![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Kazakhstan-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan<\/a>, Uzbekistan<\/a>, and Turkmenistan<\/a>, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea<\/a>. It does not border Mongolia, although they are only 37 kilometers apart. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe<\/a>, taiga<\/a>, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18.3 million people as of 2018. Its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi). Since 1997, the capital is Nur-Sultan<\/a>, formerly known as Astana. It was moved from Almaty<\/a>, the country’s largest city.<\/p>\n The territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic groups and empires. In antiquity, the nomadic Scythians<\/a> inhabited the land and the Persian Achaemenid Empire<\/a> expanded towards the southern territory of the modern country. Turkic nomads<\/a>, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states<\/a> such as the First<\/a> and Second Turkic Khaganates<\/a>, have inhabited the country throughout its history.<\/p>\n In the 13th century, the territory was subjugated by the Mongol Empire<\/a> under Genghis Khan<\/a>. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, divided into three j\u00fcz<\/a> (ancestor branches occupying specific territories). The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire<\/a>. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution<\/a>, and subsequent civil war<\/a>, the territory of Kazakhstan was re-organised several times. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic<\/a>, part of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics<\/a> to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991<\/a>. Nursultan Nazarbayev<\/a>, the first president of Kazakhstan, was characterized as an authoritarian, and his government was accused of numerous human rights violations, including suppression of dissent and censorship of the media. Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019 but was made the Kazakh Security Council’s<\/a> chairman-for-life.<\/p>\n Senate chairman Kassym-Jomart Tokayev<\/a> succeeded Nazarbayev as president. In the 21st century, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Human Rights Watch<\/a> says that “Kazakhstan heavily restricts freedom of assembly, speech, and religion.” Other human rights organisations regularly describe Kazakhstan’s human rights situation<\/a> as poor.<\/p>\n According to the 2009 census, Kazakhstan’s 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs<\/a> (65.5% of the population), Russians<\/a>, Uzbeks<\/a>, Ukrainians<\/a>, Germans<\/a>, Tatars<\/a>, and Uyghurs<\/a>. Per 2009 census, Islam is the religion of about 70% of the population, with Christianity practised by 26%. Kazakhstan officially allows freedom of religion, but religious leaders who oppose the government are suppressed.<\/p>\n The Kazakh language<\/a> is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations (UN), WTO<\/a>, CIS<\/a>, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)<\/a>, the Eurasian Economic Union<\/a>, CSTO<\/a>, OSCE<\/a>, OIC<\/a>, CCTS<\/a>, and TURKSOY<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic<\/a> era. Pastoralism developed during the Neolithic<\/a>, as the region’s climate and terrain are best suited for a nomadic lifestyle.<\/p>\n The Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasian trading Steppe Route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads<\/a>. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse<\/a> (i.e. ponies) in the region’s vast steppes. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Proto-Indo-European Afanasievo<\/a> culture, later early Indo-Iranians cultures such as Andronovo<\/a>, and later Indo-Iranians such as the Saka<\/a> and Massagetae<\/a>. Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country. In 329 BC, Alexander the Great<\/a> and his Macedonian<\/a> army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes<\/a> against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya<\/a> along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n The Cuman<\/a> entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak<\/a> and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. While ancient cities Taraz<\/a> (Aulie-Ata) and Hazrat-e Turkestan<\/a> had long served as important way-stations along the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe, true political consolidation began only with the Mongol rule of the early 13th century. Under the Mongol Empire<\/a>, the largest in world history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate<\/a> (Kazakhstan).<\/p>\n Throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. In the 15th century, a distinct Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes, a process which was consolidated by the mid-16th century with the appearance of the Kazakh language, culture, and economy.