The Kenesary Kasymov Rebellion

One of the most important events in History of Kazakhstan is the rebellion of KenesaryKasymov (1837-1847). In this paper I will analyze the article “The Kenesary Kasymov Rebellion (1837–1847): A National-Liberation Movement or “a Protest of Restoration”? ”written by YuriyMalikov, which was published in December 2005 in Nationalities Papers. The author in his article claims that the rebellion of Kazakh sultan Kenesary was “neither a “national-liberation” revolt nor “a protest of restoration.” Not return to the “good old days” but the creation of a new type of state without precedents in Kazakhstani history”. In order to prove his point of view Y. Malikov analyzes and gives evidences from four different aspects. Firstly he explores the immediate cause for the rebellion, then he focuses on the composition of the rebels, after that he looks at the reforms brought by sultan Kenesary, and finally he investigates the traditional political and social structure of Kazakh society. I will briefly stop at arguments provided by the author in each of these aspects and then I will answer whether these arguments convinced me or not (Malikov, 573).

The author gives arguments that the rebellion of the Sultan Kenesary started because of the wars within the kazakh sultans and spread to Russian authorities when they came to help to resolve the conflict (Malikov, 575). One of the conflict mentioned in the paper is the conflict between sultan Sarzhan (the brother of Kenesary) and sultan Tursun. The origin of the contradiction is not clear, but both sides were introduced to the biis commity and Sarzhan was found out to be guilty and was obligated to pay fine. However, he refused to pay the fine. Tursun asked for a help and Cossacks were send to him by Karkara Okrug in order to help Tursun. The author claims that this is how the first wave of the rebellion started, which was ruled by sultan Sarzhan from 1825 till 1836, and after his death sultan Kenesary continued the rebelion, so the Kenesary’s and Sarzhan’s rebellion shared the same root. (Malikov, 574-575). Malikov mainly used secondary sources to prove his arguments, one out the three sources was a desertation work written after Kazakhstan took his independance.

The evidences provided by the author haven’t convinced me that the origin of the rebellion was less political. Firstly, the author himself at the beginning wrote that Sultan Kasym (the father of Kenesary) wrote a letter to the Orenburg Governor-General asking to allow them to live as they did before, but the letter was left without any answer (Malikov, 574).