Sat, 26 Sep 2026 22:01:16 +0500 The main historical portal of Kazakhstan: a selection of the most interesting historical articles on the site https://e-history.kz/media/images/history_default.png https://e-history.kz/media/images/history_default.png en 60 https://e-history.kz/en https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50002051 A wooden Tatar mosque in Semipalatinsk, circa 1870. Semipalatinsk (now Semey) was historically one of the largest centers of Muslim culture in eastern Kazakhstan. The city was home to an ethnically diverse population, with Tatars accounting for nearly a quarter of its residents until the early 20th century. Tatar merchants played a leading role in the local economy, while the city's madrasas attracted students from across the Russian Empire. This multicultural environment fostered strong traditions of Islamic scholarship and Sufi spirituality. One of the most prominent members of Semipalatinsk's 19th-century Muslim clergy was Mullah Ahmad-Wali al-Kazani, an imam, Sufi sheikh, educator, and author of a remarkable chronicle of his native city. Wed, 23 Sep 2026 17:39:13 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50002043 Xinjiang, a vast region in the northwestern part of the People's Republic of China (PRC), has long been a site of geopolitical conflict. On the one hand, Turkic-speaking Muslims regard Xinjiang as their historical homeland. On the other, Chinese officials have long considered it an integral part of China.This analysis draws on Gardner Bovingdon's study, "Heteronomy and Its Discontents: 'Minzu Regional Autonomy' in Xinjiang." In this work, Bovingdon examines both the original structure and the historical development of the system of regional autonomy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), tracing its evolution from the 1950s onward. Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:34:55 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50002040 The history of seventeenth-century Central Asia is more than a chronicle of conquests, power struggles, and dynastic ambitions. It also offers a window into the enduring social and cultural attitudes of the time. In a patriarchal society, where accounts of heroic deeds centered on men—rulers, warriors, and dynastic founders—women and their voices often remained on the margins of historical narratives. Yet the ways in which women are portrayed in chronicles and historical accounts can reveal much about the underlying mechanisms through which power, legitimacy, and dynastic memory were established and maintained.One of the key sources for understanding these attitudes is Shajara-i Turk (Genealogical Tree of the Turks), a work by the seventeenth-century Khan of Khiva and chronicler Abu l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan. Written in the tradition of genealogical chronicles, it combines legendary and historical elements to establish the legitimacy of the author’s ruling dynasty, which traced its ancestry to Genghis Khan. Although the work focuses primarily on men—their achievements, ancestry, and authority—it also features a number of women whose portrayals carry symbolic and ideological significance.In her article “Women in Abu l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan’s Shajara-i Turk,” the scholar Barbara Kellner-Heinkele examines this largely overlooked aspect of the Khivan khan’s work. She analyzes how women are portrayed in the text, the contexts in which they appear, and the roles they play within the narrative. Kellner-Heinkele demonstrates that even brief, generalized references to women reflect not only the author’s personal attitudes but also broader perceptions of women’s place in the patriarchal political culture of the early modern period.Kellner-Heinkele’s article thus does more than fill a gap in the study of Abu l-Ghazi’s writings. It offers a fresh perspective on the portrayal of women in the Turco-Mongol historiographical tradition, showing how women, despite their seemingly secondary role, often formed the vital links through which kinship, power, and dynastic fortunes were shaped. Source: Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, “Women in Abu l-Ghazi Bahadur Khan’s Shajara-i Turk” Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:00:59 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50002029 By 1949, after an exhausting struggle against the Nationalists, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had secured final victory across mainland China. The country’s new rulers found themselves facing a wide variety of political and cultural landscapes, which required different approaches to controlling and transforming local societies. Unsurprisingly, the greatest challenges arose in frontier regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, where non-Han peoples made up the majority of the population. The existing literature on the Communist takeover has largely focused on predominantly Han regions, leaving the impact of the 1949 revolution on China’s ethnic minorities relatively unexplored. Qazaqstan Tarihy examines the CCP’s entry into the northwestern frontier region, known as the “peaceful liberation” of Xinjiang, treating it not merely as a political transformation but as a profound sociocultural process. Source: James Z. Gao, “The Call of the Oases: The “Peaceful Liberation” of Xinjiang, 1949–53” Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:42:26 