of oil
export pipelines out of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan also enjoys strong,
and rapidly developing, political and economic ties with Turkey.
In 2011,
and possibly as early as 2010, Kazakhstan plans to form a customs union with Russia and
Belarus
.
Russia
currently leases approximately 6,000 km² (2,300 mi²) of
territory enclosing the Baikonur Cosmodrome
space launch site in south central Kazakhstan,
where the first man was launched into space as well as Soviet space
shuttle Buran and the well-known
space station Mir.

Kazakhstani Republican Guard
Most of Kazakhstan's military was inherited from the
Soviet Armed Forces'
Turkestan Military District.
These units became the core of Kazakhstan's new military which
acquired all the units of the
40th Army (the former 32nd Army)
and part of the 17th Army Corps, including 6 land force divisions,
storage bases, the 14th and 35th air-landing brigades, 2 rocket
brigades, 2 artillery regiments and a large amount of equipment
which had been withdrawn from over the Urals after the signing of
the
Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The largest expansion
of the Kazakhstan Army has been focused on armored units in recent
years. Since 1990, armored units have expanded from 500 to 1,613 in
2005.
The Kazakh air force is composed mostly of Soviet-era planes,
including 41
MiG-29s, 44
MiG-31s, 37
Su-24s and 60
Su-27s. A small naval force is also maintained
on the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan sent 49 military engineers to
Iraq
to assist the US post-invasion
mission in Iraq.
Demographics
The
US Census Bureau International
Database list the current population of Kazakhstan as 16,763,795,
while
United Nations sources such as
the
World Bank give a 2002 estimate of
14,794,830. The last 10-year census, held 28 February to 6 of March
2009, gave as result a total of 16,402,861 people registered in
Kazakhstan..
The ethnic
Kazakhs represent 67% of the
population and ethnic
Russians 21%, with a rich array of
other groups represented, including
Tatars,
Ukrainians,
Uzbeks,
Belarusians,
Uyghurs,
Azerbaijanis,
Poles, and
Lithuanians. Some minorities such as
Germans who
had previously settled in Russia (especially
Volga Germans), Ukrainians, Koreans,
Kurds,
Chechens,
Meskhetian Turks, and Russian
political opponents of the regime had been
deported to
Kazakhstan in the 1930s and 1940s by Stalin; some of the bigger
Soviet
labour camps (
Gulag) existed in the country.
Significant Russian immigration also connected with
Virgin Lands Campaign and
Soviet space program during
Khrushchev era. There is also a small but
active
Jewish community.
Before 1991 there
were one million Germans in
Kazakhstan; most of them emigrated to Germany
following the breakup of the Soviet Union
. Most members of the smaller Pontian Greek minority have emigrated to
Greece
. In
the late 1930s thousands of
Koreans in the
Soviet Union were
deported to
Central Asia. These people are now known as
Koryo-saram.
Kazakhstan is a bilingual country: the
Kazakh language, spoken by 64.4% of the
population, has the status of the "state" language, while Russian,
which is spoken by almost all Kazakhstanis, is declared the
"official" language, and is used routinely in business. English
gained its popularity among the youth since the collapse of USSR
and 30% of megapolis dwellers, especially younger generations are
fluent in English, another spoken foreign tongues which are more or
less popular among Kazakhstanis is Turkish due to its proximity to
the state language of Kazakhstan which is Kazakh.
The 1990s
were marked by the emigration of many of the country's Russians and Volga
Germans, a process that began in the 1970s; this was a major
factor in giving the autochthonous Kazakhs a majority along with
higher Kazakh birthrates and ethnic Kazakh immigration from the
People's Republic of China, Mongolia
, and Russia.
In the early twenty-first century, Kazakhstan has become one of the
leading nations in
international
adoptions. This has recently sparked some criticism in the
Parliament of Kazakhstan, due to the concerns about safety and
treatment of the children abroad and the questions regarding the
low level of population in Kazakhstan.
