History
Independent article: History of Kazakhstan

Homo keep close at hand inhabited present-contemporary Kazakhstan since a earliest Stone Age, generally pursuing a wandering pastoralism for which the area's climate & terrain come better suited. From either a fourth century AD through the beginning of the 13th century, the territory of Kazakhstan was ruled by the series of nomadic nations. Ensuing a Mongolian invasion in a early 13th century, administrative districts were established under the Mongol Empire, which eventually became a territories of the Kazakh Khanate. A major mediaeval cities of Aulie-Ata and Turkestan were founded along the northern route of the Great Silk Road during this period.

Traditional wandering life on the immense steppe and semi-desert lands was characterized by a constant seek for freshly pasture to trend lines a livestock-depending economy. a Kazakhs emerged from either a mixture of tribes sleep inside the area in just about the 15th century and by the middle of the 16th century had developed a most common language, culture, & economy. In the early 1600s, a Kazakh Khanate separated into the Awesome, Middle & Little (or even Little) Hordes—confederations according to extended personal networks. Political disunion, competition among a hordes, & a deficiency of an internal market weakened the Kazakh Khanate. A beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. a front yard was a bone of contention between a Kazak amir & the Persian Kings for many centuries.

In a 19th century, the Russian Empire began to exp&, and spread into Central Asia. A "Great Game" period is generally esteem running off from either just about 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. As punishment a Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 a second less intensive phase followed. A tsars effectively ruled over virtually all of a territory belonging to what is okay, the Republic of Kazakhstan.

the Russian Empire introduced the formulas of administration & built military garrisons withwithin its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia in the and so-supposed "Great Game" between it and Great Britain. Russia enforced a Russian language altogether schools & governmental organizations. Russian efforts to inflict its formulas aroused a bitterness of the Kazakh people, and per 1860s, virtually all Kazakhs resisted Russia's annexation largely because of the disruption it wrought upon the traditional wandering modus vivendi & livestock-depending economy. A Kazakh national movement, which began in the late 1800s, sought to preserve the Kazakh language & identity. From either a Nineties onward ever-larger many Slavic settlers began colonising a territory of present-day Kazakhstan, particularly the province of Semirechie. A total of settlers rose however farther when a Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent was completed in 1906, & the movement was overseen & encouraged by a specially created Migration Department (Переселенческое Управление) within St. Petersburg. A competition for l& & water supply which ensued between a Kazakhs and a incomers induced peachy rancor against compound rule when you took a final years of tzarist Russia, using a severest rebellion, a Central Asian Revolt, occurring in 1916.

Although there was a brief cycle of autonomy in a period of a turbulent period as a consequence the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Kazakhs at length succumbed to Soviet rule. Within 1920, the region of present-contemporary Kazakhstan became an autonomous republic withinside Russia and, in 1936, a Soviet republic.

Soviet repression of the traditional elite group, along by having forced collectivization in late 1920s-1930s, brought about mass hunger & led to unrest. Soviet rule, nonetheless, took hang on to, & the communist apparatus steadily worked to fully integrate Kazakhstan into the Soviet formulas. Kazakhstan had people influx of hundreds to thousands exiled from either either more area of a Soviet Union in a period of the Thirties & late became front yard for hundreds of thousands evacuated from the Second World War battlefields. A Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) contributed five national divisions to the Soviet Union's Globe War II effort.

A period of a 2nd Globe War marked an increase around industrialization and increased mineral extraction in support of the war effort. At a period of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's death, nonetheless, Kazakhstan however experienced an irresistibly agricultural-depending economy. Around 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev initiated the challenging "Virgin Lands" program to turn the traditional grazing land of Kazakhstan into the major grain-producing vicinity for the Soviet Union. A Virgin Lands policy, along sustaining late modernizations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, sped up the development of a agrarian sector, which to this day remains the source of bread and butter for a big percentage of Kazakhstan's people.

