Kazakhstan—Profile

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(2001 est. pop. 16.7 million). Situated in central Asia, Kazakhstan, at 2,717,300 square kilometers, is the second largest of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the association of former Soviet states. It shares borders to the north and on the west with the Russian Federation, on the east with China, and on the south with Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Kazakhs are the largest of the country's 126 ethnic groups, accounting for 51 percent of the population, followed by Russians (32 percent), Ukrainians (4.5 percent), Germans, Uzbeks, Tatars, and others. The relative weight of the Kazakh ethnic group has increased since the country's independence, mainly due to the emigration of non-Kazakhs and the return of many ethnic Kazakhs to the country. Historically, Kazakhstan belongs to the Turkic-speaking world.

The climate of Kazakhstan is sharply continental. Average temperature in January varies between –19° and –4°C, while the average July temperature fluctuates between 19° and 26°C.

The largest of the country's 8,500 rivers are the Ural and the Emba, which flow into the Caspian Sea; the Syr Dar'ya, which flows into the Aral Sea; and the Irtysh, Ishim, and Tobol, which all run across the republic to eventually reach the Arctic Ocean. The largest of its many lakes are the Aral Sea, Balkhash, Zaysan, Alakol, Tengiz, and Seletengiz. Kazakhstan shares the larger portion (2,340 kilometers) of the northern and half of the eastern Caspian seacoast.

Steppes comprise 26 percent of the territory of Kazakhstan. Deserts (44 percent) and semideserts (14 percent) cover 167 million hectares, and forests occupy 21 million hectares.

The country is rich in minerals. The Tengiz oil field ranks as one of the largest in the world. Kazakhstan also has the world's second-largest deposit of phosphorite, and the phosphorite deposits of Zhanatas and Karatau are notable for their depth and quality. The republic is one of the greatest producers of aluminum in the world, and has an abundance of copper ore, salt, and construction materials.

Nursultan Nazarbayev (b. 1940) was elected president in April 1990. On 1 December 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was reconfirmed as president by nationwide ballot in newly independent Kazakhstan.

The constitution provides for a tripartite structure of government with power divided between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. It establishes and sets out the powers and functions of the president, the parliament, the constitutional council, and local government and administration, and establishes an independent judicial system.

The political structure comprises the president (who is head of state); numerous presidential advisory bodies that focus on such areas as national policy, mass media, family and women, and human rights; and Parliament, consisting of the Senate and the Majlis. The republic has an array of political parties.

Formed from different tribes, the Kazakhs were mainly pastoral nomads until the twentieth century. Russian influence in the region began in the sixteenthcentury, when Cossacks settled along the Ural River in the west of the country. In the eighteenth century the Russian government sent large numbers of Russian peasants to the Kazakh territory. In 1866 the garrison town of Verny (now Almaty) was founded under Russian administration.

During the Soviet regime, Kazakhstan became the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The style of life changed dramatically during the period of collectivization and industrialization. Forced collectivization brought mass repression. Nearly 700,000 families died during that period.

During World War II, many people—including Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, and Tatars—were moved from the western USSR to Kazakhstan. This migration initiated the industrialization of Kazakhstan.

In the 1950s the Virgin Lands Project, designed to expand the use of Kazakhstan's vast territory, was implemented in northern Kazakhstan by the Soviet government. This brought thousands of people to Kazakhstan.

From 1959 to 1986 Dinmukhamed Kunaev (1912–1993) was first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. His rule was controversial and mixed. His achievement was the direction of a high level of capital investment to the republic, which he was able to accomplish partly because he was a close friend of Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982). He divided managerial positions between Russians (industry) and Kazakhs (agriculture). Under Kunaev's authority the republic achieved its most prosperous results.

In 1986 Kunaev was criticized for failing to meet economic goals by Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), who at that time was general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kunaev was replaced by Gennadiy Kolbin (1927–1998), who had previously held the post of first secretary of the Communist Party in Ul'yanovsk Oblast (in Russia). Many Kazakhs disagreed with Moscow's decision and demonstrated in Almaty. As a protégé of the central administration, Kolbin tried to keep reforms in the republic moving in the same direction as in the USSR as a whole.

In 1989 Nursultan Nazarbayev was appointed first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. In March 1991 a referendum passed that favored preserving the USSR, but the coup in August destroyed any hope of saving the USSR as a country. The Republic of Kazakhstan formally became independent on 16 December 1991. It is a signatory to the agreement putting a formal end to the Soviet Union and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Kazakhstan has established diplomatic relations with over 120 countries. It is a full member of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, the International Finance Organization, and the Islamic Development Bank. Kazakhstan has the status of an observer with the World Trade Organization.

Yelena Kalyuzhnova

Akiner, Shirin. (1997) The Formation of Kazakh Identity: From Tribe to Nation-State. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Kalyuzhnova, Yelena. (1998) The Kazakstani Economy: Independence and Transition. Basingstoke, U.K.: Macmillan.

Olcott, Martha Brill. (1995) The Kazakhs, 2d ed. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Pomfret, Richard. (1995) The Economies of Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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