"Astana as Imperial Project?: Kazakhstan and Its Wandering Capital City in the Twentieth Century."
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The article looks at the phenomenon of Kazakhstan’s “wandering capital city” in the twentieth century, when, over the course of less than seventy five years, four different cities had served as the republic’s administrative center. The author suggests that decisions to relocate the capital to a new city before 1991 reflected structural shifts in the political and economic relations between Kazakhstan and the central government. Thus, the succession of relocations can be read as a narrative of the changing colonial condition of Kazakhstan in the twentieth century.