Kazakh Steppe Research Articles

Explaining and Managing Epidemics in Imperial Contexts: Russian Responses to Plague in the Kazakh Steppe in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

A series of plague outbreaks that occurred in the Kazakh steppe between 1899 and 1910s, with several thousand people dead, made the region a focus of medical, state and public attention of the period. The epidemics initiated a wide-scale research on the ways of life and conditions of living of the local population, resulting in the largest amount of texts ever written on the Kazakh steppe. The region turned into an arena of cutting-edge medical research performed by the leading bacteriologists of Russia, whose findings played an important role in the development of plague epidemiology worldwide. This paper concentrates on both the scope of the measures undertaken by Russian medical administration to control the disease, and the range of explanatory theories produced by the doctors in their attempts to identify the cause of the recurrent epidemic and provide the means of its eradication.

РОССИЙСКИЕ ИСТОЧНИКИ XVIII–XIX ВЕКОВ О КОНФЛИКТАХ В КАЗАХСКОЙ СТЕПИ И УЧАСТИИ В НИХ УРАЛЬСКОГО КАЗАЧЕСТВА

Цель. Цель данной статьи – показать сложность и неоднозначность отношений между казахами и русскими военными (прежде всего казаками) в период продвижения России в казахскую степь и Среднюю Азию, а также отражение данной проблемы в различных источниках.Метод или методология проведения работы. В ходе проведения работы были использованы разноплановые источники, проливающие свет на данную проблему. Среди них документы XVIII–XIX веков, в основном, из Государственного архива Оренбургской области (ГАОО), а также из военно-исторического архива (РГВИА). Использованы также документы, собранные поручиком генштаба А.Д. Рябининым, важность которых связана и с тем, что архив Уральского казачьего войска пропал в годы гражданской войны. Не менее важными представляются две крупные работы офицеров, военных историков и теоретиков М.И. Иванина и М.А. Терентьева, принимавших непосредственное участие в походах через казахскую степь и в присоединении Средней Азии. В меньшей степени использованы материалы других «живых источников» XIX века – уральских казачьих офицеров И.И. Железнова и Н.Г. Мякушина, а также служившего при Оренбургском военном губернаторе В.И. Даля. Важным источником являются и «Уральские войсковые ведомости» – единственная газета, издававшаяся в Уральском казачьем войске в последней трети XIX века.Результаты. Все эти источники позволяют сделать ряд важных заключений. Они ярко свидетельствуют, что юго-восточные окраины России долго подвергались набегам «степняков», и это выработало у большинства пограничного казачьего населения устойчивую неприязнь к кочевым соседям. Неприязнь сохранялась долгое время, но в течение XIX века она постепенно снижалась вследствие социально-политических и экономических изменений, параллельно сокращалось и число конфликтов. Российские военные иногда проявляли излишнюю жестокость, а их командиры, выполняя указания свыше, не всегда были справедливы в отношении казахского населения. Но это не было основной тенденцией. Казахское общество было отнюдь не монолитно. Далеко не все представители знати пользовались уважением и авторитетом у простых людей; многие ханы и султаны нуждались в личной охране от своих же подопечных, которую осуществляли казаки. Нравы различных казахских родов и жузов порой имели существенные различия, обусловленные разными факторами, в том числе географическими. Чаще всего конфликты, волнения и мятежи происходили в Западном Казахстане (в Младшем казахском жузе), а самым непокорным и воинственным здесь был род «адай». Сложными были отношения казахов не только с казаками (или в целом с русскими), но и с другими соседями – узбеками, туркменами и прочими, порой приводившие к кровавым столкновениям. В то же время, источники свидетельствуют, что имело место и позитивное сотрудничество с казахами и их знатью в разных областях – политической, военной, хозяйственной, культурной.Область применения результатов. Данные этой статьи могут использоваться историками, краеведами, другими научными и научно-педагогическими работниками, а также всеми, кто интересуется историей русско-казахских отношений.

