Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic

History

The Kazakh ASSR was originally created as the Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (; {{langx|kk|Қырғыз Автономиялық Социалистік Кеңес Республикасы|Qyrğyz Avtonomiialyq Sotsialistık Keñes Respublikasy

Before the Russian Revolution, Kazakhs in Russia were known as "Kirghiz-Kazaks" or simply "Kirghiz" (and the Kyrgyzes as "Kara-Kirghiz"). This practice continued into the early Soviet period, and thus the Kirghiz ASSR was a national republic for Kazakhs. However, on 15–19 June 1925 the Fifth Kazakh Council of Soviets decided to rename the republic the Kazak Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic. The capital of the former Kirghiz ASSR, Ak-Mechet, was retained as the seat of the Kazak ASSR but was renamed Kzyl-Orda, from the Kazakh "red centre". In 1927 or 1929 the city of Alma-Ata was designated as the new capital of the ASSR. In February 1930, there was an anti-Soviet insurgency in the village of Sozak. On 5 December 1936, the ASSR was detached from the RSFSR and made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a full union republic of the Soviet Union.

Geography

The Kazak ASSR that succeeded the recently expanded Kirghiz ASSR included all of the territory making up the present-day Republic of Kazakhstan plus parts of Uzbekistan (the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast), Turkmenistan (the north shore of Kara-Bogaz-Gol) and Russia (parts of what would become Orenburg Oblast). These territories were transferred from the Kazak ASSR over the following decade.

The administrative subdivisions of the ASSR changed several times in its history. In 1928 the guberniyas, administrative districts inherited from the Kirghiz ASSR were eliminated and replaced with 13 okrugs and raions. In 1932, the republic was divided into six new larger oblasts. These included:

• Aktyubinsk Oblast (capital: Aktyubinsk);
• Alma-Ata (capital: Alma-Ata);
• East Kazak Oblast (capital: Semipalatinsk);
• Karaganda Oblast (capital: Petropavlovsk);
• South Kazak Oblast (capital: Chimkent);
• West Kazak Oblast (capital: Uralsk). On 31 January 1935, yet another territorial division was implemented which included the six oblasts listed above plus a new Karkaralinsk okrug.

Notes

References

References

1. {{Cite EB1911
2. (1991). "The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's who". Burke's Peerage Limited.
3. Vladimir Babak, et al., eds. ''Political Organization in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: Sources and Documents''. Routledge, 2004. p. 90. {{ISBN. 9781135776817
4. Niccolò Pianciola. (2013). "Interpreting an insurgency in Soviet Kazakhstan: The OGPU, Islam and Qazaq 'Clans' in Suzak, 1930". Islam, Society and States Across the Qazaq Steppe.
5. Grigol Ubiria. ''Soviet Nation-Building in Central Asia: The Making of the Kazakh and Uzbek Nations''. Routledge, 2015. p. 124. {{ISBN. 9781317504351