Kazakhstan Prizes Its Cowboys, but Few like to Saddle Up for Harsh Life

KERBULAQ, Kazakhstan — This has been an extended, rough trip when it comes to cowboys of Kazakhstan, descendants of this nomadic herders whom roamed across Central Asia until Russia declared in 1864 so it could not any longer tolerate their “turbulent and unsettled character” and would force them to stay down.

Steadily stripped of the pastureland by Russian officials and settlers into the nineteenth century, after which of these cattle after Russia’s 1917 revolution, nomads became employed on the job collective farms. Continue reading →