Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan(occasionally written as Kazakhstan, Kazakstan or Kazakhstanin Kazakh, Qazaqstan/аазадстан pronounced[q bookmarks](
listen)in Russian, Казахстан), whose official name is Republic of Kazakhstan, it is a transcontinental country, with most of its territory located in Central Asia and a minor in Eastern Europe. With a surface 2 724 900 km2, is the ninth largest country in the world, as well as the world's largest sea-locked state (considering the Caspian Sea as a lake). Kazakhstan is one of the six independent Turkic States with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; it shares borders with the last three and with Russia and China, while it has coasts in the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. The capital was transferred in 1997 from Almatý, the most populous city in the country, to Astaná. Kazakhstan belongs to the natural region known as Central Asia, which is also formed, together with Tajikistan, by three of the countries already mentioned, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Vast in size, Kazakhstan's territory encompasses plains, steppes, taigas, canyons, foothills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. With 18.3 million inhabitants (estimated for 2015), Kazakhstan is ranked number 61 by population in the world, additionally it has a low population density, being just over 7 inhabitants per square kilometer.
For most of its history, the territory of present-day Kazakhstan has been inhabited by nomads. By the 16th century the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into three hordes. The Russians began to advance into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and in the middle of the XIX all of Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganized several times before becoming the Kazakh SSR in 1936, as part of the USSR. During the 20th century, Kazakhstan hosted major Soviet projects, including Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign, the Cosmodrome of Baikonur and the Semipalatinsk test site, the largest nuclear test center in the USSR.
Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, the last Soviet republic to do so. Its president since the communist era, Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country's new president in 1991 and remained in power continuously and uninterrupted, until his resignation in March 2019. According to the Kazakh government, Nazarbayev won all the elections. presidential elections with overwhelming percentages of votes, but his critics denounce the elections as a mere farce.
Since its independence, Kazakhstan has devoted much of its effort to developing its hydrocarbons industry. President Nazarbayev maintained a tight control over national politics throughout more than 20 years in power. Kazakhstan is now considered the dominant state in Central Asia.
The country is a member of several international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Kazakhstan is one of six post-Soviet states that have implemented an Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO. In 2010, Kazakhstan held the presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Kazakhstan is ethnically and culturally diverse, due in part to the mass deportations of various ethnic groups sent to this country during Stalin's rule. The Kazakhs are the largest group. Kazakhstan has 131 nationalities including Kazakhs, Russians, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, and Tatars. About 63% of the total population is Kazakh.
Kazakhstan allows freedom of worship, many different faiths are represented in the country. Islam is the religion of about three quarters of the inhabitants, and Christianity the faith of most of the rest. Kazakh is the official language, while Russian is also officially used as a parallel language to Kazakh in the country's institutions. The capital is Astana.
Etymology
The term "Kazakhs" (Kazakh: қазақстандықтар, Qazaqstandyqtar; Russian: казахстанцы, kazakhstantsy) was coined to refer to all citizens of Kazakhstan, including ethnic non-Kazakhs. The word "Kazakh" is generally used to refer to people of ethnic Kazakhstani descent (including those living in China, Afghanistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and other countries). The Kazakh ethnonym is derived from an old Turkic word for "independent, a free spirit." It is the result of the Kazakhs with their ancient horse nomadic culture. In Old Persian, the suffix -stan means "land" or "place of", so "Kazakhstan" means "land of the Kazakhs".
History
Kazakh Khanate
Kazakhstan has been inhabited since Neolithic times: the region's climate and terrain are best suited for nomadic herding. Archaeologists believe that the first humans domesticated the horse on the vast steppes of the region.
Central Asia was originally inhabited by Indo-Iranians. The best known of these groups was the nomadic Scythians. The Turkic people began to settle in this region beginning at least in the century. V a. C., possibly earlier, and ended up becoming the dominant ethnic component of Central Asia. While the ancient cities of Taraz (Aulie-Ata) and Turkestan had long served as important way stations along the Silk Road connecting East and West, real political consolidation began with the invasion of the Mongols from the early 13th century century. Administrative regions were established under the Mongol Empire, and these eventually fell under the emerging Kazakh Khanate.
Throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and an economy based on herding continued to dominate the steppe. In the 15th century a clear Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes, a process that was consolidated in the middle of the XVI with the emergence of a distinct Kazakh culture, economy and language.
However, the region was the focus of escalating disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and neighboring Persian-speaking peoples to the south. In the early 17th century century, the Kazakh Khanate was weighed down by the impact of tribal rivalries, which had effectively divided the population in the Large, Medium and Small hordes (jüz). Political disunity, tribal rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes between East and West weakened the Kazakh Khanate.
During the 17th century the Kazakhs fought against the Oirats, a federation of western Mongol tribes, including the Dzungars. 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 Dzhungarians, following their invasion, dubbed the 'Great Disaster', of Kazakh territories. The Dzhungarians seized the pastures of the defeated Kazakhs, taking numerous captives, and massacring entire clans. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan, the Kazakhs won important victories over the Dzhungarians at the Bulanty River in 1726 and at the Battle of Anrakay. in 1729. Ablai Khan participated in the most significant battles against the Dzhungarians from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared "batyr" (hero) for the people. The Kazakhs also fell victim to constant assaults by the Volga Kalmyks.
Russian Empire
In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand into Central Asia. The period of the Great Game is generally considered to have run from about 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. The tsars effectively ruled most of the territory belonging to what is now Kazakhstan.
The Russian Empire introduced an administrative system, built barracks and military garrisons in its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia, in the so-called "Great Game" between him and the British Empire. The first Russian outpost, Orsk, was built in 1735. Russia imposed the Russian language in all schools and government organizations. Russian efforts to apply their system aroused the resentment of the Kazakh people, and by the 1860s, most Kazakhs were resisting the annexation of their territory by the Russian Empire, due in large part to the influence it caused over the traditional nomadic lifestyle and herd economy, and its relationship to the famine that was rapidly exterminating some Kazakh tribes. The Kazakh nationalist movement, which began in the 19th century, tried to preserve both the language and the native identity through resistance to the attempts of the Russian Empire to Russify, assimilate and oppress them.
From the 1890s onwards, an increasing number of settlers from the Russian Empire began to colonize the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, particularly the province of Semirechye. The number of settlers increased further once the Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent was completed in 1906, and this movement was supervised and encouraged by a General Directorate of Migration (Russian: Переселенческое Управление, Pereseléncheskoye Upravlénie) specially created in Saint Petersburg. During the 19th century about 400,000 Russians immigrated to Kazakhstan, and about a million Slavs, Germans, Jews and others immigrated to the region during the first third of the XX century.
The competition for land and water that ensued between the Kazakhs and the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during the last years of Tsarist Russia, with the most serious uprising, the Basmachi Revolt, occurring in 1916. Kazakhs attacked Russian and Cossack settlers and military garrisons. The revolt led to a series of clashes and brutal massacres committed by both sides.
Kazakh SSR
Although there was a brief period of autonomy (Alash Autonomy) during the tumultuous period following the fall of the Russian Empire, many uprisings were brutally suppressed, and eventually the Kazakhs succumbed to Soviet rule. In 1920, the territory of present-day Kazakhstan became an autonomous republic (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) within the Soviet Union.