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50002022 The history of humanity’s religious beliefs is closely intertwined with the formation of peoples’ worldviews and cultural identities. From the earliest forms of shamanism to complex monotheistic systems, human beings have sought to understand their place in the universe and make sense of their relationship with nature and the supernatural. Within this broader context, Tengrism occupies a distinctive place as an ancient religious and philosophical system that took shape during the era of the nomadic civilizations of Central Asia.In contemporary academic discourse, interest in Tengrism is being revived as scholars revisit it as a unique phenomenon combining elements of mythology, religion, and early philosophy. In N. Shaimerdinova’s article “Tengrism in the Life of Turkic Peoples,” Tengrism is examined as a religious system rooted in the myths of nomadic peoples, particularly divine myths concerning the supreme powers of Tengri and Umay. The author traces the evolution of Tengri from an anthropocentric deity in the runic inscriptions to a purely sacred symbol in later medieval texts such as Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk and Codex Cumanicus. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between Tengrism and Islam, reflected in the centuries-long coexistence of these systems in the spiritual life of the Turkic peoples. Source: N. Shaimerdinova, “Tengrism in the life of Turkic peoples” Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:56:10 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001943 Measurement is one of the foundations of human culture. In her study “Qariš, a Unit of Measurement in Turkic Languages,” researcher Münevver Tekcan examines how Turkic peoples, including the ancestors of the Kazakhs, used parts of the human body as units of length. For nomadic societies without cities or written traditions, measures such as qarıš — the span of an outstretched hand — were more than practical tools. They were also cultural concepts that reflected a particular way of perceiving the world.This is especially significant in the history of Kazakhstan. The nomadic way of life shaped a distinct understanding of space, with the human body serving as a natural measure of the steppe. Tekcan’s research therefore reveals the connections between language, culture and identity through something as fundamental as measurement. Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:13:56 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001942 The creation of national borders in Central Asia was far more than a technical or administrative exercise. It was a profound political and cultural process that left a lasting mark on the identities of the region’s peoples and on relations between them. As colonial empires collapsed and Soviet rule took shape, questions about where “our” territory ended and “theirs” began acquired not only geographical but also ideological significance. Through its project of national-territorial delimitation, Moscow sought not so much to recognise Central Asia’s ethnic diversity as to place it within a manageable framework, drawing political boundaries that both constrained and directed the development of the new “socialist nations.” Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:00:27 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001941 From the earliest times, hunting was more than a means of survival. It was also a symbol of power — a ritual through which rulers demonstrated their command over both nature and people. Nowhere was this more evident than in Eurasia, where hunting traditions linked Egypt, Persia, China and Europe into a vast cultural network. As Thomas T. Allsen shows in his book The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History, the royal hunt became a powerful form of political representation, a stage on which authority, wealth and order were made visible. The exchange of animals, especially dogs, developed into both a diplomatic practice and a shared cultural language connecting courts from the Mediterranean to the Mongolian steppe. Through these encounters between civilizations, hunting ceased to be merely a practical activity and became an expression of a universal idea of kingship Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:24:17 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001853 Traditional kinship structures remain visible in modern Kazakhstan despite decades of Soviet rule, rapid urbanization, and major social change. Two of the most important are the zhuz, a broad historical and territorial grouping, and the ru, a more specific lineage or clan identified through paternal ancestry.In “Young People’s Perspectives on How ‘Zhuz’ and ‘Ru’ Clans Affect Them: Evidence from Three Cities in Post-Soviet Qazaqstan,” published in 2019, Yerkebulan Sairambay examines how young ethnic Kazakhs understand the continuing influence of these structures. The study is based on twenty semi-structured interviews and a survey of 200 people aged eighteen to twenty-nine in Nur-Sultan, Aktau, and Shymkent.The research focuses on three areas: employment, marriage, and online activity. Its findings suggest that zhuz and ru have not disappeared. Instead, their influence has become uneven and often informal. Kinship identity appears especially important in marriage, while its role in employment is more difficult to measure and varies considerably by region. Digital platforms, meanwhile, are creating new ways for young people to explore genealogy and organize around shared lineage.The study examines young people’s perceptions and reported experiences rather than directly measuring every instance of clan influence. Its findings should therefore be understood as evidence of how participants interpret their social environment. