Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC with me, Max Pearson and the team behind the witness history strand on the world service.

We turn first-hand testimony into living history.

This week, transformation in the United Arab Emirates as women fight for the

right to education in the 1960s.

On my first day at work I was filled with joy. The children were very young in grade two and we were all very happy.

Plus the murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl from 70 years ago the passing of King George

the sixth and a once in a lifetime transit of Venus.

It does give you this kind of visceral feeling of like our place in the universe

that we're insignificant and yet remarkable at the same time.

That's all coming up later in the podcast, but we're going to begin with an event which serves

to illustrate the grandiose hubris which played a part in the recent

upheavals in Kazakhstan. From the moment the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, it

was clear that an independent Kazakhstan was going to be an important country.

Vast potential riches from oil and a strategic position between east and west

made the northernmost of the stands of focus for international attention. But one man, No Sotan Nazarbayev, seized his chance

and would go on to rule the country for 30 years. And part of his project involved setting

up a brand new capital city molded to his specification and naturally, in the end, named after himself.

Louise Hidalgo has been hearing about this seemingly mad cap scheme and Louise is here now

Louise. Thanks Max yeah well this project as you said started a few years after

Kazakhstan became an independent country and was very much the brainchild of Nuslton Nazar.

So he was the last Soviet leader and basically stayed in charge and millions of dollars,

literally millions was poured into creating this new city.

...