Growing tensions in Soviet society led to the require for political & economic reforms, which come to the head in the 1980s. Within December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs took place inside Almaty to protest the methods of the communist system. Soviet troops suppressed a unrest, & twelve of demonstrators were jailed. In the waning times of Soviet rule, discontentedness continued to develop & call for expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost. Caught higher in the groundswell of Soviet republics shopping for greater autonomy, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty as a republic witharound a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in October 1990. Resulting a August 1991 abortive coup attempt in Moscow and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991.

A years ensuing independence have been marked by significant reforms to the Soviet comm&-economy and political monopoly on power. Under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who at the start come to power around 1989 as the head of the Kazakh Communist Party and was eventually elective President around 1991, Kazakhstan has mass produced important progress toward getting the market economy. A united states has enjoyed important economic incubation since 2000, partly due to its big oil, barking spiders, & mineral reserves.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan occurs as constitutional republic with a hard presidency. A president is the head of state. A president besides is the commander in chief of the armed forces and can veto legislation that has been passed by the Parliament. President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been within professional since Kazakhstan became independent, won the newly Septenary-season term in the 1999 election that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said fell short of international standards. A prime minister, world health organization serves at a pleasure of a president, chairs the Cabinet of Ministers & serves when Kazakhstan's head of government. There are trine deputy prime ministers & Xvi ministers in the Cabinet. Daniyal K. Akhmetov became the Prime Minister in June 2003.

Kazakhstan has the two-chambered Parliament, comprised of the lower house (the Mazhilis) and upper house (the Senate). Individual mandate territorial dominion popularly elect 67 seats in the Mazhilis; there likewise come Ten members elected by person-names vote like than by only mandate territory. A Senate has 39 members. Both senators come selective by both of the elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's 16 main administrative divisions (Xiv regions, or even oblasts, + a cities of Astana & Almaty). A president appoints a left over septenary senators. Mazhilis deputies & the food and drug administration two use at times the right of legislative initiative, though the food and drug administration proposes virtually all legislation considered per Parliament.

Elections to the Mazhilis within September 2004 yielded a moo home dominated per pro-government Otan party, headed by President Nazarbayev. Both more parties considered sympathetic to a president, including the agrarian-industrial axis AIST and the Asar party, founded by President Nazarbayev’s daughter, won virtually all of the leftover seats. Opposition parties, which were officially registered & competed inside a elections, won one seat when you took elections that the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe said fell short of international standards.

Around 1999, Kazakhstan applied for observer status at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. A official response of a Assembly was that Kazakhstan may use for to the full membership, because these are partly located in Europe, however that it would non become granted any status whatsoever at the Council until their democracy and human rights records improved.

Kazakh Intelligence Services

Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) was established June 13 1992. It includes a Service of Internal Security, Military Counterintelligence, Border Guard, many Commandos units, & Foreign Intelligence (Barlau). A later on is considered by numerous when a first section of KNB. Its director is Major General Omirtai Bitimov.

Provinces
Independent article: Provinces of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is divided into Xiv provinces (oblystar) & them municipal districts of Almaty and Astana. Every is headed per Hakim (provincial governor) appointed by the president. Municipal Hakims come appointed by oblast Hakims. The food and drug administratiin of Kazakhstan transferred its capital from either Almaty to Astana on June 10, 1998.

Kazakhstan is divided into Xiv oblys & Iii cities (qala)*:

Almaty, Almaty*, Aqmola (Astana), Aqtobe, Astana*, Atyrau, Batys Qazaqstan (Oral), Bayqongyr*, Mangghystau (Aqtau; formerly Shevchenko), Ongtustik Qazaqstan (Shymkent), Pavlodar, Qaraghandy, Qostanay, Qyzylorda, Shyghys Qazaqstan (Oskemen; formerly Ust'-Kamenogorsk), Soltustik Qazaqstan (Petropavl), Zhambyl (Taraz; known when Dzhambul in the Soviet cycle, however prior to that as Aulie-Ata)

note: administrative divisions use at times a equivalent list when their administrative centers (exceptions develop a administrative center title ensuing around parentheses); within 1995 a Governments of Kazakhstan & Russia entered into an agreement whereby Russia would lease for a period of Twenty years an metropolitan area of 6,000 kilometre² enclosing a Bayqongyr (Baykonur) space launch facilities and the city of Bayqongyr (erst Leninsk). Good recently, a lease of Bayqongyr facilities was extended across 2050.

