RELIGIOUS POLICY AS A TOOL OF INTEGRATION OF KAZAKHS IN RUSSIA IN XVIII–XIX CENTURIES

Abstract

The article reveals the peculiarities of the development of the religious policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the Kazakh population in XVIII — XIX centuries. The author uses previously unpublished materials from the holdings of the Historical archive of Omsk region. This perspective of the study is of practical importance, as in the modern world it is impossible to imagine a multiconfessional state without a certain model of religious policy. One of the variants of such a model was the religious policy of the government of Catherine II. In an eff ort to culturally integrate the Kazakhs into Russia and to protect them from the influence of the Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva anti-Petersburg teachers of Islam, the Russian government in the XVIII century made the Tatar mullahs official representatives and guides of the Russian influence among the Muslim Kazakhs. Tatars had to make the prospect of Russian citizenship more attractive for the Kazakh population than the possibility of political unity with Muslims of Central Asian khanates. At the same time, the Central Asian teachers of Islam have already begun their preaching in the Kazakh steppe. But after the conquest of Central Asia the Russian authorities had no more need for the active Tatar presence in the region. The Russian government organizationally separated Muslim Tatars from Muslim Kazakhs, strengthened the secular direction of development of Kazakh culture, maintaining the loyalty of the Kazakh people. At the same time, any illegal initiatives, which restricted the Muslim population of the Empire, were stopped. Thus, the successful expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire in the XIX century is not only an indicator of the military power of the Empire, but also the result of a flexible religious policy.