Didar Kassymova is senior lecturer at the Kazakh Institute for Management, Economics, and Strategic Research, specializing in the history and politics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. She is currently working on a doctoral dissertation analyzing the history of Russians in Kazakhstan.Zhanat Kundakbayeva is associate professor at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She has written in Russian and Kazakh publications on Russian history and ethnic groups in the Caspian and Central Asian region, and in 2003 won a presidential grant as a distinguished scholar of Kazakhstan.Ustina Markus is a specialist on the former Soviet republics. From 2009 until 2011 she was the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan-Hewler in northern Iraq. Dr. Markus has an extensive record of publications on the former Soviet republics and is currently engaged in research on the oil industry.

The authors—professors at Kazakh universities—begin this work with a short section explaining some of the choices in transliteration and spelling, followed by a brief introduction to the history and people of Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China. The dictionary includes the names of historical and contemporary figures, cities, historic sites, ethnic groups, policies, and movements as well as definitions of words that are essential to understanding the Kazakhs. A good starting resource for someone with little knowledge of the country.

Didar Kassymova is senior lecturer at the Kazakh Institute for Management, Economics, and Strategic Research, specializing in the history and politics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. She is currently working on a doctoral dissertation analyzing the history of Russians in Kazakhstan.Zhanat Kundakbayeva is associate professor at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She has written in Russian and Kazakh publications on Russian history and ethnic groups in the Caspian and Central Asian region, and in 2003 won a presidential grant as a distinguished scholar of Kazakhstan.Ustina Markus is a specialist on the former Soviet republics. From 2009 until 2011 she was the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan-Hewler in northern Iraq. Dr. Markus has an extensive record of publications on the former Soviet republics and is currently engaged in research on the oil industry.

The authors—professors at Kazakh universities—begin this work with a short section explaining some of the choices in transliteration and spelling, followed by a brief introduction to the history and people of Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China. The dictionary includes the names of historical and contemporary figures, cities, historic sites, ethnic groups, policies, and movements as well as definitions of words that are essential to understanding the Kazakhs. A good starting resource for someone with little knowledge of the country.