Romanians in Kazakhstan

The Romanians in Kazakhstan (români; Румындар) are an ethnic Romanian minority in Kazakhstan. In the 1999 Kazakh census, 594 Romanians and 19,460 Moldovans, which Romanian media has claimed as also being part of the Romanian minority of the country, were registered in Kazakhstan. However, they are estimated to be around 40,000 or even 50,000 people.

History
Most of the Romanians in Kazakhstan come from the regions of Bessarabia, the Hertsa region and Northern Bukovina, all of which used to be part of Romania. They live scattered mostly in the north of the country, although some Romanians also live in the south, including in the former Kazakh capital of Almaty and its surroundings. The Romanians of Kazakhstan have received sporadic visits from the Romanian ambassador to Kazakhstan.

The Romanian minority of Kazakhstan arrived to this country through several migration waves. The first was during the period of rule of the Russian Empire over Bessarabia. Some Romanians migrated to modern Kazakhstan after being promised lands by the Russian authorities, with some posteriorly returning while others staying. The second wave occurred as a result of the Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, after which many Romanians were taken to Kazakhstan but also to other places like Siberia.

According to Romanian media, most of the Romanians of the country are distinctly considered Moldovans by the Kazakh authorities. This is allegedly not because they self-identify as such, but because, in Kazakhstan, the ethnicity of a person is determined by that of their father, with many people being recorded as Moldovans as a result of the times of Soviet rule over Kazakhstan. Only a small number of Romanians are officially considered as such in the country, mostly because they are descended from Romanian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union.

Religion and culture
The Romanians in Kazakhstan do not have Romanian Orthodox churches, so they attend Russian Orthodox ones just like other non-Russian Orthodox minorities of the country. Two Romanian villages have survived in Kazakhstan, in the Aktobe Region. These are Bessarabka (now known as Saryqobda) and Moldavanka.

The Kazakh Romanians have a cultural organization of their own, the Dacia Association of Kazakhstan, led by Nicolae Plushkis. In 2010, Traian Băsescu, the President of Romania at the time, promulgated a law granting Romanians who had lost their Romanian citizenship "abusively", including the Kazakh Romanians, the right to reobtain it. Since then, some of the Kazakh Romanians have migrated to Romania.

Notable people

 * Simion Plămădeală (1935–2016), Romanian-language writer from Karaganda