A country of west-central Asia south of Russia and northeast of the Caspian Sea. The original Turkic inhabitants were overrun by the Mongols in the 1200s and ruled by various khanates until the Russian conquest of 1730 to 1863. The region was incorporated into the USSR in 1920 and was named the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic from 1936 to 1991, when it gained its independence. Astana is the capital, and Almaty is the largest city.