It's the 9th largest country in the world but only has 17 mln inhabitants. About 30% of those are white people, mostly russian and ukrainian. Kazakhstan has always had close ties with Russia, especially since the 18th century when some Kazakh khans started the process of joining the Russian empire - a gradual process that took 150 years to complete. Kazakhstan was USSR's second largest country and built a very powerful industrial infrastructure during soviet rule. It became independent and due to an abundance of natural resources drastically improved its economy since 1991, averaging a 7% annuan GDP growth for the past decade.

Kazakhs are related to other turkic nations - uzbeks, kyrgyzs, uygurs, turkish, nogai, azerbaijanis to name the few. They are of sunni branch of Islam although most of the people are not very strict when it comes to religion (i.e. not practicing muslims).

First kazakh khanate was established in 1465. Kazakh nation consists of many tribes that themselves have a very long history. For example, naimans and kereis used to live in modern-day Mongolia and had their own states, religion, trade relations; kipchak tribes used to inhabit modern-day Kazakhstan and lands from caspian to western shore of the black sea. This is the reason why earlier nations such as skifs, massagets, sarmats, roxolans and huns are considered to be forefathers of the kazakh nations, since kazakh tribes evolved separately from those early nations.

Genghis-khan's mother was from a tribe called kongirat, which currently lives in southern Kazakhstan. So, technically, Genghis khan was half-kazakh. Attila the hun's real name was Edil, and he was named that because of the river Volga, lands around which used to belong to nomadic tribes until russians took them away.

Cyrus the Great was decapitated along the shores of Syrdarya river in Kazakhstan, when he couldn't defeat the massaget tribes. Alexander the Great also had to turn back after several unsuccessful attempts at conquering nomads, and left erecting a small town called "Alexandria the Far".

Oh, and Kazakhstan's first capital was Orenburg, a city which was later on taken by Russia in 1924.