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:03:37 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001852 Zhakhansha Dosmukhamedov is usually remembered as a political leader of the Alash movement. Yet his career also reveals another side of his legacy: that of a professionally trained lawyer who sought to connect Kazakh customary law with modern legal institutions.In the article “Zhakhansha Dosmukhamedov Was the Founder of Civil Law in the Kazakh Region,” published in 2020, Sh. A. Zabikh argues that Dosmukhamedov played a foundational role in the development of civil-law thought in Kazakhstan. The article presents this conclusion as the author’s interpretation, based on archival materials and comparative legal analysis.Zabikh’s case rests on several parts of Dosmukhamedov’s career. He studied Kazakh customary law, worked in the imperial judicial system, promoted the codification of traditional legal practices, participated in the creation of the Alash autonomy, and introduced contractual and administrative mechanisms in the government of Western Alash-Orda. Together, these activities are portrayed as an early attempt to build a modern legal order in the Kazakh region. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:01:17 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001851 During the eighteenth century, the western and north-eastern regions of present-day Kazakhstan became important zones of Russian imperial expansion. Fortresses, redoubts, military outposts, and fortified border lines appeared across the steppe and along major rivers. These structures were not only defensive installations. They also became centres around which new settlements developed and a permanent Slavic population gradually took shape.In the article “Slavic Population in Western and North-Eastern Kazakhstan in the XVIII Century,” published in Astra Salvensis in 2018, A. Taskuzhina, Z. Shahaman, M. Bekmagambetova, R. Bekmagambetov, S. Ismailov, and S. Tourehanova examine this process. The authors show that the region’s Slavic population did not emerge through a single organized migration. It was formed from several groups, including Cossacks, soldiers, retired servicemen, peasants, artisans, religious refugees, exiles, and convicted settlers.The study presents military colonization and agricultural settlement as closely connected processes. Border troops secured imperial control, while civilian and semi-civilian communities supplied food, labour, and a permanent population. Together, they helped incorporate the Kazakh steppe into the political and administrative system of the Russian Empire. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:58:39 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001849 The revolutions of 1917 created a brief political opening for the peoples of the Russian Empire. For the Kazakh national intelligentsia, the collapse of imperial authority raised an urgent question: could Kazakhstan acquire its own political institutions and govern its territory through a national autonomy? Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:51:20 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001848 The Orkhon inscriptions are among the most important surviving records of the ancient Turkic world. Carved into stone, they preserve accounts of rulers, military campaigns, political struggles, and efforts to unite Turkic tribes under a common state. At the same time, they are more than historical chronicles. Their language and imagery express ideas about loyalty, independence, collective responsibility, and the survival of a people.In the study “Kultegin is the Commander of Ancient Turks,” Saule Orazbay, Magripa Eskeeva, Raushangul Avakova, Sholpan Khudiarova, and Gaziza Shoybekova examine the inscription dedicated to Kultegin, one of the most prominent military figures of the ancient Turkic period. The authors consider its historical, linguistic, cultural, and literary significance, presenting the monument as both a record of the Turkic Khaganate and an early example of heroic epic. Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:49:08 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001743 In 2018, Kazakh researchers Yerzhan Jumbekov, Kanat Kadyrbekov, Baubek Nogerbek, and Zhanar Orazalieva published the article “Kozha’s Character as an Object of Psychoanalysis” in the journal Astra Salvensis. The study offers one of the first attempts to interpret the Soviet Kazakh film classic My Name Is Kozha through Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. The authors believe that this approach helps reveal not only the psychology of one mischievous schoolboy, but also deeper mechanisms of childhood, desire, guilt, fear, and moral growth Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:29:50 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001742 In an age of fast-moving technology and digital noise, scholars are increasingly turning to folk tales as a source of meanings that shaped the thinking of generations. This is exactly what Anar Kassymbekova, Kalbike