Almaty (Russian/Kazakh: Алматы / Almatı, i.e. "city of apples" or "city of apple trees", under the Russian Empire from 1867 to 1921 known by the Russian name of Верный, Verniy, i.e. "faithful," and under the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1993 known as Alma-Ata (Russian: Алма́-Ата́, from the Kazakh: алма alma, i.e. "apple", and ата/ata, i.e. "grandfather"), is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500 (at 1 September 2008). This represents approximately 9% of the country's population.
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