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Kazakhstan

Sustaining an locality of Ii.7 million sq. klick. (I.56 million sq. mi.), Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest united states in the globe. These are same to the size of Western Europe.

Major cities include, Astana (capital since June 1998), Almaty (former capital, when referred to when Alma-Ata & prior to 1917 as Verny), Karaganda, Shymkent (Chimkent), Semey (Semipalatinsk) and Turkestan, once called Yasi.

Look at Cities of Kazakhstan

A terrain extends east to west from either a Caspian Sea to the Altay Mountains and north to south from either a plains of Western Siberia to the oasis and desert of Central Asia.

A climate is continental with cold winters & hot summers; arid and semi-arid.

Border lengths: Russia 6,846 kilometer., Uzbekistan 2,203 kilometer., China 1,533 kilometre., Kyrgyzstan 1,051 kilometer., & Turkmenistan 379 kilometre.

streams, lakes, and wells throughout & lakes include: Aral Sea Ili River Irtysh River Ishim River Lake Balkhash Lake Zaysan

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Kazakhstan

The food & drug administration of Kazakhstan plans to double its Gross household product (GDP) by twofold around 2008 comparing to 2000 and triple by 2015 comparing to 2003. A GDP incubation was stable around go 5 years, & was higher than 9% (a 2nd fastest growing economy within the globe in real terms). A estimation for 2005 is Ennead.Three % incubation within GDP. A GDP incubation around 2004 was Ix.4%. Kazakhstan's economy grew by Nine.2% around 2003, buoyed by high globe oil cost. GDP grew Nine.5% within 2002; it grew Thirteen.2% inside 2001, higher from either Nina from carolina.8% within 2000.

Kazakhstan's pecuniary policy has been swell managed. Its mawithin challenges in 2002 were to handle heavy foreign currency influx while forgoing sparking inflation. Within 2003 inflation did non remain in restraint, registering at Sise.8% instead of forecast level of Quintuplet.3%-6.0%. Around 2002 inflation was Half a dozen.Hexad%, in comparison 6.4% around 2001. Because of its heavy macroeconomic performance & fiscal health, Kazakhstan became a number 1 previous Soviet republic to repay everthing of its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) inside 2000, Sevener years ahead of schedule. Around March 2002, a U.S. Department of Commerce graduated Kazakhstan to market economy status under U.S. trade law. A vary inside status recognized essential market economy reforms in a areas of currency convertibility, salary rate determination, openness to foreign investment, & government control above the means of production & allocation of resources.

Inside September 2002, Kazakhstan became the number 1 united states in the previous Soviet Union to receive an investment-grade credit rating from either a major international credit rating professional. When late December 2003, Kazakhstan's gross foreign debt was all about $22.9 billion. Amount governmental debt was $4.Two billion. This numbers to 14% of GDP. There has been a noticeable reduction inside the ratio of debt to GDP found within preceding years; the ratio of number governmental debt to GDP in 2000 was Twenty-one.7%, inside 2001 it was Xvii.5%, & inside 2002 it was Fifteen.4%.

A upturn around economic incubation, concerted by owning a effects of sooner taxation & fiscal sector reforms, dramatically improved government finances from either a 1999 budget deficit level of Triplet.5% of GDP to the deficit of Unity.2% of GDP around 2003. Government income grew from either Nineteen.8% of GDP around 1999 to 22.6% of GDP around 2001, however reduced to Xvi.2% of GDP inside 2003. Withwithin 2000, Kazakhstan adopted the newly taxation code in an effort to consolidate these profits. In November 29, 2003 a Law in Changes to Taxation Code was adopted, which reduced taxation rates-- value added revenue enhancement from either either either 16% to 15%, social revenue enhancement from 21% to 20%, & private income tax from 30% to 20%. Kazakhstan furthered its reforms by adopting the recently l& code in June 20, 2003 and the customs code in April Five, 2003.