Soviet repression of the traditional elite, along with forced collectivization between the late 1920s and 1930s and waves of drought, produced famines and led to riots (See also: Soviet famine of 1932- 1933). Between 1926 and 1939, the Kazakh population decreased by 22% due to famine and mass emigration. Currently, estimates suggest that the population of Kazakhstan would be around 20 million if there had been no famine or migration of Kazakhs. During the 1930s, many well-known writers, thinkers, poets, politicians, and historians were massacred under Stalin's orders. The Soviet regime took control, and a communist apparatus worked hard to fully integrate Kazakhstan into the Soviet system. In 1936, Kazakhstan became a Soviet republic. Kazakhstan experienced a population influx of millions of exiles from other parts of the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s; many of the deportees were expatriated to Siberia or Kazakhstan simply because of their ethnicity or beliefs, and in many cases interned in some of the largest Soviet labor camps, including the ALZHIR camp outside Astana, which was reserved for wives. of men considered "enemies of the people." It was also in the 1930s that Kazakhstan, with its previously backward economy, began to industrialise. The Kazakh SSR contributed five national divisions to the forces of the Soviet Union during World War II. In 1947, two years after the end of the war, the Semipalatinsk Test Site, the main Soviet nuclear weapons test site, was founded in the vicinity of the city of Semey.
World War II marked increased industrialization and increased mineral extraction in support of the war effort. However, around the time that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died, Kazakhstan still had an economy overwhelmingly based on agriculture. In 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev launched the ambitious Virgin Lands Campaign to turn the traditional pastures of Kazakhstan into an important grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands policy brought mixed results. However, along with subsequent modernizations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, it accelerated the development of the agricultural sector, which remains a source of livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan's population. By 1959, Kazakhs made up 30% of the population, and Russians made up 43%.
Increasing tensions in Soviet society gave rise to a demand for political and economic reforms, which came to a head in the 1980s. One factor that contributed immensely to this was Lavrenti Beria's decision to develop the program of nuclear weapons in the city of Semey in 1949. This resulted in an ecological and biological catastrophe that reverberated even for later generations, and Kazakh anger at the Soviet Union continued to soar.
In December 1986, mass demonstrations by ethnic Kazakh youth, later called the Zheltoqsan riots, took place in Almaty to protest the replacement of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the SSR of Kazakhstan Dinmuhamed Konayev by Gennady Kolbin of the Russian SFSR. Government troops repressed the demonstrations, several people were killed and many protesters were jailed. In the last days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to grow and found expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost.
Independence
Within the movement of the republics of the Soviet Union seeking greater autonomy, called the Parade of Sovereignties, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty as a republic within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in October 1990. In 1991, a attempted coup in Moscow and then the dissolution of the Soviet Union happened, Kazakhstan declared its independence on December 16, 1991. It was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence. The post-independence years have been characterized by major reforms to the Soviet-style economy and monopoly power politics. Under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who initially came to power in 1989 as head of the Kazakh Communist Party and was finally elected president in 1991, Kazakhstan has made significant progress toward developing a market economy. The country has enjoyed significant economic growth since 2000, in part due to its large reserves of oil, gas, and other minerals. In January 2022, the 2022 Kazakhstan protests erupted after rising fuel prices, setting up in the country a state of emergency and the militarization of it with an international brigade of ex-Soviet countries, the CSTO.
Government and politics
Kazakhstan calls itself a unitary republic with a strongly presidential political system. The president is the Head of State, and at the same time Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He has veto power over legislation passed by Parliament. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has held office since Kazakhstan declared its independence in 1991, was re-elected for a new 8-year term in 2011 and would have been in power for 28 years after completing this term. The Prime Minister, who governs according to the President's designs, heads the Cabinet of Ministers and is the visible face of the country's government. There are also three deputy prime ministers and 16 cabinet ministers. Karim Masimov has served as Prime Minister since January 10, 2007. On March 20, 2019, Nazarbayev announced his resignation from the country's presidency.
Kazakhstan has a bicameral parliament, consisting of a lower house (the Mazhilis) and an upper house (the Senate). In the district elections representatives are chosen for the 67 seats in the Mazhilis. Another 10 members are chosen with a different system. Although the Mazhilis have powers to initiate legislation, most legislation considered by parliament is proposed by the executive branch. The Senate has 39 members. 2 of them are elected in each elective assembly (Maslikhats) in the 16 main administrative divisions of the country. The remaining 7 senators are directly selected by the president of the republic.
Elections
The September 2004 Mazhilis elections resulted in a lower house dominated by the ruling NATO Party, headed by President Nazarbayev: Two parties sympathetic to the president, including the AIST-agrarian industrial blocs and the Asar Party, founded by Nazarbayev's daughter, and the president who won the majority of the remaining seats. Opposition parties, which were officially registered and competed in the elections, won one seat in the elections. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ruled that these elections did not meet international standards. In 1999, Kazakhstan applied for observer status in the Council of Europe, in the Parliamentary Assembly. The official response from the Assembly was that Kazakhstan could apply for full membership, because it has a very small part of its territory located in Europe, but that it will not be granted any status on the Council until democracy and human rights improve.
On December 4, 2005, Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected in a landslide. The electoral commission announced that he had won with more than 90% of the votes. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that the elections also failed to meet international standards despite some improvements in the administration of the elections. The Xinhua news agency reported that observers from the People's Republic of China, responsible for supervising 25 polling stations in Astana, found that voting at the polls was carried out " "Transparent and fair", these declarations, however, are taken with caution in the West, considering that the People's Republic of China is a strategic ally of Kazakhstan.
On August 17, 2007, elections to the lower house of parliament were held with a coalition led by the ruling Nur Otan party, which included the Asar Party, the Kazakhstan Civil Party and the Agrarian Party. Nur Otan won all the seats with 88.05% of the vote. None of the opposition parties have reached the 7% benchmark level of seats. This has led some of the local media to question the competence and charisma of opposition party leaders. Opposition parties made accusations about serious irregularities in the elections.
OSCE Chairmanship of Kazakhstan
In January 2010, Kazakhstan assumed the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the largest regional security organization, connecting 56 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. Kazakhstan became the first post-Soviet, majority-Asian and Muslim state to have led the organization.
Human Rights
In terms of human rights, regarding membership of the seven bodies of the International Bill of Human Rights, which include the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Kazakhstan has signed or ratified:
 Kazakhstan | International treaties | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CESCR | CCPR | CERD | CED | CEDAW | CAT | CRC | MWC | CRPD | |||||||||
| CESCR | CESCR-OP | CCPR | CCPR-OP1 | CCPR-OP2-DP | CEDAW | CEDAW-OP | CAT | CAT-OP | CRC | CRC-OP-AC | CRC-OP-SC | CRPD | CRPD-OP | ||||
| Pertenence |  | | | |  |  |  | | | | | |  | | | | |
 Signed and ratified,  signed, but not ratified,  neither signed nor ratified,  without information,  it has agreed to sign and ratify the body concerned, but also recognizes the competence to receive and process individual communications from the competent bodies. | |||||||||||||||||
Status of major international human rights instruments
Foreign Relations
Kazakhstan has stable relationships with all of its neighbors. It is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Euro-Atlantic Association, the Turkish Council and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He is an active participant in the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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 reinvigorate earlier efforts to harmonize trade tariffs and create a free trade area in a customs union. On December 1, 2007, it was revealed that Kazakhstan had been elected to chair the OSCE for the year 2010.
