Kazakstan
part 2

COUNTRY STUDIES
US Federal Research Division Library of Congress Edited by Glenn E. Curtis
Research Completed March 1996. Updated 1997, published 1997.

Population and Society - Demographic Factors - Ethnic Groups - The Role of
Women - Clans - Religion - Islam in the Past - Islam and the State  -
National Identity - Language - Culture - Education - Health - Health
System - Health Conditions - Social Welfare - The Economy - Natural
Resources - Agriculture.

Population and Society

Total population was estimated in 1994 at 17,268,000, making Kazakstan the
fourth most populous former Soviet republic.  As of 1990, 57 percent of the
country's residents lived in cities.  Because much of the land is too dry to
be more than marginally habitable, overall population density is a very low
6.2 persons per square kilometer.  Large portions of the republic,
especially in the south and west, have a population density of less than one
person per square kilometer.  In 1989 some 1.4 million Kazaks lived outside
Kazakstan, nearly all in the Russian and Uzbek republics.  At that time, an
estimated I million Kazaks lived in China, and a sizable but uncounted Kazak
population resided in Mongolia.

Demographic Factors

The birth rate, which is declining slowly, was estimated at 19.4 births per
1,000 population in 1994 (see table 2, Appendix).  The death rate, which has
been climbing slowly, was estimated at 7.9 per 1,000 population-leaving a
rate of natural increase of 1.1 percent, by far the lowest among the five
Central Asian republics.  In 1995 the total fertility rate 2.4 births per
woman, a drop from the 1990 figure of 2.8-also was far below the rates for
the other Central Asian republics.  In the first six months of 1994, some
1.8 percent fewer babies were born than in the same period the previous
year.  In the same months, the number of deaths rose by 2.5 percent compared
with those in the same period in 1993.  In some provinces, death rates are
much higher than the average, however. Shygys Qazaqstan (East Kazakstan)
Province has a death rate of 12.9 per thousand; Soltustik Qazaqstan (North
Kazakstan) Province, eleven per 1,000; and Almaty Province, 11.3 deaths per
1,000.  The cause of nearly half of these deaths is cardiovascular disease.
Because of declining life expectancy and decreases in the size of the
Russian population, which is demographically older and has a low birth rate,
the republic's residents are a relatively young group; in 1991 there were
only 149 pensioners per 1,000 population, as opposed to 212 per 1,000 in the
former Soviet Union as a whole (see table 3, Appendix).  The republic is
experiencing a pronounced outflow of citizens, primarily non Kazaks moving
to other former Soviet republics.  Although figures conflict, it seems
likely that as many as 750,000 non-Kazaks left the republic between
independence and the end of 1995.  Official figures indicate that in the
first half of 1994 some 220,400 people left, compared with 149,800 in the
same period of 1993.  In 1992 and 1993, the number of Russian emigrants was
estimated at 100,000 to 300,000.  Such out-migration is not uniform.  Some
regions, such as Qaraghandy, have lost as much as 10 percent of their total
population, resulting in shortages of technicians and skilled specialists in
that heavily industrial area.
To some extent, the outflow has been offset by in-migration, which has been
of two types.  Kazakstan's government has actively encouraged the return of
Kazaks from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union and from China and
Mongolia.  Unlike other ethnic groups, ethnic Kazaks are granted automatic
citizenship.  More than 60,000 Kazaks emigrated from Mongolia in 1991-94,
their settlement - or resettlement - eased by government assistance.  Most
were moved to the northern provinces, where the majority of Kazakstan's
Russian population lives.  Because these "Mongol Kazaks" generally do not
know Russian and continue to pursue traditional nomadic lifestyles, the
impact of their resettlement has been disproportionate to their actual
numbers.
The other major source of in-migration has been non-Kazaks arriving from
other parts of Central Asia to avoid inhospitable conditions; most of these
people also have settled in northern Kazakstan.  Although officially
forbidden and actively discouraged, this in-migration has continued.  In a
further attempt to control in-migration, President Nazarbayev decreed that
no more than 5,000 families would be permitted to take up residence in the
republic in 1996.

Ethnic Groups

Kazakstan is the only former Soviet republic where the indigenous ethnic
group is not a majority of the population.  In 1994 eight of the country's
eleven provinces had Slavic (Russian and Ukrainian) population majorities.
Only the three southernmost provinces were populated principally by Kazaks
and other Turkic groups; the capital city, Almaty, had a European (German
and Russian) majority.  Overall, in 1994 the population was about 44 percent
Kazak, 36 percent Russian, 5 percent Ukrainian, and 4 percent German. Tatars
and Uzbeks each represented about 2 percent of the population; Azerbaijanis,
Uygurs, and Belarusians each represented I percent; and the remaining 4
percent included approximately ninety other nationalities (see table 4,
Appendix).
Kazakstan's ethnic composition is the driving force behind much of the
country's political and cultural life.  In most ways, the republic's two
major ethnic groups, the Kazaks and the "Russian-speakers" (Russians,
Ukrainians, Germans, and Belarusians), may as well live in different
countries.  To the Russians, most of whom live in northern Kazakstan within
a day's drive of Russia proper, Kazakstan is an extension of the Siberian
frontier and a product of Russian and Soviet development.  To most Kazaks,
these Russians are usurpers.  Of Kazakstan's current Russian residents, 38
percent were born outside the republic, while most of the rest are
second-generation Kazakstani citizens.
The Nazarbayev government has announced plans to move the capital from
Almaty in the far southeast to Aqmola in the north-central region by 1998.
That change would cause a shift of the Kazak population northward and
accelerate the absorption of the Russian-dominated northern provinces into
the Kazakstani state.  Over the longer term, the role of Russians in the
society of Kazakstan also is determined by a demographic factor-the average
age of the Russian population is higher, and its birth rate much lower.

