How did Russian immigration change Kazakhstan’s population during the 19th and 20th centuries?

Russian immigration significantly altered the demographic and social landscape of Kazakhstan throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

During the 19th century, approximately 400,000 Russians migrated to the region, followed by about 1,000,000 additional Slavs, Germans, and others in the early 20th century. These immigrants often displaced indigenous Kazakhs from their best pastures and water sources, leading to widespread destitution among nomadic tribes.1

The demographic shift intensified during the Soviet era. Policies starting in 1927 aimed to settle nomadic populations and colonize the region with Russians and Ukrainians. This was compounded by the Virgin and Idle Lands project, initiated in 1953, which brought another large influx of Slavic settlers to northern agricultural lands. These policies, alongside the devastating effects of collectivization—which caused the deaths of over 1.5 million Kazakhs between 1926 and 1939—resulted in ethnic Kazakhs becoming a minority for much of the late 20th century.231

Following independence in 1991, the trend reversed as many ethnic Russians emigrated, while ethnic Kazakhs returned, leading to a steady increase in the Kazakh proportion of the population.21