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs<\/a> and the neighboring Persian-speaking peoples to the south. At its height, the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania<\/a>. By the early 17th century, the Kazakh Khanate was struggling with the impact of tribal rivalries, which had effectively divided the population into the Great, Middle and Little (or Small) hordes (j\u00fcz). Political disunion, tribal rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes between east and west weakened the Kazakh Khanate. Khiva Khanate<\/a> used this opportunity and annexed Mangyshlak Peninsula<\/a>. Uzbek rule there lasted two centuries until the Russian arrival.<\/p>\n During the 17th century, the Kazakhs fought Oirats<\/a>, a federation of western Mongol tribes, including the Dzungar<\/a>. The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723\u20131730 war against the Dzungar Khanate<\/a>, following their “Great Disaster” invasion of Kazakh territories. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan<\/a>, the Kazakh won major victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River in 1726, and at the Battle of Anrakay in 1729.<\/p>\n Ablai Khan participated in the most significant battles against the Dzungar from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared a “batyr” (“hero”) by the people. The Kazakh suffered from the frequent raids against them by the Volga Kalmyk<\/a>. The Kokand Khanate used the weakness of Kazakh j\u00fczs after Dzungar and Kalmyk raids and conquered present Southeastern Kazakhstan, including Almaty, the formal capital in the first quarter of the 19th century. Also, the Emirate of Bukhara<\/a> ruled Shymkent before the Russians took dominance.<\/p>\n In the first half of the 18th century the Russian Empire constructed the Irtysh line, a series of forty-six forts and ninety-six redoubts, including Omsk<\/a> (1716), Semipalatinsk<\/a> (1718), Pavlodar<\/a> (1720), Orenburg<\/a> (1743) and Petropavlovsk<\/a> (1752), to prevent Kazakh and Oirat raids into Russian territory. In the late 18th century the Kazakhs took advantage of Pugachev’s Rebellion<\/a>, which was centered on the Volga area, to raid Russian and Volga German<\/a> settlements. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand its influence into Central Asia. The “Great Game<\/a>” period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907<\/a>. The tsars effectively ruled over most of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n The Russian Empire introduced a system of administration and built military garrisons and barracks in its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia in the so-called “Great Game” for dominance in the area against the British Empire, which was extending its influence from the south in India and Southeast Asia. Russia built its first outpost, Orsk<\/a>, in 1735. Russia introduced the Russian language in all schools and governmental organisations.<\/p>\n Russian efforts to impose its system aroused the resentment by the Kazakh people, and, by the 1860s, some Kazakhs resisted Russia’s rule. It had disrupted the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livestock-based economy, and people were suffering from hunger and starvation, with some Kazakh tribes being decimated. The Kazakh national movement, which began in the late 19th century, sought to preserve the native language and identity by resisting the attempts of the Russian Empire to assimilate and stifle them.<\/p>\n From the 1890s onward, ever-larger numbers of settlers from the Russian Empire began colonizing the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, in particular, the province of Semirechye<\/a>. The number of settlers rose still further once the Trans-Aral Railway<\/a> from Orenburg to Tashkent<\/a> was completed in 1906. A specially created Migration Department (\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0435 \u0423\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435) in St. Petersburg<\/a> oversaw and encouraged the migration to expand Russian influence in the area. During the 19th century about 400,000 Russians immigrated to Kazakhstan, and about one million Slavs, Germans, Jews, and others immigrated to the region during the first third of the 20th century. Vasile Balabanov<\/a> was the administrator responsible for the resettlement during much of this time.<\/p>\n The competition for land and water that ensued between the Kazakh and the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during the final years of the Russian Empire. The most serious uprising, the Central Asian Revolt<\/a>, occurred in 1916. The Kazakh attacked Russian and Cossack<\/a> settlers and military garrisons. The revolt resulted in a series of clashes and in brutal massacres committed by both sides. Both sides resisted the communist government until late 1919.<\/p>\n Following the collapse of central government in Petrograd<\/a> in November 1917, the Kazakhs (then in Russia officially referred to as “Kirghiz”) experienced a brief period of autonomy (the Alash Autonomy<\/a>) to eventually succumb to the Bolsheviks<\/a>\u2032 rule. On 26 August 1920, the Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic<\/a> within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)<\/a> was established. The Kirghiz ASSR included the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, but its administrative centre was a mainly Russian-populated town of Orenburg. In June 1925, the Kirghiz ASSR was renamed the Kazak ASSR<\/a> and its administrative center was transferred to the town of Kyzylorda<\/a>, and in April 1927 to Alma-Ata.