Paper long abstract:

Mangystau (Mangyshlak) is a special region in Central Asia. The Mangyshlak Peninsula (the modern name of Mangystau) is located on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea of Kazakhstan. The plateau adjoining the peninsula, which passes to the east into the Ust-Urt plateau, also has the same name. In pre-revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, this region was called Mangyshlak. After the collapse of the USSR, the name Mangystau is still used.

In the 18th century sea and land expeditions went to the peninsula, fortresses were laid.

Mangystau has acquired an important geopolitical significance since the beginning of the 1840s. During this period, it became the only point through which Russia had relations with the Bukhara Emirate and the Khiva Khanate on the Caspian Sea. In 1846, a fortress was built on the Kurgantas hill in the northwestern part of the peninsula, first called the Novopetrovsk fortress, then the Aleksandrovsky fort.

In 1868, the Mangyshlak squadron was formed as part of the Ural region with the center in Fort-Aleksandrovsk. The bailiff included the Mangyshlak and Buzachi peninsulas, a number of islands. About 20 thousand Kazakh families lived in these territories. In 1870, the Mangyshlak bailiff was transferred from the Orenburg governor-general to the Caucasian governor.

The Russian Empire pursued a special policy in the region, taking into account all its geopolitical, geographic, and ethnic characteristics. Temporary provisions of 1867-1868 were introduced in Mangystau later, in 1870, but nevertheless they met active resistance of the Kazakhs of the Adai clan, which resulted in an uprising.

In the report, we would like to analyze the implementation of the policy of the Russian Empire on the territory of Mangystau, the history and historiography of the resistance of the Kazakhs-Adaevites in response to the introduction of general imperial governance, and their results.

The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No.19-18-00162 «Central Asia and International Relations in the 18th-19th centuries») and carried out at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Languages and Cultures.

Paper long abstract:

The article is focused on the analysis of economic realities in the Turkmen households of the Transcaspian region of the Russian Empire in the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries. One of the main aspects of the work is the comparison of the economic features of the nomadic and sedentary lifestyle of locals. The peculiarities of the climatic conditions of this region, which determined the uneven distribution of these types of households, as well as local traditions and customs, were a serious barrier to the realization of a consistent and effective policy of imperial administration. It is quite obviously, that its main goal in all of Turkestan was the sedentarization of the population. Therefore, special attention in this work is paid to administrative attempts to implement economic transformations, as well as the perception of this by local residents. In addition, the entire Russian Turkestan became a source of an important agricultural resource-cotton with the significant assistance of the imperial government. Based on this, the article considers the prospects for the development of cotton growing in the Transcaspian sub-region, as well as the degree of interest and participation in this of the Turkmen themselves. Considerable attention is paid to the development of local handicrafts that ensured the economic well-being of local residents. At the same time, the prospects for the industrial development of the region are of particular interest. A significant part of the work is related to the transformation of the Transcaspian region after the building of the railway in the region. The increase in trade turnover with the inner regions of the empire, the ability to sell locally produced goods abroad, the increase in the level of mobility of the local population and other aspects had a positive impact on the economic situation of the region. Therefore, considering the changes that occurred after the construction of the railway in the economy of both individual farms and the entire region as a whole takes an opportunity to evaluate the level of civilizational influence of the Russian Empire. In addition, the article discusses measures to combat alamanism, as well as the evolution of the attitude of local residents to this traditional occupation.

The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No.19-18-00162 «Central Asia and International Relations in the 18th-19th centuries») and carried out at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Languages and Cultures.

Paper long abstract:

With the end of the campaign to Khiva and the expansion of the sphere of direct influence of Russia in Turkmenistan it became necessary to revise the form of government in the Krasnovodsk region. In this regard, it was decided to create an administrative region under the command of one person endowed with civil and military powers. In 1874 the Transcaspian Military Division was created with two sections of Mangyshlak and Krasnovodsk commissioner districts (pristavstvos). The creation of the Transcaspian Military Division was the first serious step of tsarism in establishing administrative power in Western Turkmenistan. At the same time, it was one of the first experiments in the field of administrative and economic management. The function of commissioners resembled a police supervision of the local population.

There are documents showing how the Turkmen population of the interior regions sought to establish friendly relations with the Russians. However, the Qajar authorities enjoying the active support of the British government and despite the apparent inability to control their Turkmen lands made attempts to consolidate their position in Turkmenistan. It seems relevant to consider the issues of relations between the Qajar authorities and the Turkmen within the framework of the reactionary foreign policy of Persia and Great Britain on the administrative registration of the Russian power in Turkmenistan. The actions and interests of the British establishment, both in Central Asia in general and in Turkmenistan in particular, were most often dictated by the Anglo-Russian rivalry.

Before and by the time of its accession to Russia, Turkmenistan did not represent a single political whole - the Turkmen lands were fragmented between neighboring states - Persia, Khiva and Bukhara. The fact of territorial and tribal disunity of the Turkmens living on the border with the key countries in Central Asia prompts researchers of international relations to raise new topical issues in the history of the region under study.

The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No.19-18-00162 «Central Asia and International Relations in the 18th-19th centuries») and carried out at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Languages and Cultures.

Paper long abstract:

Mangystau is an area in the south-west of Kazakhstan that has a very ancient history. On the territory of Mangystau, monuments of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, even in the first millennium BC were found. The paths of the Great Silk Road passed along the lands of the peninsula. A feature of Mangystau has become numerous sacred objects - especially revered monuments of the natural landscape, religious and burial complexes, monuments of natural cultural heritage, mausoleums, places associated with historical and political events, monuments of secular and religious architecture.

Ten objects of the Mangystau region were included in the national project of Kazakhstan "Sacral Kazakhstan". The category "Religious and cult objects that are places of worship" includes necropolises and underground mosques of Mangystau: Beket ata in the Oglandy area dating from the 18th century, Shopan ata (10th – 19th centuries), Old Beineu and Beket ata (11th – 19th centuries), Karaman ata (13th – 19th centuries), Masat ata (10th – 19th centuries), Shakpak ata (9th – 10th – 14th – 19th centuries), Sultan epe (10th – 19th centuries), Sisem ata (13th – 19th centuries). The list of sacred places associated with historical figures includes the memorial complex of Taras Shevchenko in the city of Fort Shevchenko. The historical and cultural complex "Otpan Tau" on the slope of Mount Karatau "is identified as a particularly revered monument of natural heritage.

Twenty-eight sacred objects of the Mangystau region are included in the list of sacred objects of local importance. Work is underway to create an interactive map "Sacred Geography of the Mangistau Region", which will indicate 15 monuments included in the national list of sacred places of Kazakhstan from the Mangistau region and 28 monuments included in the list of 500 sacred places of local significance in Kazakhstan.

At the same time, near the Bozzhyra mountain, located 300 km from Aktau, which is one of the sacred objects of Kazakhstan, the construction of a tourist facility has begun under the Rukhani Zhagyru program. In defense of the object, activists and ecologists from the Kazakhstan Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity (ACBK) spoke out from the Ustyurt National Reserve.

In the report, we would like to analyze the global significance of a number of sacred objects of Mangystau, their history, as well as the implementation in Kazakhstan of the program of the national project "Sacred Geography".

The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No.19-18-00162 «Central Asia and International Relations in the 18th-19th centuries») and carried out at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Languages and Cultures.