Sharīʿa Debates and Fatwas among Nomads in Northern Kazakhstan, 1850–1931

Legal debates among Kazakh nomads and on the Kazakh steppe more broadly have, for the most part, addressed the effects of Russian colonial policy on the administration of law among these nomads. The official and scholarly Russian fixation on Kazakh customary law, based largely on a tendentious categorization of Kazakh Muslims as quasi-shamanists, resulted in policies designed to separate Islamic law (sharīʿa) from customary law (ʿādat), and to suppress the role of sharīʿa in the areas of criminal and civil law. As Muslims, however, Kazakh nomads were directly affected by sharīʿa debates taking place both among Tatar scholars in their midst as well as among Kazakh scholars. These discussions, which occurred largely outside the field of vision of Russian officials or officially-mandated customary law courts, have so far eluded scrutiny. Recorded primarily in recently-published biographical dictionaries of Muslim scholars on the steppe, these discussions addressed a range of issues, including questions of ritual, but also, more significantly, the application of Islamic legal norms to commercial matters.

The potential breeding range of Slender-billed CurlewNumenius tenuirostrisidentified from stable-isotope analysis

SummaryThe breeding areas of the Critically Endangered Slender-billed CurlewNumenius tenuirostrisare all but unknown, with the only well-substantiated breeding records being from the Omsk province, western Siberia. The identification of any remaining breeding population is of the highest priority for the conservation of any remnant population. If it is extinct, the reliable identification of former breeding sites may help determine the causes of the species’ decline, in order to learn wider conservation lessons. We used stable isotope values in feather samples from juvenile Slender-billed Curlews to identify potential breeding areas. Modelled precipitationδ2H data were compared to feather samples of surrogate species from within the potential breeding range, to produce a calibration equation. Application of this calibration to samples from 35 Slender-billed Curlew museum skins suggested they could have originated from the steppes of northern Kazakhstan and part of southern Russia between 48°N and 56°N. The core of this area was around 50°N, some way to the south of the confirmed nesting sites in the forest steppes. Surveys for the species might be better targeted at the Kazakh steppes, rather than around the historically recognised nest sites of southern Russia which might have been atypical for the species. We consider whether agricultural expansion in this area may have contributed to declines of the Slender-billed Curlew population.

The spiritual and educational activities of the Tatars in the Kazakh Steppe in the context of the Russian Empire’s domestic policy (second half of XVIII – the beginning of XX century)

This paper discusses the spiritual and educational activities of the Tatars in Kazakhs steppe in pre-revolutionary period. The Empress Catherine II let mass penetration of the Tatar mullahs into the steppe zone. They performed some of the functions of the tsar officials in addition to religious and educational activities. They completed parish registers and directed civil proceedings. The Tatar language became the main language of the clerical work in the steppe zone. After the Crimean and Caucasian war the attitude of imperial administration to the activities of Tatar preachers changed dramatically. Since that time, Islam and Muslim education in the Steppe zone started to be considered by officials as a threat to the Russian state. The Russian government limited the powers of the mullahs, subdued Muslim schools to the Ministry of Education and strictly regulated it, tried to introduce the Russian language into the mosques and madrasas. Minister of Internal Affairs through its secret messages made local administration offices translate clerical works from the Tatar language on Arab ligature to the missionary Kazakh language on Cyrillic alphabet. It was also strongly recommended to replace Tatar interpreters to Kazakh or Russian ones. Despite the internal policy of the Russian state had changed, the Tartars built powerful spiritual and educational infrastructure in the Steppe zone. At the beginning of the XX century it included the old and new madrasas, mosques, Muslim Library and publishing houses. In Muslim schools prominent people of Tatar and Kazakh culture were educated, first books and newspapers in both languages were issued in theses publishing houses. The spiritual and educational activity of the Tatars played a significant role in the formation of the Kazakh and Tatar intelligentsia and led to the rise of religious and political consciousness of both nations.

