The Kazakh–Dzungar War of 1723–1730 was the most significant conflict of the Kazakh–Dzungar Wars between the Kazakh Khanate and the invading Dzungar Khanate from 1723 to 1730.
This led a catastrophic civilian casualty among the Kazakhs, causing upon a forced displacement of the Kazakhs and indiscriminate attacks on civilians by the Dzungar army. The Kazakh Khanate were later able to defeat the Dzungars after two Ordabasy meetings in 1726 and 1728.
Background
After the events of Dzungar campaigns against the Kazakhs from 1708 to 1718, the Dzungar attacks on Kazakhs ceased as the Dzungars now had to focus against the Qing dynasty, as a war over Tibet had started. The Dzungars were defeated by the Qing dynasty, allowing the Kazakhs to recapture their lost territories and sack the Dzungars by 1720. However, after death of Kangxi Emperor, the Dzungar Khan, Tsewang Rabtan Khan mobilized all his forces to the Kazakh Khanate. Amidst this, the Kazakhs faced a heavy winter, as they were preparing to migrate towards their pastures during the summer season and for various economic reasons. Soon the Dzungar commanders declared war upon the Kazakhs and started their invasion. As the Kazakhs did not expect the declaration of war.
Course of the War
Dzungar invasion
Preparations for a large-scale invasion of Kazakhstan and Central Asia began in early spring 1723. The timing was well chosen: after a harsh and snowy winter, Kazakh auls were preparing to migrate to their summer pastures and were engaged in economic activities, including the castration of young livestock. The weakened animals moved with difficulty, which made the nomads particularly vulnerable. At the same time, Dzungar forces were redeployed from the eastern frontiers—where they had previously been engaged in hostilities against the Qing Empire—to the region of the Chu and Talas rivers. The Kazakh rulers did not expect an attack: the leaders of the Junior and Middle zhuzes were at that time preparing for a campaign against the Volga Kalmyks, while the senior khan Bolat also did not foresee the impending threat. According to historian A. Sh. Kadyrbayev, the strike was calculated in such a way as to destroy the most combat-ready force of the Kazakh militia at once, thereby avoiding a prolonged war. Those who refused to submit to the Dzungars were physically exterminated. “The same fate awaited all the remaining Kirghiz-Kaisaks [Kazakhs]
In 1723, shortly after the death of the Chinese emperor Kangxi and the temporary reconciliation between the Dzungar Khanate and the Qing Empire, the Dzungar khuntaiji Tsewang Rabtan sent more than 30,000 troops against the Kazakhs under the command of his son Shono-Lauzan. The sudden invasion caught the auls by surprise: the first to suffer were the Sadyr clans in the valleys of the Talas and Arys rivers, many of whom were killed or taken captive; attacks also struck other nomadic encampments and towns. Thousands of people were taken prisoner, and in the same year the Dzungars captured Turkestan, Tashkent, Sairam, and a number of other cities, which dealt a severe blow to the Kazakh ruling elite; the family of Khan Abulkhair was also taken captive.
Between 1723 and 1725 the Dzungars occupied Southern Kazakhstan and Semirechye, defeating the Kazakh militia. Most of the Senior and Middle zhuzes were defeated and became tributaries of Tsewang Rabtan.
The suddenness of the attack, the enemy’s numerical superiority on the main axes of advance, the presence of artillery, and the better military organization of the Dzungar Khanate—unified under a single command—ensured the Dzungars’ initial success. However, according to historian Sh. B. Chimitdorzhiev, it would be incorrect to regard surprise as the main reason for the Kazakhs’ defeat. Dzungaria was a centralized state with a relatively strong political and military organization and considerable military experience. The Kazakhs, by contrast, were at that time experiencing feudal fragmentation and internal conflicts, which explains the repeated defeats they suffered.
Peripheral events
Between 1723 and 1725, Uzbek territories including Khujand, Samarkand, and Andijan fell under Dzungar domination, and the Fergana Valley was subsequently captured. In addition to the Syr Darya cities, the cities of Khujand, Andijan, and Samarkand also came under Dzungar control.
According to contemporary accounts, joint actions by Kazakhs and the inhabitants of Tashkent against the Oirats took place in the early 1720s. The Central Asian historian Khojamkuli-bek Balkhi wrote that during the campaign of the Khuntaiji against Tashkent, Andijan, Sairam, and the coastal regions of the Syr Darya, “about three lakhs of Kazakhs together with the people of Tashkent fought from morning to evening for a month”. However, they were defeated and forced to retreat toward Samarkand, while Tashkent and Andijan agreed to pay kharaj. According to the same author, the Oirat feudal lords also defeated the Kyrgyz, forcing them to withdraw to the regions of Hisar-i Shadman and Khuttalan.
The arrival of Kazakhs in the Samarkand region complicated the internal political situation. The Central Asian historian Muhammad Amin reported that Rajab Khan, after several battles with Abulfeiz Khan, appealed for assistance to Kazakh nomads who had been driven from their pastures by the Dzungars. Responding to the request, they invaded Transoxiana and occupied the entire fertile Zarafshan Valley as far as the tumans of Bukhara.
The Karakalpaks also suffered heavy losses as a result of the Dzungar invasion of 1723–1725. They were forced to abandon the middle course of the Syr Darya, with some migrating to the upper reaches of the river near Tashkent, and others moving to the lower reaches, to the shores of the Aral Sea and further toward the Emba River and the Yaik. This migration long delayed the process of national consolidation of the Karakalpak people. During this period the Karakalpaks became divided into “Upper” and “Lower” groups: the former fell under the authority of Dzungar feudal lords, while the latter came under the rule of the leaders of the Senior and Middle zhuzes. According to the observations of T. A. Zhdanko, the consolidation of Dzungar control over the middle Syr Darya ultimately formalized this division and determined the divergence of their historical destinies.
