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Source: History of Astana

Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan. Founded as Akmoly, it was once the seat of an okrug of the Russian Empire from 1830, it was granted town status and the name was modified to Akmolinsk in 1832. Although damaged during revolts in 1838, Akmolinsk continued to be a center of Russian colonial administration and to grow over the course of the 19th century.
During World War II, Akmolinsk was a transportation hub for Soviet infrastructure evacuated from Eastern Europe, and after the war many Volga Germans were resettled in Astana following internal deportation in the Soviet Union. During Nikita Khrushchev's administration of the Soviet Union, Astana was the focus of agricultural production campaigns, which established state farms and brought Russian immigrants to the region as agricultural workers. During this period, the city was renamed Tselinograd.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Kazakhstan, the city's name was changed to Akmola, meaning "white grave," which the city's original name Akmoly may have been named for. It became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, and was renamed Astana ("capital city") in 1998. From 2019 to 2022, the city was known as Nur-Sultan in honor of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country's first president.