Throughout history, the vast steppes of Kazakstan have been claimed by one empire or another. The nomads living there hardly noticed. Their primary loyalty was to their extended family; their primary concern the care of their herds, particularly the horses which have been famous for over 3,000 years. All that changed with the coming of the Russians and, later, the Soviet Union. Over a million Kazaks died of starvation under Stalin; a million more were forcibly resettled to Siberia as Stalin moved in Russians to colonize Kazakstan the way Europeans had colonized the Great Plains States. Today Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakstan’s president, is trying to build a stable nation-state and to take advantage of Kazakstan’s abundant natural resources.

The Kazaks did not begin professing Islam until the 16th century, and were not completely converted until the 1800s. Even today the Kazak practice a brand of folk Islam which bears little resemblance to the Wahhabi Fundamentalism of the Taliban or Islamic Movement of Turkestan. There have been some efforts among Wahhabi groups to recruit Kazak youth, but so far these appear to have met with little success. Still, the threat of radical Islam has been used by Nazarbayev to press for greater state control over religious outlets. It has also led to a good deal of cooperation between Kazakstan’s official Orthodox and Moslem leaders. (Kazakstan’s Russians, some 35% of the population, are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christians).

Kazakstan possesses enormous reserves of fossil fuels, but is hampered by its landlocked geographical position. If all goes well Kazakstan could be exporting 1.7 million barrels of oil a day by 2010 – far more than Russia’s current pipelines can handle. There have been various plans for new pipelines, but there are political concerns attendant on all of them. Both Iran and Turkey have expressed interest in (and drawn up plans for) pipelines connecting their ports and refineries to the Caspian oil fields. French petrogiant TotalFinaElf has begun a feasibility study aimed at laying a natural gas pipeline between Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran. This link would be considerably cheaper than the U.S.-favored pipeline between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey – a line which would run through Chechnya and through areas which have seen fighting between Azeris and Armenians.

Kazakstan’s abundant natural resources have not yet trickled down to its populace; average income is around $1,700 a year, and corruption is widespread. When journalists or activists have exposed corruption, the government has typically responded with libel suits, tax audits, or other forms of intimidation. Rising unemployment, particularly in the agricultural sectors, and the growing disparity between wealthy, politically-connected gangsters and the working poor could well lead to resentment and provide a more fertile recruiting ground in the future for Islamic fundamentalism.

Like other Central Asian republics, Kazakstan is faced with several post-Soviet ecological disasters. There are radioactive and chemical dumps throughout the country, and anthrax was recently discovered at an old Soviet testing facility. Poor agricultural practices have led to soil salinification and poisoning with fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. As drought continues to ravage the region, Kazakstan’s position at the base of the Aral will give it further leverage over water supplies to the region, and could lead to exacerbating long-running tensions between Kazakstan and its neighbor Uzbekistan.