Astana

(1999 pop. 319,300). Astana (Akmolinsk until 1961, Tselinograd from 1961 to 1992, and Aqmola from 1992 to 1998) is the capital of Kazakhstan and is located on the Ishim River in north-central Kazakhstan. It is an important transportation entrepoton the Trans-Kazakhstan and South Siberian Railways, and is Kazakhstan's sixth-largest industrial and commercial center.

The public square in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. (LIBA TAYLOR/CORBIS)

Akmolinsk was founded in 1830 as a Russian military settlement after Russians acquired the land from local Kazakh tribes, and gradually it became an important entrepot for trade between Turkistan and Russia. In 1868 it became a provincial center. After the delimitation of borders between the Russian Federation and the Kazakh Autonomous Republic in 1925, the city became an administrative center of the Aqmola Province of Kazakhstan. In 1929 to 1931 the strategically important railways were built, connecting the city with Petropavlovsk and Karaganda. Akmolinsk's importance was enhanced during the Virgin Land Campaign, as it became a center of Tselinnyi Krai and was renamed Tselinograd. It became an industrial and cultural center, with the population growing from 31,000 in 1939 to 180,000 in 1970 and to 222,000 in 1977. After independence in 1991, the city was renamed Aqmola. In 1994 Kazakhstan's government decided to move the capital from Almaty to Aqmola, and in 1998 it changed the name of the city to Astana. According to various estimates, during the first five years the government invested approximately $2 billion to upgrade infrastructure and to build new government facilities in the city.

Cummings, Sally. (2000) Kazakhstan: Centre-Periphery Relations. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Evrazia. (1998) Perenos stolitsy Kazakhstana v zerkale pressy i kommentariakh analitikov. Sbornik statei (The Transfer of the Capital in a Mirror of Mass-Media and Analytical Commentaries). Moscow: Evrazia.