The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic ( Qazaq Keñestik Socialistik Respublikasi; Kazakhskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union. At 2,717,300 square kilometres (1,063,200 square miles) in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata (today known as Almaty). Today it is the independent state of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

The country is named after the Kazakh people, Turkic-speaking former nomads who sustained a powerful khanate in the region before Russian and then Soviet domination. The Soviet Union's spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was located in this republic at Tyuratam, and the secret town of Leninsk was constructed to accommodate its personnel.

History

Established on August 26 1920, it was initially called Kirghiz ASSR (Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) and was a part of the Russian SFSR. On April 15-19, 1925, it was renamed Kazakh ASSR and on December 5 1936 it became a Union Republic of the USSR called Kazakh SSR in the culminating act of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. In the 1930s, Kazakh SSR did not escape the damage of the Stalinist repressions and forced collectivization that killed large numbers of peasants by famine.^[1] The Russian policymakers had an intent to weaken the sense of Kazakh national identity and solidify the Soviet doctrine, and routinely targeted prominent members of Kazakh culture. Thousands of members of Kazakh elite ("intelligentscia") have been deemed "unacceptably nationalistic or un-soviet" and were massacred, incarcerated or sent to prison mines in Siberia. The total number of Kazakh SSR victims of Stalinist Repressions during this period is estimated at least 100 000, with 25 000 of them classified as "executed". During the 1950s and 1960s Soviet citizens were urged to settle in the "Virgin Lands" of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some forcibly resettled ethnic minorities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. As a result, the use of Kazakh language has declined but has started to pick up again after the independence, both as a result of its resurging popularity in law and business and growing proportion of Kazakhs since the Independence. The other nationalities included Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, Belarusians, Koreans, and others; Germans at the time of independence formed about 8% of the population, the largest concentration of Germans in the entire Soviet Union. Independence has caused many of these newcomers to emigrate. On December 10 1991 Kazakh SSR was renamed into Republic of Kazakhstan and six days later became independent.

Population

According to the 1897 census, the earliest census taken in the region, Kazakhs constituted 81.7% of the total population (3,392,751 people)within the territory of contemporary Kazakhstan. The Russian population in Kazakhstan was 454,402, or 10.95% of total population; there were 79,573 Ukrainians (1.91%); 55,984 Tatars (1.34%); 55,815 Uyghurs (1.34%); 29,564 Uzbeks (0.7%); 11,911 Mordovans (0.28%); 4,888 Dungan (0.11%); 2,883 Turkmen; 2,613 Germans; 2,528 Bashkir; 1,651 Jews; and 1,254 Poles.
Table: Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan (census data)^[2]

References

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