Transimperial Muslims, the Modernizing State, and Local Politics in the Late Imperial Volga-Ural Region

Transimperial Muslims, the Modernizing State, and Local Politics in the Late Imperial Volga-Ural Region Norihiro Naganawa (bio) Elena I. Campbell, The Muslim Question and Russian Imperial Governance. 320 pp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015. ISBN-13 978-0253014467. $60.00. Agnès Nilüfer Kefeli, Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy. 312 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014. ISBN-13 978-0801452314. $52.50. James Meyer, Turks across Empires: Marketing Muslim Identity in the Russian-Ottoman Borderlands, 1856–1914. 211 pp. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN-13 978-0198725145. $99.00. Mustafa Tuna, Imperial Russia's Muslims: Islam, Empire, and European Modernity. 292 pp. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. ISBN-13 978-1107032491. $103.00. The Volga-Ural region has been a focal point of the historiography on Russian imperial policies toward the multiconfessional borderlands. With its diverse Slavic, Turkic, and Finno-Ugric populations made up of Orthodox, Muslims, and animists, the region emerged as a critical battleground of sorts during the second half of the 19th century, when imperial traditions of tolerance seemed to jostle and compete with modernizing trends that were moving the [End Page 417] country toward ever greater homogeneity and administrative rationalization.1 The result was a complicated ambiguity. On the one hand, the region came to be seen as a would-be crucible of Russianness, a place where the Russian nation (supposedly) had to stand tall and defend itself against a raft of competing nation-building projects. Yet on the other, it was also very much a site of revealing cross-cultural, even cosmopolitan observation. Despite the increasing hostility of Orthodox missionary scholarship to Islam, the region remained one of the empire's most important provincial workshops for Oriental studies, a place where the country's scholars looked outward and produced "scholarship that implicitly valued the East as a source of wisdom and learning."2 Indeed, the Volga-Ural region constituted the northernmost edge of a vast expanse of Islamic civilization, interacting with the Ottoman Empire, South Asia, the North Caucasus, the Kazakh steppe, and Central Asia. Volga-Ural Muslim scholars ('ulamā') composed exegeses of classical literature related to law, theology, Sufism, and history, working through a range of educational centers with links to still other centers well beyond the region.3 Interplay with the Orthodox state invariably led Volga-Ural Muslims to modify their religious and communal practices over time as well as their view of "infidel" rule, which ultimately helped mold a distinct Muslim national identity by the beginning of the 20th century.4 Furthermore, the Volga-Ural region served as a significant point of reference during the late imperial era for Russian bureaucrats and Muslim intellectuals from other regions, and it plays a similar role today for scholars interested in questions about the [End Page 418] comparative history of Muslim societies under Russian power and the rule of other European empires.5 At this point a division of labor of sorts has evolved in the historiography, with historians falling into two rough groups. One set of scholars has emphasized work in Russian sources, including documents from central and regional archives, to elucidate the relationship between Muslim subjects and the imperial state. In the process, they have revealed a rich landscape of close Muslim engagement with and incorporation within imperial institutions. The scholarship of Robert Crews, with his effective use of Turkic sources, has been especially important and influential in this regard. Another scholarly cohort, meanwhile, has focused primarily on Turkic and Arabic materials and has suggested a different if not expressly opposite picture of substantial Muslim autonomy vis-à-vis the imperial order, in particular in the areas of intellectual and religious life. We have thus ended up with a somewhat indeterminate picture of the state's role in shaping Muslim life and Islamic orthodoxy during the imperial era. Is it possible to reach a more holistic picture of Muslim-state interactions (and generate new research questions as well) if we reassess what we know so far? Could these seemingly opposite methodologies be usefully combined or somehow wound together? Marvelously supplementing one another, the four impressive books under review here indeed manage to do this...

Г.Н. Потанин – великий путешественник, ученый, демократ

G.N. Potanin is one of the great travelers who made a significant contribution to the studies of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. During his trips to Kazakhstan, the researcher did not limit himself with physical and geographical description of the localities covered by the expedition, he established the regions of Kazakhstan suitable for farming and noted that in these places the Kazakhs successfully develop land without external motives. G.N. Potanin studied the life, customs, beliefs, culture, legends of various peoples inhabiting the territory of Central Asia including Kazakhs and their clan-tribal composition with great interest. A prominent place in his study is taken by legends and tales of the Kazakh people.New in the history of Kazakhstan is the investigated by G.N. Potanin position of Kazakh farmers-eginchas, representing the estate of leaser-peasants. Afterstudying the working conditions of workers in the gold mines of Siberia and the Kazakh steppe, the scientist established that the workers both in the taiga andin the steppe are in the bondage position from the gold miners and demanded from the authorities a radical reform to improve the life of workers, regardless of their location. On the example of the Irtysh Cossacks and Kazakhs, G.N. Potanin showed the commonality of their views on the world. The friendship of Ch.Ch. Valikhanov and G.N. Potanin is the brightest example to follow for the younger generation. During the expedition to Mongolia and China 1876–1877, 1879–1880, 1884–1886 and 1899 he explored the Turkic and Mongolian monuments of antiquity and the clan-tribal composition of the population of northwestern Mongolia. The scientist described in detail the group of Utay monasteries and the shrine Ordos-Ihi-Ezhen-Khoro, the tomb of Genghis Khan. The Kazakh people highly appreciate G.N. Potanin for his democratic view.DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2017)5-07

