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The 'Kazakh SSR' (Kazakh: Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы; Russian: Казахская Советская Социалистическая Республика) or the 'Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic' was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. At 2,717,300 square kilometres (1,063,200 square miles) in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata (today known as Almaty). Today it is the independent state of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
The country is named after the Kazakh people, Turkic-speaking former nomads who sustained a powerful khanate in the region before Russian and then Soviet domination. The Soviet Union's spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was located in this republic at Tyuratam, and the secret town of Leninsk was constructed to accommodate its personnel.

Contents

History

Population

References

History

Main articles: History of Kazakhstan

Established on August 26 1920, it was initially called 'Kyrgyz ASSR' (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) and was a part of the Russian SFSR. On April 15-19, 1925, it was renamed 'Kazakh ASSR' and on December 5 1936 it became a Union Republic of the USSR called ''Kazakh SSR'' in the culminating act of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. During the 1950s and 1960s Soviet citizens were urged to settle in the "Virgin Lands" of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some forcibly resettled ethnic minorities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. The other nationalities included Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, Belarusians, Koreans, and others; Germans at the time of independence formed about 8% of the population, the largest concentration of Germans in the entire Soviet Union. Independence has caused many of these newcomers to emigrate.
On December 10 1991 ''Kazakh SSR'' was renamed into ''Republic of Kazakhstan'' and six days later became independent.

Population

According to the 1897 census, the earliest census taken in the region, Kazakhs constituted 81.7% of the total population (3,392,751 people)within the territory of contemporary Kazakhstan. The Russian population in Kazakhstan was 454,402, or 10.95% of total population; there were 79,573 Ukrainians (1.91%); 55,984 Tatars (1.34%); 55,815 Uyghurs (1.34%); 29,564 Uzbeks (0.7%); 11,911 Mordovans (0.28%); 4,888 Dungan (0.11%); 2,883 Turkmen; 2,613 Germans; 2,528 Bashkir; 1,651 Jews; and 1,254 Poles.

Table: Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan (census data)^[1]

Nationality	1959 %	1970 %	1979 %	1989 %	1999 %
Kazakh	30.0	32.6	36.0	40.1	53.4
Russian	42.7	42.4	40.8	37.4	29.9
Ukrainian	8.2	7.2	6.1	5.4	3.7
Belarusian	1.2	1.5	1.2	1.1	0.8
German	7.1	6.6	6.1	5.8	2.4
Tatar	2.1	2.2	2.1	2.0	1.7
Uzbek	1.5	1.7	1.8	2.0	2.5
Uyghur	0.6	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.4
Korean	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7

References

1. www.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/docs/WP5.doc