Terminology
The term Kazakhstani ( ; ) was coined to describe all citizens of
Kazakhstan, including non-
Kazakhs. The word
"Kazakh" is generally used to refer to people of actual Kazakh
descent (including those living in China, Afghanistan, Turkey,
Uzbekistan and other countries).
The ethnonym Kazakh is derived from an ancient Turkic word
"independent, a free spirit". It is the result of
Kazakhs' nomadic horseback culture. The
Avestan/
Old Persian (See
Indo-European languages)
word "
-stan" means "land" or "place of", so
"Kazakhstan" is "land of the Kazakhs".
Religion

Central Mosque of Almaty

The Ascension Cathedral in
Almaty
Islam is the major and largest religion in
Kazakhstan.
After decades of religious suppression by the
Soviet
Union
, the coming of independence witnessed a surge in
expression of ethnic identity, in part through religion. The
free practice of
religious beliefs and the
establishment of full freedom of
confessions led to an increase of religious
activity. Hundreds of
mosques,
churches,
synagogues, and
other religious structures were built in the space of a few years,
with the number of religious associations rising from 670 in 1990
to 4,170 today.
Approximately 65% of the population are Muslim, mainly followed by
the ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute just over half of the
population, including ethnic Uzbeks, Uighurs, and Tatars. Majority
are
Sunni Muslims
of the
Hanafi school. Less than 1% are part
of the Sunni
Shafi`i school (mainly
Chechnyans). The southern regions of the
country has the highest concentration of self-identified practicing
Muslims. There are a total of 2300
mosques,
all of them are affiliated with the "Spiritual Association of
Muslims of Kazakhstan", headed by a supreme
mufti. The
Eid al-Adha is
recognized as a national holiday.
One third of the population are Russian, including ethnic
Ukrainians and ethnic Belarusians, are Russian Orthodox by
tradition. Other Christian groups include
Roman Catholics,
Greek Orthodox,
Baptists and
Protestants.
There are a total of 258 Orthodox churches, 93 Catholic churches,
and over 500 Protestant churches and prayer houses. The Russian
Orthodox
Christmas is recognized as a
national holiday in Kazakhstan. Other religious groups include the
Jews (less than 1%), and a few
Hare Krishnas and
Buddhists.
Education
Education is universal and mandatory through to the
secondary level and the
adult literacy rate is
99.5%. Education consists of three main educational phases:
primary education (forms 1–4),
basic general education (forms 5–9) and senior level education
(forms 10–11 or 12) divided into continued general education and
professional education. (Primary education is preceded by one year
of pre-school education.) These three levels of education can be
followed in one institution or in different ones (e.g. primary
school, then secondary school). Recently, several secondary
schools, specialized schools,
magnet
schools,
gymnasiums,
lyceums, linguistic and
technical gymnasiums, have been founded. Secondary professional
education is offered in special professional or
technical schools,
lyceums or
colleges and
vocational schools.
At present, there are
universities,
academies, and
institutes,
conservatories, higher
schools and higher colleges. There are three main levels: basic
higher education that provides the
fundamentals of the chosen field of study and leads to the award of
the
Bachelor's degree; specialized
higher education after which students are awarded the Specialist's
Diploma; and scientific-pedagogical higher education which leads to
the
Master's Degree.
Postgraduate education leads to the
Kandidat nauk (Candidate of Sciences) and the
Doctor of Sciences. With the adoption of the Laws on Education and
on Higher Education, a private sector has been established and
several private institutions have been licensed.
The Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan runs a highly successful
Bolashak scholarship, which is annually awarded to
approximately three thousand applicants.
The scholarship funds
their education in institutions abroad, including the prestigious
University
College London
, Oxford
and
Ivy League universities. The terms
of the program include mandatory return to Kazakhstan for at least
five years of employment.
Sports
- Football is the most popular sport in Kazakhstan. The Football
Federation of Kazakhstan ( ) is the sport's national governing
body. The FFK organises the men's, women's and futsal national
teams.