Since its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has pursued what is known as a "multi-vector foreign policy" (Kazakh: көпвекторлы сыртқы саясат (köpvektorly syrtqy saiasat); Russian: многовекторная внешняя политика (mnogovéktornaya vnéshnyaya polítika)), seeking equally good relations with both China and the United States and great neighbors West in general. The policy has paid off in the oil and natural gas sector, where companies from the US, Russia, China and Europe are present in all the major fields, and in the multidimensional directions of oil export pipelines from Kazakhstan. The country also enjoys a strong and fast policy of economic relations with Turkey. Kazakhstan established a customs union with Russia and Belarus, which it intends to transform into a common economic space.
In particular, foreign relations with Spain are very fruitful and serve as an economic gateway to the European Union.
Russia currently leases around 6,000 km² of Kazakh territory,[citation needed] where the Baikonur Cosmodrome is located, a launch area in south-central Russia. Kazakhstan, where man first launched into space, as well as the Soviet space shuttle Buran and the better known Mir space station.
Armed Forces
Most of Kazakhstan's armed forces were inherited from the Soviet Armed Forces and the Turkestan Military District. These units became the core of the new Kazakhstan Army, which acquired the entire units of the Army's 40th Division (the former 32nd Division) and part of the XVII Army Corps, including the force of the 6th Army. 1st Division, storage bases, the 35th and 14th Air Brigades, two rocket brigades, two artillery regiments and a large amount of equipment that had been withdrawn from the Urals after the signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The largest expansion of the Kazakhstan Army has focused on armored units in recent years. Since 1990, armored units have expanded from 500 to 1,613 in 2005.
Kazakhstan's air force consists mostly of Soviet-era aircraft, including 41 MiG-29s, 44 MiG-31s, 37 Su-24s and 60 Su-27s. A small naval force is also maintained in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan sent forty-nine military engineers to Iraq to assist the US mission there postwar.
Political-administrative organization
Kazakhstan is made up of 14 provinces (oblystar; singular: oblys). In turn, the oblystar are divided into municipalities (аудандар "Audandar") and three cities (qala; singular: qalasy):
 | ||||||
| Oblystar | Capital | Area (km2) | Population (cense 2009) | Dens.Pob. (hab/km2) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 |  Akmola | Kokshetau | 146 219 | 737 495 | 5 | |
| 3 |  Aktobé | Aktobé | 300 629 | 757 768 | 2.5 | |
| 17 | - | Almatý | 319 | 1 365 632 | 4281 | |
| 14 |  Almatý | Taldykorgan | 223 924 | 1 603 200 | 7.2 | |
| 15 | - | Nur-sultan | 710 | 613 006 | 863 | |
| 2 |  Atirau | Atirau | 118 631 | 510 377 | 4.3 | |
| 16 | - | Baikonur | 57 | 36 175 | 635 | |
| 10 |  Karagandá | Karagandá | 427 982 | 1 341 700 | 3.1 | |
| 12 |  South Kazakhstan | Shymkent | 117 249 | 2 469 357 | 21 | |
| 1 |  Western Kazakhstan | Oral | 151 339 | 598 880 | 3.9 | |
| 11 |  East Kazakhstan | Oskemen | 283 226 | 1 396 593 | 4.9 | |
| 5 |  Northern Kazakhstan | Petropavl | 97 993 | 596 535 | 6.1 | |
| 4 |  Kostanay | Kostanay | 196 001 | 885 570 | 4,5 | |
| 9 |  Kyzylorda | Kyzylorda | 226 019 | 678 794 | 3 | |
| 8 |  Mangystau | Aktau | 165 642 | 485 392 | 2.9 | |
| 7 |  Pavlodar | Pavlodar | 124 800 | 742 475 | 5.9 | |
| 13 |  Zhambyl | Taraz | 144 264 | 1 022 129 | 7.1 | |
The cities of Alma Ata and Astana have the status of State importance and do not refer to any province. Baikonur has a special status, as it is currently being leased to Russia with the Baikonur Cosmodrome until the year 2050. Each province is headed by an Akim (provincial governor), appointed by the president. Municipal governors are appointed by the Akim of each province. The Kazakh government moved its capital from Almaty to Astana, present-day Nursultan, on December 10, 1997.
Geography
With an area of 2,724,900 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country and the world's largest landlocked country. It is equivalent to the size of continental Argentina. In the Soviet period, Kazakhstan handed over part of its territory to China (called East Turkistan) and some areas to Uzbekistan (called Karakalpakia). It shares 7,644 kilometers of borders with Russia, 2,330 kilometers with Uzbekistan, 1,765 kilometers with China, 1,212 kilometers with Kyrgyzstan, and 413 kilometers with Turkmenistan.
The main cities are: Astana, Alma Ata, Karaganda, Shymkent, Atyrau, Kyzylorda and Öskemen. It lies between latitudes 40° and 56°N and longitudes 46° and 88°E. While located primarily in Asia, a small portion of Kazakhstan is also found west of the Urals in eastern Europe.
Kazakh territory stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains in the east and from the plains of West Siberia in the north to the oases and deserts of Central Asia in the south. The Kazakhstan steppe, with an area of about 804,500 square kilometres, occupies a third of the country and is the largest in the world. It is characterized by large expanses of grasslands and sandy areas. The most important rivers and lakes in the country are: the Aral Sea, the Ili River, the Irtysh River, the Ishim River, the Ural River, the Syr Darya, the Charyn River, Lake Balkhash and Lake Zaysan.
Climate
The climate is continental, with hot summers and cold winters. Rainfall varies between arid and semi-arid zones.
Charyn Canyon is 150 to 300 meters deep and 80 kilometers long, cutting through the red sandstone of the plateau and stretching along the gorge of the Charyn River in the northern Tian Shan ("Heavenly Mountains", 200 km east of Almaty) at 43 ° 21'1 16" N 79 ° 4'49 28" E. The inaccessibility of the canyon created a safe haven for a rare species of ash that survived the Ice Age and is now grown in other areas as well. The Bigach crater is an 8 km diameter asteroid impact crater, estimated to date from the Pliocene or Miocene, from five to three million years ago. An example of temperature differences is found in the city of Ushtobe where minimums of -25 and maximums of 45 degrees are reached.
Relief
The relief of Kazakhstan is very varied, although most of the territory is made up of plains, low mountains and hills. The west of the country is dominated by the Caspian Depression, a mostly swampy area below sea level that merges with the Ustyurt Plateau to the east. To the west of this plateau, on the Mangghystau peninsula, is the lowest point of Kazakhstan, the Karagiye Depression (132 meters below sea level).