In the same years, Dzungar forces also launched attacks against the Kyrgyz. According to the Extract on the Peoples, Rulers, and Cities of the Dzungars compiled by Captain I. Unkovsky, Khan Tsewang Rabtan subdued the “people called the Buruts”, who nomadized in the region of Issyk-Kul. Some Kyrgyz voluntarily recognized Dzungar authority by providing hostages (amanats), while others resisted. Dzungar detachments also advanced as far as the principalities of the Hindu Kush and the Pamir-Alay.
In late summer 1724, Abulkhair Khan captured Turkestan and Tashkent by a powerful assault, forcing the Dzungar commander Shono-Lauzan to retreat to the Karatau Mountains. Abulkhair held these cities for about a year; however, in early 1725 he was compelled to abandon them and withdraw due to the enemy’s numerical superiority. In the same year Abulkhair, having assembled a force of 50,000 men, fought the army of Tsewang Rabtan. After suffering defeat and losing about 10,000 warriors, he retreated. Subsequently, in the spring of 1725, Turkestan and Tashkent were once again captured by Dzungar forces. The Kazakhs found themselves completely cut off from the urban markets and craft centers of Central Asia. A direct consequence of this conquest was that a new powerful wave of Kazakh refugees flooded into the northwestern and northern regions of Kazakhstan.
During the invasion of 1723–1725, Russia refrained from intervening in the affairs of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, focusing instead on preventing possible raids by Kazakhs and Karakalpaks on territories under its authority inhabited by the Kalmyks and Bashkirs. Thus, on 12 December 1723, a decree was sent to Ayuka Khan of the Volga Kalmyks ordering him to assist local authorities in repelling the advance, since “the Kirghiz-Kaisaks and the Karakalpaks, having assembled forty thousand men, are marching in war against our Imperial Majesty’s towns and against your uluses to devastate villages and settlements”.
Humanitarian situation
These years entered the history of Kazakhstan as the “Years of the Great Disaster”. In terms of their destructive consequences for the Kazakhs, they are comparable only to the Mongol invasion of the 13th century: the Dzungar aggression sharply altered the international situation in Central Asia, while the approach of thousands of families to the borders of Central Asia and the domains of the Volga Kalmyks heightened tensions in the region. Many Kazakh clans fled from Southern Kazakhstan: the Senior zhuz and part of the Middle zhuz moved beyond Tashkent toward Khujand, into the regions of Karategin and the Fergana up to the Pamir; most of the Middle zhuz moved toward Samarkand; and the clans of the Junior zhuz fled to Khiva and Bukhara. This tragic flight was reflected in the well-known song “Yelim-ai” (“My Homeland”).
The economic life of Central Asia was paralyzed. The mass migration of Kazakhs into Central Asia caused by the Dzungar invasion led to severe socio-economic consequences for the region. Crowds of nomads—Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Karakalpaks—together with their herds devastated agricultural districts, trampled crops, and filled cities that were already densely populated. According to contemporary accounts, continuous raids brought devastation and famine to Transoxiana, reaching the point of cannibalism; many cities, including Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara, were depopulated for more than a decade, trade declined, money disappeared from circulation, and caravans were forced to seek alternative routes through Dzungaria. Some Kazakh refugees returned from Central Asia to the Aral Sea region, from where they migrated further north toward the Southern Ural and Western Siberia, which in turn set the Kalmyks in motion as they were forced to retreat toward the Volga. At the same time, some clans of the Junior and Middle zhuzes moved toward the Tobol, Or, Uy, and Ilek, where clashes with the Bashkirs began over pastures, accompanied by cattle raids and the capture of prisoners.
In the winter of 1725, alarming letters from Kalmyk taishas about the advance of many-thousand-strong Kazakh detachments toward the Emba began arriving at the Astrakhan chancery. The forced migrations of Kazakh clans of the Junior and Middle zhuzes in 1725–1726 were caused by pressure from the Dzungars and the loss of control over key cities of Central Asia. These migrations to the northwest led to a sharp escalation of the situation on the southern frontiers of the Russian Empire. The Kazakhs occupied the steppe spaces along the Yaik, Ilek, and Tobol, which caused numerous conflicts with Bashkirs, Kalmyks, and Yaik Cossacks over pastures and water sources. Reports by tsarist officials recorded armed clashes and raids that posed a threat to the frontier regions. The worsening situation caused serious concern in Saint Petersburg. In December 1725, the issue was discussed at a meeting of the Supreme Privy Council under Empress Catherine I.
The new wave of Kazakhs arriving in the Urals was so large that it threatened the existence of the Kalmyk Khanate, as evidenced by requests for military assistance to protect summer pastures along the Volga. With the assistance of Russian troops, the Kalmyks managed to retain their nomadic territories between the Volga and the Urals.
Organization of resistance
Speech of Bogenbay Batyr
“Weak souls… revealed their fear… proposing to seek safety in the mercy of the khuntaiji (the Dzungar ruler). Others wished to abandon their homes and seek refuge beyond the Volga River, while some, like hares, wanted to scatter in different directions and nearly shook the resolve of many; but Bukenbay, renowned at that time for his bravery, put an end to these intentions.” He called upon them “to exert every effort in the unanimous defense of one another to the last drop of blood.”