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Kazakhstan
  The climate of Kazakhstan is marked by huge seasonal differences in temperature. Winters are extremely cold, particularly in the north, and very long, lasting from October through April. Temperatures have been known to drop as low as -49° F. (-45° C). Summers are short, hot, and dry, with a July average temperature in the south of 84° F. (29° C). There are also wide swings of temperature between day and night, sometimes as much as 55° F. (31° C). The Shriveling Aral Sea. Kazakhstan's streams and rivers drain into a large system centered on the Caspian and Aral Seas and Lakes Balkhash and Tengiz. The Aral Sea has become a victim of an ill-conceived irrigation scheme that diverts water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. The sea has lost about 70 percent of its water and is too salty and polluted to support fish. Lakeside fishing villages have become ghost towns that now lie several miles inland. The nomadic Kazakhs have always shared the area of present-day Kazakhstan with other groups, including the Kyrgyz (Turkic-speaking ethnic cousins of Kazakhs), Uzbeks, Kara-Kalpak, and Turkmen. In the late 19th century, about 400,000 Russian settlers arrived, followed by other immigrants. During World War II, German and other ethnic groups from the European part of Russia were forcibly resettled in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs account for only 42 percent of the population of Kazakhstan, and Russians for 37 percent. About 1 million Kazakhs live in China and Mongolia, and more than 1 million live in Russia and Uzbekistan. Kazakhs are Sunni Muslims, but most are secular. In the 1950s there was a massive campaign to transform the "virgin lands" of Central Asia into productive agricultural lands. The results were expansive cotton and wheat farms that turned Kazakhstan into the bigges: producer of cotton in the former Soviet Union. About the same time, the Baykonur space center was built near Syr Darya; most Soviet spaceflights were launched from there. By the 1980s, industrialization had turned several Kazakh locations into huge, polluted cities. During the 1930s nomadic Kazakhs were forced by the Soviet regime to become collective farmers. Many resisted this pressure and fled to China, but by the 1990s there was very little left of the traditional Kazakh ways. Some women still occasionally wear the national costume—a long dress with a stand-up collar—but most Kazakhs, particularly the younger generation, prefer contemporary clothing. Almaty. Previously known as Alma-Ata ("father of apples"), the city was founded in 1854 on the site of a Silk Road oasis called Almatu ("apple tree"). It is the present capital of Kazakhstan, but the government has designated a more northerly city, Akmola, to become the new capital oi the country in 1998. The word "Kazakh" appears in historical records from the 11th century, with a general meaning of "riders of the steppe." During the 16th century, Kazakhs created a nomadic state headed by a "khan" (and therefore known as a "khanate"). This empire then split into three "hordes," each of which was ruled by a tribal chieftain called a "sultan." In the following century, Kazakhs were repeatedly ravaged by raids from the Mongol Oyrat Empire, and in the 1700s they came under the influence of the Russians. Between 1822 and 1848, all three Kazakh hordes were disbanded. The Russians erroneously referred to Kazakhs as Kyrgyz (while the Kyrgyz were called Kara-Kyrgyz). A small Kazakh nationalist movement developed in the early 20th century, and, in the turmoil of the civil war after the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, the nationalists set up an independent government. It did not last for long, however, and from 1920 onward, Kazakhstan fell again under the rule of Moscow. First an autonomous republic, Kazakhstan became a union republic in 1936. Since becoming independent in December 1991, Kazakhstan has tried to assert its new identity, but it remains linked to Russia in countless ways. Although the government of Nursultan Nazarbayev is authoritarian. the society is somewhat more open than during the Communist era Nuclear disarmament had been completed by May 1995. | |
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