Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan

by Jonathan Aitken

Kazakhstan is colossal in size, complicated in its history, colourful in its culture and is a nation state that most outsiders know little of. Much of the existing narrative revolves around the country's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. But his life can only be understood in the context of the land in which he was born, raised and became a leader. For centuries the tribes of Kazakhstan had been plundered and conquered by foreign invaders. The most ruthless of these were the 20th century leaders of the Soviet Union, but after its collapse it was Nazarbayev who emerged as the new President of the nation state. Jonathan Aitken's masterly book is a riveting account of how Kazakhstan has capitalised on its natural resources (including oil) to become one of the great economic success stories of the modern era.
Nazarbayev himself is widely admired as a political leader and strategist, having overcome extraordinary crises including hyperinflation, food shortages and the emigration of two million people. However, his record on human rights is less than perfect and the independence of the judiciary and the press are questionable. Corruption is also widespread in Kazakh society, making it an easy target for Ali G in his movie Borat. The obstacles faced in becoming a successful economy are described and examined honestly in this truly fascinating story.

Genres: Kazakhstan, History, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics

269 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2009

About the author

Jonathan William Patrick Aitken is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for 24 years, and a former British government Cabinet minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months.

Reviews

[Ethan Coffey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Nazerbayev fellow seems to be a canny operator. Fascinating insight into the modern history of a country I knew little about. Aitken obviously writing sympathetically, so a cursory scan of the wikipedia page afterwards was useful for hearing more of the corruption/authoritarianism charges. Although many of these happened after the writing of the book.

Interesting to see firstly the ascent of a leader from humble beginnings. But secondly the unique position of soviet leaders at the fall of the union and the move to privatisation. Nazerbayev seems to have handled this enormous shift with guile and strategy, leading Kazakstan to a comparatively beneficial position. His democratic credentials are questionable, but seems to be relatively in favour of religious tolerance, was notable in his Nuclear disarmament to the benefit of his people economically, and the encouragement of foreign investment and education of Kazakhs in the outside world.

Aitken makes his story readable and engaging, cramming a great deal of information in while still giving you the narrative arc of Nazerbayevs life, Kazakhstan's founding, and this period around the fall of the Soviet Empire.

[Liam Bomar · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the very few books in the entire world to ever be written on the Kazakh people and their nation known as Kazakhstan. This book goes into great detail on various aspects of Kazakhstan as well as former president Kazakhstan.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought on Kindle, Dec. 2015. Wanted to read to get a feel for Kazakhstan & the President & how locals might feel about him. Interesting read, man & history. Too bad it was written in 2009, would be interesting to see what would be said about the last 6 years as well.
I knew this book would be slanted in favor of Nzarbayev but I was pleasantly surprised at some of the criticism, bad decisions, etc. also included.

I was interested to read about Nazarbayev's son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev's dealings, accusations and crimes he was accused of, as I had read in Feb. 2015 of Aliyev's supposed suicide in an Austrian Jail.

Lots of interesting history, including a KGB Coup against Russian President Yeltsin & Breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The book describes an attempt by KGB chairman Krychkov, Prime Minister Pavlov & Defense Minister Yazov that failed, because Yeltsin had gotten so drunk while w/ Nazarbayev the day before in Kazakhstan, he (Yeltsin) was late leaving Almaty & the orders to shoot down the plane taking off from Almaty at 5 pm to Moscow, were aborted after an hour of waiting, because there was no contingency orders for delays.

Nazarbayev is credited w/ disarmament of the 4th largest concentration of nuclear weapons (after the US, Russia & Ukraine) with financial offers from different neighboring Islamic States on offer. He was granted a $140 million economic aid package from the US and in 1994 President Clinton granted $400 million in US aid from with taxation agreements to many US companies who were making investments in Kazakhstan.

Lots of very interesting events & decisions as well as insight into Nazarybayev.

Would recommend to anyone interested in Kazakhstan recent history and/or President Nazarbayev.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting look at the president of Kazakhstan. It also educated me on some of the Soviet Era politics and way of doing things.