- Ice hockey - The Kazakhstani national ice hockey team has
competed in ice hockey in the 1998 and 2006 Winter Olympics as well
as in the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. Kazakhstan has
7 teams. The teams are Kaztsink-Torpedo
Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhmys Satpayev, Gornyak Rudnyi, Barys Astana, Irtysh Pavlodar, Yenbek Almaty,
Sary-Arka Qaragandy.
Top Kazakhstani ice hockey players include
Nikolai Antropov and
Evgeni Nabokov.
Barys
Astana - a major professional Ice Hockey team play in the
Kontinental Hockey League.
- Cycling - Kazakhstan's most famous cyclist is Alexander Vinokourov, although cycling
is a popular activity throughout the country. Vinokourov had an
impressive cycling record while riding for the Telekom/T-Mobile teams early in his
career. He won the silver medal in road cycling in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished third
overall in the 2003 Tour de France. After moving to the Liberty Seguros team, Vinokourov finished 5th in the
2005 Tour de France, while two other young Kazakhstanis, Andrej
Kashechkin and Maksim Iglinskiy, finished 19th and 37th,
respectively. In 2006 Vinokourov's team became known as after a
drug doping scandal forced his team Liberty Seguros from the
2006 Tour de France. Vinokourov
then helped form a new team, Astana, named for the capital of
Kazakhstan and funded by a conglomeration of Kazakhstan businesses,
which adopted the color of the Kazakh flag for its uniforms. That
same year, Vinokourov and Kashechkin took first and third places in
general classification in the 2006
Vuelta a Espana in Spain.
In July 2007, Vinokourov tested positive for
blood doping during the
2007 Tour de France and was disqualified
from the race, although he was in the lead at the time. He was only
banned for a year by the Kazakhstan cycling federation, but his
suspension was increased to the internationally-mandated two years
by the
UCI
(International Cycling Federation). In addition, Kashechkin was
also found guilty of blood doping and was also suspended for two
years, and Astana was subsequently banned from the
2008 Tour de France. At that time,
Vinokourov announced his retirement.
The Astana cycling team continued under new management and
continued to include Kazakhstan riders in the Grand Tours of
cycling, although race leadership of the team passed to the
Spaniard
Alberto Contador and the
Americans
Lance Armstrong and
Levi Leipheimer. However, in
September 2008, Vinokourov announced his intention to unretire and
to return to cycling in 2009, and he returned in August 2009,
although he has still not been permitted to rejoin Astana.
- Boxing - Since its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan's boxers
have won many medals. Due to that Kazakhstan quickly went up in
all-time medal table of Olympic Games in boxing, where the country
jumped from the lowest starting rank to current 11th rank among all
other countries. As of now, 2 Kazakh boxers (Bakhtiyar Artayev, Vassiliy Jirov) have earned Val Barker Trophy, making Kazakhstan
second from the top falling only 3 medals behind from USA.
- Equestrian sports are also popular
in Kazakhstan. Since 1993 Equestrian Federation of the Republic of
Kazakhstan has been organizing National and International events in
Show Jumping, Dressage, Eventing and Endurance.
- Bandy - The national team is among the
best and has twice won the bronze medal at the Bandy World Championships. During
the Soviet time, Dynamo Alma-Ata won the national championships in
1977 and 1990.
Culture
Before the Russian colonization, the Kazakhs had a highly developed
culture based on their nomadic pastoral economy. Although Islam was
introduced to most of the Kazakhs in the fifteenth century, the
religion was not fully assimilated until much later. As a result,
it coexisted with earlier elements of
Tengriism.
Traditional Kazakh belief held that separate spirits inhabited and
animated the earth, sky, water and fire, as well as domestic
animals. To this day, particularly honored guests in rural settings
are treated to a feast of freshly killed lamb. Such guests are
sometimes asked to bless the lamb and to ask its spirit for
permission to partake of its flesh. Besides lamb, many other
traditional foods retain symbolic value in Kazakh culture.
