Zhangir Khan: a loyal subject of Russia and steppe reformer

The paper presents the activity of Zhangir Khan in the period from 1824 to 1845 in the Bukeev Horde or the Internal Horde situated between the Volga and the Ural rivers. The last Khan of the Internal Horde was a son of Bukey Khan and his second wife Atan-Khanym, and fell heir to his father according to his nuncupative will. We know about the life and activities of Zhangir Khan from the papers of Professor K. Fuks, Doctor of Medicine M.Ya. Kittara, official I.S. Ivanov and many other Russian pre-revolutionary authors. A number of papers devoted to the Internal Horde and Zhangir Khan were written during the Soviet period, and this theme is still urgent nowadays. One may find important archive materials devoted to the Bukeev Horde in the holdings of the Central Governmental Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty and the Russian State Historical Archive in Saint Petersburg. During his reign over the Internal Horde, Zhangir Khan managed to revive the traditional national structures such as the Khan's council, the council of Biys, the Yesaul institution, and to restore Khan's jurisdiction. He established a registry, records management, a postal service, opened a pharmacy, a school, a madrasah and a fair in his residence. Zhangir Khan attached particular importance to education. He opened a college for Kazakh young men in the Khan's residence and achieved education vacancies for Kazakh young people in Russian educational institutions. He was interested in issues of medical services for the population of the Horde; in particular, he engaged a doctor and a nurse-midwife, organized immunization, opened a pharmacy and invited a veterinarian for work. To develop trade, he opened a fair in the Khan's residence that worked annually in spring and autumn where Kazakhs could sell livestock and buy necessary goods such as tea, sugar, textiles, iron products, etc. The Khan's attention was drawn to the spread of Islam among his compatriots. In order to implement that he established the post of Akhun, who was the main clergyman, to promote religious knowledge and control over the development of spiritual education and secular knowledge in the Khanate. He opened an arms room, where rare types of cold and fire arms were collected. Zhangir Khan was an aspiring ruler who strove to strengthen his power among the Kazakhs by expanding the Khan's powers and centralizing the management system in the Internal Horde. At the same time he was guided by the model of the Russian autocratic rule, well-known to him. The Tsar administration treated the Khan favorably, encouraged his innovations, rewarded and commissioned him to the rank of Major General of the Russian Army for his faithful service. In general, the colonization policy of the Russian administration in relation to the national borderlands did not prevent the existence of a vassal and simultaneously an autonomous subject such as the Internal Horde within the empire.

Keywords

Authors

References