History of Kazakhstan

Flag of Kazakhstan

The history of Kazakhstan goes back to the Paleolithic and shares the history of Central Asia in many places .

The Kazakhs themselves first formed as one people in the middle of the 15th century. In their history, the Kazakhs had to submit to foreign rule by neighboring peoples several times. Kazakhstan had been part of the Russian sphere of influence since the middle of the 18th century and later belonged to the Soviet Union until it gained independence on December 16, 1991.

Name meaning

Kazakhstan means country of the Kazakhs . The ending -stan has an Indo-Iranian or Indo-European origin and generally means place, home.

Prehistory and early history

The area of Kazakhstan has been settled since the Paleolithic . Both tools and waste products from their manufacture from local pebbles can be found in large numbers on the vast land areas in southern and central Kazakhstan and on the Mangyschlak peninsula. Indications of the first people in what is now Kazakhstan about a million years ago are found as individual stone artifacts in deposits in the valley of the Aristandy River - in the northern part of the Mangyschlak. About ten thousand years ago, a chronological boundary between the Pleistocene (the actual Ice Age) and the Holocene (the Post Ice Age ) is observed. In some regions this threshold is pronounced and shows the lack of population (in the northern Balkhash Sea area); in others, the accelerated technical progress in tool manufacture and the transition to the Mesolithic (Mangyschlak, East Kazakhstan). In some cases, no changes are detected either - Paleolithic traditions continued until the middle of the Holocene.

The last phase of the Stone Age - the Neolithic - is marked by the substantial improvement in stone tool making technology and widespread use of ceramics. The Neolithic monuments can be assigned to archaeological cultures due to special features in the manufacture and processing of stone tools and ceramic dishes . The following cultures have emerged in Kazakhstan: the Kelteminar culture - in the south-western region (Saksaul, Akespe, Schatpakol, Kulsary, Koikara, Sarykamis, and Schaiandy group); the Atbasar culture - in the area of ​​the Ishim River and in the northeastern part of the Kazakh threshold (Vinogradov II, X, XIV, Telschana I, X, Zhabai-Pokrovka III); the Machandzhar culture in the shallow valley basin Turgai (Machandzhar, Salzsee-2, Amangeldy) and the Botai culture in northern Kazakhstan. The Botai culture is closely related to the earliest horse domestication. The transition phase from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is known as the Eneolithic or Chalcolithic. This is the time when man learned to mine copper .

For the period between approx. 2300–1000 BC The archaeological Bronze Age Andronowo culture , named after a settlement site near the village of Andronowo on the Yenisei, can be found in the steppe and forest steppe zone of Kazakhstan . This time is characterized by the intensification of raw material extraction - especially copper. Based on about 2000 BC Finds dated to the 3rd century BC are considered to be the inventors of the Andronowo culture of chariots with spoked wheels.

In the first quarter of the first millennium BC, the ancient Iranian tribes of the Saks and the Scythians emerged . They formed on the territory of Kazakhstan from 6th to 3rd Century BC Their first state, the center of which was in the country of the Seven Rivers in southern Kazakhstan. For a long time the Saks were mistakenly represented as Indo-Iranians in research. At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Saks were replaced by their genetic successors, the Uysuns (Üjsin, also called Wusun ). In southern Kazakhstan in particular, rulers changed in the period that followed: the Iranian Huns and the Xiongnu , and in the 5th and 6th centuries the Hephthalites and the Rouran .

In the 7th century came Turkic peoples from the Altai to Kazakhstan - 600 was almost entirely Kazakhstan part of the first Turk-Kaganate , then ruled here the Türgesch that Karluks in the 8th century, the Oghuz and the Kimek in the 8th-10th Century. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Karakhanids ruled southern Kazakhstan.

In the 12th century, the south of Kazakhstan was part of the Kara Kitai empire . From 1219 Kazakhstan was part of the Mongolian Empire of Genghis Khan . Soon it was divided into several sub-kingdoms (see: White Horde , Orda Horde , Tschagatai Khanate and Nogaier Horde ).

