Karaganda Region

Qaraghandy is a province of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Karaganda, (also known as Qaraghandy). The population of the province is 1,375,000; that of the city is 437,000.

History

The province was the site of intense coal mining during the days of the Soviet Union, and is also said to be the site of several forced-labor camps. Following the Second World War, Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, had many ethnic Germans deported to the area.

Geography

With an area of 428,000 sq. km, Qaraghandy Province is the largest province. Although it doesn't touch the borders of the country, it does touch nearly every other province. They are: Aqtöbe Province to the West; Qostanay Province to the Northwest; Aqmola Province to the North; Pavlodar Province to the Northeast; East Kazakhstan Province (Shyghys Qazaqstan) to the East; Almaty Province to the Southeast; Zhambyl Province and South Kazakhstan Province (Ongtüstik Qazaqstan) to the South; and Qyzylorda Province to the Southwest. The Ishim (Esil) River, a tributary of the Irtysh River, begins in Qaraghandy Province.

The area is arid and flat, given to plains with occasional hills and seasonal streams.

Trivia

Karaganda is often used as the punchline in a popular joke in the former Soviet Union. The city is fairly isolated in a vast area of uninhabited steppe, and is thought by many to be "the middle of nowhere". When used in the locative case, the final syllable rhymes with the Russian word for "where", as well as with a Russian obscenity used to answer to an unwanted question "Where?". Thus the exchange: "Where is it?" "In Karaganda!" — has a rhyming and silly sound, and its nuance could be approximated in American English as: "Where to?" "Kalamazoo!" or "Timbuktu!"

External link

• Regional administration website