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Comment by cocodill | Hacker News Reader

you're a bit wrong. at the time of the collapse of the USSR, the population of Kazakhstan consisted of 40% Kazakhs and 38% Russians, 6% Germans and 5% Ukrainians, plus other ethnic groups. Kazakhs were not an absolute majority.

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At the time of the collapse of the USSR

As far as attempts a spin are concerned -- this one's really quite ludicrous.

Howabout we try the present tense:

  Ethnic Kazakhs make up 71%, Russians 14.9%, Uzbeks 3.3%, Ukrainians 1.9%, Uygur 1.5%, Germans 1.1%, Tatars 1.1%, and others 5.2%.

these are early nineties problems, so you have to look at data from the early nineties.

Then perhaps you should try communicating more clearly.

When someone says "Kazakhstan is comprised of ...", and you say "This is wrong" -- you're obviously referring to the present tense.

Thanks for the valuable linguistic advice, but perhaps you should read how that discussion started.

Thanks for the valuable linguistic advice

Anytime.

During the Soviet Union the ethnic Russians came from Russia, lived in the large cities, had most of the high paying jobs and then left when Kazakhstan had their independence. They were colonized and now they have their own country.

if you're talking about colonization, the second sentence should note that they brought civilization to those places.

In fact, even before the Soviet Union, since the 1740s, these steppes were part of the Russian Empire, and Russians built cities there.

They brought civilization to those places.

That's the same nonsense justification used in support of all colonial projects.

Simply put - it's a lie.

I hardly met any people there who would swap their house and car for a yurt and horse. They must be living in this one lie.

As if they care what you think is best for them.

They had civilization. The Islamic golden age touched Central Asia, The Silk Road passed through Central Asia, bringing wealth and ideas to the region. The people of the Kazakh steppe were largely nomadic but they had civilization. The Russians came and forced them to live in cities and work largely non-arable land. The Russians certainly kick started their process of industrialization, but they had civilization.

No, it is not quite so. The real wealth and prosperity was to the south, in Bukhara and Samarkand. The territory of (present-day) Kazakhstan was not particularly affected. Some rudiments of civilization were in Kazakhstan in the pre-Mongol era. After that nothing much happened there, there was a steppe where nomads grazed their cattle. I think that's where the history of those you call “they” begins. Great development and industrialization took place only after WWII.

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