Colonization and changing social structure: Evidence from Kazakhstan

We study how Russian colonization of the Kazakh steppes in the late 19th century influenced the evolution of traditional institutions of Kazakhs. Using a rich dataset constructed from Russian colonial expedition materials, we find that during the transition from nomadic pastoralism to a semi-sedentary pastoralist-agricultural system, Kazakhs’ traditional communes shrank, property rights on land became more individualized, and households became less likely to pool labor for farming. We argue that two main forces behind this evolution were increasing land pressure and technological change. The speed and the magnitude of these adjustments were much larger than usually assumed in most of development economics literature on traditional institutions.

The relationship between the Kazakhs and the peasant-migrants of Western Kazakhstan in the XIX - early XX century

The relationships between Kazakhs and Russian peasants have evolved for a long time. Over the past 20 years, Kazakh historians were unable to find new methods of research on the agrarian colonization of Kazakhstan. Basically, agrarian colonization of Kazakhstan is considered as a negative process, as the Russification of the Kazakh people. The majority of Kazakh historians write in similar spirit, and hence it is quite difficult to give an objective assessment of the events. The article reveals the problem of adaptation of the Russian peasants in the Western Kazakhstan in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the period of the Stolypin agrarian reform more than 1 million immigrants from various Russian provinces came to Kazakhstan. The tsarist government discussed the issue of agrarian colonization of Kazakhstan for a long time. The settlers began to rent the Kazakhs land. Settlements of Russian peasants appeared in the Kazakh steppes, and the Kazakhs began to settle near these villages. The relationship between the Kazakh population and the immigrants were peaceful. They worked together on the ground, sowed bread. Many Kazakhs began to learn the Russian language and were hired to work for Russian peasants. Labor contacts became more active. Western Kazakhstan was actively involved in the Russian market.

A historical picture of German resettlement to Kazakhstan (End of the 19th Century–Beginning of the 20th Century)

Each nation living in Kazakhstan has its own history of resettlement to the Kazakh steppes. Germans are no exception. In the last quarter of the 19th century, they started to relocate from the Volga region to Akmola and Semipalatinsk oblasts of the Governor-Generalship of the Steppes, Syr Dar’ya oblast of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship, and Turgai and Ural oblasts of the Russian Empire, i.e., preferentially to the north of Kazakhstan, where they founded a host of settlements. The settlers managed to organize their economy and everyday life, strictly followed national traditions, and preserved their religion and culture. The authors investigate the causes of German resettlement to Kazakhstan, the places where they settled, their sociocultural and living conditions, and economic activities.

Nazira Tradition and “Leyla and Majnun” Love Poem in the Kazakh Literature

Many works of the eastern poets were devoted to love theme. The most spread “Leyla and Majnun” is a love story originated in Arabic, later significantly expanded to Persian and got its fictional peak in Turkic literature. Poets frequently wrote on this theme. The actual reason is “nazira, nazirashylyk” tradition which is the source of love tradition. Poets wrote their poem lines in Arabic aruz style. That nazira tradition took its continuation in Kazakh steppes in the end of XIX century and in the beginning of the XX century but not exactly in its poem style . It is obvious from the Kazakh writers’ works that the object of written literature was love poems and were written in rhymes. Love poems did not leave the Kazakh poems indifferently. That’s why, poets tried to introduce the eastern poem to Kazakh nation. Kazakh poets were good as eastern poets in terms of the above mentioned theme. After that new works with different styles peculiar to poets were coming out in the literature. This article deals with nazira tradition in the Kazakh literature and “Leyla and Majnun” poem which is written in nazira tradition. Along with it, we try to evaluate the role of nazira tradition as the witness of historical events. Keywords: Kazakh literature, nazira tradition, Leyla, Majnun, love poem ;

