Abstract
Currently, comprehensive studies of the history and culture, as well as the social life of the peoples of Central Asia (Western and Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia, Western and Northern China) are one of the pressing issues of oriental science in Kazakhstan. This is due to the fact that research in this area allows scientific problems related to the ethnic, social and ethnopolitical history of the peoples of this territory. It should be noted that Russian orientalists have made a significant contribution to the study of this geographical and historical-cultural space. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the research of Russian orientalists related to the history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia. In the process of writing the article, the methods of textual and factorial analysis, as well as the comparative method, were used. This makes it possible to identify the scientific and ideological positions of the authors of works on this topic, and ultimately - to achieve the goal. As a result of the study, the authors came to the following conclusion. The works of Russian orientalists on the study of Central Asia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries are distinguished by their thematic focus. In other words, if the works based on the results of research in such regions as East Turkestan, Mongolia, Western and Northern China are distinguished by their reconnaissance nature, then research in Western Turkestan (Central Asia and Kazakhstan), along with ethnographic, geographical and historical topics, also covers “applied” issues (for example, the introduction of a pan-imperial system of governance).