Kazakh SSR

The Kazakh SSR, also called Kazakhstan, was the second largest constituent republic of the Soviet Union, in central Asia. It was 1,063,200 square miles (2,717,300 square kilometres) in area and its capital was Alma-Ata.

The country is named after the Kazakh people, Turkic-speaking nomads who sustained a powerfull khanate[?] in the region before Russian and then Soviet domination. The Soviet Union's spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was located in this republic at Tyuratam, with the secret town of Leninsk[?] being constructed to accommodate the workers at the Cosmodrome.