PASSPORT OF THE CAPITAL

ASTANA: Capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan
1832 - Date of foundation
Before 1961 – City of Akmolinsk
1961 - 1992 – City of Tselinograd 
1993 - 1998 – City of Akmola
20.10.1997   After the edict by the President of RK the city of Akmola is declared Capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan
06.05.1998  Akmola is renamed by the decree of the President of RK into the city of Astana

Astana: Predetermined By History to Be Capital

Cities do not come into existence at once. They are formed in decades, hundreds, thousands of years. They change their shape, they grow and develop according to the requirements of the time. Each generation enters in their annals its own line, defining their future - blossoming or decline, rise or fall... Behind the first anniversary of the young Astana, too, there is uneasy history which is measured by centuries of hard tests, great achievements and memorable events, rather than decades.

New Generation about New Capital

Before the first anniversary of Astana a contest of essays took place in the city’s high schools among senior high school students on the subject “The Young Capital”. 
Hundreds of boys and girls tried to tell in their own words why that city is dear to them, what future it faces and also what hopes Astana inspires in them.
“I am pleased to grow up and develop together with the city, that every morning, opening my window, I see my dream city, the city where hopes come true, the city of love and youth”, there writes Alma Ybyrai, the student of grade 10, School No. 44. Both such sincere and touching words are almost in each essay of young Astana inhabitants. Astana is the main city in the life of the new generation of its inhabitants, it has given them their first friends, first feelings and first steps to an adult life. The capital varies before their eyes and at the same time, together with them, installing in their hearts genuine pride of the native city, the country and people.

The essays by the contest participants can be read here: