LCS Hockey - Kazakhstan

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Facts on Kazakhstan
by Jim Iovino, Ace Reporter

You wouldn't think a country called Kazakhstan would be much of a hockey nation. But the people of Kazakhstan showed otherwise during the 1998 Olympic Games. Team Kazakhstan surprised many by making it to the second round of the men's ice hockey tournament in Nagano without the help of a single National Hockey League player.

Now that Kazakhstan has made a name for itself in ice hockey, it's hoping to do the same politically. I guess it would help to know a little bit about the country, so here goes.

Kazakhstan is located directly south of Russia and is flanked by China to the east. It is a huge area of land - it is the ninth largest territory in the world behind only Russia, Canada, China, the United States, Brazil, Australia, India and Argentina.

The Turks originally settled the land in the eighth century, and everyone's favorite Mongol, Genghis Khan, made the region part of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. What a nice gesture... The people known as Kazakhs showed up on the scene in the 15th century.

It wasn't until about 1730 that a Russian influence filled the territory. In 1920 the territory was made a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and was admitted to the USSR in 1936. After the Soviet Union broke up in December of 1991, Kazakhstan became a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Kazakhstan is the second largest of the former Soviet states in territory. It possesses enormous untapped fossil-fuel reserves as well as plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. One problem for the country has been a way to export its oil reserve. There seems to be a lack of pipes to ship it places. Yeah, that'll suck. Another problem is the radioactive and toxic chemical sites that still exist from the old Soviet defense projects. This poses health risks for the whole country. Industrial pollution is also a big problem.

Um, I don't have much else to say about Kazakhstan. They're in the process of moving their capital city. They were afraid a big earthquake would hit the old capital, so they were splitsville. But hey, with a name like Kazakhstan, it's gotta be a cool place.