Kazakh-Bashkir Military-Political Interaction during the Expansion of the Western Oirats (Kalmyks) and Bashkir Uprisings of the 17th century

Abstract

The Kazakh-Jungar war and the corresponding migration of a significant part of Kazakh clans from Semirechye and South Kazakhstan westward and to the north-west, in the beginning of the 17th century intensified the Kazakh-Bashkir interaction embracing ethnic, military and political components. The complicated political situation of the 16th and 17th centuries, when there was a confrontation and interaction between Muscovy, the Nogai Horde, the Khanate of Siberia and the Kazakh Khanate, was superimposed on the strengthening of interaction between Bashkirs, Kazakhs and other Turkic-speaking nations with the western Oirat-Kalmyks during the expansion of the latter. The article analyses sources on participation of the Kazakh and Karakalpak in the Bashkir riots of the second half of the 17th century. It also considers the reasons and purposes of the Muscovite tsarist government's measures to counteract the union of Turkic-speaking peoples with Kalmyks, the issues of Bashkir and Kalmyk subjectship, as well as BashkirKalmyk interaction. The analysis of the complex political and legal status of the Bashkirs in the period under consideration is given. Along with the facts of the conclusion of oaths on the joint struggle of Bashkirs and Kazakhs, preconditions for the gradual transition of political patrons of Bashkirs from Kuchumovich to representatives of Kazakh governing dynasties are formed.