Kazakhstan, (Kazakh: Казахстан), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, (Kazakh: Казахстан Республика) is a republic in the central part of Eurasia. The country has an area of 2,724,902 km² (3rd largest in Asia and 9th largest in the world), making it the largest landlocked and unitary country in the world. The population (as of January 1, 2019) is 18,411,699[2]. To the northwest and north it borders Russia (border length 7,548 km), to the east – with China (1,783 km), to the south – Kyrgyzstan (1,242 km) and Uzbekistan (2,351 km) and to the southwest – with Turkmenistan (426 km). Total length of the land borders – 13,393 km. To the west it is washed by the waters of the Caspian Sea, and to the southwest by the Aral Sea. The country is almost entirely located in Asia, but a small northwestern part is in the territory of Europe.
Most of the people in Kazakhstan are Muslim.
The climate is sharply continental. Average January temperatures: from -25 °C (in the north and center) to -3 °C (in the south); average July temperatures range from 19 to 30 °C, respectively. Precipitation – up to 300 mm, in the deserts – below 100 mm, and in the mountains – up to 1600 mm.
Main rivers: Irtysh, Ural, Ishim, Chu, Ili, Srdarya, Tobol, Nura. Lakes: Balkhash, Zaisan and Alakol.
Vegetation – desert, semi-desert, steppe, coniferous forests and highland meadows.
Nomadic tribes that inhabited the vast steppe territory from the Mongolian mountains to the Dnieper and Danube were called Scythians by the Greeks and Saki by the Persians. The first written evidence of the tribes inhabiting the current territory of Kazakhstan appeared around the 1st millennium BC. Herodotus in his "History" describes them with special attention and mentions their neighborhood with Achaemenid Iran, as well as their struggle with Persian conquerors, the kings Cyrus and Darius I. Cavalry units of the warlike southern Scythians - the Massagetae from the Aral region defeated Cyrus in 530 BC, and Darius in 519 BC. Alexander the Great, called in Asia Iskander the Two-Horned because of the shape of the helmet, stopped his victorious campaign in the east before the river Yaksart (Sardarya) in 327 BC, founded there the settlement of Alexandria Eskhata (Hodgent), did not risk going into the endless steppe and turns south towards India. Famous monuments of the Scythian culture are the Besh-shatar mound (Five Tents) in the valley of the Ili rivers and the Isak mound near Alma-Ata, in which the remains of a noble Scythian from the 5th-6th centuries BC, called by researchers the "Golden person".
In the middle of the first millennium of our era, in the open spaces from the Altai Mountains to the Caspian Sea, an ancient Turkic union of nomadic tribes began to gather and the emergence of statehood. The first Turkic Khaganate (556 – 603) became an important stage in the history of the Great Steppe. The development of crafts and trade began, then the commercial Silk Road from China through Persia and further to Europe was completely paved.
In the 7th-8th centuries, the Chinese empire of the Tang dynasty claimed a part of Turkestan and opposed the Arab caliphate. The interests of two great and warlike empires collided at the Battle of Talas River (751),[16] ending in a dramatic Arab victory with the help of the Karluks. This brought the Islamic religion to the southern fringes of the Desert, and the Chinese left paper, leading to the widespread spread of the Arabic script. At the same time, the Turks lost the ancient Turkic runic script[17] at the expense of the Arabic script, and also gradually abandoned their ancient faith, Tengrism.
In 1218, the Mongol invasion of the Transoxiana steppe began. The Mongols make their way with fire, burning the cities of Otrar, Sagnak, Ashnas. Local nomadic tribes initially resisted, but then joined the Mongol alliance either voluntarily or after defeat. Local Cuman nobles entered service with the Mongols, and ordinary nomads constituted a significant part of the Mongol army. The Mongol conquests were accompanied by mass extermination of people. Villages and cities, palaces and mosques were destroyed, cultivated fields and irrigation systems were abandoned. Thousands of master craftsmen were kidnapped into slavery. The last stage of the formation of the Kipchak nation has been interrupted. The rule of the Mongol conquerors for a long time delayed the economic and cultural progress of the peoples in the countries conquered by them. The damage done to agricultural and urban culture is the most severe. After the defeat of the Golden Horde in 1391 by Timur, it finally broke up into its two wings - the western (White) Ak-Horde (between the Volga and the Don) and the eastern (Blue) Kok-Horde. The Kok-Horde, in turn, split into the Nogai Horde in 1440, which occupied the lands of modern-day western Kazakhstan and a short-lived Uzbek Khanate of Srdarya, which took its name from the last known Uzbek Khan of the Golden Horde, who finally introduced Islam to the Golden Horde. rez 1458, dissatisfied with the firm policy of the khan of the Uzbek ulus Abul-Khair, the emir brothers Zhanibek and Kerey with their aulis separated from the banks of the Sudarya to the east in the Seven Rivers, in the land of the Mogulistan ruler Ese
