Cities & Towns & Places

Kazakh names replaced the Soviet-era Russian names of most Kazakhstan cities in the 1990s. In a few cases, mostly in the heavily ethnic-Russian north, the old names are still more commonly used: more people still talk of Uralsk rather than Oral, and of Ust-Kamenogorsk than Oskemen. Most city streets also have Kazakh names. In some cities you may see Kazakh and Russian street names side by side, and in the north you may see Russian only. The Kazakh for street (Russian: ‘ulitsa’) is ‘koshesi’; for avenue (‘prospekt’) ‘dangyly’, and for square (‘ploshchad’) ‘alangy’. Meanwhile, many local people continue to use some still-familiar Soviet street names. There are 34 main cities of Kazakhstan listed below.