<\/p>\n Soviet repression of the traditional elite, along with forced collectivisation in the late 1920s and 1930s, brought famine and high fatalities<\/a>, leading to unrest. During the 1930s, some members of the Kazakh cultured society were executed \u2013 as part of the policies of political reprisals pursued by the Soviet government in Moscow.<\/p>\n On 5 December 1936, the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (whose territory by then corresponded to that of modern Kazakhstan) was detached from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a full union republic of the USSR, one of eleven such republics at the time, along with the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.<\/a><\/p>\n The republic was one of the destinations for exiled and convicted persons, as well as for mass resettlements, or deportations affected by the central USSR authorities during the 1930s and 1940s, such as approximately 400,000 Volga Germans deported from the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic<\/a> in September\u2013October 1941, and then later the Greeks<\/a> and Crimean Tatars<\/a>. Deportees and prisoners were interned in some of the biggest Soviet labour camps (the Gulag)<\/a>, including ALZhIR camp<\/a> outside Astana, which was reserved for the wives of men considered “enemies of the people”. Many moved due to the policy of population transfer<\/a> in the Soviet Union and others were forced into involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n The Soviet-German War (1941\u20131945)<\/a> led to an increase in industrialization and mineral extraction in support of the war effort. At the time of the USSR’s leader Joseph Stalin’s<\/a> death in 1953, however, Kazakhstan still had an overwhelmingly agricultural economy. In 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev<\/a> initiated the Virgin Lands Campaign<\/a> designed to turn the traditional pasture lands of Kazakhstan into a major grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands policy brought mixed results. However, along with later modernizations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev<\/a> (in power 1964\u20131982), it accelerated the development of the agricultural sector, which remains the source of livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan’s population. Because of the decades of privation, war and resettlement, by 1959 the Kazakh had become a minority in the country, making up 30% of the population. Ethnic Russians accounted for 43%.<\/p>\n In 1947, the USSR government, as part of its atomic bomb project<\/a>, founded an atomic bomb test site<\/a> near the north-eastern town of Semipalatinsk<\/a>, where the first Soviet nuclear bomb test<\/a> was conducted in 1949. Hundreds of nuclear tests were conducted until 1989 and had negative ecological and biological consequences. The anti-nuclear movement in Kazakhstan<\/a> became a major political force in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n In December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs, later called the Jeltoqsan riot<\/a>, took place in Almaty to protest the replacement of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Konayev<\/a> with Gennady Kolbin<\/a> from the Russian SFSR. Governmental troops suppressed the unrest, several people were killed, and many demonstrators were jailed. In the waning days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to grow and found expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s<\/a> policy of glasnost<\/a>.<\/p>\n On 25 October 1990, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty on its territory as a republic within the Soviet Union. Following the August 1991 aborted coup attempt<\/a> in Moscow, Kazakhstan declared independence on 16 December 1991, thus becoming the last Soviet republic to declare independence. Ten days later, the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan’s communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country’s first President. Nazarbayev ruled in an authoritarian manner. Emphasis was on converting the country’s economy to a market economy while political reforms lagged behind achievements in the economy. By 2006, Kazakhstan generated 60% of the GDP of Central Asia, primarily through its oil industry.<\/p>\n In 1997, the government moved the capital to Astana (renamed Nur-Sultan on 23 March 2019) from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, where it had been established under the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n As it extends across both sides of the Ural River<\/a>, considered the dividing line with the European continent, Kazakhstan is one of only two landlocked countries in the world that has territory in two continents (the other is Azerbaijan).<\/p>\n With an area of 2,700,000 square kilometres (1,000,000 sq mi) \u2013 equivalent in size to Western Europe \u2013 Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country and largest landlocked country in the world. While it was part of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China’s Xinjiang autonomous region<\/a> and some to Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan<\/a> autonomous republic.