Kazakhstan was not among the Soviet republics seeking the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, twenty years of independence have turned it into a state which fares well politically and economically continuing to focus on cooperation, above all with Russia.
“Borderland” of the USSR
In the Soviet Union the Kazakh Republic was a typical “borderland” which was governed by a Moscow “ruler”-- the Republic’s Russian Second Secretary of the Communist Party.
Moscow devised plans of economic development of the Kazakh SSR which after reclaiming the virgin lands was known as one of the “cereal granaries” of the country, rich in mineral deposits: Ekibastuz coal, Mangyshlak oil, Karachaganak oil and gas condensate plus the related industries. On the territory of the republic were located large military training grounds including the nuclear one near Semipalatinsk and also the Baikonur spacecraft launching site.
When the USSR collapsed
Management by decree from the Center, concentration of real power in Russian hands did not make the national elite happy. The December (1986) events in Alma-Ata most clearly demonstrated the discontent of the titular nation. Thousands of Kazakhs took to the streets of the capital to protest against the appointment of a Russian party leader as the First Secretary of the Republic’s Communist Party. The riots were suppressed but the underlying reasons remained unsolved.
Certainly Kazakhstan reacted positively to the Union Republics’ desire for independence and in December 1990 the Declaration on State Sovereignty was adopted .However, the Prime Minister and then President of the Republic N. Nazarbaev understood that Kazakhstan could hardly survive without the Russian economic support – at least at the initial stage. Therefore Alma-Ata took full advantage of the joint statements made by Presidents B. Yeltsin and N. Nazarbaev in August (1991): “On Guarantees of Stability of Sovereign States” and “On Common Economic Space”.
The President of Kazakhstan was a steadfast supporter of political and economic reforms in the USSR. The fact that the negotiations on the Draft Union Treaty in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow were thwarted and that the meeting in the Bialowieza Forest in December 1991 was held by the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia without N. Nazarbaev hurt the political ambitions of Kazakhstan’s leader, but those were difficult times and it would not have been proper to take offence. N. Nazarbaev got the leaders of the former Soviet Republics to convene a summit meeting in Alma-Ata on December 21, 1991, where it was decided to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). After that on December 26, 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Kazakhstan proclaimed sovereign independence of the Republic.
The First Steps Taken by Sovereign Kazakhstan
Formation of the statehood in Kazakhstan started with “the privatization of power” by the national elite. The republic witnessed speedy “kazakhization” in politics and economy, education and science, culture and art, in short – in all the spheres of the country’s life. This resulted in a mass exodus of Russians and other Slavic people from Kazakhstan. In the early years of independence about five million people left the country, those who in the Soviet times had been sent there to tap the virgin lands and natural resources. The Kazakhs took hold of the absolute majority of leading positions in all echelons of power. The Russian presence in them was purely nominal and strictly regulated.
In order to avoid the negative consequences of “kazakhization” the leadership of the republic had to speedily restore the traditional inter-ethnic and inter-confessional consensus by raising the prestige of the Russian Orthodox Church and setting up the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan.
The first stage of the formation of the Kazakhstan statehood was beset by acute socio-economic problems – a two-fold drop in the GDP, catastrophic reduction in the living standards of the population. Only the long-standing industrial cooperation with Russia could help Alma-Ata cope with the economic crisis. In 1992-1993 Kazakhstan was still in the ruble zone; it signed the Agreement with Russia “On Deregulation of Economic Activity”, initiated a joint meeting of the governments of the two countries to coordinate the economic activity.
At the same time Alma-Ata took the same road as other post-Soviet republics – it started establishing trade, economic and investment relations with the West, above all with the USA. Foreign companies obtained access to virtually all the resources and raw materials of the country.
Foreign economic relations were effectively supplemented by the expansion of foreign political contacts of Kazakhstan in almost all the areas. President N. Nazarbaev and his young but highly professional diplomatic counselors worked hard to enhance the role of the Republic in regional and international affairs. During that very period Alma-Ata put forward the idea to convene a Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia which was successfully implemented. At the same time was propagated, though in the most general form, the idea of establishing the Eurasian Union on the territory of the CIS.
