Nursultan Ábishuly Nazarbayev (Kazakh pronunciation: ; , '; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician currently serving as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan who previously served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in office from 24 April 1990 until his formal resignation on 19 March 2019. He is one of the longest-ruling non-royal leaders in the world, having ruled Kazakhstan for nearly three decades. He was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and was elected as the nation's first president following its independence from the Soviet Union. He holds the title Elbasy (meaning "Leader of the Nation").