From the east, the Caspian Trough is bordered by the southern foothills of the Ural Mountains, the Mugodzhar Mountains, which rise to 656 metres. Further southeast, around the Aral Sea, is the Turanian Trough, which also includes the largest deserts in the country, the Kysylkum and the Aralkum. In the center of Kazakhstan is the Kazakhstan Threshold (Saryarka in Kazakh), an area characterized by steppes and semi-deserts with many medium-sized mountains and ranges (between 500 and 1,547 m) such as Ulutau, Kökschetau or Karkaraly. In the north-west, the Kazakh Threshold is bordered by the Turgai Plateau, and in the north by the West Siberian Plain. In these regions, the landscape is characterized by fertile steppes and forest-steppes with many lakes and rivers. To the east of the republic lie the forest-covered ridges of the Altai, with the region's highest mountain Belucha (4,506 meters), separating Siberia from the Central Asian deserts.
South of the Kazakh Threshold is the Hunger Steppe (Betpak-Dala in Kazakh). Still further south of this steppe and Lake Balchash lies a belt of deserts, Mujunkum, and the historically fertile Country of Seven Rivers. In the very south of Kazakhstan, on the border with China and Kyrgyzstan, there are high mountains such as the Jungar Alatau, the Qaratau and, above all, the Tian Shan (heavenly mountains in Chinese); the latter is one of the highest mountain ranges on the planet. The mountains, covered in part by forests and mostly by glaciers, reach 7,439 m in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. The highest mountain in Kazakhstan is Khan Tengri (7,010 meters), located in the extreme southeast.
Flora and Fauna
Due to its size and its spread across many natural areas, Kazakhstan boasts a very rich variety of flora and fauna. Various natural resources are protected in 16 Kazakh national parks and nature reserves.
In the north, dominated by steppes and forest-steppes, which make up 28.5% of Kazakhstan's land area, many cereal and herb plants grow; feathers are especially common in the steppes. Many medicinally useful plants are also found, such as adonis (Adonis), St. John's wort (Hypericum) and valerian (Valeriana). Wormwood is very common. In the "islands" birches, aspens, willows and currants grow from the forest; further west, fir trees; to the west, oaks and lindens. There are many berries in the forests. The typical inhabitants of this area are rodents such as squirrels, marmots, jumping mice and chipmunks. But there are also many hares, stoats, badgers, wolves and foxes. In the forests there are some wild boars, wapitis and roe deer, and in the steppe the rare and protected saiga antelope. Birds are especially abundant, including aquatic ones, as there are more than 1,500 lakes in this region, including swans, eagles, bustards (they are the largest birds in Kazakhstan, weighing up to 16 kilos), vultures, cranes, herons, ducks, geese, grouse, woodpeckers, larks and many others.
Semi-deserts cover 14% of the territory. A much lower species richness is found here than in the steppes. Wormwood, chamomile, and feather grass are particularly common. Rabbits, moles and jumping mice can also be found here, and wolves and Korsak foxes are often found here, and less often saigas and gazelles. There are many species of lizards and snakes.
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Deserts are the most widespread natural habitat in Kazakhstan. Here only dry plants grow, small in size and with long roots. Sedge, desert feather grass, and wormwood are the most common. In summer, most plants burn in the sun. Shrubs are very common, especially sax. Large animals are rare in the desert. More common are ungulates, such as gazelles or saigas, or wild boars that live near water sources. Rarer still are wolves and reed cats.
Asian wild asses are found, for example, in the Altyn-Emel National Park and the Barsa Kelmes Nature Reserve. In some riverine forests in arid areas is found the endangered Buchara deer, which was the main prey of the extinct Caspian tiger.
Smaller animals, such as hedgehogs, turtles, or jumping mice, may be better suited to extreme conditions. Reptiles, such as various agamas and some species of snakes, are widespread in the desert; in total, 50-60 different species of reptiles are found in Kazakhstan. Scorpions are also part of the fauna that lives in Kazakhstan.
In the enormous mountains of the Tian-Shan, covered for the most part by fir forests, you can still find the snow leopard, one of the national symbols of Kazakhstan. However, stable populations of this cat are only found in the Aksu-Jabagly and Alma Ata nature reserves. The lynx is also widespread and there are numerous bears in the Altai. Further south is the Tienshan brown bear. Both mountains are also home to Siberian ibex and giant wild sheep. Wild steppe sheep live in the southwestern montane steppes.
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Thanks to the connection of the Arctic Ocean with the Caspian Sea before the last ice age, large colonies of seals can still be found in the Caspian Sea today. The Caspian seal is the only inland seal species, apart from the Baikal seal.
Hydrography
In Kazakhstan there are some major rivers that are navigable. All of them flow in the peripheral regions of the country, while in the central part there are almost exclusively steppe rivers without drainage that usually dry up in midsummer.
The longest rivers in Kazakhstan are the Irtysh (4,473 kilometers, of which 1,700 are in Kazakhstan), the Syrdarja (2,212/1,400 kilometers), the Shayyq (Russian and German Ural) (2,428/1,100 kilometers) and the Ili (1,001/815 kilometers). Other important rivers are the Ishim, the Tobol, the Emba, the Sarysu (the longest steppe river), the Chüi and the Nura. The Irtysh and the Nura are connected by the most important canal in the country - the Irtysh-Qaraghandy canal (500 kilometers).
Kazakhstan is rich in lakes, especially in the north of the country. There are about 48,000 large and small lakes throughout the country, most of which are salt lakes. The largest lake in Kazakhstan is the Caspian Sea, which covers about 371,000 square kilometers; Kazakhstan occupies approximately a quarter of its surface. The lake has rich natural reserves, for example in the form of fish; the Caspian seal, a protected species, also lives here.
The second largest lake is the Aral Sea, which is in danger of drying up. This process has been carried out since 1975 and has already caused lasting damage to people and nature. It is also attributed to the fact that Uzbekistan dumped large amounts of water for cotton cultivation for years. Meanwhile, the lake has been divided into three parts. As far as is known, the shrinkage of the water surface has slowed considerably in recent years.
Lake Balkhash is also one of the largest in the world. It is 18,428 square kilometers and 620 kilometers long. It belongs wholly to Kazakhstan. One of the peculiarities of Lake Balchash is that it is the only lake in the world that is made up of half fresh water and half salt water.
The natural richness of Lake Saissan is situated in the Altai Mountains. Other larger lakes in Kazakhstan are Lake Siletiniz in the north, Lake Tengiz and Karakoyn in the center, and Lake Alakol in the southeast of the country. The magnificent lakes of Burabai (Borovoye) and Markakol are important for tourism.
The largest reservoirs are Qapshaghai, Buchtarma and Shardara.
Economy
| Exports to | Imports | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Percentage | Country | Percentage |
Russia Russia
| 19.5 % | Russia Russia
| 48.7 % |
China China
| 7.3% | Germany Germany
| 6.6% |
| GermanyGermany
| 6.2% |  United States
| 5.5 % |
| Other | 66 % | Other | 39.2 % |
Kazakhstan's main sources of income are the petrochemical industry, mining, tourism, wheat, textiles, and livestock.
Studies confirm that Kazakhstan has spent an average of 14.5 million euros on hotels and luxury establishments, thus receiving complaints from many lower-middle-class citizens, who demand more aid and less construction.
Kazakhstan is the world's largest producer of uranium.
Since 2002, Kazakhstan has tried to deal with strong foreign exchange inflows without causing inflation. Although inflation has not been strictly controlled, it was 6.6% in 2002, 6.8% in 2003 and 6.4% in 2004.
