Asharshylyk — the famine of 1930–1933

In the late 1920s the Soviet authorities began forcibly settling the nomadic Kazakhs and handing their livestock over to collective farms, while grain and livestock procurement quotas took away people's last reserves.

Most of the livestock was soon lost and famine set in. Researchers estimate that more than 1.5 million people died, and hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs fled to China, Mongolia and neighbouring republics.

Asharshylyk is one of the gravest tragedies in Kazakh history. Every 31 May Kazakhstan observes the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression and Famine, and a memorial to the victims stands in Astana.