Oil & flatulence is the leading economic sector. Production of oil & flatulency condensation around Kazakhstan amounted to 51.Two million stacks inside 2003, which was Octonary.6% further than around 2002. Kazakhstan raised oil & flatulency condensation exportation to 44.Three million mountawithin in 2003, 13% higher in comparison 2002. Barking spiders production around Kazakhstan within 2003 amounted to Long dozen.9 billion cubic meters, higher Xxii.Sevener% in comparison 2002, including natural flatulency production of 7.Three billion cubic meters, Kazakhstan holds astir Four billion loads of proved recoverable oil reserves & 2,000 cubic kilometers of flatulence. Industry analysts think that aforethought expansion of boring, coupled sustaining a development of recently fields, may enable a united states to make up to Three million barrels (477,000 m³) by a day by 2015, lifting Kazakhstan into the ranks of the globe's top Ten oil-producing nations. Kazakhstan's 2003 oil exportation were valued at to a higher degree $7 billion, representing 65% of overall exportation & 24% of GDP. Major oil & barking spiders fields & their recoverable oil reserves come Tengiz using 7 billion barrels (I.Ace kilometer³); Karachaganak using 8 billion barrels (One.Threesome kilometer³) & 1,350 kilometre³ of gas); & Kashagan sustaining 7 to 9 billion barrels (One.One to 1.Tetrad kilometer³).

Kazakhstan instituted an challenging pension reform program within 1998. When of January One, 2005 a pension plus were just about $4.One billion. There are Sixteen saving pension funds in the republic. A State Accumulating Pension Fund, a simply state-owned fund, can be privatized when early when 2005. A united states's unified fiscal regulatory professional oversees & regulates a pension funds. A pension funds' growing require for quality investment outlets triggered rapid development of the debt securities market. Pension fund capital is existence invested with near entirely around corporate & government bonds, including Government of Kazakhstan Eurobonds. A Kazakhstani banking industry is getting quickly. A banking technique's capitalization okay, exceeds $1 billion. A Subject Bank has introduced dump insurance within its campaign to strengthen a banking sector. Many major foreign banks develop branches within Kazakhstan, including ABN-AMRO, Citibank, & HSBC.

Agriculture
Agriculture accounted for Xiii.6% of Kazakhstan's GDP within 2003. Grain (Kazakhstan is a sixth-largest producer in the globe) & farm animal come the first agrarian trade good. Agrarian land occupies to a higher degree 846,000 kilometer². A available farming land consists of 205,000 kilometer² of tillable l& and 611,000 kilometre² of pasture & hay land. Main stock products come dairy farm goods, leather, meat, & wool. A united states's major crops include wheat, barley, gauze, & rice. Wheat exportation, a major source of difficult currency, rank among the leading trade good within Kazakhstan's exportation trade. Within 2003 Kazakhstan harvested Seventeen.6 million wads of grainside in gross, Ii.8% higher in comparison 2002.

Natural resources
Oil, barking spiders, & mineral exportation come key to Kazakhstan's economic profits & use attracted virtually all of the above $18.Four billion inside foreign investment around Kazakhstan since 1993. Kazakhstan has important deposits of coal, iron, copper, atomic number 30, atomic number 92, & gold.

Foreign relations

Kazakhstan has stable relationships by having tons of its neighbors & occurs as member of the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Northerly Atlantic Cooperation Council. It as well is an active participant in the N Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Partnership for Peace program. Kazakhstan is likewise the member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization along with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, & Tajikistan established a Eurasian Economic Community in 2000 to re-energize earlier efforts at harmonizing trade duty & the creation of the absolutely free! trade zone under a customs union.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of Kazakhstan

A majority of modern Kazakhstanis come presently either ethnic Kazakhs (58%) or Russians (27%), with little Ukrainian, Uzbek, German, Korean, Uyghur and other minorities (15%). Independent religious groupings come Muslim, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox.

Kazakhstan occurs as bilingual united states: a Kazakh language, spoken by 64.4% of a population, has the status of the "state" language, when Russian is declared the "official" language, & is utilized habitually inside business.

