Kazakstan

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Kazakstan

• Christy Dillivan

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Dimensions of Kazakstan

• Physical Geography
• Economics
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• History
• Environment

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Physical Geography

• Second largest of CIS states, exceeded only by
  Russia
• Land covers 1,050,000 sq. miles
• Northern-most point is at 55 degrees north
  latitude, Southern most point is at 40 degrees
  latitude
• 1,056 miles north to south
• 1,864 miles east to west
• Almost 4 times the size of the state of Texas

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• Population is 16.8 million
• 58 of population lives in Urban areas
• Capital Astana, population is 271,000
• 200-300 meters above sea level
• Caspian Sea in the southwest, Aral Sea in the
  South, about 48,000 small lakes that dry up
  during the dry season

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• Temperatures range from -40 degrees in the North
  during winter to 113 degrees in the South during
  the summer
• Precipitation varies throughout the country, from
  4-21 inches per year
• Territory is 9 prairie and forest land, 12.4
  mountainous, 44 desert, and 33.2 semi desert

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• In the center of the country are the Kyrgyz
  Steppe and the Kazakh Plateau, they make up the
  largest region of the country
• In the Northeast are the rolling hills South are
  the Ustyurt Plateau, Muyunkum Desert, Betpak-Dala
  salt flat, and Lake Balkhash West are the
  Mugodzhary Hills
• Rivers include the Ural and Emba flowing from
  the Ural mountains, the Syr Darya,Chu,Ili,
  Ayaguz, Irtysh, Ishim and the Tobal

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History

• Signs of humans as far back as 40,000 B.C.
• Eighth century A.D. Islam was introduced by
  Turkic-speaking Mongolians
• Eleventh century Genghis Khan swept through the
  country
• In 1227 Khan died and his grandson Batu
  Khan established and empire, known as the
  golden horde in western Kazakstan in
  1251

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• 14th century Mongol Empire collapsed
• White Horde began taking over Kazakstan, then
  split into the Nogai Khanate in the west and the
  Uzbek Khanate in the east and south
• 16th century the Hordes broke up, and the ethnic
  Kazaks emerged to form three new Hordes
• Great Horde in the south, Middle Horde
  in the north,
  and the Lesser Horde in the
  west
• By 1840-1860 all Hordes joined the Russian Empire
  for protection, but Russia dominated Muslim
  Khanate

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• 1918-1920 Bolsheviks of Russia allowed Kazakhs to
  establish an independent state, this lead to a
  civil war
• 1922 Kazakstan joined USSR
• 1936 Soviet government established Kazakh Soviet
  Socialist Republic
• 1950 Nikita Khrushchev formed the Virgin Lands
  program in the North
• 1959 Dinmukhmen Kunayev was appointed leader of
  the Communist Party of Kazakhstan
• 1980s there were food shortages
• 1986 Gorbachev forced resignation of Kunayev

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• 1986-1989 Gennadi Kolbin is appointed to lead
  Kazakhstan
• 1989 Gorbachev replaces Kunayev with an ethnic
  Kazak named Nursultan Nazabayev
• 1990 Kazakhstan declared itself a sovereign
  state, and adopts the Roman alphabet

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• 1991 Declared independence and joined CIS
• 1992 Admitted to the United Nations
• 1995 Adopt a new constitution
• 1997 Capital was moved from Alma-Ata to Akmola
  (later renamed Astana)
• Nazarbayev reelected in 1999

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Economics

• Currency is the Tenges
• GDP 85.6 billion
• Per person income is 500 per year, in U.S.
  dollars
• Unemployment is about 2.6
• Makes 8.8 billion on exports and spends about
  6.9 billion on imports

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• Abundant sources of coal, natural gas, and crude
  oil
• Estimated 2.1 billion tons of oil near Caspian Sea

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• Export crude oil, gas, coal, and energy produced
  from coal to Russia
• Industry such as Mining, farm materials,
  agricultural fertilizers, and chemicals, provide
  75 of jobs in Kazakstan, most of them to
  Russians, Ukrainians, and Germans
• Second most important industry is Agriculture,
  produce wheat in the north, and cotton and rice
  in the south
• Women make up at least half of the workforce,
  mainly in factories
• 87 of energy from fossil fuels, 13 from hydro,
  and .23 from nuclear energy

