The monumental and the miniature: imagining ‘modernity’ in Astana Natalie Koch Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, Guggenheim 110, UCB 260, Boulder, CO 80309-0260, USA, natalie.koch@colorado.edu This article examines the elite nation-building project in post-independence Kazakhstan through an analysis of monumental architecture and miniature models in Astana. It considers the role of the country’s new capital as a modernist project, in which elite geopolitical imaginaries are multiply inscribed in the cityscape. Drawing on interdisciplinary literatures on modernity and authoritarian regime legitimation, the article considers modernity as a discursive trope employed in legitimating the Nazarbayev government, and one that has various material manifestations in the urban landscape of Astana. The research is based on fieldwork in Kazakhstan in Summer 2009, and examines architecture, monuments, and the 2009 Astana Day celebrations. Through a focus on the monumental and the miniature, it highlights their similar roles in transforming symbols of Kazakhstani independence and identity into objects of reverie outside the field of political contestation. Key words: modernity, authoritarianism, monumentality, miniatures, urban landscape, Kazakhstan. Introduction Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tselinograd (aka Aqmola) was an unremarkable industrial town in northern Kazakhstan. In the early years of indepen- dence, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev was inspired by a vision to transform this small town into his newly sovereign state’s capital, giving it its new name, Astana, which means ‘capital’ in Kazakh. In preparation for the formal move in December 1997, construction for the capital’s new bureaucratic and transport infrastructure began as early as 1994 (Dzhak- sybekov 2008). Grandiose new buildings now dot the urban landscape, visually (albeit not functionally) representing a complete rupture with Kazakhstan’s Soviet architectural heri- tage. In addition to inscribing this ‘modern’ image in Astana’s cityscape, President Nazar- bayev has promoted his new capital’s strategic location at the ‘Heart of Eurasia’ (Nazarbayev 2003, 2005, 2006a). In this article, I explore this geopolitical imaginary in and of Astana, contributing to the work of geographers and Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 11, No. 8, December 2010 ISSN 1464-9365 print/ISSN 1470-1197 online/10/080769-19 q 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2010.521854