A country in Central Asia.
Country in central Asia, bounded N by Russia, W by the Caspian Sea, E by China, and S by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
government
There is a 177-member legislature, the Supreme Kenges, 135 of its members elected from single-member constituencies and 42 on a state list, selected by national and regional government officials. The state president, who is elected for a five-year term, works with a cabinet whose head is effectively prime minister.
history
Ruled by the Mongols from the 13th century, the region came under Russian control in the 18th century. Inhabited by the traditionally nomadic but now largely sedentary Kazakh people, it joined the USSR as an autonomous republic 1920 and became a full union republic 1936. It was the site of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s ambitious “virgin lands” agricultural extension program during the 1950s, which not only led to harvest failures during the early 1960s, but also to a large influx of Russian settlers, turning the Kazakhs into a minority in their own republic. There were violent nationalist riots in the capital Dec 1986 when the long-serving Kazakh Communist Party (KCP) leader Dinmukahmed Kunayev was effectively sacked by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and replaced by an ethnic Russian.
reform under Nazarbayev
In June 1989 Nursultan Nazarbayev, a “reform communist” in favor of nationalism, assumed leadership of the KCP and in Feb 1990 became the republic’s president. He embarked on a pragmatic program of cultural and market-centered economic reform, involving the privatization of the services and housing sectors. During the spring of 1991 President Nazarbayev pressed for the signing of a new USSR Union Treaty and opposed the Aug 1991 coup attempt against Gorbachev in Moscow, describing it as “illegal and unconstitutional”. Soon after the coup was thwarted, the KCP was abolished. However, Nazarbayev played a key role in ensuring that the “uncontrolled disintegration” of the USSR was averted.
independence recognized
Kazakhstan joined the new Commonwealth of Independent States, formed Dec 1991, and the republic's independence was recognized by the US. In March 1992 the country was admitted into the the United Nations (UN). A trade agreement was signed with the US May 1992.
new constitution
A new constitution was adopted by the republic's parliament Jan 1993, increasing the authority of the president and making Kazakh the state language. In Oct 1993 President Nazarbayev offered to dismantle Kazakhstan's nuclear arsenal—inherited from the USSR—in return for $140 million aid from the US and a full signing ceremony with President Clinton. A new currency, the tenge, was introduced Nov 1993 and in Jan 1994 an economic pact was signed with neighboring Uzbekistan, creating a single economic zone. Nazarbayev's supporters won the most seats, but no working majority, in the first parliamentary elections March 1994. The elections were criticized by on-site observers for failing to meet international standards.