Kazakh-Cossack War (1709–1724)

Kazakh-Cossack War
Part of Russian conquest of Central Asia (From 1722)
Date 1709—1724 Location Modern Kazakhstan and Russia Result Kazakh victory
Belligerents
Kazakh Khanate	Tsardom of Russia (1709–1721) Russian Empire (1721–1724) Kalmyk Khanate Dzungar Khanate
Commanders and leaders
Abul Khair Khan	Peter the Great Ivan Unkovsky Ataman Balmashnov Ayuka Khan
Strength
20,000	3,200
Casualties and losses
Unknown	8,000+ civilians Unknown

Kazakh–Cossack War or Kazakh–Russian War of 1709–1724 — the war between the Kazakh Khanate and the Yaik Cossacks, who were supported by Russia. The War was accompanied by mutual Raids, cattle rustling and enmity.

After Peter the Great came to power, the Kalmyks also took part in these conflicts, the Russian Tsar granted the rank of khan to their ruler Ayuka and armed him with weapons.

Background

In 1584, several hundred Don and Volga Cossacks captured the lands of the Nogai Horde along the Yaik River.

War

Until the river Yaik dries up, the Kirghiz (Kazakh) people, even before the introduction of light, will not leave Yaik, because apart from this, they cannot find another convenient place.

— Abul Khair Khan

The purpose of the attacks of the Kazakh detachments was the destruction of the Cossack towns and the displacement of the Cossacks from Yaik.

In 1709, the Kazakhs captured a huge Cossack convoy en route to Syzran.

In 1711, a 16,000-strong Kazakh detachment defeated a grain convoy heading for the Yaitsky town, 300 Cossacks were captured and sold to Khiva.

In 1713, a detachment of 800 Kazakhs captured a fish convoy heading for Samara, the Cossacks died.

Also, the Kazakhs attacked the Yaitsky town and stole 4 thousand horses. In 1714, 1715 and 1716 again there were attacks of the Kazakhs on the Cossack convoys and detachments.

In 1718, a 20,000-strong Kazakh army surrounded the Yaitsky town, cut it off from Samara, and kept it under siege for more than a month.

In July 1719, a 20,000-strong Kazakh detachment led by Abul Khair Khan besieged the Yaitsky town. There were many deaths on both sides. Abulkhair lifted the siege only in the autumn and went to smash the Volga Kalmyks.

In 1720, Abul Khair invaded the depths of the Kazan Province, into the territory of the Nikolaevsky district to the Russian village of Cheremshan, during which the Kazakhs captured "man and women a lot of people under that village" and sent all these peasants to their auls.

In September 1720, a bloody clash took place between the Kazakhs and the Cossacks near the Samara River, as a result of which 50 captured Kazakhs were killed.

In 1721, the Cossacks and Kalmyks, led by Ataman Balmashnov, made a trip to the Kazakh Khanate to Wil and captured prisoners.

In January 1722, the Kazakhs made a retaliatory attack: 300 Kazakhs defeated a Winter Village near the Shagyn River and captured 70 Cossacks.

The Cossacks did not expect the Winter Raid of the Kazakhs, who in February stole a horse herd from under the walls of the Yaitsky town, and therefore the Cossacks had nothing to pursue the attackers. In addition, the fire destroyed the entire grain supply, famine began, the Cossacks survived a very difficult and harsh winter in dugouts. For this reason, the Yaik Cossacks did not take part in Persian campaign of 1722.

Russian invasion of Kazakhstan

In the same year, Peter I decided to put an end to the conquest of the Kazakh Steppe. His general plan included a lightning strike throughout Kazakhstan in a short time: at the beginning of the Winter of 1723, Dzungar hordes from the East, and Cossack detachments and Volga Kalmyks from the west were supposed to attack the Kazakh lands. Cossack detachments and Kalmyks were very well armed. It was necessary to equip the Dzungars with new types of weapons of that time. For this purpose, in the fall of 1722, artillery captain Ivan Unkovsky arrived at the headquarters of the Dzungars.

Fulfilling the strategic plan of Peter I, I. Unkovsky knew well the weak points of the deployment of the main forces of the Kazakhs.

The raids of the Dzungars began in the Winter of 1723. The factor of surprise and surprise of the attack allowed them to quickly occupy the territory to Turkistan. This could not be done by the Cossack detachments and Kalmyks from the West due to the fact that they were prevented by Abul Khair.

In 1724, a message was received from Tobolsk to the city of Turinsk that "the Kazakh Horde to the border settlements roams in the vicinity and ruins, and is full of land."

Russian fortresses

In 1716, Yamyshevskaya and Omsk fortresses were built on the right bank of the Irtysh, in 1717 - Zhelezinskaya, Kolbasinskaya, in 1718 - Semipalatinsk, in 1720 - Ust-Kamenogorsk, Chernoyarsk and Koryakovskaya fortresses. Shipping began to develop along the Irtysh.

Slave trade on Russian settlement

In 1717, the Kazakhs and Kirghiz invaded the territory of the Kazan Province, reaching the city of Novoshemshinsk, the Kazakh-Kyrgyz army captured 3,000 people. Later, the captives were sold into slavery in Khiva.

In 1722, they stole cattle, robbed from Russian villages and people trapped in captivity and sold in the slave markets of Central Asia (in 1722 in Bukhara were over 5,000 Russian prisoners). In the middle of the 17th century, 500 Russians were annually sold to Khiva by Kazakhs.

Historians about the Kazakh-Cossack War

The historian A. Ryabinin wrote that the Yaik Cossacks had one mortal enemy - the “Kirghiz” (Kazakhs). They “were tireless, persistent enemies, who knew neither fear nor fatigue. The Yaik Cossacks waged a real and fierce war against them.

Another historian A. Karpov, without hesitation, frankly wrote: “Since this is a Kirghiz, then an enemy, a sworn enemy and everything that wore a Kyrgyz appearance, everything was destroyed, beaten by Cossacks to death, entire villages, elders, wives - everything was exterminated; children and infants were killed, - “grow up - bite!” the Cossacks spoke and raised them on spears. To exterminate the infidel - such was the mission of the Cossack of that time, the mission consecrated by the church.

The long-term war between the Kazakhs of the Junior Zhuz and the Cossack troops over the Yaik River lasted 300 years and can be conditionally divided into two periods with time intervals of 150 years. The first period is characterized by Murat Abdirov: “From the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 18th centuries. a fierce and bloody, 150-year-old Kazakh-Cossack war begins. From that moment on, the whole history of the relationship between the Kazakhs and the Yaik Cossacks is filled with mutual raids, enmity, capture of prisoners and cattle theft. The struggle was not for life, but for death, with varying success, and in this struggle there were neither winners nor losers, no one wanted to concede.”

See also

• Kazakh–Dzungar Wars

Further reading

Ерофеева‪, Ирина В. (2007). ‬Хан Абулхаир: полководец, правитель, политик‪. Almaty: Daĭk-Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-9965-798-64-1. Search this book on

References

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