Karaganda Region

Karagandy is a province of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Karagandy. 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, Karagandy Province is the largest province. Although it doesn't touch the borders of the country, it does touch nearly every other province. They are: Aktobe Province to the West; Kostanay Province to the Northwest; Akmola Province to the North; Pavlodar Province to the Northeast; East Kazakhstan Province to the East; Almaty Province to the Southeast; Zhambyl Province and South Kazakhstan Province to the South; and Kyzylorda Province to the Southwest. The Ishim (Esil) River, a tributary of the Irtysh River, begins in Karagandy Province.

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

Trivia

Karagandy 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 links

• Regional administration website