ASTANA: A New Post-Soviet Text
Narek Mkrtchyan

Abstract
The paper examines one of the key innovative projects of Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet nation building. As a case in point, the transfer and construction of new capital Astana by Nazarbayev regime will be taken into consideration. In this context, the establishment of national identity via urban environment is particularly essential and is best exemplified by the discussion of Astana’s semiotic analysis. The urban environment of Astana should be understood not as a manifestation of modern architecture but as a unique text created by sings and symbolic meanings in an attempt to furnish Kazakhstan's nation building processes. The article attempts to draw parallels between models of urban social utopia and of the Kazakhstan's visionary future. The establishment of Astana is more than a mere modern architectural designing: at the same time itinvolvesboth elements of required legitimization, counter colonial/hegemonic struggle, demographic policy, and of civic and ethnic nation building ideologies.

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