This study aims to discuss issues concerning the development of citizenship education in Kazakhstan. We explore the transformation of the notions of citizenship and civic values in Soviet and post-Soviet policy document. By analysing the historical development of the notion of citizenship in policy documents, this study identifies three important periods for the formation of citizenship education in Kazakhstan: the period of sovietisation, Kazakhisation immediately after independence and recent attempts to shift to more inclusive identity politics. We suggest major points of change that occurred in policy rhetoric regarding citizenship education and other elements that continue to resist those changes. We conclude that a drastic separate approach in the conceptualisation of citizenship and character education may hinder the development of citizenship education in contemporary Kazakhstan.