By: Darkhan Umirbekov   On December 17-18, 1986, thousands of students went to Brezhnev Square in Alma-Ata, the then-capital of the Soviet Union’s Kazakh Socialist Republic. They were protesting the Politburo’s appointment of Gennady Kolbin, a Russian who had never worked in Kazakhstan, as the first party secretary and de facto leader of the republic. … Continue reading The Alma-Ata Demonstrations in 1986: How the Students Began Protesting