Early Diplomatic Contacts Between the Kazakh Khanate and the Russian Tsardom in the Historiography of the 1930s–1950s.

Research Article

Abstract

This article presents a historiographical analysis of works from the 1930s through the 1950s devoted to the early history of diplomatic relations between the Kazakh Khanate and Russia. During this period, several works appeared that placed significant emphasis on the early diplomatic ties between the two states. These topics received the most attention in the works of A.P. Chuloshnikov, M.P. Vyatkin, N.G. Apollova, A.F. Miller, and V.B. Kobrin. The historiographical sources include scholarly monographs, articles, chapters, and sections in both collective and individual academic works. Unpublished materials by historians, preserved in archives, were also utilized. The primary historiographical fact examined was the story related to the mutual Kazakh-Russian diplomatic missions at the end of the 16th century, which constituted the most intensive exchange of diplomatic missions between the Kazakh Khanate and the Russian Tsardom during the first century of their interaction. The nature of the source material and the depth of the research limited the focus of the historiography of that period to the events of the late 16th century, when contacts between the two states intensified for a time. Although the Kazakh-Russian diplomatic contacts of the late 16th century had been known in the literature since the first third of the 19th century, for an entire century this knowledge was limited to brief mentions of the very fact of the diplomatic missions, and certain aspects of them were very rarely explored. In fact, until the 1930s, the early history of bilateral relations–particularly the topic of mutual diplomatic missions-was not studied in detail but was only occasionally noted in the literature. It was during the 1930s–1950s that the professional study of the history of mutual diplomatic missions began a development facilitated by the publication and introduction into scholarly discourse of a number of sources. This, in turn, encouraged researchers to pay closer attention to specific aspects of the diplomatic missions–their composition and participants—and attempts were made to clarify the positions of the parties involved and explain the outcomes. An important factor that influenced the growing interest of professional researchers in the early history of Kazakh-Russian relations was a major historiographical shift, which was largely driven by political and ideological considerations. The transformation and replacement of several concepts at once–which had previously explained the causes and course of various peoples’ incorporation into Russia – drew researchers’ attention to the issue, leading to the emergence and subsequent growth of publications on the topic. A distinctive feature of Kazakhstani historiography at that time was the publication, during the period under study, of several academic histories of the Kazakh SSR, in which the history of Kazakh-Russian relations occupied a prominent place. At the same time, although earlier history did not become the focus of the history of bilateral relations, this nevertheless led researchers to pay some attention to the very earliest stage of Kazakh-Russian relations, which began in the 16th century.