The Role of Women

Like its 1993 predecessor, the constitution of 1995 defends women's rights
implicitly, if not entirely explicitly.  The document guarantees citizens
the right to work and forbids discrimination based on geographic origin,
gender, race, nationality, religious or political belief, and language.
In practice, social opinion tends to associate women in the workplace with
the abuses of the Soviet past.  The early 1990s saw the loss of more than
100,000 day-care spaces, and public opinion strongly favors returning
primary responsibility for the rearing and educating of children to mothers.
In April 1995, President Nazarbayev said that one of the republic's goals
must be to create an economy, in which a mother can work at home, raising
her children. This general opinion has been reflected in governmental
appointments and private enterprise; almost no women occupy senior positions
in the country, either in government or in business.
The declining birth rate is another issue with the potential to become
politicized because it affects the demographic "race" between Kazaks and
Russians.  With demographic statistics in mind, Kazak nationalist parties
have attempted to ban abortions and birth control for Kazak women; they have
also made efforts to reduce the number of Kazak women who have children
outside marriage.  In 1988, the last year for which there are figures, 11.24
percent of the births in the republic were to unmarried women.  Such births
were slightly more common in cities (12.72 percent) than in rural areas
(9.67 percent), suggesting that such births may be more common among
Russians than among Kazaks.
Women's health issues have not been addressed effectively in Kazakstan.
Maternal mortality rates average 80 per 10,000 births for the entire
country, but they are believed to be much higher in rural areas.  Of the 4.2
million women of childbearing age, an estimated 15 percent have borne seven
or more children.  Nevertheless, in 1992 the number of abortions exceeded
the number of births, although the high percentage of earl) stage abortions
performed in private clinics complicates data gathering.  According to one
expert estimate, the average per woman is five abortions.  Rising abortion
rates are attributable, at least in part, to the high price or
unavailability of contraceptive devices, which became much less accessible
after 1991.  In 1992 an estimated 15 percent of women were using some form
of contraception.

Clans

One aspect of Kazak traditional culture, clan membership, is acquiring
importance in the post-independence environment.  Historically the Kazaks
identified themselves as belonging to one of three groups of clans and
tribes, called zhuz, or hordes, each of which had traditional territories.
Because the Lesser Horde controlled western Kazakstan and the Middle Horde
migrated across what today is northern and eastern Kazakstan, those groups
came under Russian control first, when colonial policies were relatively
benign. The traditional nobles of these hordes managed to retain many of
their privileges and to educate their sons in Russian schools.  These sons
became the first Kazak nationalists, and in turn, their sons were destroyed
by Stalin, who tried to eradicate the Kazak intelligentsia during his purges
of the 1930s.
The Large, or Great, Horde was dominant in the south, and hence did not fall
under Russian control until colonialism was much harsher.  Substantially
fewer Great Horde Kazaks became involved in politics before the revolution,
but those who did became socialists rather than nationalists.  For that
reason, the Great Horde members came to dominate once the Bolsheviks took
power, especially after Kazakstan's capital was moved from the Lesser Horde
town of Orenburg (now in Russia) to a Great Horde wintering spot, Almaty.
Kunayev and Nazarbayev are said to have roots in clans of the Great Horde.
With the collapse of the CPK and its patronage networks, and in the absence
of any other functional equivalent, clan and zhuz membership has come to
play an increasingly important role in the economic and political life of
the republic at both the national and the province level.  The power of clan
politics has been visible in the dispute over moving the national capital to
Aqmola, which would bolster the prestige of the Middle Horde, on whose lands
Aqmola is located.  In general, members of the Lesser and Middle hordes are
more Russified and, hence, more inclined to cooperate with Russian
industrial and commercial interests than are the members of the Great Horde.
Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Prime Minister in 1996, was a Middle Horder, as was the
opposition leader Olzhas Suleymenov.  Although mindful of Russia's strength,
the Great Horders have less to lose to Russian separatism than do the Lesser
and Middle Horders, whose lands would be lost should the Russian-dominated
provinces of northern Kazakstan become separated from the republic.

Religion

By tradition the Kazaks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school, and the
Russians are Russian Orthodox.  In 1994, some 47 percent of the population
was Muslim, 44 percent was Russian Orthodox, and 2 percent was Protestant,
mainly Baptist.  Some Jews, Catholics, and Pentacostalists also live in
Kazakstan; a Roman Catholic diocese was established in 1991.  As elsewhere
in the newly independent Central Asian states, the subject of Islam's role
in everyday life, and especially in politics, is a delicate one in
Kazakstan.

