Portraits of Lenin and Brezhnev on Red Square During the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the October Revolution. Moscow, 7 November 1977 / Getty Images
Mikhail Gorbachev, Member of the Soviet Politburo, Arrives in London for an Official Visit. 15 December 1984 / Getty Images
Kazakh SSR Leaders Salamat Mukashev, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Dinmukhamed Kunayev (from Left to Right) with World War II Veterans on Victory Day. Almaty, 9 May 1986 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Anti-Soviet Demonstration in Vilnius, Lithuania. 21 April 1990 / Getty Images
Geologist B. Adilov, an Activist of the Nevada–Semipalatinsk Anti-Nuclear Movement, Reads Out a Rally Resolution. Almaty, 1990 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Participants in a Republican Aitys Competition Celebrating Nauryz. Almaty, 1988 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Rally in Support of the Inviolability of Kazakhstan’s Borders. Almaty, 1990 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Nursultan Nazarbayev Meeting with Sherkhan Murtaza, Editor-in-Chief of Socialistik Kazakhstan (right), and Gadilbek Shalakhmetov, Chairman of the Kazakh SSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (left). 1989–1990 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Rally in Defense of the Kazakh Language. Almaty, 1990 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
A Lone Figure Walking Through an Oil Development Site in Kazakhstan / Getty Images
A Former Fishing Boat Captain on His Vessel, Stranded After the Aral Sea Dried Up. 1989 / David Turnley / Getty Images
Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev and Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Signing of an Inter-Republican Economic Agreement. Moscow, 18 October 1991 / Getty Images
Nursultan Nazarbayev with His Wife Sara Voting in the All-Union Referendum. Almaty, 1991 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
A Boy Beside a Toppled Soviet Monument During the Removal of Soviet Symbols Following the Failed August Coup. Moscow, August 1991 / Getty Images
Boris Yeltsin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Leonid Kravchuk During the Meeting of Former Soviet Republic Leaders That Formalized the Establishment of the CIS. Almaty, 21 December 1991 / Getty Images
Local Girls in Beyneu. Kazakhstan, 1993 / Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket via Getty Images