The way to the nation

Flag that is officially used to symbolize Kazak khanates

The people of the " Kazakhs " formed around 1450 as a split from the Uzbek khanate that had just been founded . Abu'l-Chair had united the Uzbeks around 1430, but tried to impose a strict state order on the nomads. Thereupon the princes Jani Beg and Karai fell away from him and founded the Kazak khanate . In 1468 they defeated and killed Abu'l-Chair Khan and spread over his former empire.

At first the Kazakhs hardly knew any state order. The Islam practiced only a superficial effect of the practical power lay with the clan that either Khan supported or not. Because of this, after the death of Jani Beg's son Qazim Khan in 1518, the unity of the Kazakhs fell apart . The people now divided into three warring hordes, which were only reunited in 1538 by Qazim's son Haqq Nazar.

The Kazakh khanate and territory

of the Little Horde

of the Middle Horde

of the Great Horde

Tauke (Tyawka, 1680–1718), the last ruler of the unified Kazakhs, introduced a written law ( Sheti Sharghy ). He had representatives in all three hordes, received ambassadors from the Russians (1694) and had to deal with the Oirats (Djungars) several times (1698). After his death the Kazak tribes split up again into the three hordes mentioned above. With the defeat of the Kazakhs against the Djungarian khanate in 1718 on the Ajagus river (on Lake Balkhash ) the time of the "great misfortune" began. H. the constant attacks of the Oirats that lasted until the 1740s.

In order to escape the pressure of the Oirats, the Kazakhs did two things: On the one hand, there was a temporary reunification of the Kazakhs in 1728. Second, between 1731 and 1742, the three hordes succumbed to the Russian Empire , so that the Russians were able to expand their sphere of influence comparatively peacefully and secure it with forts.

Russian sovereignty

In 1801 the Borjigin Buqai Khan tried to renew the power of the Kazakhs and in 1812 again proclaimed the khanate .

After Napoleon's failure in the Russian campaign in 1812 , the Russians had peace on their western front. In the Council of Allies, Emperor Alexander I (1801–1825) played the most important role alongside Metternich. He brought about the restoration of the Bourbons and the protection of France in the first Peace of Paris. In 1815 Alexander I was celebrated in Europe as “the savior of Europe”; he played a key role in the reorganization of Europe at the Congress of Vienna.

Buqai Khan had to finally bend the Russians - the Kazakh Khanate was 1822; between 1865 and 1868 the last Kazakhs had to submit to the Russians.

Soviet Union

Kazakhstan territory in the Soviet Union

In 1917/19 the rule of the Alasch Orda existed in the area of ​​the later Kazakhstan , who tried to build up a Muslim tribal state and thus came into opposition to the communists .

Communist power was established in 1918. The west and north of the country were affected in the Russian Civil War . After the establishment of the Soviet Union, there was an Autonomous Soviet Republic with the capital Orenburg (today on Russian territory).

The population of Kazakhstan suffered from 1928 to 1933 under an unprecedented agrarian crisis, a result of the violent and implemented throughout the Soviet Union forced collectivization , dekulakization and the forced sedentarisation of the nomadic population. The social and economic situation was characterized by mass expropriations , mass deportations , mass exodus and widespread unrest. The famine cost around 1.3 to 1.5 million lives. This corresponded to a share of "more than 30 percent of the ethnic Kazakh population".

→ Main article : Famine in Kazakhstan from 1932–33

In 1936 the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was established with the capital Alma-Ata .

During the Stalin era , Kazakhstan served as a settlement area for displaced ethnic groups from the European part of the USSR (e.g. Russian-Germans , Crimean Tatars ).

The Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan also has an important role in the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program. The Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons here from 1949 to 1989, mostly for military purposes. The main focus of these tests was the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons test site (Семипалатинский испытательный полигон) in the north-east of the country. In total, almost 500 atomic bomb tests were carried out there. Until 1962, the explosions took place in the atmosphere or on the ground. From 1963 onwards, underground tests were carried out in tunnels and boreholes.