Islam in the Past

As part of the Central Asian population and the Turkic world, Kazaks are
conscious of the role Islam plays in their identity, and there is strong
public pressure to increase the role that faith plays in society.  At the
same time, the roots of Islam in many segments of Kazak society are not as
deep as they are in neighboring countries. Many of the Kazak nomads, for
instance, did not become Muslims until the eighteenth or even the nineteenth
century. Urban Russified Kazaks, who by some counts constitute as much as 40
percent of the indigenous population, profess discomfort with some aspects
of the religion even as they recognize it as part of their national
heritage.
Soviet authorities attempted to encourage a controlled form of Islam as a
unifying force in the Central Asian societies while at the same time
stifling the expression of religious beliefs.  Since independence, religious
activity has increased significantly.  Construction of mosques and religious
schools has accelerated in the 1990s, with financial help from Saudi Arabia,
Turkey, and Egypt.  Already in 1991, some 170 mosques were operating, more
than half of them newly built; at that time, an estimated 230 Muslim
communities were active in Kazakstan

Islam and the State

In 1990, Nazarbayev, then party first secretary, created a state basis for
Islam by removing Kazakstan from the authority of the Muslim Board of
Central Asia, the Soviet-approved and politically oriented religious
administration for all of Central Asia. Instead, Nazarbayev created a
separate muftiate, or religious authority, for Kazak Muslims. However,
Nazarbayev's choice of Ratbek hadji Nysanbayev to be the first Kazak mufti
proved an unpopular one.  Accusing him of financial irregularities,
religious mispractice, and collaboration with the Soviet and Kazakstani
state security apparatus, a group of believers from the nationalist Alash
political party attempted unsuccessfully to replace the mufti in December
1991.
With an eye toward the Islamic governments of nearby Iran and Afghanistan,
the writers of the 1993 constitution specifically forbade religious
political parties. The 1995 constitution forbids organizations that seek to
stimulate racial, political, or religious discord, and imposes strict
governmental control on foreign religious organizations. As did its
predecessor, the 1995 constitution stipulates that Kazakstan is a secular
state; thus, Kazakstan is the only Central Asian state whose constitution
does not assign a special status to Islam.  This position was based on the
Nazarbayev government's foreign policy as much as on domestic
considerations.  Aware of the potential for investment from the Muslim
countries of the Middle East, Nazarbayev visited Iran, Turkey, and Saudi
Arabia; at the same time, however, he preferred to cast Kazakstan as a
bridge between the Muslim East and the Christian West.  For example, he
initially accepted only observer status in the Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO), all of whose member nations are predominantly Muslim.
The president's first trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, which did not
occur until 1994, was part of an itinerary that also included a visit to
Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.
By the mid-1990s, Nazarbayev had begun occasionally to refer to Allah in his
speeches, but he had not permitted any of the Islamic festivals to become
public holidays, as they had elsewhere in Central Asia.  However, certain
pre-Islamic holidays such as the spring festival Navruz and the summer
festival Kymyzuryndyk were reintroduced in 1995.

National Identity

As in the other Central Asian republics, the preservation of indigenous
cultural traditions, and the local language was a difficult problem during
the Soviet era. The years since 1991 have provided opportunities for greater
cultural expression, but striking a balance between the Kazak and Russian
languages has posed a political dilemma for Kazakstan's policy makers.

Language

The two official languages in Kazakstan are Russian and Kazak.  Kazak is
part of the Nogai-Kipchak subgroup of northeastern Turkic languages, heavily
influenced by both Tatar and Mongol.  Kazak was first written only in the
1860s, using Arabic script.  In 1929 Latin script was introduced.  In 1940
Stalin decided to unify the written materials of the Central Asian republics
with those of the Slavic rulers by introducing a modified form of Cyrillic.
In 1992, the return of a Latin-based alphabet came under discussion, but the
enormous costs involved appear to have stopped further consideration of the
idea.
Kazak first became a state language in the late Soviet period, when few of
the republic's Russians gave serious thought to the possibility that they
might need Kazak to retain their employment, to serve in the armed forces,
or to have their children enter a Kazakstani university.  At that point,
fewer than 5 percent of Russians could speak Kazak, although the majority of
Kazaks could speak Russian.  However, with the separation between Russia and
Kazakstan that followed independence, Russian nationalist sentiment and
objections to alleged discrimination in official language policies have
increased, especially in the north, as Russians have felt the threat of
Kazak becoming the sole legal state language.  Meanwhile, Kazaks have
strongly defended the preeminence of their tongue, although mastery of the
language is far from universal even among Kazaks.  According to some
estimates, as much as 40 percent of the Kazak population is not fluent in
Kazak.  The standard language of business, for example, is Russian.
Even those who are fluent find Kazak a difficult language to work with in
science, business, and some administrative settings because it remained
largely a "kitchen" language in Soviet times, never developing a modern
technical vocabulary.  Nor has there been extensive translation of technical
or popular literature into Kazak.  Thus, for most Kazaks Russian remains the
primary "world language." In fact, President Nazarbayev defended making
Kazak the sole official language on the grounds that decades of
Russification had endangered the survival of Kazak as a language.  The
practical primacy of Russian is reflected in the schools.  Despite efforts
to increase the number of schools where Kazak is the primary language of
instruction, Russian appeared to continue its domination in the mid-1990s.
In 1990 about twice as many schools taught in Russian as in Kazak.  Although
institutions of higher learning now show a strong selection bias in favor of
Kazak students, Russian remains the language of instruction in most
subjects.
The issue of languages is one of the most politicized and contentious in
Kazakstan.  The volatility of the language issue has been augmented by
Russia's controversial proposals, beginning in 1993, that Kazakstan's
Russians be granted dual citizenship.  Although Nazarbayev rejected such a
policy, the language controversy prompted him to postpone deadlines for
implementation of laws making Kazak the sole official language.  Thus, it is
unlikely that most adult non-Kazaks will have to learn Kazak.  Nevertheless,
demographic trends make it probable that the next generation will have to
learn Kazak, a prospect that generates considerable discomfort in the
non-Kazak population.  The 1995 constitution does not provide for dual
citizenship, but it does alleviate Russian concerns by declaring Russian an
official language.  That status means that Russian would continue as the
primary language of communication for many ethnic Kazaks, and it will remain
acceptable for use in schools (a major concern of Russian citizens) and
official documents.

