Karagandy

Brief information about the Karagandy

Karaganda Karaganda or Qaraghandy (Kazakh: Қарағанды/Qaraǵandy, pronounced [qɑɾɑˈʁɑndə] ; Russian: Караганда, pronounced [kərəɡɐnˈda]) is the capital of Karaganda Region in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty (Alma-Ata), Nur-Sultan and Shymkent.

Population: 459,778 (2009 Census results); 436,864 (1999 Census results). Karaganda is approximately 230 km south-east of Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan (formerly known as Astana). In the 1940s up to 70% of the city's inhabitants were ethnic Germans. Most of the ethnic Germans were Soviet Volga Germans who were collectively deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan on Stalin's order when Hitler invaded Soviet-annexed eastern Poland and the Soviet Union proper in 1941.

Until the 1950s, many of these deportees were interned in labor camps, often simply because they were of German descent. The population of Karaganda fell by 14% from 1989-1999 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union; it was once Kazakhstan's second-largest city after Almaty.

Over 100,000 people have since emigrated to Germany. There is also a concentration of ethnic Poles in the city.