For me, the first thing I did when I learned that Kazakhstan was my destination was to learn as much about the country as possible. I love studying and learning about other countries (the main reason I majored in Political Science in the first place), and already knew a little bit about the modern history of Kazakhstan through my classes. Anyway, on to my list of 5, which is in no particular order:
1)Kazakhstan is huge! According to World Info Zone.com, Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world, and one of the largest landlocked countries on Earth.
2) Kazakhstan was part of the USSR. They gained their independence in 1991 after the USSR fell apart.
2a) As a result of Soviet "influence", the two most popular languages are Russian and Kazakh.
2b) Also as a result of Soviets...the country is going though a language transition, from Russian to Kazakh. Business is done in Russian, but the Kazakh government is making a commitment to getting the country speaking Kazakh. It seems to me that people don't like it when they are forced to speak a language that isn't their own...
3)The word Kazakh, loosely translated, means "independent nomad" (according to worldinfozone.com)
4)Kazakhstan is located to the south of Russia, west of Mongolia, is north of Uzbekistan, shares a border with China, and is a hell of a ways from the United States. Google it. You'll see.
5)The country of Kazakhstan is not exactly poor, as they have a lot of coal, natural gas, and oil reserves. The problem for them is that since they are landlocked, and the Russians had them under the USSR, they can't exactly ship out their resources to the world by sea or river. However, since their independence they've gotten better and have experienced a lot of economic growth by working out export deals and oil pipeline agreements with other countries, mainly Russia and China.
(Wow... all except 1 and 3 were straight from my head. I must have paid attention in the Post-Communism class after all!)
~K-Chuck
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