Kazakhstan — books & literature

The story of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's story is rooted in the vast Eurasian steppe, home for millennia to nomadic peoples whose horse culture shaped trade along the Silk Road. Turkic and Mongol-descended tribes moved across the region for centuries until 1465, when the khans Kerei and Janibek broke from the Uzbek Khanate to found the Kazakh Khanate, uniting the steppe clans into three ordas, or hordes. From the 18th century the Russian Empire gradually absorbed the hordes, formalising control by the mid-19th century, and under Soviet rule Kazakhstan became a Union republic in 1936, enduring forced collectivisation, mass deportations, and the Virgin Lands agricultural campaign of the 1950s. The USSR also built the Baikonur Cosmodrome here, launching Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into history. Kazakhstan declared independence on 16 December 1991, the last Soviet republic to do so, and voluntarily surrendered the nuclear arsenal it inherited. Nursultan Nazarbayev led the country for nearly three decades, moving the capital from Almaty to a new city on the northern steppe in 1997 , renamed Astana, then Nur-Sultan, then Astana again. Today Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s largest economy, rich in oil, gas, and uranium, balancing its nomadic heritage with rapid modernisation.

Timeline — key moments

1. 1465

   Khans Kerei and Janibek found the Kazakh Khanate, uniting the steppe clans.

2. circa 1731

   The Little Horde submits to Russian protection, beginning gradual Russian expansion into the steppe.

3. 1860s

   Russian Empire completes its conquest and administrative absorption of the Kazakh steppe.

4. 1936

   Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic established within the USSR.

5. 1954

   Soviet "Virgin Lands" campaign turns vast areas of the steppe into cropland.

6. 1957

   Baikonur Cosmodrome launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

7. 1961

   Yuri Gagarin launches from Baikonur as the first human in space.

8. 1991

   Kazakhstan declares independence on 16 December, the last Soviet republic to do so.

9. 1997

   Capital moves from Almaty to Akmola on the northern steppe (renamed Astana in 1998).

10. 2022

    Capital renamed Astana again after briefly being called Nur-Sultan (2019-2022).

Top 10 things to know about Kazakhstan

1. Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
2. It is the ninth-largest country in the world by land area.
3. Baikonur Cosmodrome, still in active use, is the world's first and largest space launch facility.
4. Kazakhstan is among the world's leading producers of uranium.
5. The Kazakh Khanate, founded in 1465, was one of the great nomadic steppe states of Central Asia.
6. Almaty, the largest city, was the capital until 1997; Astana has been renamed several times since.
7. Kazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence, on 16 December 1991.
8. After independence, Kazakhstan voluntarily gave up the large nuclear arsenal it had inherited.
9. Traditional Kazakh culture centres on nomadic horse culture and the open steppe.
10. The dombra, a two-stringed lute, is the national instrument and central to Kazakh music.

Famous people from Kazakhstan

Say it in Kazakhstan's language

Did you know?

• ★Kazakhstan is the world's largest country with no coastline on an ocean.
• ★Baikonur Cosmodrome, leased to Russia, is where Yuri Gagarin launched into space in 1961 and where crews still launch to the ISS today.
• ★Kazakhstan voluntarily dismantled a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union, once one of the largest in the world.

Kazakhstan culture

• Nomadic horse culture remains central; horse meat and qymyz (fermented mare’s milk) are traditional foods.
• The dombra, a two-stringed lute, anchors traditional Kazakh music and epic storytelling.
• Nauryz, the spring new year festival in March, is one of the most widely celebrated national holidays.
• Traditional felt yurts (kiyiz úi) still appear in rural life, festivals, and ceremonial settings.

Why read Kazakhstan's books

Kazakh literature grew from an oral steppe tradition of epic poetry and akyn (bard) improvisation into a written canon founded by Abai Kunanbayev; reading Kazakhstan's books opens a window onto that journey from nomadic verse to modern Central Asian literature.