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Ethnicity

• There are about 6.5 million Kazaks in th Southern
  and Western regions of Kazakstan, they makeup
  about 38 of the population
• 6.2 million Russians in the north and Northeast
  parts of the country, 0ne million Ukrainians,
  these groups are the Slavs and they made up 43
  of the population before the breakup of the USSR
• Settling in central Kazakstan are the Germans,
  Uzbeks, Tatars, and Koreans
• The only ethnic group that is increasing is the
  Kazaks

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Religion

• Kazakstan has no official religion, though most
  follow Islam
• During Soviet occupation religion was forbidden
• 47 of total population are Muslim, from the
  Sunni branch
• Sufism is a popular form of Muslim, the people do
  not attend the mosque, they worship in private
• Nomads tend to practice Shamanism, Animism, and
  ancestor worship

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• The Eastern Orthodox Church is the Second largest
  religion in the country, practiced by the
  Russians and Ukrainians
• The Germans in the country tend to be members of
  the Lutheran Church
• Small numbers of Roman Catholics, Jews,
  Pentecostal, and few Buddhists

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Environmental Issues

• Air and Water pollution due to heavy industrial
  economy, and mining
• Caspian Sea is polluted by the Ural river which
  has runoff from factories, agriculture, and
  mining. It also is now facing oil drilling
• Central and South Kazakstan do not have access to
  water, because of evaporation before the water
  reaches the area

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Aral Sea

• 60 of its volume was lost by 1993
• Polluted by pesticides, defoliants, and
  fertilizers
• Soviets diverted the water from the Sea to
  irrigate cotton fields in Uzbekistan and
  Turkmenistan
• Contaminated waters spread infections, and
  disease, also damaging the soil
• Salt blowing in the wind sterilizes the soil
• Will disappear in 30 years if it continues to
  shrink

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Semipalatinsk (Semey)

• Beginning in 1949 the Soviets began testing
  nuclear weapons in this area
• Tested nearly 500 nuclear weapons here, 116 of
  them aboveground
• Citizens were never notified about what was going
  on

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• Semipalatinsk is located in the North Western
  steppe section of Kazakstan
• The area was chosen by the Soviets, because there
  was a low population, it was spacious, and far
  away from the center of the country
• 18,000 square kilometers

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• Physicist Andrei Sakharov and Igor Kurchatov
• Kurchatov was the leader of the Soviet weapons
  program
• After that he was scientific advisor to the
  program
• Sakharov came up with the idea of heating and
  compressing a fusion blanket surrounding a
  fission trigger
• Named the Father of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb

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Joe 1

• First test was done on August 29th, 1949
• Known as Joe 1 or First Lightning
• Plutonium Bomb
• Focus was to set off a Soviet atomic blast at the
  earliest possible time whatever the cost

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Joe 4

• August 12, 1953
• First attempt at thermonuclear weapons
• Not a True hydrogen bomb
• fifth Soviet test bomb named Joe 4, but was also
  known as the Layer Cake or Sloika
• Worlds first Hydrogen Bomb
• Demonstrated the use of Fusion in a bomb

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True H Bomb

• November 22, 1955
• First Super Bomb
• Dropped from the air
• Killed 3 people from buildings collapsing

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Chagon

• January 15, 1965
• Industrial Test
• Subsurface explosion
• Shot on the dry river bed of the Chagan river
• 20 of radioactive products escaped into the
  atmosphere
• Radioactivity was detected over Japan
• The Russians were in violation of the 1963
  Limited Test Ban Treaty

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Lake Chagan

• Formed a crater 408m in diameter and depth of 100
  M
• Equipment plowed through the lip to cut a channel
  so water could enter the lake from the river
• Spring melt filled the lakes now known a Lake
  Chagan or Lake Balapan

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• In 1991 due to the U.S.-Soviet citizens movement
  of Nevada-Semipalatinsk the nuclear testing
  area was closed
• This did not happen before almost all of the
  people living near the region were contaminated
  with radiation sickness
• This village of Saljar is located 100 kilometers
  Southeast of the test site. Most of the
  population of 2,021 are victims of radiation
  sickness

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Environment and Health

• Limited farming performed on non-contaminated
  lands
• 1.5 million people are experiencing negative
  consequences from extensive radiation in the area
• Cancer and birth defects are very high among the
  population of the region due to prolonged
  exposure to high levels of radiation

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Semipalatinsk (Semey) Today

• Today contamination levels do not exceed the
  norms
• Rehabilitation of contaminated areas and
  prevention of radio-nuclear particles from
  spreading to non-contaminated areas are being
  developed