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Kazakstan
Historical Background
BY FAR THE LARGEST of the Central Asian republics of the former
Soviet Union, independent Kazakstan is the world's ninth-largest
nation in geographic area. The population density of Kazakstan
is among the lowest in the world, partly because the country includes
large areas of inhospitable terrain. Kazakstan is located deep
within the Asian continent, with coastline only on the landlocked
Caspian Sea. The proximity of unstable countries such as Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan to the west and south further isolates
Kazakstan (see fig. 4).
Within the centrally controlled structure of the Soviet system,
Kazakstan played a vital industrial and agricultural role; the
vast coal deposits discovered in Kazakstani territory in the twentieth
century promised to replace the depleted fuel reserves in the
European territories of the union. The vast distances between
the European industrial centers and coal fields in Kazakstan presented
a formidable problem that was only partially solved by Soviet
efforts to industrialize Central Asia. That endeavor left the
newly independent Republic of Kazakstan a mixed legacy: a population
that includes nearly as many Russians as Kazaks; the presence
of a dominating class of Russian technocrats, who are necessary
to economic progress but ethnically unassimilated; and a well-developed
energy industry, based mainly on coal and oil, whose efficiency
is inhibited by major infrastructural deficiencies.
Kazakstan has followed the same general political pattern as
the other four Central Asian states. After declaring independence
from the Soviet political structure completely dominated by Moscow
and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) until 1991,
Kazakstan retained the basic governmental structure and, in fact,
most of the same leadership that had occupied the top levels of
power in 1990. Nursultan Nazarbayev, first secretary of the Communist
Party of Kazakstan (CPK) beginning in 1989, was elected president
of the republic in 1991 and remained in undisputed power five
years later. Nazarbayev took several effective steps to ensure
his position. The constitution of 1993 made the prime minister
and the Council of Ministers responsible solely to the president,
and in 1995 a new constitution reinforced that relationship. Furthermore,
opposition parties were severely limited by legal restrictions
on their activities. Within that rigid framework, Nazarbayev gained
substantial popularity by limiting the economic shock of separation
from the security of the Soviet Union and by maintaining ethnic
harmony, despite some discontent among Kazak nationalists and
the huge Russian minority.
In the mid-1990s, Russia remained the most important sponsor
of Kazakstan in economic and national security matters, but in
such matters Nazarbayev also backed the strengthening of the multinational
structures of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS--see
Glossary), the loose confederation that succeeded the Soviet Union.
As sensitive ethnic, national security, and economic issues cooled
relations with Russia in the 1990s, Nazarbayev cultivated relations
with China, the other Central Asian nations, and the West. Nevertheless,
Kazakstan remains principally dependent on Russia.
Kazakstan entered the 1990s with vast natural resources, an
underdeveloped industrial infrastructure, a stable but rigid political
structure, a small and ethnically divided population, and a commercially
disadvantageous geographic position. In the mid-1990s, the balance
of those qualities remained quite uncertain.
Data as of March 1996
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