The Sheltoksan riots of December 1986 were a first sign of Kazakhstan's independence and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

independence

Nursultan Nazarbayev , President of Kazakhstan between 1991 and 2019

On April 24, 1990 , the Kazakh Parliament (the Supreme Soviet) elected Nursultan Nazarbayev , chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh Soviet Republic, as president.

On October 25, 1990 , Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty within the USSR. Nursultan Nazarbayev was appointed head of state.

On December 1, 1991 , Nazarbayev was confirmed as President of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan in the first direct presidential election. On December 16, 1991, Kazakhstan's independence came into force. Kazakh became the official language, the capital Alma-Ata was now called Almaty , and December 16 became a national holiday.

On December 21, 1991 , Kazakhstan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with seven other former Soviet republics at a meeting in Almaty .

On May 15, 1992 , Nazarbayev and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a Russian-Kazakh friendship and cooperation treaty, which particularly emphasized the inviolability of the common border.

In December 1993 , the still incumbent Supreme Soviet decided to dissolve itself and hold new elections for 1994 .

In the first free parliamentary election on March 7, 1994 , the parties supporting the president won an absolute majority of the votes and seats. International election observers described the elections as unfair overall. On March 8, 1995 , the Constitutional Court declared these elections to be invalid. Nazarbayev dissolved the government and parliament on March 28, 1995. In a referendum on April 29, 1995, the Kazakh people voted with over 95 percent of the vote in favor of extending Nazarbayev's term of office until the end of 2000 .

In another referendum on August 30, 1995 , the Kazakhs adopted a new constitution with almost 90 percent of the vote. The opposition accused the government of election fraud. The new Kazakh Constitution came into force on September 5, 1995. It cuts the powers of parliament in favor of the president.

On September 15, 1995 , the capital was relocated from Almaty to Akmola , about 800 km to the north-west . The relocation took place at the instigation of Nazarbayev, who apparently wanted to counteract any secessionist aspirations of the predominantly Russian-populated north. In addition, the establishment of a new capital should have a "meaningful" effect on the nation. Almaty remained the seat of government for the time being. The government and parliament moved from Almaty to Akmola on December 9, 1997 . The next day, Akmola was finally proclaimed the official capital and on May 6, 1998, it was renamed Astana (since 2019 Nur-Sultan) ("Capital").

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literature

• К.М. Байпаков, З.С. Самашев, А.Т. Толеубаев: Археология Казахстана . Almaty 2006, ISBN 9965-768-45-5 .
• Robert Kindler: Stalin's nomads. Domination and hunger in Kazakhstan . Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86854-277-6 .
• Т.М. Рыскулов: На каком языке говорили саки? Евразийский народ саки . Almaty 2006, ISBN 5-76673-636-3 , pp. 242-247.

Web links

Commons : History of Kazakhstan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Археология Казахстана 2006, 29–32.
2. ^ Di Cosmo: The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China. In: Cambridge History of Ancient China. 1999, pp. 885–966, here p. 903, refers to finds from the Andronowo culture around 2026 BC. Chr.
3. ↑ Рыскулов 2006, 242–247.
4. ↑ Kazakhstan 2016 Data - Facts - Background. ( botschaft-kaz.de PDF of the Kazakh embassy in Germany), p. 30.
5. ↑ Simon Ertz: The Kazakh Catastrophe and Stalin's Order of Priorities, 1929-1933: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives , in: Stanford's Student Journal of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies , Volume 1, Spring 2005, pp. 1-14 ( Memento of September 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), here p. 1. Other sources speak of 1.5 to 1.7 million fatalities and up to 42% of the population who fell victim to hunger. See Boris Barth : Genocide. Genocide in the 20th Century. History, theories, controversies . Beck, Munich 2006, (Beck'sche Reihe, vol. 1672), p. 143 , ISBN 3-406-52865-1 .
6. ↑ Robert Kindler: Victims without perpetrators. Kazakh and Ukrainian memories of hunger 1932/33 , in: Osteuropa 62 (2012) H. 3, pp. 105–120, here p. 106.
7. ↑ see also English Wikipedia