Features of the functioning of the sovereign demographic system of Kazakhstan: the defi ning role of the Kazakh ethnic group (2009-2019)

Short description

One of the most important criteria for Kazakhstan’s independence was the acquisition of not only political, but also demographic sovereignty, which gives the state the opportunity to develop on its own demographic basis. As a result, the problem of forming Kazakhstan’s demographic system, the core of which is the Kazakh ethnic group, is of paramount importance. The formation of the sovereign demographic system of the Republic of Kazakhstan occurred not only as a result of demographic evolutions of the Kazakhs, but also changes in the number of other peoples. Therefore, the demographic history of an ethnic group cannot be studied outside the national context. To study the ethnodemographic situation in Kazakhstan in a long-term retrospective, the authors identifi ed four ethnic groups: Kazakhs, Russians, Ukrainians, and Germans. This choice is explained by the fact that these ethnic groups made up the vast majority of the population of Kazakhstan and its regions in all historical periods. They determined and determine the vector of development of both national and regional ethnodemographic processes.