Essenova, Almagul Maimakova, and Galina Kadyrova set out to do. In their article “Comparatіve-Contrastіve Analysіs Of Phraseologіcal Unіts Іn Еnglіsh And Kazakh Faіry Tales,” published in the international journal Astra Salvensis (Vol. V, No. 10, 2017, pp. 243–251), the authors examine how moral and cultural values are transmitted in Kazakh and English culture through fixed expressions, proverbs, and idioms.The researchers compared more than two thousand phraseological units found in folk tales and discovered that, despite differences in language and history, the meaning and educational role of fairy tales are strikingly similar. The English “Once upon a time” and the Kazakh “Күндердің бір күнінде” open a story with the same invitation into a world of wonder, while fixed expressions such as “sly as a fox” and “түлкідей қу” show that cunning, courage, and goodness are understood in much the same way, no matter what language the story is told in. Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:50:28 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001740 Today, the deportation of the Chechens and their ties with Kazakhstan remain a pressing subject—not only in academic research, but also in public memory. For this reason, the genre experiments of Chechen prose from the 1950s to the 1980s, described in the study by A. M. Khusikhanov, T. K. Akhmadova, Maryam Kh. Sadulaeva, M. P. Asukhanova, and E. H. Dalieva, “Genre Searches in the Chechen Prose of the 50s–80s,” cannot be considered apart from the history of Kazakhstan. It was here, during the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, that tens of thousands of people were exiled; and it was here that their spiritual experience took shape, later finding expression in literature. The shared tragedy of repression brought the Chechens closer to the Kazakhs, who had endured famine and the camps, while the written word became a means of preserving identity and sustaining cultural dialogue. During the same period, the historical novel gained force in both literatures: Chechen authors turned to the figures of Zelimkhan and Shamil, while Kazakh writers turned to Abylai and Kenesary in Ilyas Esenberlin’s epic cycle. Homeland, people, and freedom became universal values, equally important to the mountaineers of the Caucasus and the people of the Kazakh steppe. The online publication History of Kazakhstan explores how these parallels shaped a shared cultural space and why they matter for understanding our past. Source: ASTRA Salvensis, year VII, issue 13, 2019. Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:16:20 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001658 Nogai rose to prominence during the reign of Mengu-Timur, the first khan of the independent Golden Horde. Mengu-Timur appointed him beklyarbek (prince of princes), and Nogai became the ruler of the state’s entire Right Wing. By lineage, he was a Juchid, the grandson of Buval, the 7th son of Jochi, El.kz reports. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:09:39 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001640 At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the territory of present-day Kazakhstan became one of the key spaces of Russian colonial policy. The Steppe Region, where Islam was part of everyday life and nomadic culture shaped the social order, was incorporated into an imperial model of governance based on the promotion of Orthodoxy, settled life, and Russian identity through the resettlement of large numbers of Russian peasants in the Kazakh steppe.However, the mass influx of settlers only intensified tensions in the region and made its religious landscape more complex. The position of Orthodoxy, which officials viewed as a pillar of imperial control, was undermined not by Islam but by the growth of Protestant movements among the Russian settlers themselves. The Baptists, who began organizing actively after 1905, came to be seen by the clergy as a threat to the imperial mission, mainly because their preaching attracted Russian peasants who were supposed to serve as carriers of “Russian” and “Orthodox” identity on the empire’s frontier.Aileen E. Friesen’s chapter “An Anthill of Baptists in a Land of Muslims” from Colonizing Russia’s Promised Land shows that the Kazakh steppe in the early twentieth century was an arena of complex competition within the Christian sphere itself. This raises an important question: why, under the conditions of colonization, did Russian Protestant movements—rather than Muslim communities—come to be perceived by the state as the main threat to Orthodoxy and loyalty in Kazakhstan? Thu, 28 May 2026 12:39:26 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001638 In the history of world archaeology, there are discoveries that do not merely enrich museum collections, but radically change national self-awareness, becoming visible symbols of ancient statehood and culture. The discovery of the “Golden Man” was precisely such an event — a legendary find whose radiance became the basis of a modern national symbol of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The visual shock of what was seen in 1969 was comparable to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Central Asia: archaeologists were confronted with an outfit covered with more than four thousand gold plaques, creating the effect of precious scale armor Thu, 28 May 2026 11:52:14 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001504 