Culture

Before the Russian conquest, the Kazaks had a well-articulated culture based
on their nomadic pastoral economy.  Although Islam was introduced to most of
the Kazaks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the religion was not
fully assimilated until much later.  As a result, it coexisted with earlier
elements of shamanistic and animistic beliefs.  Traditional Kazak belief
held that separate spirits inhabited and animated the earth, sky, water, and
fire, as well as domestic animals.  To this day, particularly honored guests
in rural settings are treated to a feast of freshly killed lamb.  Such
guests are sometimes asked to bless the lamb and to ask its spirit for
permission to partake of its flesh.  Besides lamb, many other traditional
foods retain symbolic value in Kazak culture.
Because animal husbandry was central to the Kazaks' traditional lifestyle,
most of their nomadic practices and customs relate in some way to livestock.
Traditional curses and blessings invoked disease or fecundity among animals,
and good manners required that a person ask first about the health of a
man's livestock when greeting him and only afterward inquire about the human
aspects of his life.
The traditional Kazak dwelling is the yurt, a tent consisting of a flexible
framework of willow wood covered with varying thickness' of felt.  The open
top permits smoke from the central hearth to escape; temperature and draft
can be controlled by a flap that increases or decreases the size of the
opening.  A properly constructed yurt can be cooled in summer and warmed in
winter, and it can be disassembled or set up in less than an hour.  The
interior of the yurt has ritual significance; the right side generally is
reserved for men and the left for women.
Although yurts are less used for their original purpose than they once were,
they remain a potent symbol of "Kazakness." During demonstrations against
Nazarbayev in the spring of
1992, demonstrators and hunger strikers erected yurts in front of the
government building in Almaty.  Yurts are also frequently used as a
decorative motif in restaurants and other public buildings.
Because of the Kazaks' nomadic lifestyle and their lack of a written
language until the mid-nineteenth century, their literary tradition relies
upon oral histories.  These histories were memorized and recited by the
akyn, the elder responsible for remembering the legends and histories, and
by jyrau, lyric poets who traveled with the high-placed khans. Most of the
legends concern the activities of a batir, or hero-warrior.  Among the tales
that have survived are Kobtandy-batir (fifteenth or sixteenth century), Er
Sain (sixteenth century), and Er Targyn (sixteenth century), all of which
concern the struggle against the Kalmyks; Kozy Korpesh and Bain sulu, both
epics; and the love lyric Kiz-Jibek.  Usually these tales were recited in a
song-like chant, frequently to the accompaniment of such traditional
instruments as drums and the dombra, a mandolin-like string instrument.
President Nazarbayev has appeared on television broadcasts in the republic,
playing the dombra and singing.
The Russian conquest wreaked havoc on Kazak traditional culture by making
impossible the nomadic pastoralism upon which the culture was based.
However, many individual elements survived the loss of the lifestyle as a
whole.  Many practices that lost their original meanings are assuming value
as symbols of post-Soviet national identity.
For the most part, pre-independence cultural life in Kazakstan was
indistinguishable from that elsewhere in the Soviet Union.  It featured the
same plays, films, music, books, paintings, museums, and other cultural
appurtenances common in every other corner of the Soviet empire.  That
Russified cultural establishment nevertheless produced many of the most
important figures of the early stages of Kazak nationalist self-assertion.
Novelist Anuar Alimzhanov became president of the last Soviet Congress of
People's Deputies. Poets Mukhtar Shakhanov and Olzhas Suleymenov were
co-presidents of the political party Popular Congress of Kazakstan (see
Structure of Government; Political Organizations, this ch.). Shakhanov also
chaired the commission that investigated the events surrounding the riots of
December 1986.
An even more powerful figure than Shakhanov, Suleymenov in 1975 became a
pan-Central Asian hero by publishing a book, Az i Ia, examining the Lay of
Igor's Campaign, a medieval tale vital to the Russian national culture, from
the perspective of the Turkic Pechenegs whom Igor defeated.  Soviet
authorities subjected the book to a blistering attack.  Later Suleymenov
used his prestige to give authority to the Nevada-Semipalatinsk antinuclear
movement, which performed the very real service of ending nuclear testing in
Kazakstan.  He and Shakhanov originally organized their People's Congress
Party as a pro-Nazarbayev movement, but Suleymenov eventually steered the
party into an opposition role.  In the short-lived parliament of 1994-95,
Suleymenov was leader of the Respublika opposition coalition, and he was
frequently mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
The collapse of the Soviet system with which so many of the Kazak cultural
figures were identified left most of them in awkward positions.  Even more
damaging has been the total collapse of public interest in most forms of
higher culture.  Most of the books that Kazakstanis buy are about business,
astrology, or sex; the movies they see are nearly all American, Chinese, or
Turkish adventure and action films; most concerts feature rock music, not
infrequently accompanied by erotic dancing; and television provides a diet
of old Soviet films and dubbed Mexican soap operas.  Kazakstan's cultural
elite is suffering the same decline affecting elite of all the former Soviet
republics.  Thus, cultural norms are determined predominantly by Kazakstan's
increasing access to global mass culture.

