Flag of Kazakhstan

The alleged flag of Kazakh Khanate

The Kazakh Khanate was decentralized state without an agreed upon flag. There is an alleged blue flag with white endless knot and three white 5-pointed stars in the hoist side of the flag.

The depicted flag sometimes is considered to not be connected to Khanate. The ornament shown in the flag is not observed by any other Turkic countries, moreover it is an endless knot, which takes part in Buddhist and Hinduist cultures, while Kazakhs were mostly Muslims.

Although the ornament is considered to not be Kazakh, it still takes part in Kazakh culture. Some historians say that the ornament could get to Kazakhs by trading with Chinese, Oirats, or Dzungars, since ancient Turks and Chinese maintained close relationships.[3]

Flag of Russian Empire

In 1882, the Kazakh Khanate was disestablished when Russia invaded the Kazakh Steppe. Kazakh lands were divided in provinces and all of them used the flag of Russian Empire.

Flag of Amankeldı İmanov's associates who rebelled in 1916

In 1916, Russia required Muslim people of central Asia to join Russian military forces. Russian colonial regime and economic instability lead to the Central Asian Revolt. Amongst Kazakhs, Amankeldı İmanov was leading figure in the revolts. He and his associated used red flag with the yellow text; blue half-moon in the top-left; blue bow, spear and an axe crossed on red background.

The text on the flag is in Arabic script, since Kazakh's writing system was Arabic prior to 1929. The text on the flag says: "Flag of warrior leader, Amangeldy batyr" (Batyr means hero in Kazakh).

During World War I, Russia was exhausted as it was not ready for war. This was the reason for the food shortages, which occurred even in major cities like Petrograd. First revolution, started because of an economic instability led to the Russian ministers in charge of Central Asia to create the Alash party and found their own autonomy on territory of modern Kazakhstan.

Alash state again lacked one agreed flag, however the Autonomy had their proposed flags. Alikhan Bukeikhanov and Barlybek Syrtanov proposed the flag with green, yellow, red stripes and white crescent with yellow star in top-left in the draft constitution of the "Country of the Kazakhs" (1911), however, there is not a single historical confirmation of the use of this flag by the Alash Orda (1917–1920).[4] The direction of stripes is not mentioned. Sometimes people use the logo of Kazak, the journal published by members of Alash, as a flag of the Autonomy. This variant of flag depicts a yellow yurt on a white background, this flag is mentioned in the "Will of the People" newspaper as approved on June 6, 1918.[5]

The most commonly used flag of the Alash Autonomy is yellow crescent with star on a red background, however there is no evidence that flag was ever used.

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  Flag of the "Country of Kazakhs" (1911)
• 
  Second variant
• 
  Flag of the Alash Autonomy, which is mentioned in 1918
• 
  Flag presented by Professor Trembitsky, no confirmation of use, the sources he used are unknown

After the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, The Soviets consolidated Alash into the newly forming Kazakh Autonomy, resulting in the establishment of the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic in 1920.

Flag of Kazakh ASSR from 1920 to 1936[6][7]

The first flag of the Kazakh ASSR consisted of two lines of yellow text in the canton, surrounded with a yellow line, reading "KSSR" (Kazakh SSR), and "R.F." (Russian Federation).

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1937 to 1940

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1940 to 1953

Kazakhstan was a part of the Russian Federation until the 1937 establishment of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic within the Union, and, subsequently, changed its flag. This flag had the hammer and sickle in the canton and the name of the republic in Kazakh and Russian under it. The Kazakh name was written in Latin, as the writing system of Kazakh changed in 1929 from Arabic to Latin.

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1953 and Kazakhstan until 1992

The final change of flag of the flag of the Kazakh SSR happened in 1953, as all Soviet republics redesigned their flags. This flag consisted of a hammer and a sickle with a star above it and a light blue horizontal stripe on a red background. The flag was briefly used after Kazakhstan gained its independence in December 1991.

Construction sheet

Unlike other formerly Soviet nations, like Georgia, Belarus or Ukraine, Kazakhstan did not have an official flag before becoming part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan kept its Soviet flag up until 4 June 1992.

The Government of Kazakhstan organized a contest on 2 January 1992, which received these proposed flags:

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  Proposed flag depicting yellow circle with 8-pointed star in it, on blue background
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  Flag with green, yellow and blue vertical stripes
• 
  Flag with yellow, blue and red horizontal stripes and yellow crescent with stars
• 
  Flag depicting two squares with yellow outline forming 8-pointed star on a blue background
• 
  Flag depicting Shanyraq (the top of yurts) with crescent in center and sun in the top-left
• 
  Flag with blue, white and green stripes and crescent with stars, which have a picture of wolf in it
• 
  Flag with star and crescent in the canton, with a background of white, red and green stripes (the first being larger than the other two)

Proposed flag by Shaken Niyazbekov

President Nursultan Nazarbayev presenting the prototype flag to the Supreme Council, 1992

The designer of the current flag, Shaken Niyazbekov, had originally colored the ornament red. This was changed in July 1992 to the current shade of gold.