In 2018, an article by Kazakhstani researchers Akbota Tokmurzaeva, Dauletbek Raev, and Laura Abzhaparova titled “Some Theoretical Aspects of Studying the Foreign Policy of the Kazakh Khanate” was published in the Romanian academic journal Astra Salvensis. In their work, scholars from the Abylai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages examine how the Kazakh Khanate fit into the global system of international relations, which theories can be applied to analyze its foreign policy, and how the concepts of “national interests” and “national security” manifested in the realities of the medieval steppe.This article is a review of that scholarly work. We will discuss how the researchers interpret the place of the Kazakh Khanate in world history, which philosophical and political concepts they employ, and why the ideas of Hegel, Marx, Morgenthau, and Nazarbayev prove to be surprisingly consonant when it comes to the politics of a nomadic state of the 16th–18th centuries Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:01:48 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50001451 The name of Academician Satbayev is known to everyone today. "The first academician," "the great scientist"—these words are spoken so frequently that they risk losing their specific meaning. What is the true scale of the legacy left by a man whose contribution to Kazakhstani science is nearly impossible to overstate? Who was Kanysh Satbayev—not as a legend, but as a scientist and a human being? Let us answer these questions through facts—through what has come to be known as the "Satbayev Standard." Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:33:35 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000996 The 10th Central Asian Journalism Seminar, themed «Artificial Intelligence and Digital Literacy: New Challenges in the Fight Against Fake Information», was held in Almaty. How is the global community responding to artificial intelligence (AI)? How should existing legislation be changed? How should AI work for the benefit of humanity? These and other topical issues were discussed by seminar participants gathered from across the Central Asian region. Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:19:29 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000905 A new archaeological discovery is making headlines: CNN reports that researchers have identified what may be a major Bronze Age urban center on the Kazakh steppe, a settlement known as Semiyarka that challenges long-held assumptions about early urban life in Eurasia. The article details the findings of an international team of archaeologists, highlighting the site’s scale, its architectural features, and emerging evidence of tin-bronze metallurgy. As an online publication committed to presenting historically significant materials in full, Qazaqstan Tarihy is providing the complete article so that readers can examine the research and its implications firsthand. Fri, 21 Nov 2025 14:58:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000871 On November 11, 2025, the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) hosted the opening ceremony for the international event “Arabic Language Week. Central Asia / Kazakhstan.” The event was held within the framework of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Programme for the Arabic Language and was dedicated to the theme: “Peculiarities of Teaching Arabic for Conducting Islamic and Religious Studies.” Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:02:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000835 The first part of this study traced how the Qing Empire’s legacy has shaped the modern Chinese state’s approach to its Inner Asian borderlands — Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang. These cases demonstrated that the People’s Republic of China inherited not only the territorial extent of the Qing but also its governing principle: formal “autonomy” under firm central control. Across each region, Beijing’s long-term objective has been to transform former imperial peripheries into integral components of a unified national state. This process has combined economic development with demographic engineering, cultural assimilation, and the reinterpretation of imperial expansion as part of an unbroken national history.The second part continues this analysis, focusing on the contemporary transformation of Xinjiang as the culmination of that broader trajectory. Here, the imperial logic of frontier management is updated with twenty-first-century technology and ideological tools. Through mass internment, digital surveillance, and large-scale Han migration, China seeks to “de-ethnicize” and fully integrate the region into its national framework. In Mankoff’s view, Xinjiang represents the final and most intense stage of China’s evolution from empire to nation-state — where historical narratives and modern control mechanisms converge to dissolve the distinct identities that once defined its borderlands. Tue, 04 Nov 2025 09:34:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000792 Central Asia’s long Islamic heritage has profoundly shaped its modern politics. Kathrin Lenz-Raymann emphasizes that history is key to understanding today’s religious policies: for example, modern Uzbekistan celebrates the legacy of Timur even as its official muftiates trace their origins to Soviet institutions. This review follows Lenz-Raymann’s chronological narrative from the first Muslim conquests through tsarist and Soviet rule, highlighting how nomadic and urban traditions, Sufi orders, and official vs. folk Islam interacted. Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:34:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000789 Since 2014, China’s far-western Xinjiang region has been the site of a sweeping security and assimilation campaign. The government detained Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui and other Muslims in “reeducation” camps, aiming to secularize and assimilate them and to erase Xinjiang’s distinct past. This crackdown alarmed neighboring Kazakhstan, which shares a long border and 1.6 million ethnic Kazakhs with Xinjiang. Kazakh activists have fled across the border to testify about camp detentions, but Kazakhstan’s government has remained cautious, mindful of deep Chinese investment and key Belt and Road ties.Jeffrey Mankoff argues that China’s policy toward Xinjiang and other Inner Asian borderlands is rooted in historical narratives. Beijing portrays dynastic expansions as part of an unbroken national story: both the Qing dynasty’s conquests and the CCP’s later control are framed as “national reunification,” not foreign colonization. In this view, regions once governed with shifting autonomy are now treated as inseparable parts of a continuous Chinese state. Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:43:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000758 At the turn of the 20th century, when the Kazakh steppe was gripped by the contradictions of modernity and empire, a quiet thinker from Semey began asking questions that would outlive his time. His name was Shakarim Kudaiberdyuly — a poet, philosopher, and historian who inherited the spiritual legacy of Abay and transformed it into a broader vision of cultural revival. Between the fading light of the Kazakh Khanate and the rising power of Russian colonial rule, Shakarim sought a way to preserve his people’s dignity through knowledge, faith, and history.Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shakarim looked not only to the West but also to the East — to Istanbul, Mecca, and the vast Turkic world that he considered his intellectual homeland. In 1906, he journeyed to the Ottoman capital, studied in its libraries, and returned with a conviction that the Kazakh story was inseparable from the history of the Turkic civilization. Through his writings, he built bridges between Kazakh and Ottoman thought, between the steppe and the world beyond empire.This article is based on the 2018 academic study “Kazakh-Turkish Cultural Relationship of the 20th Century: Through a Scientific Biography and The Works of Shakarim Kudaiberdyuly” by Tursun Khazretali, Yixing Amantai, Girithlioglu Mustafa, Orazkhan Nurlan, and Kamalbek Berkimbaev, published in Astra Salvensis. It revisits that research in accessible form, tracing how Shakarim’s life and works reveal the enduring cultural and intellectual ties between Kazakhstan and the Ottoman-Turkic world. Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:09:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000698 At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States began to regard Central Asia as a strategically important region due to its post-9/11 focus on combating terrorism and conducting operations in Afghanistan. Kazakhstan, with its vast hydrocarbon reserves combined with its active support for the War on Terror, played a key role in these calculations. As Kazakhstan developed the capabilities of its armed forces, questions emerged in the United States about how, in the foreseeable future, the country would take on a more active role both in counterterrorism operations and in peacekeeping missions. The answers to these questions were published in a monograph by Roger N. McDermott, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent (UK) and Senior Fellow for Eurasian Military Studies at the Jamestown Foundation (Washington, DC). In his work Kazakhstan’s Defense Policy: An Assessment of the Trends, McDermott examined Kazakhstan’s prospects in light of its 2010 OSCE Chairmanship and, importantly, analyzed the dynamics of the country’s defense policy development from independence up to 2008. The Qazaqstan Tarihy portal reviewed McDermott’s study and summarized its main points. Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:26:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000695 After a survey of the Semirechiye region in Kazakhstan, in 1990 there was established the Kazakh-American Research Project Inc. – a non-profit California organization located in Berkeley – the main goal of which was to conduct an exchange program with the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Academy of Sciences, KazSSR in Alma Ata. The purpose of organization’s first season, 22 April through 2 June 1990, which included ten Americans and Canadians, was to join Kazakh archaeologists at two archaeological sites, to evaluate other excavation sites, and to investigate ethnographical subjects for future studies. “Qazaqstan Tarihy” will report on what the joint Kazakh-American Research Project Inc. spent a whole month doing in the Almaty region in 1990. Tue, 30 Sep 2025 10:29:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000692 In the 1950s, state-run farms in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (sovkhozes) expanded