On June 20, 2023, the Chokan Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan hosted a Republican scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 220th anniversary of the birth of the great Kazakh poet, batyr Makhambet Utemisov on the topic “Kazakh society in the colonial period”. The event was held in online and offline format.
At the conference, much attention was paid to the work and activities of the Kazakh poet-batyr Makhambet Utemisov, who was a very bright personality, and is considered the founder of Kazakh heroic poetry. He was born in 1803 in the Naryn steppes, located between the Volga and the Urals, in the Beketai locality (modern Ural region). Nature generously rewarded him with the talent of a composer, a virtuoso performer of kuis, an orator and an ardent poet.
His work can be rightfully called an encyclopedia of the liberation struggle of the Kazakh people in 1836-1838, led by Isatai Taimanov in the Bukeev Horde. According to Makhambet’s verses, one can get an idea not only about the general course of the uprising, but also learn about the main causes of popular anger, which gives additional value to studying the personality of akyn and batyr.
The conference raised questions about the stages of military colonization of the territory of Kazakhstan, about historical approaches to the coverage of Russian colonial policy in Kazakhstan, methods of managing the Bukeev Horde under Dzhangir Khan, highlighted the main causes of the national liberation struggle led by Isatai Taimanov and Makhambet Utemisov, and also focused on the socio-political situation of the Kazakh steppe, in particular in Bukeevskaya Horde.
The speakers were Russian scientists and researchers – M.Zh. Abdirov, Z.T. Sadvokasova, A.Sh. Shamgunov, A.K. Akhmet, L.B. Berdygozhin, S.B. Kurmanalin, A.Zh. Kaztunganova, E.M., Uzhkenov, R.E., Zh.Zh., Zhenis, Orazov, N.Y. Zhetpisbai, G.A. Shotanova, A.S. Margulan (doctoral student); heads of municipal organizations – K.K. Kuanyshev, director of KSU “State Archive of Atyrau region”, Zh.O. Ibrashev, director of the city branch of KSU “State Archive of Atyrau region”; representatives of higher educational institutions – B.N. Zhuztayeva, K. DzhumagalievaIn and others.