Mako’s Reviews > Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared > Status Update

Kazakh gulags, the prisoners were called zek. One of the prisoners was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and his experience inspired his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Chechens were genocided and deported to Kazakhstan by the order of Stalin and Beria.

Dostoevsky was also exiled to KZ in the 1880s bc of his anti imperial and pro socialist views. His insane love story with Maria.

Nuclear plants in Semipalatinsk. First Soviet nuke by Sakharov who regretted it later. The KZ gov didn’t know the full truth, refused to sell leftover missles to Iran in 90s and with US is cleaning

Baikonur used to be a launching site for Soviet space missions. Now they rent it to Russian gov but prohibit them from using it for military purposes.

Aral Sea is disappearing bc the soviets used it for cotton/rice farming that require a ton of water. It got super salty and the winds are so strong that they blew the salt all throughout the continent and eve made glaciers melt!! Fish industry died 30% of USSR supply

Learned about the history of Scythians (Sarmatians and Alans were a part of this disappeared Aryan race from Central Asia). Scythians were driven west by the Usuns who in turn were pushed out by Huns (Turkic people who look like mongols and are direct ancestors of Kazakhs). Huns were highly feared, China built the great wall to keep them out and they destroyed the Roman Empire.

Trotsky was exiled in Almaty