Education

The constitution of 1995 specifies that education through secondary school
is mandatory and free, and that citizens have the further right to compete
for free education in the republic's institutions of higher learning.
Private, paid education is permitted but remains subject to state control
and supervision.
In 1994 Kazakstan had 8,575 elementary and secondary schools (grades one
through twelve) attended by approximately 3.2 million students, and 244
specialized secondary schools with about 222,000 students.  In 1992 about 51
percent of eligible children were attending some 8,500 preschools in
Kazakstan.  In 1994 some 272,100 students were enrolled in the republic's
sixty-one institutes of higher learning.  Fifty-four percent of the students
were Kazak, and 31 percent were Russian.
The educational situation since independence is somewhat difficult to judge
because of incomplete information.  The republic has attempted to overhaul
both the structure of its education system and much of its substance, but
the questions of what should be taught and in what manner continue to loom
large.  A particularly sensitive and unresolved issue is what the language
of instruction should be, given the almost equal distribution of the
population between ethnic Kazaks and ethnic Russians.  In 1994, most
instruction still was in Russian because Kazak-language textbooks and Kazak
teachers were in short supply. Enrollment was estimated to be 92 percent of
the total age group in both primary and secondary grades, but only 8 percent
in the post-secondary age group.
Serious shortages in funding and resources have hindered efforts to revamp
the education system inherited from the Soviet Union.  Even in 1990, more
than half the republic's schools were operating on two and even three shifts
per day; since then, hundreds of schools, especially preschools, have been
converted to offices or stores.  Elementary- and secondary school teachers
remain badly underpaid; in 1993 more than 30,000 teachers (or about
one-seventh of the 1990 teaching staff) left education, many of them to seek
more lucrative employment.
Despite the obstacles, efforts have been made to upgrade the education
system, especially at the highest level.  Kazakstani citizens still can
enroll in what once were the premier Soviet universities, all of which are
now in foreign countries, in particular Russia and Ukraine.  In the
mid-1990s, however, such opportunities have become rare and much more
expensive.  This situation has forced the upgrading of existing universities
in Kazakstan, as well as the creation of at least one new private
university, Al-Farabi University, formerly the S. M. Kirov State University,
in Almaty.  The largest institution of higher learning in Kazakstan,
Al-Farabi had 1,530 teachers and about 14,000 students in 1994.  A second
university, Qaraghandy State University, had about 8,300 students in 1994.
In addition, technical secondary schools in five cities-Aqmola, Atyrau,
Pavlodar, Petropavl (formerly Petropavlovsk), and Taldyqorghan (formerly
Taldy-Kurgan)-have been reclassified as universities, increasing regional
access to higher education. Altogether, in 1994 Kazakstan had thirty-two
specialized institutes of higher learning, offering programs in agriculture,
business and economics, medicine, music, theater, foreign languages, and a
variety of engineering and technical fields.  In the area of technical
education, the republic has taken aggressive advantage of offers from
foreign states to educate young Kazaks. In 1994, about 3,000 young people
were studying in various foreign countries, including the United States.
One trend that particularly worries republic administrators is the
pronounced "Kazakification" of higher education, as the republic's Russians
either send their children to schools across the Russian border or find it
impossible to enroll them in local institutions.  Kazakstan's law forbids
ethnic quotas, but there is evidence of prejudicial admittance patterns.
The class that entered university in 1991, for example, was 73.1 percent
Kazak and only 13.1 percent Russian.

Health

The early years of independence have had a disastrous effect on public
health.  In the 1980s, Kazakstan had an extensively developed public health
system that delivered at least basic care without charge even to very remote
communities.  By 1993, however, Kazakstan rated below average or lower among
the former Soviet republics in medical system, sanitation, medical industry,
medical research and development, and pharmaceutical supply.