Summing up Twenty Years of Kazakhstan’s Independence
In the first decade of independence the leadership of Kazakhstan managed to stabilize the economic and domestic policy situation in the country, to consolidate the young statehood. It was achieved through the formation of the social market economy and balanced domestic and external policy conducted by the President.
In the multilateral relations on the territory of the CIS Alma-Ata in cooperation with Moscow and Minsk consistently promoted the development of integration processes on the post-Soviet space. Kazakhstan became a member of the Customs Union, the Eurasian Economic Community (the EurAsEC), the Common Economic Space (the CES) and also the CSTO and the SCO.
At the same time Kazakhstan launched an active trade, economic and investment cooperation with China as well as with the USA and West European countries.
Certainly the establishment of the independent Kazakh state was not without problems, both real and imaginary. Among the former was broad access of Western business to the key resource industries of the country. Alma-Ata soon realized that foreign technologies and investments were not always a blessing. A few questions arose with regard to foreign businesses. To illustrate, some Western companies employed their specialists in Kazakhstan only for 28 days a month and then sent them on paid “holidays abroad” in order to avoid local taxation. As for holiday expenses, they were posted to the account “investments in production”. Foreign business in the republic also had some other “peculiarities”. But on the whole economic cooperation with the West has brought to Kazakhstan billions of dollars in investments and financial dividends.
As to the imaginary problems, Alma-Ata was unjustifiably concerned over some “potential threat of annexation to Russia of the Northern Kazakhstan territory” which was inhabited mainly by Kazakh citizens of Russian and other Slavic origin sent there in Soviet times to tap the virgin lands. Contrary to the opinion of many Kazakh citizens, the leadership of the country began to implement a very questionable and costly project: it moved the capital of the country from Alma-Ata “located too far to the south” to Astana “located in the geographical center of the republic”.
On the whole the Russian-Kazakh sovereign interaction has been a success, based on principles of mutual interest and benefit.
Future Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan
It is no secret that positive results of the Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation were to a certain extent achieved due to the personal commitment of president N. Nazarbaev to the economic integration with Russia and other willing CIS countries.
The Kazakhstan leader who for many years has been efficiently navigating the Republic’s ship of state draws clear lines of our future bilateral cooperation. In his book “Kazakhstan – 2030” he writes: “We will develop and strengthen relations based on trust and equality with Russia, our nearest and historically friendly neighbor”. The whole twenty years’ experience of Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation only confirms this forecast of the state leader.
At the same time there is no denying the fact that N. Nazarbaev has been at the helm of power for as long as three decades. The whole current Kazakhstan governance model is tailored entirely for him. So far there have been no visible “successors” to the state leader, nor can they emerge in the current political scenario. The fact that high-ranking officials are regularly rotated and replaced by the president in fact deprives the potential candidates of any chances to demonstrate their abilities. The attempts of the “self-nominated ones” from the family or the inner political circle to make a name for themselves have inevitably ended in failure.
It is common knowledge that many people of the Kazakh political and clannish elite do not share the political views of the state leader, in particular his orientation towards active cooperation with Russia and other CIS countries in the framework of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space.
The balance of power in the republic on these and other key issues has lately been quite fluid. There are political forces oriented to the external influence factors, first of all to China and the USA. There are visible signs of the beginning of a latent struggle for the shortest cut to the top.
In short, tough times may be lying ahead of Kazakhstan when the Kazakhstan governance basic model devised by N.Nazarbaev will have to stand a rigorous resistance test.
Russia’s intentions towards Kazakhstan are clear and not subject to political fluctuations: Moscow stands for mutually beneficial cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral, within the CIS and in the international arena as a whole.
Hopefully, in the years to come the Russia-Kazakhstan cooperation will remain beneficial and will always serve the fundamental interests of our countries and peoples.
