Kazakhstan

Area: 2,717,300 square kilometers (1,049,150 square miles); Kazakhstan is the second largest republic of the former Soviet Union (and now of the CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States), after Russia, and also the largest of the seven units discussed in our book; its size can be visualized by comparison with Sinkiang (1,646,800 square kilometers), Mongolia (1,565,000 square kilometers), Turkey (780,000 square kilometers), Ukraine (603,700 square kilometers), France (551,000 square kilometers), and Uzbekistan (447,400 square kilometers). The country extends 1,900 kilometers from west to east and 1,300 kilometers from north to south.

Population (in 1995, according to the United Nations Food and Population Agency): 17,100,000; this makes Kazakhstan the fourth most populous republic of the CIS, after Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Density per square kilometers: 6.2.

Ethnic composition (in 1994): Kazakh 44.3%, Russian 35.8%, Ukrainian 5.1%, German 3.6%, Uzbek 2.2%, Tatar 2.0%, Belarusian 1.1%. These ratios are rapidly changing, chiefly due to the higher birthrate of the Kazakh component but also to the emigration of the Europeans.

Official language: Kazakh, a Turkic language of the Kipchak group, written in the Cyrillic script; and Russian, which enjoys a special status as the “language of interethnic communication.”

Religion: Islam, of the Sunni denomination. It gradually asserted itself among the Kazakhs since the late Middle Ages. In the Soviet period, Kazakh Muslims were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the mufti (lit. jurisconsult, here head of the religious community) of Central Asia and Kazakhstan whose office was established at Tashkent in 1942; in 1990 a separate muftiate for Kazakhstan was created.