Health System

In 1994 the health system had twenty-nine doctors per 1,000 people and 86.7
other medical personnel per 1,000.  There were 1,805 hospitals in the
republic, with seventy-six beds per 1,000 people.  There were 3,129 general
health clinics and 1,826 gynecological and pediatric clinics.  Conditions
and services at these facilities varied widely. For example, it was common
for rural clinics and hospitals to be without running water.
The constitution of 1995 perpetuates the Soviet-era guarantee of free basic
health care, but financing has been a consistent problem. In 1992 funding
allotted to public health care was less than 1.6 percent of GDP, a level
characterized by the World Bank as that of an underdeveloped nation.
Because doctors and other medical personnel receive very low pay, many
medical professionals have moved to other republics-a large percentage of
Kazakstan's doctors are Russian or other non-Kazak nationalities, or have
gone into other professions.  Nonpayment even of existing low wages is a
common occurrence, as are strikes by doctors and nurses.
In the 1980s, Kazakstan had about 2,100 pharmaceutical manufacturing
facilities; drugs were also available from other Soviet republics or from
East European trading partners within the framework of the Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon).  Since independence, most such supply
connections have been terminated, and many domestic pharmaceutical plants
have closed, making some types of drugs virtually unavailable. As a result,
vaccination of infants and children, which reached between 85 and 93 percent
of the relevant age groups in 1990, decreased sharply in the early 1990s.
Kazakstan ran out of measles and tuberculosis vaccine in late 1991, and the
World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that more than 20 percent of
children were not receiving basic vaccinations in 1992.
To some extent, the provision of drugs has been taken over by a
government-owned company, Farmatsiya, which purchases about 95 percent of
the medical equipment and supplies for the government.  There have been
persistent complaints that Farmatsiya pays far too much for foreign
equipment and medicines in return for non-medical considerations.
Private medical practice is permitted in general medicine and in some
specialized fields; private surgical practice is forbidden, as is private
treatment of cancer, tuberculosis, venereal disease, pregnancy, and
infectious diseases.  Some types of private practice have been introduced
directly into the state clinics, creating a confusing situation in which
identical procedures are performed by the same personnel, some :or state
fees and others for higher private fees.  A substantial unofficial market
has developed in the distribution of hospital supplies; patients often are
expected to pay for the bandages, anesthesia, and other materials and
services required for the "free" treatment received at medical facilities.
Kazakstan has no system of medical insurance.
In the mid-1990s, the largest growth area in medicine was in services not
requiring large capital outlays by the practitioner.  This area, which
includes acupuncturists, fertility consultants, substance-abuse therapists,
physical therapists, and dentists, is only lightly regulated, and the
incidence of charlatanism is high.
Kazakstan has negotiated some international agreements to improve health
care.  In 1992 an association of scientific organizations specializing in
contagious diseases established its headquarters in Almaty.  The group,
which includes doctors and technicians from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, conducts joint research with scientists in
China, Mongolia, and Vietnam.  A 1995, medical cooperation agreement between
the Kazakstani and Iranian ministries of health called for exchanges of
medical students and experts, joint research projects, exchanges of
information on the latest medical advances (with an emphasis on contagious
diseases), and mutual natural-disaster assistance.

Health Conditions

The deterioration of the public health system has hit Kazakstan's population
hard.  Rates of infant mortality and overall mortality have risen in the
1990s as the fertility rate has decreased, contributing to the first drop in
the republic's population since World War II.  Infant mortality was
twenty-seven per 1,000 live births in 1991, the lowest rate among the five
Central Asian republics but higher than that for any non-Central Asian
republic.  A lack of medicines and facilities, together with a general
deterioration in physical environment and living standards, has promoted
outbreaks of several potentially epidemic diseases, including diphtheria
(its incidence increased from thirty-five cases in 1993 to 312 in the first
ten months of 1994), poliomyelitis (two cases in 1994), viral hepatitis, and
cholera (of which outbreaks occurred in 1992 and 1993).  The incidence of
tuberculosis has grown substantially, with as many as I 1,000 new cases and
2,000 deaths reported annually (see table 5, Appendix).  According to a 1995
report of the Contagious Disease Association in Almaty, a bubonic
plague-carrying rat population was moving from the Balkhash region, where
the plague is endemic, southward toward Almaty, whose municipal government
had taken no measures to control rats.
The first death in Kazakstan attributed to acquired immune deficiency
syndrome (AIDS) was reported in July 1993.  At that time, nineteen carriers
of the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) reportedly were registered in
Kazakstan.  Of that number, three were identified as homosexuals, two were
preschool children, and nine were foreign citizens, who were deported.  In
mid-1995, the WHO reported that twenty-seven people had been diagnosed with
AIDS or as HIV-positive between 1993 and 1995.  The Kazakstan AIDS
Prevention and Control Dispensary was established in Almaty in 1991, with
twenty-two branch offices and diagnostic laboratories elsewhere in the
republic. However, in the early 1990s diagnosis and treatment relied on
foreign funds and equipment because domestic health funds were barely
sufficient to maintain clinic buildings.  Fewer than 500 requests for
screening were received in 1993.  In mid-1995, the government set up the
Coordinating Council for Combating AIDS under the direct administration of
the Prime Minister.
The shortage of health care has put children at particular risk.
Approximately 15 percent of newborns in 1994 were unhealthy, most often
suffering from bronchiopulmonary and cardiovascular problems.  Measles,
diphtheria, brucellosis, and other childhood diseases became more prevalent
during the early 1990s.
Extensive pollution and degradation of large segments of the natural
environment have increased the strain on public health.  Both the air and
water of many of the large cities are badly polluted.  Three regions have
been identified as having particularly hazardous environments.  Oskemen
(formerly UstKamenogorsk) in the far northeast has been rated the third most
polluted city in the former Soviet Union. It has ten times the maximum
permitted levels of lead in the air and high concentrations of beryllium,
thallium, mercury, cadmium, antimony, and arsenic in the municipal water
supply. Just west of Oskemen, in Semey, a major site of Soviet nuclear
testing from 1949 to 1991, radiation has contaminated the air and soil.
Experts believe that the tests, which were conducted in the atmosphere until
1963, contaminated the environment of the entire country of Kazakstan.  In
one village, Kaynar, near the main proving ground, 140 of 3,400 children
were found to have been disabled since birth; in a random sample of another
600 of the town's children, all were found to be suffering ill health of one
form or another.  Radiation is believed the cause of such statistics.  The
third major area of environmental degradation is the Aral Sea Basin along
the southwestern border, where agricultural runoff and untreated sewage have
caused advanced pollution of groundwater (see Environmental Problems, this
ch.).
Water contamination is a serious environmental health hazard in Kazakstan
because of poor management of drinking water and insufficient sewage
treatment.  About 30 percent of rural communities obtain water from shallow
wells; the water is vulnerable to contamination by materials leached from
the surface.  As late as 1985, only 37 percent of homes had sewerage systems
and running water, and even schools and hospitals had primitive sanitary
systems that caused frequent outbreaks of intestinal illness.
The diet and lifestyle of many citizens, especially in the cities,
contribute further to poor health.  The average diet is high in meat and
salt and low in vegetables and fruits.  The hyperinflation of 1992-93 cut
deeply into family budgets, limiting both the variety and quantity of food
most ordinary people consume.  Smoking is almost universal, especially among
men, and alcoholism is common.  Other forms of substance abuse such as the
use of hemp, morphia products, and glue are common, especially among young
people.
Occupational hazards constitute another major health problem.  Especially
during the economic hardships of the early 1990s, public health authorities
refrained from measures such as closing polluting factories or restricting
the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water out of a fear of
accelerating the general decline in production.  Because of the dangers
posed by exposure to toxic smoke and fumes, lead and phosphate plants limit
workers to ten years of employment.  With little restriction on how they are
operated, factories in Kazakstan note high rates of morbidity, absenteeism,
and permanent disability among their employees.

