The town was founded in 1824 as a fortress, named for the Kokshetau hill it was built on; the name is Kazakh for "greenish mountain".
During the late 1930s, as a result of the Polish operation of the NKVD and related national operations, especially against Germans, many former residents of the kresy were forcibly settled in this region, and Kokchetav became the center of the Polish diaspora in Kazakhstan. On March 16, 1944, the Kokchetav Oblast was created, with Kokchetav as its administrative center.
source: wikipedia