<\/p>\n It shares borders of 6,846 kilometres (4,254 mi) with Russia, 2,203 kilometres (1,369 mi) with Uzbekistan<\/a>, 1,533 kilometres (953 mi) with China, 1,051 kilometres (653 mi) with Kyrgyzstan<\/a>, and 379 kilometres (235 mi) with Turkmenistan<\/a>. Major cities include Nur-Sultan<\/a>, Almaty<\/a>, Karagandy<\/a>, Shymkent<\/a>, Atyrau<\/a>, and Oskemen<\/a>. While located primarily in Asia, a small portion of Kazakhstan is also located west of the Urals<\/a> in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan’s terrain extends west to east from the Caspian Sea<\/a> to the Altay Mountains<\/a> and north to south from the plains of Western Siberia<\/a> to the oases and deserts of Central Asia. The Kazakh Steppe<\/a> (plain), with an area of around 804,500 square kilometres (310,600 sq mi), occupies one-third of the country and is the world’s largest dry steppe<\/a> region. The steppe is characterized by large areas of grasslands and sandy regions. Major seas, lakes and rivers include the Aral Sea<\/a>, Lake Balkhash<\/a> and Lake Zaysan<\/a>, the Charyn River and gorge<\/a> and the Ili<\/a>, Irtysh<\/a>, Ishim<\/a>, Ural and Syr Darya<\/a> rivers.<\/p>\n The Charyn Canyon is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long, cutting through a red sandstone plateau and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan<\/a>. The steep canyon slopes, columns and arches rise to heights of between 150 and 300 metres (490 and 980 feet). The inaccessibility of the canyon provided a safe haven for a rare ash tree, Fraxinus sogdiana, which survived the Ice Age<\/a> there and is now also grown in some other areas. Bigach crater<\/a> is a Pliocene<\/a> or Miocene<\/a> asteroid impact crater, 8 km (5 mi) in diameter and estimated to be 5\u00b13 million years old.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan has the largest and strongest performing economy in Central Asia. Supported by rising oil output and prices, Kazakhstan’s economy grew at an average of 8% per year until 2013, before suffering a slowdown in 2014 and 2015. Kazakhstan was the first former Soviet Republic to repay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, 7 years ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan has a GDP of $179.332 billion and an annual growth rate of 4.5%. Per capita, Kazakhstan’s GDP stands at $9,686.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan ranks third, after China and Qatar, among the 25 most dynamic economies of the 21st century’s first decade. Kazakhstan’s increased role in global trade and central positioning on the new Silk Road has given the country the potential to open its markets to billions of people. Kazakhstan joined the World Trade Organisation in 2015.<\/p>\n Buoyed by high world crude oil prices, GDP growth figures were between 8.9% and 13.5% from 2000 to 2007 before decreasing to 1\u20133% in 2008 and 2009, and then rising again from 2010. Other major exports of Kazakhstan include wheat, textiles, and livestock. Kazakhstan is a leading exporter of uranium.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan is committed to regional infrastructure development. According to the Kazakhstan Ambassador to the U.S., Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan invested $18 billion in construction of airports, highways, and railroads in 2014.<\/p>\n Railways provide 68% of all cargo and passenger traffic to over 57% of the country. There are 15,333 km (9,527 mi) in common carrier service, excluding industrial lines. All railway lines in Kazakhstan are built in 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27\u204432 in) gauge, of which 4,000 km (2,500 mi) is electrified (2012).<\/p>\n Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ)<\/a> is the national railway company. KTZ cooperates with French loco manufacturer Alstom<\/a> in developing Kazakhstan’s railway infrastructure. Alstom has more than 600 staff and two joint ventures with KTZ and its subsidiary in Kazakhstan. In July 2017, Alstom opened its first locomotive repairing center in Kazakhstan. It is the only repairing center in Central Asia and the Caucasus.<\/p>\n As the Kazakhstani rail system was designed during the Soviet era, rail routes were designed ignoring inter-Soviet borders, based on the needs of Soviet planning. This has caused anomalies, such as the route from Oral<\/a> to Aktobe<\/a> passing briefly through Russian territory. It also means that routes might not suit modern-day Kazakhstani needs.<\/p>\n Astana Nurly Zhol railway station, the most modern railway station in Kazakhstan, was opened in Nur-Sultan on 31 May 2017. The opening of the station coincided with the start of the Expo 2017<\/a> international exhibition. According to the KTZ, the 120,000 m2 (12 ha) station is expected to be used by 54 trains a day and has capacity to handle 35,000 passengers a day.<\/p>\n There is a small (8.56 km (5.32 mi)) metro system in Almaty, the former capital and the largest city in the country. Second and third metro lines are planned in the future. The second line would intersect with the first line at Alatau<\/a> and Zhibek Zholy<\/a> stations.