proper noun

• A republic in central Asia, on the southern border of Russia, extending from the Caspian Sea eastwards to the Altai Mountains and China; population 17,600,000 (estimated 2015); languages, Kazakh (official), Russian; capital, Astana.

The Turkic tribes of Kazakhstan were overrun by the Mongols in the 13th century, and the region was eventually absorbed into the Russian empire. Kazakhstan formed a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, becoming an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991