In the national cuisine, livestock meat can be cooked in a variety
of ways and is usually served with a wide assortment of traditional
bread products. Refreshments often include black tea and
traditional milk-derived drinks such as
ayran,
shubat and
kymyz. A traditional Kazakh dinner
involves a multitude of appetisers on the table, followed by a soup
and one or two main courses such as
pilaf and
beshbarmak. They also drink their
national beverage, which consists of fermented mare's milk.
Because livestock was central to the Kazakhs' traditional
lifestyle, most of their nomadic practices and customs relate in
some way to livestock. Kazakhs have historically been very
passionate about horse-riding. Traditional curses and blessings
invoked disease or fecundity among animals, and good manners
required that a person ask first about the health of a man's
livestock when greeting him and only afterward inquire about the
human aspects of his life. Even today, many Kazakhs express
interest in equestrianism and horse-racing.
Kazakhstan is home to a large number of prominent contributors to
literature, science and philosophy:
Abay Qunanbayuli,
Al-Farabi,
Mukhtar
Auezov,
Gabit Musirepov,
Kanysh Satpayev,
Mukhtar Shakhanov,
Saken Seyfullin,
Jambyl Jabayev, among many others.
Kazakhstan has developed itself as a formidable sports-force on the
world arena in the following fields: boxing, chess, kickboxing,
skiing, gymnastics, water-polo, cycling, martial arts,
heavy-athletics, horse-riding, tri-athlon, track-hurdles, sambo,
greco-roman wrestling and billiards. The following are all
well-known Kazakhstani athletes and world-championship medalists:
Bekzat Sattarkhanov,
Vassiliy Jirov,
Alexander Vinokourov,
Bulat Jumadilov,
Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov,
Olga Shishigina,
Andrey Kashechkin,
Aliya Yussupova,
Dmitriy Karpov,
Darmen Sadvakasov,
Yeldos Ikhsangaliyev,
Aidar Kabimollayev,
Yermakhan Ibraimov,
Vladimir Smirnov,
among others.
Kazakhstan features a lively music culture, evident in massive
popularity of
SuperStar KZ, a local
offspring of Simon Fuller's
Pop Idol.
Almaty is considered to be the musical capital of the Central Asia,
recently enjoying concerts by well-known artists such as
Deep Purple,
Tokio
Hotel,
Atomic Kitten,
Dima Bilan,
Loon,
Craig David,
The
Black Eyed Peas,
Eros
Ramazzotti,
Jose Carreras,
Ace of Base, among others.
During the recent years, Kazakhstan has experienced somewhat of a
revival of the Kazakh language, which is returning into mainstream
usage both in media, law and business, as well as the general
society. This is widely approved by Kazakh people and the
international organizations as a way of preserving the national
identity and culture, but has in some cases caused anxiety among
Russian-Kazakhstanis, Russia-sponsored special-interest groups in
Kazakhstan and some high-ranking politicians in Russia.
The Parliament is considering the introduction of Latin-based
Kazakh alphabet to replace
Cyrillic-based. The reasons that are popularly cited are cultural
considerations and the Turkic nature of the Kazakh language. Turkic
languages such as Turkish and Uzbek use the Latin alphabet.
However, the imposition of the Latin alphabet in Kazakhstan would
involve massive costs of transcription and replacement of the vast
Kazakh literature.
