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 isn't 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 Amangeldy Imanov'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, Amangeldy Imanov 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 wasn't ready for war. This was the reason for the food shortages, which occured 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.

Alasb 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.[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.

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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  Alash Autonomy from 1917 to 1920
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  Second variant
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  Flag of the Alash Autonomy, which is mentioned in 1918
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  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[5][6]

The flag of Kazakh ASSR consisted of two yellow texts in the top-left side of the flag, surrounded with yellow line. The texts spelt KSSR, which means Kazakh SSR and R.F. meaning Russian Federation, or, to be more specific, Russian SFSR.

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1937 to 1940

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1940 to 1953

Until 1937 Kazakhstan was a part of the Russian Federation, until the government established the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic within the Union, and, subsequently, changed its flag. The flag has hammer and sickle on the top-left and name of the republic in two languages: Kazakh and Russian under it. Kazakh name was written in Latin, as writing system of Kazakh changed in 1929 from Arabic to Latin.

Flag of Kazakh SSR from 1953 and Kazakhstan until 1992

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

Construction sheet

Unlike other post-Soviet nations, like Georgia, Belarus or Ukraine, Kazakhstan didn't have its own flag before being joined to Soviet Union. That's why Kazakhstan kept its Soviet flag up until 4 June, 1992.

Government of Kazakhstan decided to organize a contest, which had 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
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  Flag with yellow, blue and red horizontal stripes and yellow crescent with stars
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  Flag depicting two squares with yellow outline forming 8-pointed star on a blue background.
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  Flag depicting Shanyraq (The top of yurts) with crescent in center and sun in the top-left
• 
  Flag with blue, white, green stripes and crescent with stars, which have a picture of wolf in it.

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 of 1992 to the current shade of gold.