ABSTRACT
Kazakhstan and four Central Asian republics have large Russian populations whose situations vary from republic to republic. Northern Kazakhstan, which borders Siberia, was subjected to gradual Russian penetration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Waves of Russian and Ukrainian settlers pushed Kazakhs out of many areas, to the point that until recently Russians outnumbered the Kazakh population. Large Russian settlements were also established in the southeastern corner of Kazakhstan, along the Syr-Darya River, and in northern Kyrgyzstan. The Slavs dominated not only mining and industry, two fields established by Russian capital, but also agriculture; only cattle-breeding remained fully in the hands of the traditionally nomadic Kazakhs and Kyrgyzes. Local cities most often developed out of Russian outposts, since the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyzes did not have an urban culture.