Public holidays
Date |
English name |
Local name |
Notes |
January 1 |
New Year's Day |
Жаңа жыл / Новый Год |
|
January 7 |
Eastern Orthodox Christmas |
Рождество Христово |
from 2007 official
holiday |
Last day of Hajj |
Qurban Ayt* |
Құрбан айт |
March 8 |
International Women's
Day |
Халықаралық әйелдер күні /
Международный женский день |
|
March 22 |
Nauryz Meyramy |
Наурыз мейрамы |
Traditionally a springtime holiday
marking the beginning of a new year, sometimes as late as April
21. |
May 1 |
Kazakhstan People’s Unity Day |
Қазақстан халқының бірлігі мерекесі / Праздник единства народа
Казахстана |
|
May 9 |
Great Patriotic War
Against Fascism Victory Day |
Жеңіс күні / День Победы |
A holiday in the former Soviet Union carried over to present-day Kazakhstan and other
former republics (Except Baltic Countries). |
July 6 |
Capital City Day |
Астана күні / День столицы |
Birthday of the First President |
August 30 |
Constitution Day |
Қазақстан Республикасының Конституциясы күні / День Конституции
Республики Казахстан |
|
December 16 |
Independence Day |
Тәуелсіздік күні / День независимости |
|
|
See also
Bibliography
- Epicenter of Peace, by Nursultan Nazarbayev
- Kazakhstan: Coming of Age, by Michael Furgus and Janar
Jandosova
- Kazakhstan: Power and the Elite, by Sally
Cummings
- Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise, by Martha Brill
Olcott
- Lonely Planet Guide: Central Asia, by Paul Clammer,
Michael Kohn and Bradley Mayhew
- The Lost Heart of Asia, by Colin Thubron
- Once in Kazakhstan: The Snow Leopard Emerges, by Keith
Rosten
- Post-Soviet Chaos: Violence and Dispossession in
Kazakhstan, by Joma Nazpary
- The Russian Colonization of Kazakhstan, by George
Demko
- Uneasy Alliance: Relations Between Russia and Kazakhstan in
the Post-Soviet Era — 1992–1997, by Mikhail Alexandrov
- Journey into Kazakhstan: The True Face of the Nazarbayev
Regime, by Alexandra George
- Law and Custom in the Steppe, by Virginia Martin
- Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle
East?, by Ted Rall
- In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared, by
Christopher Robbins
References
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http://www.stat.kz
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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html
- Zarakhovich, Yuri (September 27, 2006). "Kazakhstan Comes on Strong", Time
Magazine.
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Uzbekistan For Regional Dominance Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty
- CIA, The Word Factbook. Available at
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html
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Republic of Kazakhstan shall be the Kazakh language. 2. In state
institutions and local self-administrative bodies the Russian
language shall be officially used on equal grounds along with the
Kazakh language. Available at
http://www.kazakhstan.orexca.com/kazakhstan_constitution.shtml
- Kazakhstan to c. AD 1700
- Country Briefings: Kazakhstan
- " Kazakhstan". Encyclopædia Britannica
Online.
- Kazakhstan. Microsoft Encarta Online
Encyclopedia 2009. Archived 2009-10-31.
- The Kazakh Catastrophe and Stalin’s Order of
Priorities, 1929–1933: Evidence from the Soviet Secret
Archives
- Children of the gulag live with amnesia, Taipei
Times, January 1, 2007
- World War 3 web site.
- Central
Asia-Caucasus Institute briefing, July 5, 2000.
- RFE Newsline, April 12, 1996.
- Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev Wins Re-election With 91%
of Vote
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questioned
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parliamentary election
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Asia Report No. 133. May. Available on-line at
http://www.crisisgroup.org/
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on-line. Available at http://www.bp.com/
- Kazakhstan Today: 16 million 402 thousand 861
people registered in Kazakhstan
- Kazakhstan's News Bulletin, April 20, 2007
- Kazakhstan's `forgotten Poles' long to return
- Remembering Stalin's deportations, BBC News,
February 23, 2004
- Politics, economics and time bury memories of the Kazakh
gulag, International Herald Tribune, January 1, 2007
- Robert Greenall, Russians left behind in Central Asia, BBC, November 23, 2005
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IRIN Asia, February 1, 2005
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Kazakhstan U.S. Department of State. 2009-10-26. Retrieved on
2009-11-05.
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2008 U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2009-09-07.
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2009-09-07.
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Wagenhauser
- Kazakhstan officials adopt low-key language policy
EnerPub - Energy Publisher
External links
- Government
- General information