Kazakhstan is about the size of Europe — but we know almost nothing about it

Kazakhstan, say signs by the side of the road in this vast Central Asian country, is ‘a land of unity and accord’. Few outside pay a great deal of attention to a state that is almost as large as Europe, and home to eye-popping natural resources, chiefly — but not only — oil. One who does is Joanna Lillis, who used to work in Russia and then for the BBC Monitoring Service in neighbouring Uzbekistan, and knows the region as well as anyone.

Her book, Dark Shadows, is astute, refreshing and revelatory; it is also surprisingly tender, showing not only her affection but her care in trying to make sense of a country that needs to be understood warts and all. She introduces a cast of characters one could not make up, from an Old Believer living in the north of the country to a militant atheist, whose grim convictions are not entirely appealing. We meet those suffering from the effects of Soviet-era nuclear experiments and children infected with HIV in a blood scandal, whose dignity in the face of injustice and tragedy is particularly moving. We come across Mukhtar Ablyazov, a tycoon who plundered billions before going on the run — one step better than his former business partner, whose death in a wolf-hunting accident was described by American diplomats in cables released by WikiLeaks as ‘almost incomprehensible’.Dark shadows indeed.

The star of the show, however, is the country’s leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev — a man who has been alive long enough to remember every ruler of the Soviet Union and Russia apart from Lenin. Nazarbayev is an all-conquering figure in Kazakhstan, the man whom even his opponents vote for in presidential elections (along with more than 95 per cent of the rest of the population), the sort known as Yelbasy — or ‘Father of the Nation’.