In 2000, Kazakhstan became the first of the former Soviet republics to pay off its entire debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seven years ahead of schedule. In March 2002, the US Department of Commerce recognized Kazakhstan as a market economy country.
This change in the state recognized substantial market economy reforms in the areas of currency convertibility, wage determination, openness to foreign investment, and government control over the means of production and resource allocation. In September 2002, Kazakhstan became the first CIS country to receive an investment grade credit rating from one of the leading international credit rating agencies. As of the end of December 2003, Kazakhstan's gross external debt was approximately $22.9 billion. Total government debt was $4.2 billion, or 14% of GDP. There has been a notable reduction in the ratio of debt to GDP. The ratio of total government debt to GDP in 2000 was 21.7%, in 2001, it was 17.5%, and in 2002, it was 15.4%.
Economic growth, combined with early financial and fiscal sector reforms, has improved public finances since 1999, when the budget deficit went from a level of 3.5% of GDP to a deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2003. Government revenue increased from 19.8% of GDP in 1999 to 22.6% in 2001, but decreased to 16.2% in 2003. In 2000, Kazakhstan adopted a new tax code, in an effort to consolidate these achievements.
On November 29, 2003, the Tax Code Modifications Law was approved, which reduced tax rates. The value added tax (VAT) was reduced from 16% to 15%, the social tax from 21% to 20%, and the personal income tax from 30% to 20%. On July 7, 2006, personal income tax was further reduced to a flat rate of 5% for personal income in the form of dividends and 10% for personal income. Kazakhstan furthered its reforms by adopting a new land law on June 20, 2003, and a new customs code on April 5, 2003.
Energy is the country's main economic sector. The production of crude oil and natural gas condensate from the Kazakh oil basins amounted to 51.2 million tons in 2003, 8.6% more than in 2002. Increased exports of oil and gas condensate to 44.3 million tons in 2003, 13% more than in 2002. Gas production in 2003 amounted to 13.9 million cubic meters, 22.7% more than in 2002 and included the production of 7.3 million cubic meters of natural gas.
Kazakhstan has about 4 million tons of proven recoverable oil reserves and 2,000 cubic kilometers (480 cu km) of gas. According to industry analysts, the expansion of oil production and the development of new fields that allow the country to produce up to 3 million barrels (477,000 m³) per day in 2015, and Kazakhstan, would be among the top 10 producing countries. of oil in the world. Kazakhstan's oil exports in 2003 were worth more than $7 billion, representing 65% of total exports and 24% of GDP. and diesel Main and reimbursement 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 established an ambitious pension reform program in 1998. As of January 1, 2005, pension fund assets were about $4.1 billion. There are 16 savings pension funds in the country. The only state fund was privatized in 2006. The country has a unified financial regulatory agency that oversees and regulates pension funds. The increasing demand of pension funds for quality investment media, caused the rapid development of the debt-equity market. Pension funds invest almost exclusively in corporate and government bonds, including Kazakhstan government eurobonds.
Kazakhstan's banking system is developing rapidly. The capitalization system already exceeds one billion dollars. The National Bank has introduced deposit insurance in its campaign to strengthen the banking sector. Several large foreign banks with branches in Kazakhstan, including RBS, Citibank, and HSBC. Kookmin and UniCredit have recently entered the Kazakhstan financial services market through acquisitions and construction participation.
Despite the strength of Kazakhstan's economy for most of the first decade of the XXI century, the crisis financial analysis since 2008 has revealed some of the core weaknesses in the country's economy. Kazakhstan's year-on-year GDP growth fell to 19.81% in 2008. Four major banks were bailed out by the government at the end of 2008, and property prices have fallen sharply.
According to the World Economic Forum 2010-11 Global Competitiveness Report, Kazakhstan ranks 72nd in the world in economic competitiveness. A year later, the Global Competitiveness Report ranked Kazakhstan 50th in most competitive markets.
Kazakhstan's economy has grown at an average of 8% per year over the past decade thanks to hydrocarbon exports. Despite the persistent uncertainty in the global economy, Kazakhstan's economy has remained stable. GDP growth in January-September 2013 was 5.7%, according to preliminary calculations by the Ministry of Economy and Budgetary Planning. The headline inflation rate for 2014 is forecast at 7.4%.
Kazakhstan liberalized its economy in the early 1990s. These reforms also led to a housing bubble, with many high-end buildings being built, while the majority of the population lives in precarious conditions. Inequalities have developed strongly: "Kazakhstan is a kleptocracy with very little redistribution," says Marie Dumoulin, director of the Wider Europe program at the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations (EPFR). The great precariousness that develops in the cities is an important source of discontent. Social inequality was one of the causes of the 2022 Kazakhstan protests.
Agriculture
Agriculture accounted for 10.3% of Kazakhstan's GDP in 2005. Kazakhstan's livestock farming is mainly concentrated in the semi-desert regions of the south of the country and is oriented especially towards raising sheep, especially the karakul breed, which provides wool and astrakhan fur.
Kazakhstan is believed to be one of the regions of origin of the apple, particularly the pre-Malus domestica variety, the Malus sieversii, which is known locally as "soul". In fact, the region where it is believed to come from is called Almaty, or "abundant with apples." This tree is still found in the wild in the mountains of Central Asia, in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and in Xinjiang in China.
Mining
Kazakhstan is considered one of the major mining regions in Asia. Coal is extracted from its subsoil in Karaganda and Pavlodar; oil and natural gas in the Emba basin, located next to the Caspian Sea. Mining has led to the development of a powerful industrial fabric of steel and metallurgy, as well as mechanical, chemical, cotton textile and food factories. Thanks to its remarkable reserves, it is the largest uranium producer in the world. The extraction of iron, manganese and copper is substantial in the central-eastern region, and of gold in a large strip next to the Irtysh basin. The country also has huge deposits of chrome, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, lead, bauxite, and uranium.
Water resources
In Kazakhstan there is a shortage of water resources. The specific water availability of Kazakhstan is 37 m³/km², that is, 6000 m³ per person per year. A large area of Kazakhstan falls within landlocked lake basins. Rainfall is negligible, except for the mountainous regions.
The territory of Kazakhstan can be divided into eight water regions:
- Water management basin Aral-Syr Daryá
- Baljash-Alakol Water Administration
- Irtysh Basin
- Ural and Caspian Sea Basin
- Ishimsky Water Management
- Water Management Nur-Sarysu
- Shu-Talas Basin
- Tobol-Turgái Basin
The total river water resources amount to 101 km³, of which 57 km³ are formed on the territory of Kazakhstan. The rest comes from neighboring countries: Russia (8 km³), China (19 km³), Uzbekistan (15 km³) and Kyrgyzstan (3 km³).
Tourism
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country by land area and the largest landlocked country. Currently, tourism is not a major component of the economy. As of 2014, tourism has accounted for 0.3% of Kazakhstan's GDP, but the government has plans to increase it to 3% by 2020. According to the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, GDP of the travel and tourism industry in Kazakhstan is $3.08 billion or 1.6% of total GDP. The WEF ranks Kazakhstan 80th in its 2019 report. Kazakhstan received 6.5 million tourists in 2016.