<\/p>\n A metro system is currently under construction in Nur-Sultan, the capital city.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan has a road network stretching over 96,000 km (60,000 mi), most of which is in need of modernization and repair. It is, however, notable for containing the easterly terminus of European route E40<\/a>, which contains the most easterly section of the Euroroute network<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan has a total of 97 airports. The large area of the country and the associated long distances makes air travel a very important component in domestic travel.<\/p>\n 11 airports of Kazakhstan are part of the open sky regime, which allows more foreign carriers and more flights to operate at Kazakh airports. They include the airports of Nur-Sultan<\/a>, Almaty<\/a>, Shymkent<\/a>, Aktau<\/a>, Karaganda<\/a>, Ust-Kamenogorsk<\/a>, Pavlodar<\/a>, Kokshetau<\/a>, Taraz<\/a>, Petropavlovsk<\/a>, and Semey<\/a>.<\/p>\n Air Astana<\/a> (\u042d\u0439\u0440 \u0410\u0441\u0442\u0430\u043d\u0430) is the principal airline and the flag carrier of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It operates scheduled domestic and international services on 56 routes from its main hub, Almaty International Airport, and from its 2 secondary hubs, Astana International Airport and Atyrau Airport<\/a>. It is a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna (51%), and BAE Systems PLC (49%). It was incorporated in October 2001, and started commercial flights on 15 May 2002. At the 2012 World Airline Awards held at Farnborough Airshow<\/a> in the UK, Air Astana was named the Best Airline in Central Asia & India.<\/p>\n The current flag of Kazakhstan or Kazakh (Qazaq) flag was adopted on 4 June 1992, replacing the flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic<\/a>. The flag was designed by Shaken Niyazbekov.<\/a><\/p>\n The national flag of the Republic of Kazakhstan has a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle<\/a>, both centered on a sky blue background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern “koshkar-muiz” (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue color is of religious significance to the Turkic peoples<\/a> of the country, and so symbolizes cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the endless sky<\/a> as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy, exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun’s rays are shaped like grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes<\/a> for centuries and represents freedom, power, and the flight to the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The national flag of the Republic of Kazakhstan has a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, both centered on a sky blue background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern “koshkar-muiz” (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue color is of religious significance to the Turkic peoples of the country, and so symbolizes cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the endless sky as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy, exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun’s rays are shaped like grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents freedom, power, and the flight to the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[36,59,5,6,7,18,142,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Turkic-Language-Areas-300x160.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-History:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Kazakhstan-Steppe-300x214.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Kazakh Khanate:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Cumania-1200-300x131.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Dzungar-Khanate-in-the-17th-Century-300x167.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Russian Empire:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Approximate-Areas-Occupied-by-the-Three-Kazakh-Juz-in-the-Early-20th-Century.-300x168.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Ural-Cossacks-Skirmish-with-Kazakhs-300x204.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Soviet Union:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Winter-Palace-in-Petrograd-One-Day-After-Capture-300x222.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Gulag-Location-Map-300x212.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/First-Soviet-Nuclear-Bomb-300x191.jpg\" "\\"\\""){kind=spacer}
<\/a>Independence:<\/h3>\n
Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Road-Map-of-Kazahkstan-300x212.gif\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Topographic-Map-of-Kazahkstan-300x184.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Kazakhstan-Export-Treemap-300x234.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Railway-Map-of-Kazakhstan-300x171.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Almaty-Metro-300x195.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Nur-Sultan-Airport-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Kazakhstan:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/09\/Flag-of-Kazakhstan-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>