FLAG OF KAZAKHSTAN: HISTORY AND MEANING - CULTURE VOCABULARY

The flag of Kazakhstan is the national flag of this Central Asian republic. It consists of a light blue cloth with a 32-ray golden sun in the central part. Framing the lower part of the sun is the silhouette of a steppe eagle, of the same color. Near the neck there is an artistic print, also yellow. It is the national flag since 1992.

Kazakhstan is a young country, but its history dates back many centuries. Central Asia received invasions from different groups, from the Turkic, through the Mongols to Islamization. Those changes were reflected through the flags that were flown. Finally, in the 19th century the territory became part of the Russian Empire.

Flag of Kazakhstan. (-xfi- The source code of this SVG is valid.This vector image was created with Inkscape.).

The history of Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union was the protagonist of successive flag changes. All adopted communist symbolism until independence and the change of flag.

The azure blue represents the Turkic peoples and has divine allusions, although it is also related to the sky. The print is the symbol of art and culture, while the eagle can identify Kazakhs as well as the power of the state. Finally, the sun is life and energy.

History of the flag

Different powers have succeeded one another in Kazakh territory since before the beginning of our era. In the first place, the steppes were inhabited by nomadic peoples from different cardinal points. In addition, the Huns were among the first to occupy the entire area in the 1st century BC.

Another of the first attempts at unity was in the second century, through the Xiongnu confederation. The purpose of this was the union of various nomadic tribes in Central Asia.

Jaganato Köktürk

The Turkic people began to extend their power in Central Asia with the Köktürk Jaganate, which was founded in the 6th century. Light blue since then was the color of the Turks and today it remains on the Kazakh flag. At that time, one of the flags was a light blue cloth that kept the silhouette of an animal's snout in green.

Flag of the Jaganato Köktürk. (Dolatjan).

The Köktürk Jaganate eventually divided into states to the east and west, but they were reunited in the 7th century. This fragmented again and was succeeded by different Turkic states, such as the Oghuz Yagbu.

Later, in the 8th and 9th centuries, Islam began to spread in the region. By the 9th century the Khanate Qarajánida was formed, which converted to Islam.

Mongolian rule

Later, the territory was conquered by the Khanate of Kara-Kitai, which was made up of Mongols from China. In the middle of the 13th century the State of Khorazm was established, which lasted until the Mongol invasion by the forces of Genghis Khan.

The Mongol rule in this territory was exercised through the Golden Horde, which was the Mongol state that was established in the west of the empire. Its composition was tribal and remained until the 15th century, when different khanates such as the Kazakh were founded.

The symbol of the Golden Horde consisted of a white cloth on which red silhouettes were imposed.

Flag of the Golden Horde. (1339). (Vorziblix).

Kazakh Khanate

The greatest antecedent of a state for Kazakhstan occurred in 1465 with the founding of the Kazakh Khanate. This took place in the southeast of the current country, but it was expanding in its first half century of existence to various regions of Central Asia.

This khanate represented one of the most important historical moments in the future of the country. Although it did not always maintain a government with a single head, power was divided between the Zhuzes, the Middle and the Low. The dissolution of the khanate came when these three factions were individually incorporated into the Russian Empire.

The current flag of Kazakhstan is clearly inspired by the one maintained by the Kazakh Khanate. At the time, its color was light blue, it had three five-pointed stars near the mast and in the center it had a series of white criss-cross lines.

Flag of the Kazakh Khanate. (Traced by User: Slashme from Image: Kazakh Khanate.gif).

Russian empire

Russian commercial influence came from the seventeenth century. However, it was not until the 18th century that the khanates began to yield to the Russian troops, who entered conflicts and provided protection for many of them.

Between 1822 and 1848 the three entities of the Kazakh Khanate gave in, to which the Russians conquered territories. It was not until 1863 that the Russian Empire decided to annex several areas and created two entities.

Kazakhstan was mainly in the General Government of the Steppes. All this movement forced the sedentarism of many tribes, in addition to the Russification of the place.

The flag of the Russian Empire is the same tricolor of Pan-Slavic colors that currently exists in that country. The colors white, blue and red have identified him ever since. Sometimes the royal shield in gold was added in the central part.

Flag of the Russian Empire. (Zscout370, via Wikimedia Commons).

Alash autonomy

The collapse of the czar regime in the Russian Empire came definitively in 1917. In that year, a group of secular nationalists called Alash Orda, formed an independent government in the area, called the Alash Autonomy. This was maintained for almost three years until in 1920 the territory fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks.

The flag used by Alash's Autonomy consisted of a red cloth with a yellow crescent and star on top. Very similar to that of the Ottoman Empire, this flag represented the most important symbol of Islam.

Flag of the Autonomy of Alash. (1917-1920). (Walden69).

Soviet Union

The end of the small project of the Kazakh state occurred in 1920, with the final entry of Soviet Russia and its incorporation into the territory. That year, the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established, bringing together both Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.

Its flag was a red cloth, with a rectangle of the same color but with a yellow border. Inside it the initials of the entities were located in two alphabets: Cyrillic and Latin.

Flag of the Kyrgyz Soviet Autonomous Socialist Republic (1920-1925). (Tohaomg).push ({});

Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

Despite being separated as an entity, the Kazakh Republic was still part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was not until 1936 that the territory separated from it, becoming one more autonomous republic of the Soviet Union. This became the second republic in the country for its size.

The first flag chosen took a year to apply, until 1937. This symbol was again a red cloth with the sickle and a hammer on the left side. Two inscriptions with republican names were concentrated under it: the first in Latin alphabet and the bottom in Cyrillic.

Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. (1937-1940). (No machine-readable author provided. Wassily assumed (based on copyright claims).).

1940 flag

In 1940 the first change of flag of this republic took place. In this case, the color darkened and the hammer and sickle gained relevance as they increased in size. After the modification of the alphabet of the country's languages to Cyrillic, both inscriptions were written in that alphabet. They occupied the entire surface from left to right.

Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. (1940-1953). (No machine-readable author provided. Wassily assumed (based on copyright claims).).

1953 flag

The aesthetics of Soviet symbols changed over time and became uniform. In 1953 it was Kazakhstan's turn, as the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet approved a flag in tune with the rest of the country's republics.

This flag was, again, a red cloth, which kept a stylized version of the hammer and sickle with the star. The difference was the addition of a light blue horizontal stripe at the bottom.

The new blue stripe occupied two ninth parts of the flag, and was separated from the end of it by a red stripe that occupies one ninth of the surface. The specifications for the construction of the flag were approved in 1981 and this remained in force until the approval of the new flag, already in independent Kazakhstan, in 1992.

Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. (1953-1992). (No machine-readable author provided. Urmas assumed (based on copyright claims).).

Republic of Kazakhstan

The change in the Soviet Union had begun to be implemented through perestroika and glasnost, by its new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. A succession of leaders of the Soviet Politburo in Kazakhstan expressed the discontent of the population, until in 1989 the Kazakh Nursultan Nazabayev took the leadership.

The independence of Kazakhstan was not accelerated like those of the other countries around it. In June 1990 Moscow declared the sovereignty of the central government towards Kazakhstan.

In this republic Kazakhs and Russians began to clash. Nazarbayev was in favor of a union of sovereign states to maintain the unit of those that made up the Soviet Union.

In the face of the 1991 coup attempt, Nazarbayev remained ambivalent. After the defeat of the movement, he continued to support Gorbachev because he thought that independence would be economically suicidal. At the same time, he began to manage the country's economy in a more generalized way.

Finally, Nazarbayev was elected president and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he proclaimed his independence on December 16, 1991.

Contest for the creation of the flag

The hammer and sickle flag remained in effect until 1992 when a competition was held to replace it. The Supreme Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan formed a working group for the preparation of new symbols on January 2 of that year. His means of work was to hold a national contest to define them.

After receiving around 453 designs for the flag, 245 for the shield and 51 proposals for the anthem, there were four months of work to define the new symbols. Among the finalists, there were different considerations. First, the finalist proposals differed from the 1952 Soviet flag design.

The color blue began to be recognized as the Kazakh color, representing honesty, a clear sky, and a prosperous future. This was contrasted with the red of the Soviet Union that could adduce a threat or rebellion.

Symbols under consideration

Given that, the debate turned to what symbols the flag should have. Among the designs considered finalists, different options emerged. Sultanbekov MT's project proposed an eight-pointed star, made up of two squares. This would be a symbol of vast travel, which aspires to represent eternity and can be seen in different mausoleums.

Another of the symbols raised was the crescent and star, present in the flags of neighbors such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Rather than representing Islam, on a blue background this symbol would have completed the landscape of the sky. In addition, it could have identified with the high position that Kazakhstan should occupy in the world.

Finally, the symbols chosen were three: the sun, the eagle and the stamp on one end. The symbols had to be stylized enough so that they could be represented and, furthermore, identified from afar.

The winning design was by artist Shaken Niyazbekov, accompanied by architect Shota Ualikhanov, designer Timur Suleimenov, and artist Erbolat Tulepbaev. The flag came into effect on July 4, 1992.

Meaning of the flag

The Kazakh flag features great representations in its chosen symbols. The color blue is the one that most lends itself to having different meanings. Historically, it has been a symbol of the Turkic peoples and represented the Kazakh Khanate. However, it has been associated more with purity, tranquility and the sacred sky that covers the country.

Furthermore, the color blue has also been seen as the symbol of peace and freedom, as well as the ethnic union among the peoples of Kazakhstan. Blue brings everything together and therefore aspires to a future and prosperity.

On the other hand, the sun is a source of energy and life, as well as symbolizing abundance. Its rays are those that illuminate the grains of the steppe. The print is a small representation of Kazakh art and culture, which manifest themselves as autonomous.

Finally, the eagle is the symbol that represents the power of the State, in addition to independence and strength. This emulates the symbols of the Mongolian Genghis Khan.

References

Adibayeva, A. and Melich, J. (2014). Nation-building and cultural policy in Kazakhstan. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 9 (10). Recovered from eujournal.org.
Aydıngün, A. (2008). State symbols and national identity construction in Kazakhstan. Right Beller-Hann, İldiko. The Past as Resource in the Turkic Speaking World, Wünzburg: Ergon Verlag. Recovered from ergon-verlag.de.
Chebotarev, A. and Karin, E. (2002). The policy of Kazakhization in state and government institutions in Kazakhstan. The Nationalities Question in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Recovered from cambridge.org.
Grousset, R. (1970). The empire of the steppes: a history of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. Recovered from books.google.com
Omelicheva, M. (2014). Nationalism and Identity Construction in Central Asia: Dimensions, Dynamics, and Directions. Lexington Books. Recovered from books.google.com.
Smith, W. (2018). Flag of Kazakhstan. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Recovered from britannica.com.
Suleimenov, A. (June 5, 2017). National Flag of Kazakhstan. Qazaqstan Tarihy. Recovered from e-history.kz.

FLAG OF KAZAKHSTAN: HISTORY AND MEANING - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025