Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of the ethnogeography and number of Qazaqs in Zhetysu in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The outcomes of an ethnographic study of the Qazaqs in the 18th – early 20th centuries, undertaken by many researchers, travelers, officials of the tsarist administration, officers of the General Staff as part of a large-scale study of Zhetysu, coupled with archival documents, statistical data, Qazaq folklore and information from periodicals, were the source material for identifying the characteristic features of the traditional tribal distribution of Qazaqs in Zhetysu and its further transformation. In this study, Zhetysu means part of the territory of the Semirechye Region of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, since during the period under review, the Qazaqs of Zhetysu formed the main population of the Lepsy, Kopal, Verny and Dzharkent Districts of the Semirechye Region within the Russian Empire. The study revealed that the tribal settlement of Qazaqs in the Semirechye Region was, foremost, determined by the nature of socio-economic relations and associated forms of land use that dominated the Qazaq aul during this period, by the geographical features of the region, as well as by historical and political events that took place in the region in the 18th – early 20th centuries. The Qazaqs who lived on the territory of Zhetysu are a striking example of a group whose traditional patterns of tribal settlement and sociocultural dynamics have undergone profound transformations over time. Studying the settlement of specific ethnic groups provides insight into the ways in which historical context and geographic factors intersect to influence and shape the lives of local communities.