nPosted October 25, 2019
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Key Points
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nToday is the anniversary of Kazakhstan’s 1990 declaration of sovereignty, apart from the Soviet Union. A bit more than a year later, when the USSR collapsed, Kazakhstan declared independence.
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nWhen this Central Asian nation achieved independence, the Kazakhs were a minority, and many people in the nation did not speak the Kazakh language. There were large numbers of ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan, and just about everyone in the country spoke Russian; other peoples, such as Ukrainians and Germans, also lived there.
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| Above and below, Kazakhs in traditional costume. |
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| These Kazakhstani people have Polish heritage and work hard to maintain their Polish traditions. There are more than 130 different |
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nBy the way, people of every ethnicity who live in Kazakhstan are called Kazakhstanis. Only those with a particular genetic and cultural heritage are Kazakhs.
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nThe government set out to change the Kazakh minority status. Many street names were changed to earlier Kazakh names, Kazakh was named the state language, and the alphabet used for Kazakh was changed from Cyrillic script (Russian) to Latin (the alphabet we use). Even though the Russian language remains the co-official language and is used in many places in Kazakhstan, officials hope to use education to achieve the goal that the nation’s people are trilingual, fluent in Kazakh, Russian, and English!
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nOther steps meant to bring Kazakhs into the majority included encouraging people to have large families and inviting Kazakh expats to return “home” and settle. It looks like these techniques have worked at least to some extent, because now Kazakhs make up about 65% of the Kazakhstani population.
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| Above, Kazakhs who live in Canada but proudly declare their ethnicity. Below, Kazakh children from around the world who traveled to the Kazakhstani capital, Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), for Summer School and exposure to Kazakh language, history, and culture. |
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nAlso on this date:
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nHurricane Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands
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nInternational Artists Day
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nnSt. Crispin’s Day
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nWorld Pasta Day
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nArtist Pablo Picasso’s birthday
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nConstitution Day in Lithuania
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nSourest Day
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nRead for the Record
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Birthdays of comedians (and much more) Samantha Bee and Nancy Cartwright
Birthdays of comedians (and much more) Samantha Bee and Nancy Cartwrightn
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nAnniversary of a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates
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Frankenstein Friday
n(Last Friday of October)
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Frankenstein Friday
n(Last Friday of October)
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nPlan ahead:
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nCheck out my Pinterest boards for:
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovember holidays
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nNovember birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in November
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