In 2017, Kazakhstan was ranked 43rd in the world in terms of number of tourist arrivals. In the year 2000, a total of 1.47 million international tourists visited Kazakhstan, a number that increased to 4.81 million in 2012. The Guardian describes tourism in Kazakhstan as "vastly underdeveloped", despite of the attractions of the spectacular mountainous, lake and desert landscapes of the country. It is said that the factors that hinder the increase in tourist visits are high prices, "poor infrastructure", "bad service" and the logistical difficulties of travel in a geographically huge and underdeveloped country. Even for locals, going on vacation abroad can cost only half the price of a vacation in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh government, long characterized as authoritarian and with a record of human rights abuses and suppression of political opposition, has launched an initiative called the "Tourism Industry Development Plan 2020". This initiative aims to establish five tourism clusters in Kazakhstan: Astana city, Alma Ata city, East Kazakhstan, South Kazakhstan and West Kazakhstan regions. It also seeks an investment of 4,000 million dollars and the creation of 300,000 new jobs in the tourism sector by 2020.
Kazakhstan offers a permanent visa-free regime of up to 90 days to citizens of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia and Ukraine, and up to 30 days to citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Serbia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkey, UAE and Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan established a visa-free regime for citizens of 54 countries, including European Union and OECD member states, the United States, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.
Infrastructures
Energy
Kazakhstan has an abundant supply of easily accessible minerals and extensive fossil fuel resources. The development of the oil, natural gas, and other mineral extraction industries has attracted the majority of the more than $40 billion in foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1993 and accounts for about 57% of the nation's industrial output. (or about 13% of the Gross Domestic Product). By some estimates, Kazakhstan has the second largest reserves of uranium, chromium, lead and zinc, the third largest manganese reserves, the fifth largest copper reserves; and is in the top ten for coal, iron and gold. It is also an exporter of diamonds. Perhaps most important for economic development, Kazakhstan also currently has 11% of the world's largest proven reserves of both oil and natural gas.
In total, there are 160 deposits with more than 2.7 million tons of oil. Oil explorations have shown that the deposits on the Caspian Sea shore are only a small part of a larger deposit. It is said that 3.5 million tons of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic meters of gas can be found in that area. Overall, the estimate for Kazakhstan's oil deposits is 6.1 million tons. However, there are only three refineries in the country, located in Atyrau, Pavlodar, and Shymkent. These are not capable of processing the crude from the total production; some of it is exported to Russia. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Kazakhstan produced approximately 1.54 million barrels of oil per day in 2009.
Communications
Some Internet portals such as Living History (now Learn Kazakhstan fully unlocked), blocked due to court rulings, as well as various other media outlets have been blocked to Kazakhstan users for unclear reasons. On the other hand, the National Security Committee will be free at its discretion to block sites that "pose a threat to the national security of their informational content." The country has established a special office for responding to incidents in the Kazakh Internet Intelligence Service authorities.
Transportation
The country has an extensive network of railways, operated by the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy state company. As for airports, the two most important are Almaty International Airport and Astana International Airport.
Railways provide 68% of all freight and passenger traffic to more than 57% of the country. There are 15,333 km in common transport service, excluding industrial lines[164]15,333 km of 1,520 mm track gauge, 4,000 km electrified, as of 2012. Most cities are connected by rail; high-speed trains run from Alma Ata (the southernmost city) to Petropavl (the northernmost) in about 18 hours.
Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) is the national railway company. KTZ cooperates with the French locomotive manufacturer Alstom in the development of Kazakhstan's railway infrastructure. Alstom has more than 600 employees and two joint ventures with KTZ and its subsidiary in Kazakhstan. In July 2017, Alstom opened its first locomotive repair center in Kazakhstan. It is the only repair center in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Because the Kazakh railway system was designed during the Soviet era, the railway routes were designed ignoring inter-Soviet borders and according to the needs of Soviet planning. This has caused anomalies such as the route from Oral to Aktobe briefly passing through Russian territory.
Astana Nurly Zhol railway station, the most modern in Kazakhstan, was opened in Astana on May 31, 2017. The opening of the station coincided with the start of the international exhibition Expo 2017. According to Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ), the 120,000 m² station is expected to be used by 54 trains per day and have the capacity to serve 35,000 passengers per day.
The transport development strategy in Kazakhstan until 2015 consists of building 1,600 km of new electrified stations and 2,700 km of existing ones.
In Alma Ata there is a small metro network of 8.56 km. It is planned to build a second and third metro line in the future. The second line would intersect with the first at Alatau and Zhibek Zholy stations. In May 2011 construction began on the second phase of line 1 of the Alma Ata metro. The general contractor is Almatymetrokurylys. More than 300 m of tunnels have been excavated in the expansion project. The extension includes five new stations and will connect the center of Alma Ata with Kalkaman, on the outskirts. Its length will be 8.62 km. The construction is divided into 3 phases. The first phase will consist of the addition of two stations: Sairan and Moscow, with a length of 2.7 km. There was a 10-line tram system that operated from 1937 to 2015.
Astana's metro system is under construction. It has been a long time coming and the project was abandoned at one point in 2013, but an agreement was signed on 7 May 2015 for the project to go ahead.
Demographics
According to the 2015 US Census Bureau, Kazakhstan has a population of 18,318,459, while United Nations sources such as the United Nations Population Division give an estimate of 18,553,460.. Official estimates put the population of Kazakhstan at 18,897,898 million as of January 2021, of which 56% live in rural areas and 44% in urban areas. The estimated 2009 population is 6.8% higher than the population reported in the last census in January 1999. The population decline that began after 1989 has been halted and possibly reversed. Men and women represent 48.3% and 51.7% of the population, respectively.
Demographic evolution
- 1858: 4
- 1897: 4.76
- 1917: 5.2
- 1926: 6.2
- 1939: 7.2
- 1959: 9.2
- 1980: 14
- 1991: 16
- 1999: 15
- 2005: 15
- 2011: 16
- 2020: 18
- 2021: 19
Ethnic divide
Kazakhs make up 68.5% of the population and Russians 18.8%, with a rich variety of other groups represented, including Tatars (1.1%), Ukrainians (1.4%), Uzbeks (3.2%), Belarusians, Uyghurs (1.4%), Azeri, Poles and Lithuanians. There are other European minorities, such as the Germans (1.1%). The 1990s were marked by the emigration of many of its inhabitants to Russia and Germany, a process that began in the 1970s. This has made the indigenous Kazakhs the largest ethnic group. Other factors in Kazakhstan's population increase are higher birth rates and the immigration of ethnic Kazakhs from the People's Republic of China, Mongolia, and Russia.
In the 21st century, Kazakhstan has become one of the leading nations for international adoptions. This has provoked some criticism in the Kazakhstan Parliament, due to concerns about the safety and treatment of children abroad and questions about the low population level in Kazakhstan.
Language
Kazakhstan is a bilingual country: the Kazakh language, spoken by 64.4% of the population, has the status of being the de facto language, while Russian, which is spoken by almost all Kazakhs, it is declared the official language and is used daily in business. The English language gained its popularity among young people since the dissolution of the USSR.
