Orenburg Kazakhs of the Eastern part and Imperial Services: the Specifics of Kazakh-Russian Contacts in the first half of the XIX century

Abstract

The history of Russian-Kazakh relations in the first half of the 19th century has been poorly studied. Thus, the “white spots” of the historiography of the topic remain the personalities of Kazakh public figures and their participation in negotiation processes with the border imperial services. Not only khans, sultans and batyrs, but also representatives of the clergy, as it turned out, were involved in political processes in the border regions. In the twentieth century, these categories of nomadic society were classified as a “hostile class” and completely removed from scientific circulation. From a new methodological standpoint, it makes sense to study the essence of social protest among the Orenburg Kazakhs of the eastern part, in which Maral Ishan Kurmanov, of course, played the role of a spiritual leader. Based on scientific methods (analysis and synthesis, comparative studies, principles of historicism and verification of sources), materials from the central historical archives of Russia and Kazakhstan, periodicals and books of the XIX century were identified, systematized and studied. The discovery of correspondence between the border administration and M. Kurmanov reveals little-known aspects of border contacts. The article attempts to compare the tactics of steppe leaders, who often used diplomacy as a peaceful way to solve problematic issues. The materials of the pre-revolutionary press have been critically studied. The facts of migration, together with M. Kurmanov, of Kazakh families in the southern and south-eastern directions, as a result of the land crisis and a number of unresolved issues, have been revealed.