Kazakhstan writes off debts of more than 3 million citizens
More than 3 million Kazakhs in the energy-rich country of 18 million will get help to escape debts averaging 300,000 tenge ($790).
Central Asia & Caucasus
Central Asia and the Caucasus span landlocked steppes, mountain ranges, and crossroads cultures from Kazakhstan to Georgia. This archive gathers progress stories from the region — covering health, environment, education, and civic life across countries that rarely make international headlines for good news.
24-year old Kazakhstani man becomes first to use wirelessly-charged bionic heart
Tursunov’s bionic heart (or VAD) doesn’t need a power cord thanks to a charging system created by Israeli tech company Leviticus Cardio, eliminating one of the biggest points of failure in a device that cannot afford to fail.
Azerbaijani voters confirm independence in a nationwide referendum
Azerbaijan’s independence referendum on December 29, 1991 drew an overwhelming yes from voters, confirming a break from Soviet rule just days before the USSR itself dissolved. The result gave democratic weight to a declaration parliament had passed four months earlier, closing seven decades of Soviet control over a land with deep, layered roots in the Caucasus.
Kazakhstan becomes the last Soviet republic to declare independence
Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991, becoming the last Soviet republic to break away, just nine days before the USSR itself dissolved. The vote closed nearly two centuries of Russian and Soviet rule over the steppe, opening space to reclaim a language, culture, and identity whose very name, in old Turkic, means “free.”
Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union
Uzbekistan’s independence arrived on August 31, 1991, when the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic stepped out from seven decades of Soviet rule to become one of 15 nations born from the USSR’s collapse. The declaration came days after a failed Moscow coup cracked central authority. For a land shaped by Samarkand, Bukhara, and Silk Road trade, it was a return of an old name to its own people.
USSR launches Mir, the world’s first modular space station
Mir launched on 19 February 1986, when a Proton-K rocket carried the core module of humanity’s first modular space station into orbit above Kazakhstan. Over the next decade, Soviet and later Russian engineers added six more modules piece by piece, hosting visitors from more than a dozen countries. Mir proved people could live and work in space for months at a time.
Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms help end the Cold War
Perestroika began in the spring of 1985, when new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted publicly what no Communist Party chief had before: the Soviet economy wasn’t working. What followed was extraordinary — competitive elections, a freer press, and the 1987 INF Treaty with Reagan, the first ever to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.
Kazakh intellectuals found the Alash Orda, a national self-government in Central Asia
Alash Orda, the first modern Kazakh government, took shape in Orenburg in December 1917 as the Russian Empire unraveled. Led by Alikhan Bukeikhanov, its 25-member provisional body reserved 10 seats for non-Kazakhs and built schools, militias, and laws before Soviet forces dissolved it in 1920. Its idea of Kazakh self-rule outlived its brief life.
Mongolia declares independence under Bogd Khan as the Qing dynasty falls
Mongolian independence was declared on December 29, 1911, when the Bogd Khan, a revered Buddhist leader, took the tiger throne in Urga and ended more than two centuries of Qing rule. The timing was bold but not accidental — China’s Xinhai Revolution had just cracked the empire open. It planted the seed of a national identity that still endures today.
Russia begins the Transcaucasus Railway, linking the Black Sea to the Caspian
In 1865, workers broke ground at Poti on the Black Sea coast, beginning the Transcaucasus Railway — the first railway ever built in the South Caucasus. Reaching Tbilisi by 1872 and Baku by 1883, the line carved a path through mountains that had defeated wheeled transport for centuries, stitching together a region whose rail corridors still shape Eurasian trade today.