Religion
According to the 2009 Census, 70.2% of the population is Muslim, 26.2% Christian, 2.8% have no religion, 0.5% chose not to respond, 0.2% other religion (mostly Jews), 0.1% Buddhist. Christianity and Russians share a quarter of the population since for cultural reasons Russians tend to be mostly Orthodox Christians.
Islam is the most widespread religion in Kazakhstan followed by Orthodox Christianity. After decades of religious repression by the Soviet Union, the arrival of independence saw an increase in the expression of ethnic identity, in part through religion. The free exercise of religious beliefs and the establishment of full freedom of religion led to an increase in religious activity. Hundreds of mosques, churches, synagogues and other religious buildings were built in the span of a few years, with the number of religious associations rising from 670 in 1990 to 4,170 in 2010.
Most Muslims are Sunnis of the Hanafi school, including ethnic Kazakhs, who make up about 60% of the population, as well as ethnic Uzbeks, Uyghurs, and Tatars. Less than 1% are Sunnis of the Shafi'i school (mainly Chechens). There are a total of 2,300 mosques, all of which are affiliated with the Kazakhstan Muslim Spiritual Association, headed by a supreme mufti. Eid al-Adha is recognized as a national holiday.
A quarter of the population practices the Orthodox faith, including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Other Christian groups include Catholics and Protestants. There are a total of 258 Orthodox churches, 93 Catholic churches, and more than 500 Protestant churches and houses of prayer. Russian Orthodox Christmas is recognized as a national holiday in Kazakhstan. A study published in 2022 estimates that in 2010 there were about 50,000 Christian converts from Islam in the country. Other religious groups include Judaism, the Bahá'í faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ. of the Latter-day Saints. It is worth mentioning, as an outstanding event in the religious life of the country, the visit of Pope John Paul II from September 22 to 25, 2001.
Education
Education is universal and compulsory up to the secondary level and the adult literacy rate is 99.5%. Education consists of three main phases of education: primary education (from 1st to 4th grade), basic general education (from 5th to 9th grade) and upper secondary education (from 10th to 11th or 12th grade).). It is also broadly divided into continuing education and vocational training. Primary education is preceded by a year of preschool education. These three levels of education can be followed in the same institution or in different ones. Recently, several high schools, specialized schools, magnet schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, gymnasiums, and linguistics have been founded. Secondary vocational education is offered in special vocational or technical schools, lyceums or vocational colleges and schools.
Nowadays, there are universities, academies, institutes, conservatories, and colleges. There are three levels: basic higher education that offers the foundations of the field of study and leads to the award of the bachelor's degree; specialized higher education after which students receive Specialist Diploma and scientific-pedagogical higher education leading to Master's. Postgraduate education leads to the Nauk Kandidat (Candidate of Science) and the Doctor of Science or Ph.D. With the passing of the Education and Higher Education Acts, a private sector has been established and various private institutions have been licensed.
The Kazakh Ministry of Education runs a large project called the Bolashak Scholarships, which are awarded annually to approximately 3,000 applicants. The scholarship funds your studies at institutions abroad, including the prestigious University of Toronto, University College London, Oxford. The terms of the program include the mandatory return to Kazakhstan for at least five years to work.
Culture
Before the Russian conquest, the Kazakhs had a well-articulated culture around nomadism and a traditional way of life. Although Islam was introduced to the vast majority of Kazakhs during the 17th and 18th centuries, the religion was not assimilated until much later. As a result, Islam coexisted with traditional elements of shamanism. Traditional Kazakh beliefs hold that separate spirits inhabited and gave life to the earth, sky, water, and fire, as well as domestic animals. Until today, guests settled in rural areas used to receive a freshly slaughtered lamb. Guests are sometimes invited to bless the lamb and ask its spirit for permission to begin the sacrifice. In addition to lamb, many other foods have symbolic value in Kazakh culture.
The treatment of animals was a crucial issue in the traditional lifestyle of the Kazakhs, most of their nomadic practices and clothing reveal their lifestyle in some way. Traditional spells and blessings were used to invoke disease and fertility among animals, and good manners in Kazakh culture require one person to inquire about the health of another's home at the same time as greeting, only after that you can talk about the human aspects of life.
Today, Kazakh culture, after the independence of the former Soviet Union, has re-emerged with enormous force since Islam has once again become the majority religion among the population, something that is perhaps explained by the high birth rate among the ethnic Kazakh population. Despite everything, the culture of Kazakhstan has radically westernized due to the economic expansion that the country is experiencing thanks to oil. Both today and in ancient times, the Kazakhs have always been known for their hospitality.
Fine Arts
In Kazakhstan, fine arts in the classical sense have their origins in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century. To a large extent, he was influenced by Russian artists, such as Vasili Vereshchagin and Nikolai Khludov, who traveled internally in Central Asia. Khludov especially influenced the development of the local school of painting, becoming the teacher of many local artists. The most famous of these is Abilkhan Kasteyev, in whose honor the Kazakhstan State Museum of Art was renamed in 1984.
The Kazakh School of Fine Arts was fully formed in the 1940s, and flourished in the 1950s. Local painters, graphic artists, and sculptors, trained under the unified Soviet system of art education, began to work actively, using often national motifs in his art. The painters O. Tansykbaev, J. Shardenov, K. Telzhanov and S. Aitbaev, the graphic artists E. Sidorkina and A. Duzelkhanov, and the sculptors H. Nauryzbaeva and E. Sergebaeva are among the key figures of Kazakh art today.
Music
The modern state of Kazakhstan is home to the Kurmangazy State Orchestra of Folk Instruments, the Kazakhstan State Opera House.jpgica Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kazakhstan National Opera, and the Kazakhstan State Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra of folk instruments is named after Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly, a famous composer and dombra of the XIX century. The Musical-Dramatic Training School, founded in 1931, was the first higher education institute for music. Two years later the Kazakhstan Folk Musical Instruments Orchestra was created. The Asyl Mura Foundation archives and publishes historical recordings of large samples of Kazakh music, both traditional and classical. The main conservatory is in Alma Ata, the Qurmanghazy Conservatory. It competes with the national conservatory in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
When talking about traditional Kazakh music, you have to separate authentic folklore from "folkloreism". The latter denotes music performed by academically trained performers who aim to preserve traditional music for generations to come. As far as can be reconstructed, the music of Kazakhstan from the time before the strong Russian influence consists of instrumental music and vocal music. Instrumental music, whose pieces ("Küy") are performed by soloists. The text often appears in the background (or 'program') of the music, as many of Küy's titles refer to stories. Vocal music, either as part of a ceremony, such as a wedding (mostly performed by women), or as part of a banquet. Here we could divide into subgenres: epic songs, containing not only historical facts, but also the genealogy of the tribe, love songs, didactic verses; and as a special form, the composition of two or more singers in public (Aitys), of a dialogue character and normally with an unexpectedly frank content.
Musically, pop culture is firmly established among the Kazakhs, one of its main representatives being the singer and multi-instrumentalist Dimash Kudaibergen who was appointed on December 9, 2020 as a global ambassador for Project C.U.R.E., a non-profit distributor The world's largest non-profit medical equipment donations and charitable aid in 135 countries.
