Kazakhstan [antikvár]

We live in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. We-Kazakhs and Russians, Ukrainians and Uigurs, Tatars and Byelorussians, Uzbeks, Dungans and others-make up more than 100 nationalities and ethnic groups. "We" alsó includes the authors of this book-a Kazakh and a Russian. We grew up in Kazakhstan, both village lads, but one came from a Kazakh village, the other from a Russian village. Our parents were illiterate. But both of us finished college and started our careers on a newspaper. When we decided to write this book, we toured all the 19 regions that make up Kazakhstan. Our notebooks are crammed with enough material for a dozen books. So we had to weed ruthlessly, leaving only the main things, the most typical features. Finding the Kazakh SSR on a map is easy. It stretches for 3,000 kilometres from the River Volga and the Caspian Sea in the West right up to the Altai Mountains in the East. It extends for almost 2,000 kilometres from the Siberian plains in the North to the Central Asian republics in the South. Leaving aside the Russian Federation, all the other Union republics constituting the USSR could fit neatly into the territory of Kazakhstan and there would still be somé room left. On its territory Kazakhstan could easily accommodate Great