Republic Square

Republic Square
Originally uploaded by jakeyd.

After walking south instead of east (oops), ended up in Republic Square. Very much the long way home. This is the square near our former hotel in which we saw the high school graduation ceremonies. The centerpiece of the square is a stele? plinth?.... big tall skinny structure (BTSS), standing in the middle of a raised circular platform. The square is where major riots occurred in 1986 when Gorbachev appointed a Russian to succeed the retiring Kazakh head of state. To this day, people argue about whether the riots were about nationalism/ethnicity or just being tired of the whole Communist system.