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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.