Social Welfare

The Soviet system of social welfare, which remained in place in Kazakstan in
the early 1990s, presupposed a very high level of public services. The 1993
constitution maintained most of the assumptions of the Soviet era without
providing a clear mechanism for paying for "guaranteed" workers' benefits
such as free education, medical care, pensions, and vacations.  The
constitution ratified in 1995 somewhat reduces the list and scale of
guaranteed protections. However, remaining guarantees include a minimum
wage, pensions for the retired and the disabled, social benefits for orphans
and for people who are elderly or infirm, legal assistance, housing, and
what is called "social defense against unemployment."
In practice, social benefits have proven difficult to supply because of
financial considerations and the lack of a firm organizational structure for
service provision. For example, in the Soviet period housing was supplied by
the state or by employers. In 1990, housing began to be privatized, a
process almost completed by the mid-1990s. The result has been a healthy
resale market for existing housing.  In 1995 apartment costs in Almaty could
exceed 15,000 tenge (for value of the tenge, see Glossary) per square meter,
but there had been no corresponding boom in new housing construction, in
part because privatization of the land on which such housing would stand
remained a sensitive and unresolved issue. Consequently, the republic's
housing crisis, already acute in the Soviet period, has grown far worse. In
the mid-1990s, the housing shortage was especially serious in Almaty, where
tens of thousands were on waiting lists.  In 1995 housing construction
decreased by about 25 percent.
Perhaps the biggest problems have emerged in the areas of pensions, aid to
large families and other social assistance, and unemployment compensation.
An independent pension fund was created in 1991 on the basis of a social
insurance tax on enterprises (37 percent of wages in 1992) and contributions
by employees (1 percent of wages in 1992).  The national budget nominally
covers remaining deficits in the pension fund.  Pensions initially were set
at 60 percent of average pay, with minimal pensions available even to
elderly citizens such as housewives who never had drawn a salary.  However,
the high inflation of 1991-93 badly eroded existing pensions; the state has
continually adjusted pensions upward in a futile struggle to keep pace (see
Prices, Wages, and Currency, this ch.). In addition, the administration of
pensions has been reconfigured several times, leading to lengthy delays in
the payment even of the small sums pensioners are owed. Such delays have
prompted numerous public demonstrations.  Although the value of pensions has
shrunk dramatically in real terms, by 1992 government expenditures on them
were 4.7 percent of the GDP.  In March 1995, the government had to divert
632 million tenge from the national budget to cover pension arrears.
Similar problems have occurred in other categories of allowances to
citizens, especially lump-sum payments to newborns; child allowances to
large families (those with four or more children) and abandoned children;
assistance to single mothers; and assistance to the children of soldiers.
In 1992 payments in these categories reached 5 percent of Kazakstan's GDP.
Slow payment and the lag between inflation and cost-of-living adjustments
have had a particularly severe effect on Kazakstan's poorer families, for
some of who government subsidies provide as much as one-quarter of total
income. In 1994 about 2.1 million citizens received retirement pensions, and
about 800,000 received other types of pension.
Unemployment is perhaps the most difficult category of social problem
because it is a phenomenon that officially did not exist until 1991 and
still carries a considerable social stigma. As of January 1, 1995, some
85,700 people officially were registered as unemployed, about 55 percent of
them in rural areas.  However, this figure is commonly assumed to be too low
because many workers still are nominally employed, even though their
salaries have been reduced or stopped altogether under a variety of cutback
conditions.  In January 1995, some 230 enterprises, with a normal work force
of about 51,000 employees, were standing idle; by April 1995, the number had
grown to 376 enterprises with more than 90,000 employees.