n-bugi, where they formed the Kazakh Khanate (1465). They began to call themselves free people (Kazakhs). In the years 1723-1727, the most devastating invasion took place, preserved in the popular memory of the Kazakhs as "Aktaban Shubirandi" - "Years of the Great Calamity", when the Dzungars captured the capitals of the zhuzs in Turkestan, Tashkent and Sairam. In those years, the Kazakh ethnic group lost more than 1 million people and about 200 thousand people were captured from the devastating raids of the Dzungars. Masses of needy people, refugees from the invaders, fled to Uzbek lands in Samarkand and Bukhara. In the Years of the Great Disaster, the Kazakhs lost the rich pastures of the Seven Rivers and traditional trade routes, lost their craft centers and drastically reduced the amount of livestock. The Kazakhs are forced to ask the Russian Empire to accept them as a protectorate. Already in 1717, Khan Tauke for the first time appealed to Peter I with a request to take the Kazakhs under Russian subjection, but without payment of the yasaka, without the performance of military duties and with the preservation of the power of the Khan. Peter I immediately appreciated the value of the Kazakh Khanate in Russia's foreign policy. Russia then rapidly expanded to the southeast. Already at the end of the 16th century, a group of Cossacks under Ataman Yermak destroyed the Siberian Khanate of Chingizid Kuchum. In 1715 - 1720, despite the opposition of the Dzungars, the Siberian Cossacks began the construction of the Irtysh fortified line and the foundations of the Omsk (1716), Semipalatinsk (1718), Ust-Kamenogorsk (1720) fortresses were laid. Official acceptance of the Kazakh lands as a Russian protectorate gives Russia legal grounds for military-political expansion in the region. To strengthen the colonial power in Kazakhstan, two measures were introduced: building fortified lines of fortresses with military garrisons along the Russian-Kazakh border and using the Kazakh-Bashkir-Kalmyk contradictions to suppress any anti-Russian manifestations of these peoples. A whole chain of fortifications from the Caspian Sea, along the Zhaik and Ertis to the Altai Mountains surrounds the Kazakh steppe. This allows Russia to create a base for further expansion into the interior of Central Asia.
On August 26, 1920, the executive committee of the USSR adopted a decree signed by Mikhail Kalinin and Vladimir Lenin "On the formation of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic" within the USSR with its capital in Orenburg. It is composed of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Turgai, Ural, Bukeev and parts of Orenburg regions). In 1925, the Kyrgyz ASSR was renamed the Kazakh ASSR, and the capital was moved to the city of Perovsk (formerly Ak-Zamiya), which was renamed Kazal Orda. It also included the Srdaryn and Zhetisui regions of the former Turkestan ASSR with a Kazakh population and the Karakalpak Autonomous Region (later in 1936 included in the Uzbek SSR with the transformation of the Karakalpak ASSR). Orenburg region was returned to direct subordination of the RSFSR. In 1927, the capital was moved to Alma-Ata, and the city of Tashkent was handed over to the Uzbek USSR and became its capital instead of Samarkand. According to the memories of a member of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR, Vek Molotov: "the creation of the Central Asian republics was entirely the work of Stalin." "A fierce struggle was taking place" - "the Kazakhs, for example, fought for Tashkent, they wanted it to be the capital... Stalin gathered them, discussed this, looked at the border and said: Tashkent to the Uzbeks, and Alma-Ata to the Kazakhs." [35] In 1932, the entire Karaboaz-Gol Bay was presented to the Turkmen SSR.[36] Only in 1936 was the Kazakh ASSR separated from the RSFSR and became the Kazakh SSR. Until the October Revolution, the literacy level of the population of Kazakhstan was extremely low in terms of knowledge of the Russian language. But it cannot be ignored that Arabic literacy prevails on the territory of pre-revolutionary Kazakhstan. Thus, in the Turgai region, the share of literates in 1897 was 4.5% (7.5% among men, 1.2% among women).[37] Moreover, among the population with a native Russian language, the literacy rate is 16.6% (25.7% for men and 6.9% for women), and the population with a native "Kyrgyz" (Kazakh) language - 3.1% (5 .6% in men and 0.4% in women).[38] In 1918, a state campaign to eliminate illiteracy began. By the end of the Civil War, 2,410 schools were opened in Kazakhstan, where 144,000 people studied (of which 21% were Kazakhs). In 1925, the number of schools increased to 2713, and the number of students - to 161 thousand. In 1930, a transition to universally compulsory primary education was declared, and in 1931 universally compulsory seventh-grade education was introduced (in urban areas). Illiteracy among adults has also been eradicated. Thus, in 1921-1927, 200 thousand people were educated to literacy, and in 1930 - 500 thousand. By 1935, education covered 91% of school-age children.
On December 10, 1991, according to the law adopted by the Supreme Council of the Kazakh SSR, the name of the republic "Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic" was proname of "Republic of Kazakhstan".[59] However, the name remained as such until the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan on 28 January 1993.[60] It is noteworthy that precisely on December 16, 1991, Kazakhstan declared its independence after the actual dissolution of the USSR (Belovezh Agreement, December 8) last of all the union republics. It first received recognition from Turkey, then in the USA and nearby China. On December 21, the Alma-Atina Declaration on the goals and principles of the CIS was signed.[61] Five of the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey form a central Eurasian Turkic "belt" from China to the Bosphorus.
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