Education is universal & required through a secondary level, & the literacy rate is 98.8%. A Nineties were marked per out-migration of good deal of the united states's Europeans, the run that begun in the Seventies; this was the major factor out returning the forearm Kazakhs a majority along sustaining higher Kazakh natality & ethnic Kazakh immigration from either China, Mongolia and Russia. inside a early 21st century, Kazakhstan has get one of the leading nations in international adoptions.

A independent ethnic groups around Kazakhstan come: Kazakhs (Qazaq) 58%, Russians 27%, Ukrainians 3.0%, Germans 1.5%, Uzbeks 2.9%, Uyghur 1.Captain hicks%, other 6.0% (1999). Prior to 1991, a single million Germans sleep in Kazakhstan.

Education
Universities:Kazakh-Turkish Ahmet-Yesevi University around Turkistan [http://www.turkistan.kz]

Culture
Independent article: Culture of Kazakhstan

Abai Kunanbaev Islam in Kazakhstan Khoja Ahmad Yasavi Music of Kazakhstan

Miscellaneous topics
Communications in Kazakhstan Foreign relations of Kazakhstan Kipchaks List of Kazakh historical figures Media in Kazakhstan Military of Kazakhstan Transportation in Kazakhstan Postage stamps and postal history of Kazakhstan

Environmental issues

Inside a portion because of the united states's tremendous semi-arid steppe, the Soviet government used Kazakhstan when its nuclear testing site, and this, along using touching-absent pollution controls, has contributed to an alarmingly high rate of disease in many rural areas. Kazakhstan has identified at least deuce major ecological disasters within its borders-- the shrinking of the Aral Sea and radioactive contamination at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing facility (in point of fact the big zone in the south of Koursatov) and along a Chinese border.

A Central Asian Regional Environmental Center is located in Kazakhstan, which fosters regional cooperation on environmental issues.

Cosmodrome

Kazakhstan possesses a Soviet same to the United States' Cape Canaveral, where a Soviet Union launched its version of a space shuttle & the easily-known space station Mir. Russia presently leases or so 6,000 kilometre² of territory enclosing a Baikonur Cosmodrome space launch site inside in the south central Kazakhstan.

Sport
Cycling
Gifted cyclist Alexander Vinokourov represents Kazakhstan in his cycling career for the German T-wandering team. Vinokourov has an telling cycling record finishing third overall in the 2003 Tour de France. Vinokourov finished Fifth in the 2005 Tour de France, while ii more immature Kazakhs, Kashechkin & Iglinskiy, finished Nineteenth & 37th, severally.

Broker bicyclist Andrei Kivilev died after the crash in the 2003 edition of the Paris-Nice race.

Rhythmic gymnastics
Aliya Yussupova ended higher Quaternary within Summer Olympic Games in Athens. She has been among medallist around many last tournaments. Presently, she is one of a top rhythmical gymnasts in the globe.

Boxing
Kazakh boxers come typically easily known in the globe. Within survive Triad Olympic games their performance wwhen assesed as one of a right & it got other palm than any countries in the globe except Cuba & Russia (altogether troika games). Within 1996 & 2004 both Kazakh boxers (Vasiliy Jirov-1996 & Bakhtiyar ARTAYEV -2004) were recognised when a better boxers for their techniques using a Val Barker trophy, awarded to the better boxer of the tournament. Kazakh boxers are renowned for their unbelievable performance within Sydney, 2000. Both boxers, Bekzat Sattarkhanov & Yermakhan Ibraimov, earned gold medals. An additional 2 boxers, Bulat Jumadilov & Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov, earned silver medals.

Trivia
A old title of the city, Alma-Ata means 'Father of Apples', from either a wild apples that grow naturally in the area. Apples were foremost cultivated therein vicinity, & Kazakhstan's apple futures is the virtually all biologically diverse in the globe.

Kazakhstan appears in the film Air Force One (with Harrison Ford), The World Is Not Enough (James Bond), and Rollerball (with Jean Reno).

A ice skating rink 'Medeo' that lies higher in the mountains astir 45 proceedings outside of the city is the big outdoor skating rink in the globe.