IN THE WAKE OF PUGACHEV’S REBELLION: EXPERIENCE IN ORAL HISTORY

Grand uprising led by Pugachev seized a vast area from the middle reaches of the Volga, the Urals and the Kazakh steppes. Thousands of people from different classes and nationalities joined rebellious Ural Cossacks in 1773. From the beginning, the uprising was of antimonarchic, not noble character, although its leader, and posed as a resurrected Emperor Peter III. During two years since 1773 the rebels were holding at bay the entire Russian Empire, becoming a real threat to the power of Catherine II. Pugachev's Rebellion is a subject of numerous works of Russian historians, writers, articles, research journalists and ethnographers. But perhaps the most famous "History of Pugachev" is written by a classic of Russian literature Alexander Pushkin. His work became one of the first (if not the first) serious historical studies on Pugachev's Rebellion. The historical science of XIX century, especially its first half, doesn't know many writings on the uprising. The fact that historians did not dare to write about Pugachev and the events that took place in 1773-1775 years, as Catherine II prohibited even mention the uprising. The decree of the senate ordered even rename the place, where the described events took place, for example, the Yaik river and Yaitsk town in order "to bring all that has happened to eternal oblivion." The famous historian S.M. Solovyov did not have advance to write about Pugachev. Death interrupted his work when his 29 volume ws in process, which he planned to complete with the execution of the leader of the uprising. Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevskii did not write many pages devoted to Pugachev as well. The author of this article visited the places, where the events took place, and repeated the journey of A.S. Pushkin, who visited the region in 60years after Pugachev's Rebellion. By talking with the locals, visiting ancient towns and villages, I sought to find out what has now preserved since ancient times, whether it is possible today to see evidence of the uprising or the famous trip of A.S. Pushkin.

Imperial Statistical Research in the Kazakh Steppes (Late 19th-early 20th Centuries)

The notion of a ‘commune’ has become a part of evolutionistic view on social development over the course of 19th-20th cc. and heavily influenced various fields of Social Sciences and Humanities. The Russian statisticians have also accepted the category of a commune while they were investigating the Russian peasants’ household budgets. This theoretical pattern was also applied to Kazakh land tenure during the carrying out the Russian colonial project on searching land ‘surpluses’ for Russian settlers in the Kazakh steppes. In particular, it was used in the statistical research “Materials on Kirgiz land tenure collected and developed by the expedition for research of the Steppe area” under Fedor Shcherbina’s leadership (1896-1903). In fact, the statisticians could not identify the commune borders among the nomads as those borders were very conditional. As a result, the surveyors turned from investigating commune to their creation. Soon the maps on Kazakh land tenure were made and ‘communes’ were established on the juridical base. After finishing that statistical research those invented communes served for colonial authorities as the ground for ceasing land in favor of the Russian peasants.

South-Eastern Policy of Tsarizm

This article is devoted to the penetration of the Russian Empire to the territory of the Junior Horde of Kazakhs and the strengthening of Russian power in South Volga Region. Taking into consideration the ethnical origin and territorial contacts due to close proximity, cultural connections of Kazakhs and Bashkirs during the period under research, the article sheds light on the involvement of Kazakhs in Bashkir rebellions and looks into the changing character of the relations between these two Turkic ethnic groups. The nature of Orenburg expedition has been studied through the activities of the following rulers of the region: I.K. Kirillov, V.N. Tatishev, V.A. Urussov, I.I. Neplyuev. The construction of the city of Orenburg, the fortresses along the border with Bashkiriya and Western Kazakhstan, the colonization of the Orenburg region by Russians, and locating military units in a number of fortified cities was aimed at ensuring free and safe rear for further penetration into Central Asia. The issue of the participation of Kazakhs in Bashkir rebellion in 1737-1740 and its causes are under study. The author dwells on the decision of Bashkir officers to surrender to the reign of Kazakhs and to invite one of the Kazakh sultans to become a sovereign Bashkir khan. The attitude of Kazakhs toward Bashkirs is studied through the activity of Abulkhair, the Kazakh Junior Horde khan, Semeke, the Kazakh Middle Horde аnd sultans Abulmambet, Ablay and others. The author estimates the number of casualties during the rebellion and the number of refugees seeking asylum in the Kazakh steppe. The marriage of Abulkhair Khan to a daughter of a Bashkir officer is considered as one of the methods of Bashkir influence on the Kazakh khan.