Cinema
At the cinematographic level, the country has also begun a great takeoff, for example, the most prestigious film festival in Central Asia, the Evraziya, is held in Almaty every year, in which films from all over Central Asia and other entities are screened Turcophones like Azerbaijan and Turkey among others.
Kazakhstan's film industry is run by the Alma Ata-based Kazakhfilm state studio. The studio has produced award-winning films such as Myn Bala, Harmony Lessons, and Shal. Kazakhstan hosts the Astana International Action Film Festival and the Eurasia International Film Festival, which are held annually. Hollywood director Timur Bekmambetov is from Kazakhstan and has dedicated himself to building a bridge between Hollywood and the Kazakh film industry.
Kazakh journalist Artur Platonov won best screenplay for his documentary 'Sold Souls,' about Kazakhstan's contribution to the fight against terrorism, at the 2013 Cannes Corporate Media and TV Awards.
Serik Aprymov's Little Brother (Bauyr) won the German Federal Foreign Office's goEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival.
Festivities
| Date | Name | Local name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 January | New Year | Ровый Год | |
| 7 January | Orthodox Christmas | Рождество CHAристово | Official party since 2007 |
| Last day of the Hajj | Feast of the Lamb* | ран айт | |
| 8 March | International Women ' s Day | йелдер к ні | |
| 21-23 March | New Year Persian | Нарыз мейрамы | Traditionally marks the beginning of spring. |
| 1 May | Kazakh People ' s Unity Day | азарекесірлігі мерекесі | |
| 9 May | Victoria Day | к іс к ні | The festival dates from the Soviet era still commemorated in the country and the other former republics of the USSR. |
| 6 July | Capital City Day | Астана к ні | First President's birthday |
| 30 August | Constitutional Day | астититициясы ккні | |
| 16-17 December | Independence Day | Т уелсіздік к ні |
Sports
Soccer is the most popular sport in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan Football Union (Kazakh: Қазақстанның Футбол Федерациясы, fwtbol federacïyası Qazaqstannıñ) is the governing body of the national sport. The FFK organizes the men's and women's national teams, as well as the futsal teams. The Kazakhstan soccer team is considered one of the weakest teams on the European continent, since up to now it has not participated in any international competition.
The national ice hockey team has competed in the 1998 and 2006 Winter Olympics, as well as the 2006 Ice Hockey World Championships. Kazakhstan has seven professional ice hockey teams: Kaztsink-Ust Torpedo -Kamenogorsk, Satpayev Kazakhmys, Rudnyi Gornyak, Barys Astana, F.C. Irtysh Pavlodar, Almaty Yenbek and Arka Qaragandy Sary. Kazakhstan's best ice hockey players include Nikolai Antropov and Evgeni Nabokov, players who have spent the majority of their career in the NHL.
2010 was a breakthrough year for the rise of Kazakhstan's triple jump star Olga Rypakova. After a fourth-place finish at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the triple jump with an Asian record of 15.11 m, Rypakova had a relatively uneventful 2009 outdoor season. However, his wins in the long jump and triple jump at the Asian indoor games at the end of the year were a sign of things to come in 2010. He started the year with a gold at the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Athletics, held in Doha in the triple jump, with an Inner Asian record of 15.14 m. Outdoors, she finished second overall in the Diamond League, and improved her Asian triple jump record with 15.25m by winning the Continental Cup in Split, Croatia. Pole vaulter Igor Potapovich was world champion in the specialty at the 1997 World Indoor Athletics Championships in Paris and came fourth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Decathlete Dmitri Karpov has won two bronze medals in his participations at the World Athletics Championships and another at the 2004 Athens Olympics, apart from holding the Asian decathlon record.
Kazakhstan's most famous cyclist is Aleksandr Vinokurov, the London 2012 Olympic champion in the long-distance road event. Cycling is a very popular activity throughout the country. Vinokurov had an impressive bike record while riding for the Telekom/T-Mobile team at the start of his career. He won the silver medal in road cycling at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished third overall in the 2003 Tour de France. After moving to the Liberty Seguros team, Vinokurov finished 5th in the 2005 Tour de France, while while two other young Kazakhs, Andrei Kashechkin and Maxim Iglinskiy, finished 19th and 37th, respectively.
In 2006 Vinokurov's team became known as Astana after a drug doping scandal forced his Liberty Seguros team out of the 2006 Tour de France. Vinokurov then helped form a new team, Astana Pro Team, named after the capital of Kazakhstan and financed by a conglomerate of Kazakhstani companies, which adopted the color of the Kazakhstan flag for its uniforms. That same year, Vinokurov and Kashechkin placed 1st and 3rd in the general classification at the 2006 Vuelta a España. In July 2007, Vinokurov tested positive for doping during the 2007 Tour de France and was disqualified from the race., although he was in the lead at that time. He was banned for just one year by the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation, but his ban was longer than the two-year international mandate by the UCI. Furthermore, Kashechkin was also found guilty of blood doping and was also banned for two years, and Astana was subsequently banned from the 2008 Tour de France. At that time, Vinokurov announced his retirement.
Another illustrious Kazakh cyclist was Andrei Kivilev, who died months after achieving fourth place in the 2001 Tour de France as a result of a fall during a race, and whose death caused changes in cycling races, such as the mandatory use of a helmet
The Astana cycling team continued under new management and continued to include Kazakh cyclists in cycling grand tours, although the team's race leadership passed to Spaniard Alberto Contador and Americans Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer. However, in September 2008, Vinokurov announced his intention to return to cycling in 2009, finally returning to racing in August 2009. In 2010, Vinokurov rejoined Astana. In 2013, the Tour of Almaty began, a road cycling race of the UCI Asia Tour.
Since its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan's boxers have won many medals. Because Kazakhstan was quickly at the time the medal table of all Boxing Olympics, when the country moved from the starting rank lower current rank of 11 among all other countries. As of now, two boxers from Kazakhstan (Bakhtiyar Artayev, Vassiliy Jirov) have won the Val Barker Trophy, making Kazakhstan second on the list just 3 medals shy of falling behind the USA. Wladimir Klitschko, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion, was born in Kazakhstan in 1976. Currently, the best Kazakh boxer is Gennadi Golovkin, current middleweight world champion.
Equestrian sports are also popular in Kazakhstan. Since 1993 the Equestrian Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been the organization of national and international events in Show Jumping, Dressage, Eventing and Endurance. In addition, since 2012 there is the Kazakhstan Polo Federation, which in 2014 received the status of full member of the International Polo Federation at the General Assembly, which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The country has a national polo team.
The national bandy team is among the best and has twice won the bronze medal at the World Bandy Championships. During Soviet times, Dinamo Alma-Ata, won the national championship in 1977 and 1990. The 2011 Asian Winter Games were held in the country.
Basketball player Valery Tikhonenko represented the Soviet Union and Russia during his career and was born in Uzbekistan, but grew up in Alma Ata and began his career with a city team, SKA Alma-Ata, and is currently a the president of BC Astana, the main team of the country.
Aleksandr Vinokurov won the gold medal in the Olympic Road Race at the 2012 London Olympics after a grueling 5:45:57 race. He managed to overtake the Colombian Rigoberto Urán in the last lap and taking advantage of a distraction from him, he was able to get the gold medal for his country.