%0 Dataset
%T Natural Conditions and Natural Resources of the Soviet Union: Kazakhstan Volume
%J Arid Land Ecology and Resources Science Data Center
%I Arid Land Ecology and Resources Science Data Center(data.dcxjegi.cn)
%U https://data.dcxjegi.cn/portal/metadata/79ab261e-783d-47fc-bdb4-cbb8cf7f52eb
%W NCDC
%R 10.12389/ariddc.02418
%A Documentation Information Center
%K ;
%X Among the fifteen regional volumes in the series Natural Conditions and Natural Resources of the USSR, this is the only volume devoted entirely to a single Union Republic, namely Kazakhstan.In the past, Kazakhstan was inhabited primarily by nomadic peoples whose lives were harsh and entirely dependent on the caprices of nature. A single zhut (for example, the loss of forage caused by an ice crust covering the pastures) could result in the death of millions of sheep and leave hundreds of thousands of people facing hunger and death. The vast territory of Kazakhstan remained insufficiently explored for a long time, since crossing these roadless and waterless regions on horseback required several months. The situation began to change only after the first Five-Year Plans, when major railway lines, including the Turkestan-Siberian Railway and the Petropavlovsk-Balkhash line, linked the republic, and new industrial centers such as Karaganda, Balkhash, Zhezkazgan, and many other cities were established. The country was transformed beyond recognition; not only its appearance changed, but its people as well. In a land where literacy had once been below three percent, a large national intelligentsia emerged. In this republic, once considered poor in mineral-resource prospects, nearly all elements of Mendeleev's periodic table are now being extracted, and many of them occur in deposits of exceptional richness and reserves. Nature itself remains as unpredictable and enigmatic as ever, but humanity's understanding of it has changed, enabling us under modern conditions both to combat its adverse effects and to utilize its resources in new ways.Up to the present, only two comprehensive scientific works on the nature of Kazakhstan have been published. The first is Kazakhstan, issued in 1950 by the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a comprehensive physical-geographical survey. The second is An Outline of the Physical Geography of Kazakhstan, published in