dramatically. A 1959 Soviet study of Kazakh agriculture shows that this period saw huge efforts to open new farmland and boost production. Between 1954 and 1956 alone, the USSR brought nearly 36 million hectares of new land into cultivation, of which about 20 million hectares were in Kazakhstan. These new lands were split roughly evenly between state farms and collective farms (kolkhozes). The result was a rapid boom in Kazakhstan’s grain production and farm employment. State farms became a major part of the republic’s economy. By 1956, they employed about 500,000 people – roughly one out of every five workers in the Kazakh SSR. In fact, state farm employment grew over three times faster than industry from 1950 to 1956. The state-farm workforce (nearly half a million by 1956) was the single largest occupation group in the republic. Mon, 29 Sep 2025 17:28:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000622 President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s State of the Nation Address to the People of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Current Challenges and Solutions through Digital Transformation”. Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:28:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000535 Abai Qunanbaiuly is renowned worldwide as a great poet, educator, and philosopher whose works remain meaningful to this day. Yet, despite his literary legacy, much about the private life of the founder of Kazakh written literature is not widely known. During a time when polygamy was customary, Abai had three wives — Dilda, Aigerim, and Erkezhan. Although all three were married to him concurrently, they lived in separate villages. His first wife, Dilda, married him when he was just 15 years old. Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:14:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000509 In 1883, the first modern public library in the city center of Semey, located on the banks of the Irtysh River, was established. The initiative to create the library belonged to Russian political exiles—intellectuals who had been banished to the region. Among the organizers were E. P. Mikhaelis (a close friend of Abai), A. A. Leontiev, N. I. Dolgopolov, P. D. Lobanovsky, Severin, and S. S. Gross. The founding of this library is inseparably linked to the name of Abai Kunanbayev. It is known that the poet spent long hours at the library, often staying there late into the night. Sun, 10 Aug 2025 11:04:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000453 Dr. McDaniel is a historian who specializes in Russia and the Soviet Union with particular emphasis on Central Asia. His research, in large part, focuses on migration and the environment in the region of the Kazakh Steppe. Dr. McDaniel’s first major project – now manuscript in progress – is an analysis of the centrality of horses to the convergence of Russian and Soviet state power with both Slavic settler and indigenous Kazakh societies in the Kazakh Steppe. His research was funded primarily by the US Department of State’s Fulbright-Hays Program, allowing him to conduct archival fieldwork in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and St. Petersburg, Russia over the course of the 2017 calendar year Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:22:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000422 In the early 20th century, the turmoil of World War I and the Russian Civil War plunged the Kazakh people into one of the most tragic periods of their history. The promise of a new Soviet era, which advertised equality and prosperity for all, quickly soured. Instead of liberation, Moscow launched a brutal campaign of social engineering that aimed to shatter Kazakhstan's national identity, dismantle its traditional way of life, and ultimately decimate its population. Fri, 18 Jul 2025 09:52:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000413 Data about Kazakhs stored in U.S. archives represents a rich and underutilized resource for historians, cultural researchers, policymakers, and the Kazakh people themselves. These archives contain a wide range of materials—from diplomatic correspondence and travel accounts to ethnographic studies and declassified intelligence reports—that shed light on the history, culture, and global perception of the Kazakh people. Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:12:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000387 This article presents an analysis of a pivotal historical document: a letter from Kenesary Kasymov, the last khan of the Kazakh Steppe, to Russian Emperor Nicholas I in December 1837. Wed, 09 Jul 2025 15:27:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000345 The archaeological and cultural development of ancient Kazakhstan, focusing on three key periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the subsequent early nomadic era. Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:10:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000321 During my one-year research internship at George Washington University in the United States during 2023-2004 years, I studied the topic «Data on Kazakhs in American Archives.» As a result, I discovered a large number of records related to the Kazakh people. Mon, 16 Jun 2025 16:18:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/50000316 The spiritual heritage of the Kazakh people is immense. Among this rich legacy, the most treasured are the fairy tales. Passed down through generations, they reflect our people’s way of life, traditions, worldview, and dreams. Fairy tales are not merely entertaining stories for children – they are profound works that convey the nation’s moral values and guiding principles. Fri, 13 Jun 2025 17:33:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340207 Recently, Republic Day was celebrated in the country. All people are celebrating this national holiday this year. But there is still little information about its importance and history. This still required extensive research. In this regard, we learned about the holiday from Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Institute of History and Ethnology named after Sh. Ualikhanov, Sayyn Moldagaliuly Borbasov and scientist Sultan Khan Akkululy. Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:31:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340205 The 1999 population census, Kazakhstan is a multi-ethnic country that is home to 130 nationalities living in mutual friendship and cooperation. There are various reasons for this, they are historical, social and political reasons. Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:33:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340154 Makhambet Otemisuly (1804-1846) is one of the great figures in Kazakh history, a prominent poet, warrior, and political leader. He was a key figure and ideologist of the 1836-1838 uprising led by Isatay Taymanuly. His poetry reflects the people's desire for freedom and their fight against injustice. Makhambet’s creative legacy and political activity have become significant subjects of study in Kazakh history and literature. Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:57:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340142 Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:37:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340128 Baku, Azerbaijan, 11 September 2024 - The third Turkic World Common Alphabet Commission meeting, organized by the International Turkic Academy and the Turkic Language Institute on 9-11 September 2024, successfully completed its work. Wed, 11 Sep 2024 14:40:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340104 In Central Asia, situated between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and flanked by the Aral Sea and the western Tien Shan ranges, lies the vast Kyzylkum Desert—one of the largest deserts in the world. By the late 1930s, it spanned over 325,000 square kilometers. Prior to this era, the desert attracted minimal attention from researchers and little interest in its economic potential. Consequently, it remained one of the least explored regions in Central Asia, largely due to misconceptions about its nature. Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/340055 It is widely recognized that Kazakh heritage shows significant influences from Eastern civilizations. Experts in various fields often highlight the connections and similarities between Kazakh and Japanese cultures. For example, Uyama Tomohikon, a professor at Hokkaido University, has observed a notable commonality: Kazakh and Japanese infants both exhibit a unique blue-pink mark on their foreheads and waists. This article will delve into the historical aspects of Japanese culture, particularly focusing on its aristocratic elements as seen through Kazakh perspectives, extending beyond mere physical similarities. Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:41:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/339994 During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of fossil vertebrate remains were constantly found all over the territory of USSR. Abundant in both multiplicity and quantity of material, collectionsfrom thesesites attractedthe attention of paleontologists who studiedand describedthese findings. The great scientific significance of these locations was well known not onlyfor Soviet,but alsofor worldscience. Regular and systematic development of these sites required specialized organization and large funds that were achievable only with a scientific institution all-Soviet nature. That’s why this task fellprimarily on the GeologicalMuseum of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which annually equippedpaleontological expeditions tovarious parts of the vast territory of the Union. Fri, 28 Jun 2024 16:40:00 +0500 https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/339995 The 20th century was marked by significant events. For the first time, history made it possible to cover all the events that systematically took place in Kazakh musical culture over the centuries, as if they were in the past. In the 20th century, a new direction in Kazakh music took place - the formation and development of compositional creativity of a new European tradition. This is one of the important phenomena that concentrated the novelty and important differences of this era from previous periods of national musical culture. Many works of musicology were devoted to the development of a new European tradition with our national characteristics. Currently, the relevance of the study of compositional creativity is objectively defined as a relatively holistic, independent musical-historical phenomenon, determined by the need to consider its individual period from a complex historical, theoretical and cultural point of view. Fri, 28 Jun 2024 16:40:00 +0500