The First World War, which broke out in 1914, brought innumerable calamities to the people of Kazakhstan as to the entire people of Russia. Since independence in 1991, however, religion has made an impressive comeback. Small groups of nomadic Kazakh warriors fought with the Russian Cossacks and with other Kazakhs allied with the czar's forces. Sixty-seven members of the Majilis are popularly elected, though candidates come only from pro-government parties. The Kunayev empire, built around a core of his kinsmen, grew very strong. Kazakhstan's population is estimated at 18,744,548 people as of 2018. (now Uzbekistan) in 1924. During World War II, the Soviets used Kazakhstan as a dumping ground for potentially subversive minorities such as Germans from the western edge of Soviet Russia, Crimean Tatars, Muslims from the Caucasus, and Poles. The 1960s and 1970s saw the arrival of a different group of Soviets, the technicians who worked the coal and gas deposits and who took charge of the oil industry. 2 August, 2014 / Temirtau early in the second half of the 20th century. (now Kyrgyzstan) in 1936, the Tadzhik S.S.R. Kazakhstan is believed to have been inhabited as early as the Stone Age, a prehistoric period characterized by the use of stone tools. It would have grown even stronger if not Mikhail Gorbachev who displaced Kunayev as First Secretary and installed a Russian, Gennadii Kolbin, in his place. Lows can hit -4 F (-20 C) in the winter and snow is common. However, the Golden Horde turned out to be an unstable state. By early in the 17th century, the Kazakhs frequently found themselves at war with the powerful Khanate of Bukhara, to the south. The Kazakh people came together under the leadership of Janybek Khan and Kerey Khan in 1465, exerting control over what is now Kazakhstan, calling themselves the Kazakh Khanate. Copyright © 2007 – 2020 AboutKazakhstan.com. The currency of Kazakhstan is the tenge. Kazakhstan's population is estimated at 18,744,548 people as of 2018. There were constant wars among the khanates accompanied by the plundering of the population. Livestock, fodder and agricultural produce were requisitioned from the Kazakhs. Under Russian leader Joseph Stalin's rule, the Kazakhs and other Central Asians suffered horrifically. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich was based on Solzhenitsyn’s time in a labour camp in Ekibastuz, while Dostoyevski started The House of the Dead in Semey. Kazakhstan history tells us that even before our era numerous nomadic tribes inhabited what is now Kazakhstan. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. By the fourth century AD, most of the Saks and Usuns had moved west and individual states appeared, such as Westturkic Khanate, which was established by Turkish tribes trading on the Silk Road. Five years later, in 1925, the Kazakh appellation is reinstated; the Kazakh Autonomous SSR was given a capital - Alma-Ata. Feudal disunity and internecine strife hindered the economic and cultural progress and considerably weakened the defense capacity of the Kazakh states. After becoming stronger as a people, the Kazakhs fought off a federation of armed Western Mongol tribes in the 17th century, and went on to win major victories invading forces in the following century. For nearly a hundred years Kazakhstan people waged a struggle against the Dzungar. On June 9, 2019, early elections were held to avoid "political uncertainty" and Tokayev was re-elected with 71% of the vote. As the chief of the “tribe” he made all the decisions on hiring and firing of managers of major firms and plants. In historic times, such peoples as the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Kyrgyz, the Gokturks, the Uyghurs, and the Karluks have ruled the steppes of Kazakhstan. And many conquerors had encroached on that land. The famine which started in 1922 worsened the conditions in the country when one million Kazakhs died from starvation. Following the colonization, some 400,000 Russians immigrated to the country and were followed by one million Slavs, Germans and Jews to establish their residency in the country. Languages. As a result of those aggressive campaigns Kazakhstan, like the entire Central Asian region, was incorporated in the vast empire of the Mongols known in world history as the Golden Horde. By 1912, more than 500,000 Russian farms dotted Kazakh lands, displacing the nomads and causing mass starvation. For many centuries the land of the Saka was the scene of bloody, devastating wars. Approximately half the deportees died of starvation or disease. This new community, added to the old farming and mining communities, tipped the balance against the Kazakhs who began to become a minority in their own country. As a result, more than a million Kazakhs died of starvation and 80% of their livestock perished. Kazakhstan history tells us that even before our era numerous nomadic tribes inhabited what is now Kazakhstan. Helped by Kazakh Dinmukhammad Kunayev and a large number of Kazakh youths, Brezhnev turned the ancestral Kazakh grazing lands into wheat and cotton fields. Rather, he set his own forces into motion and created the so-called “Alma-Ata” riots of the late 1980s, the first to shake the foundation of the Soviet Union. Previously, during the early 16th century, the Kazakhs had the foresight to ally themselves with Babur, who went on to found the Mughal Empire in India. The Kazakh people have come a long way since 1991, but they have some distance to go before they are truly free of the after-effects of Russian colonization. Kazakhstan, largest country in Central Asia. Distanced from their major sources of self sufficiency, bread and meat, they became entirely dependent on imports from the rest of the Soviet Union. By the mid-18th century, the Kazakhs were facing encroachment from czarist Russia to the north and Qing China in the east. As of October 2019, 1 tenge = 0.0026 USD. (now Turkmenistan) in 1924, and the Uzbek S.S.R. Russian is the official language of business and the lingua franca, or common language, among all ethnic groups. The south of Kazakhstan was inhabited as early as the Palaeolithic Era and tribes were breeding cattle and producing bronze-ware by the middle of the second millennium BC. As a result, Kazakhstan became a Soviet republic with the fewest representatives of the titular nation. The historians of antiquity called them the Saka.