The Economy

Although Kazakstan has the potential to be a wealthy nation, since
independence it has suffered consistent and precipitous economic decline.
Reporting problems and incompatibility of data make precise measurement of
the republic's economic shrinkage difficult, but it is generally accepted
that, by the mid-1990s, GDP had dropped to about half of what it was in
1990.  Despite the presence of rich deposits of natural resources, the
republic's industrial sector was developed in the Soviet period only in
specific areas such as metal processing, chemicals, textiles, and food
processing.  The semi-arid condition of much of Kazakstan's territory does
not preclude the export of wheat, meat, and some vegetables.

Natural Resources

Soviet geologists once boasted that Kazakstan was capable of exporting the
entire Periodic Table of Elements.  During the Soviet period, Kazakstan
supplied about 7 percent of the union's gold, or about twenty-four tons per
year.  Since independence, the republic has attracted large foreign partners
to develop existing or new mines.  President Nazarbayev announced intentions
to increase annual gold production to fifty or sixty tons by 1995 or 1996.
In 1989 the mines of Kazakstan yielded 23.8 million tons of iron ore and
151,900 tons of manganese.  The republic also possesses deposits of uranium,
chrome, titanium, nickel, wolfram, silver, molybdenum, bauxite, and copper.
Major phosphate mines feed fertilizer plants in the southern city of
Zhambyl.  Three major coal fields-Torghay, Qaraghandy, and Ekibastuz,
produced 140 million tons of hard coal in 1991, but by 1994 Kazakstan's
national total had dropped to 104 million tons.
In the mid-1990s, all minerals in Kazakstan belonged to the republic.
Authority for decisions concerning their development was delegated to the
prime minister, provided that these decisions were consistent with laws on
natural resource development.  The fundamental law "On Natural Resources and
the Development of Mineral Resources" was passed in May 1992, but its
treatment of foreign development of minerals is limited to two brief
paragraphs stipulating that foreign development be conducted in accordance
with international and national law.

Agriculture

In the early 1990s, agriculture was the second largest sector of the
economy, contributing about 36 percent of GDP and employing about 18 percent
of the workforce in 1993.  The climate and soil of most of Kazakstan are
best suited to the light grazing by which the nomadic Kazaks had
traditionally supported themselves, following herds of sheep, cattle,
camels, and horses about the open steppe.  Despite such natural advantages,
Soviet policy encouraged cultivation, especially in the northern parts of
the republic.  The major transformation occurred under premier Khrushchev
during the Virgin Lands program of the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Its
objectives were to reduce Soviet grain imports to Central Asia and settle
the remaining nomadic herdsmen of Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan.  Under that
program, 60 percent of Kazakstan's pastureland went under cultivation.  An
estimated 30 percent of that land was not suitable for cultivation, however,
and Khrushchev was ousted in 1964 after a series of crop failures in
Kazakstan.  In 1992 the total area under cultivation was 36.5 million
hectares, of which 2.3 million hectares were irrigated.  Much of this land
is dedicated to large-scale wheat farming, which requires intensive
capitalization and does not lend itself to privatization.  Even with the
emphasis on grain production, about 84 percent of the republic's
agricultural land, or about 187 million hectares, remains devoted to
pasturage, mainly of cattle and sheep.  Continuation of the Soviet system of
intensive livestock management, dependent on fodder more than on natural
grazing, has left much grazing land unused and has distorted cultivation in
favor of fodder production.
The primary agricultural regions are the north-central and southern parts of
the republic.  Grain production is especially important in the north-central
region, and cotton and rice predominate in the south.  Kazakstan also is a
major producer of meat and milk.
In 1993 only about 1.5 percent of agricultural land was in private hands.
Although some privatization had occurred, the bulk of Kazakstan's
agriculture remained organized in 7,000 to 8,000 state and collective farms
that averaged 35,000 to 40,000 hectares each. Many of those farms had moved
into a transitional stage of joint-stock ownership, private collectives, or
farming associations (see Post-Soviet Economic Developments, this ch.). The
state also has maintained control of agricultural inputs and equipment, as
well as some processing, marketing policies and operations. In the wake of
price liberalization, the mandated state share of agricultural sales has
decreased annually from the 1991 level of 70 percent.
Until the early 1990s, western Kazakstan was an important fishing area, but
sharply increased salination has made the Aral Sea sterile.  Fishing output
dropped from 105,300 tons in 1960 to 89,600 tons in 1989.  The current
figure is probably close to zero, judging by the decision of Soviet central
planners in 1990 to fly Arctic fish to Kazakstan for processing as a means
of maintaining local employment in that operation.