The Uprising of Kenesara Kasimov in the Historical Discourse of the Russian Military and Researchers of the XIX – early XX centuries

The work is devoted to the study of the documentary heritage created by the Russian military, historians and administrators, as well as by the leader of the uprising Kenesary Kasimov during the national liberation movement in the Kazakh steppe in the 20-40s of the XIX century.In pre-revolutionary Russian historiography, these events were regarded as the rebellion of the rebellious Sultan Kenesary Kasimov.According to archival documents, the authors trace the course of the uprising, the participation of the main actors in it, the goals and objectives that they set for themselves.The paper raises the actual problem of constructing historical discourse by the Russian administration in relation to the indigenous population of the Kazakh steppe.The deconstruction of discourse is given, that is, the understanding of the text through the destruction of myths, and the discursive analysis of texts.The central concept of the work is discourse, that is, a set of statements that generate mental images.The authors move from the texts and the situation of the creation of these documents to the reaction and perception by other participants -the central and regional authorities, local Kazakh elites.According to the documents, the desire of the Russian administration to ideologically unite Kazakhs and Russians in the fight against the rebellion of Kenesary Kasymov is traced.In general, the historical discourse was intended to present the events as joint actions of Russians and Kazakhs against the rebel sultan.The documentary discourse shows that the Russian administration has done everything possible, on the one hand, to legitimize its actions, on the other hand, to shift the burden of the struggle against Kenesary, including military and financial, onto the Kazakhs themselves.Thus, armed Russian detachments are equipped with funds collected from the local population -from a kibitosh collection.In addition, Kazakh fighters are included in the armed detachments to fight Kenesary.Also, the duty of forming military detachments of Kazakhs is assigned to the sultans themselves, the rulers who became officials of the imperial administration in the Kazakh steppe and received Russian military ranks.