Kazakhstan, land of what exactly?

Nov 18, 2009
2 min read

Updated: Feb 13, 2024

Asia » Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan - A huge oil giant country known mostly to the west by Borat, and that's all.

The reality is that it is a country full of hospitality, Sovietised nomads, The Polygon, Siberian Steppe, incredible architecture and a world of diversity.

The Effects of Sovietism are quite stark here:

1. The Aral Sea - the environmental catastrophe.

2. The Virgin Lands Project - huge swathes of steppe was ploughed which removed a good few feet of top soil via wind erosion. And on each of the crazy long bus journeys you look out on nothing; endless and monotonous. Also Lake Balkhash is shrinking because of this, similar to the Aral Disaster.

3. The Polygon - The nuclear testing facility in the Siberian Steppe - Stunted trees, health problems in the nearby towns and a large area where no one goes is all that remains. The beggars in Semey don't just not have a home but also no fingers, or brain function.

4. No more nomads - the Kazakh people, a nomadic tribe where rounded up and mainly collectivised or industrialised. Dress is mainly Russianised in the towns. What remains is culninary: Plov(Rice and meal), Lagman(Noodles and carrot) and Samsa(pastry with meat and onion).

5. Baykonur Space Centre - Flying people to the moon since the space race and still going.

But where one might conclude from this that Kazahstan is a miserable decimated country, it is actually something very different and from what was some harsh and drastic soviet modernisation has developed something I hadn't seen in my travels through Central Asia so far.

A) A non-extremist state (either religiously, socially or politically), with many towns having a large distribution of Cultures - Turks, Uzbeks, Krygyz, Kazakh and Russian.

B) An emerging middle class(practically unheard of anywhere else I've been) and I've met many working class people building their own houses, moving house etc. Signs that the poverty is far from absolute on the whole. Still there's a long way to go with little social services etc.

C) A leader who is economically savvy - He kept oil reserves reserved, moved the political centres to towns of not much else, like Astana and Taldykorgan from Almaty, a city that will look after itself with its plethora of universities.

D) Gosting - a tradition of letting people into your home and being indiscriminately generous! I will write a blog just about that.

E) A medical institute and an end to nuclear testing at the Polygon, maybe you'll start hearing about the research one day.

F) A load of cash for hiring out the space centre!

So there you have it, Kazakhstan. It's nice.