Editing Nursultan Nazarbayev (section)

===Rise to power===
{{see also|Jeltoqsan|Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Alma-Ata Protocol}}
[[File:RIAN archive 41059 CIS heads of state.jpg|thumb|Nazarbayev (front row, second from left) at the signing of the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]], 21 December 1991|alt=|left|238x238px]]
In 1984, at the age 43, Nazarbayev became the [[Prime Minister of Kazakhstan]] (Chairman of the Council of Ministers), the youngest-ever officeholder in the Soviet Union to serve the post, under [[Dinmukhamed Kunaev]], the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party|First Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Kazakhstan]].<ref name="ZHELTOQSAN">{{cite book|author=Sally N. Cummings|title=Power and change in Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TkTJTl_mKmYC&pg=RA1-PA60|year=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-25585-1|pages=59–61|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527180555/http://books.google.com/books?id=TkTJTl_mKmYC&pg=RA1-PA60|archive-date=27 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|title=Нурсултан НАЗАРБАЕВ. Биография.|publisher=Деловой Мир Астана|year=2012|isbn=978-601-7259-37-2|location=Astana|pages=84|language=ru|access-date=22 October 2021|archive-date=2 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402135618/https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> During that period, the [[Perestroika]] policies slowly began to take place under [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] while Nazarbayev himself was viewed to be more of experienced policy maker as his views and stances had already been formed during the [[Khrushchev Thaw]] and [[1965 Soviet economic reform]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|title=Нурсултан НАЗАРБАЕВ. Биография.|publisher=Деловой Мир Астана|year=2012|isbn=978-601-7259-37-2|location=Astana|pages=85|language=ru|access-date=22 October 2021|archive-date=2 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402135618/https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Kazakhstan at that time was seen as a backwater republic within the Soviet Union with its industry being heavily reliant upon rich raw materials, specifically in mining sectors and was forced upon to import its consumer goods from other Soviet republics. It faced problems especially in countryside with a need for state farm repairs, as well as housing for farmers, lack of available preschools for rural children which Nazarbayev during his tenure raised issues in regard to these problems that was reportedly met with disagreements amongst the republic's leadership.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|title=Нурсултан НАЗАРБАЕВ. Биография.|publisher=Деловой Мир Астана|year=2012|isbn=978-601-7259-37-2|location=Astana|pages=86–88|language=ru|access-date=22 October 2021|archive-date=2 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402135618/https://elbasy.kz/sites/default/files/2020-12/Nursultan%20Nazarbayev.%20Biography.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Growing frustrated over the problems within the Kazakh SSR, at the 16th Session of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan held in January 1986, Nazarbayev criticized Askar Kunayev, head of the Academy of Sciences, for not reforming his department. Dinmukhamed, Nazarbayev's boss and Askar's brother, felt deeply angered and betrayed. Kunayev went to [[Moscow]] and demanded Nazarbayev's dismissal while Nazarbayev's supporters campaigned for Kunayev's dismissal and Nazarbayev's promotion.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Kunayev was ousted in 1986 and replaced by [[Gennady Kolbin]], an ethnic Russian, who despite his office, had little authority in Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev was named party leader and the top position (First Secretary of the Communist Party) on 22 June 1989,<ref name=ZHELTOQSAN/> only the second Kazakh (after Kunayev) to hold the post. He was the [[List of Presidents of Kazakhstan|Chairman of the Supreme Soviet]] ([[List of Presidents of Kazakhstan|head of state]]) from 22 February to 24 April 1990.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

On [[1990 Kazakh presidential election|24 April 1990]], Nazarbayev was elected as the first [[List of Presidents of Kazakhstan|President of Kazakhstan]] by the [[Supreme Soviet]]. He supported Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]] against the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|attempted coup in August 1991]] by [[State Committee on the State of Emergency|Soviet hardliners]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nazarbayev|1998|p=73}}</ref> Nazarbayev was close enough to Soviet general secretary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] for Gorbachev to consider him for the post of [[Vice President of the Soviet Union]]; however, Nazarbayev turned the offer down. However, on 29 July, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Nazarbayev discussed and decided that once the [[New Union Treaty]] was signed, Nazarbayev would replace [[Valentin Pavlov]] as [[Prime Minister|Premier of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – historical state, Eurasia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614785/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012094414/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614785/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics|archive-date=12 October 2013|access-date=24 October 2013}}</ref>

The Soviet Union disintegrated following the failed coup, though Nazarbayev was highly concerned with maintaining the close economic ties between Kazakhstan and Russia.<ref>{{harvnb|Nazarbayev|1998|p=81}}</ref> In the country's [[1991 Kazakh presidential election|first presidential election]], held on 1 December, he appeared alone on the ballot and won 95% of the vote.<ref>{{cite book|author=James Minahan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSxt-JB-PDkC&pg=PA136|title=Miniature empires: a historical dictionary of the newly independent states|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1998|isbn=978-0-313-30610-5|page=136|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527222648/http://books.google.com/books?id=RSxt-JB-PDkC&pg=PA136|archive-date=27 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> On 21 December, he signed the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]], taking Kazakhstan into the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nazarbayev|1998|p=82}}</ref>