Akmolinsk was the former name of the city of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The spelling of "Akmolinsk" in IPA phonetic transcription is /akmɔˈlinsk/. The word is spelled with an "A" followed by a "K" and "M" before the "o," indicating the pronunciation of "ak" and "mol." The "i" is pronounced as "ee," and the ending "sk" is pronounced with a soft "s" sound followed by a hard "k" sound. Despite its historical significance, the name Akmolinsk is rarely used today.
Akmolinsk is a noun that refers to the former name of the present-day capital city of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan. This term originates from the Russian language and has historical significance. Akmolinsk served as the capital of the Akmolinsk Oblast, a region within the Russian Empire and later within the Soviet Union.
The term Akmolinsk, sometimes spelled Akmolinskaya, can be broken down into two components. "Ak" in Kazakh means "white," while "mol" can be translated to "mountains" or "hills." The suffix "-insk" denotes a location or a place. Therefore, Akmolinsk can be interpreted as "a place near the white hills/mountains."
Throughout history, Akmolinsk, as the administrative center of the Akmolinsk Oblast, served as an important economic and cultural hub. It played a crucial role in the development and integration of the region into the larger Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union.
In 1992, the city's name was officially changed to Astana, which was subsequently renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019, in honor of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president of Kazakhstan. This renaming was part of a political and cultural shift to assert Kazakhstan's independent identity following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Today, the term Akmolinsk primarily serves as a historical reference to the city's past while recognizing its importance in the formation of present-day Kazakhstan.
The word "Akmolinsk" derives from the Kazakh language. It is composed of two Kazakh words: "akmo" meaning "white", and "linsk" meaning "mountain". The combination of these two words describes the region as a place with white mountains. "Akmolinsk" was the former name of the city that is presently known as Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan. The name was changed in 1998 in honor of the country's first President, Nursultan Nazarbayev.