Engagement with empire as norm and in practice in Kazakh nomadic political culture (1820s–1830s)

ABSTRACTThis article offers an analysis of the Kazakh nomadic political culture of the 1820s–30s with focus on two issues: (1) service and loyalty as elements of Kazakh engagement with the Russian Empire; and (2) the place in local political practice of the regional administrative offices (diwans) created for Middle Horde Kazakh nomads in 1822. While Russia’s goal was ‘bureaucratization’ and creation of ‘order’ in the steppe, in part through directing nomads to engage with the diwan and its elected Kazakh officials, Kazakh political actors variously embraced and rejected formal structures, and continued to define relevant norms and practices of governance. The analysis challenges both statist and nationalist narratives of nineteenth-century Kazakh steppe history by acknowledging the complexities of the Kazakh nomadic experience of empire-building. The ultimate purpose is to suggest new approaches for interpreting historical change throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

The agrarian question in life of Western Kazakhstan society in the 19 – early 20 centuries

The agrarian question is a very urgent problem in Kazakhstan. The following paper shows the history of struggle for land in 1920 centuries. At those times Kazakhs were nomads. Tsarism carried some reforms and made the lands in the Kazakh steppe the property of the state. In Western Kazakhstan agriculture, cattle breeding, trade developed. In the Kazakh steppe agrarian transformation started. Nomads started to build permanent dwellings. These buildings were near the Russian peasants. Construction of railways led to the fact that the Kazakhs and Russian peasants sold bread at the markets near stations. Stolypin agrarian reform accelerated the process of agrarian transformation. Eventually, Western Kazakhstan entered into Russian market.

Dynamics of the Russian legislation on the Kazakh steppe in the XIX century

Imperium Rosyjskie po opanowaniu stepów kazachskich podjęło kroki prawne umożliwiające sprawne zarządzanie tymi terenami. Stąd też wydano odpowiednie zarządzania ustanawiające struktury administracyjne. Autor analizuje w swojej pracy akty prawne regulujące aparat zarządzania Stepem Kazachskim w XIX w. Omawia system administracyjny działający na tym obszarze w czasie rządów carów Mikołaja I, Aleksandra II i Aleksandra III.

Clans and Ploughs: Traditional Institutions and Production Decisions of Kazakhs under Russian Colonial Settlement

This article investigates how, with increasing land pressure during Russian settlement in Kazakh steppes in the late nineteenth century, clan institutions affected the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled agriculture. Using a novel dataset constructed from Russian colonial expedition materials matched with clan genealogies, we find that, controlling for geographic factors, clan identity strongly influenced the duration of transhumance period, the organization of production, and the acquisition of new agricultural tools. Information transmission within clans, external economies of scale in nomadic pastoralism, and clan-specific values and norms underlie the results.

Қaзaқ дaлacындaғы діни тaнымның иcлaм дінімeн caбaқтacтығы

Қaзaқ дaлacындaғы діни тaнымның иcлaм дінімeн caбaқтacтығы

Famine and Kazakh Society in the 1930s

The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of famine in the 1930s and its consequences in the Kazakh steppe. The authors indicate the cause of the hunger which were laid mostly on economic mismanagement and Soviet struggle against the rich peasants. Statistics, concerning food and livestock revealed the wrong data and provided a false favorable situation. The authors considered Stalin's policy as deliberately implemented. It did not take into account the traditional relations: the existent nomadic and semi-nomadic economy. The Kazakh Steppes produced a small quantity of grain. As a result the fast sedentarization, which managed without the necessary conditions, led to the killing and dekulakization of more skilled and effective peasants who might help their poorer relatives overcome the crisis and survive. The Kazakh society lost around 40 percent of its population. The hunger also led to migration of thousands to the neighbouring regions.