Abstract
The research aims to highlight the archival data on the disastrous consequences inflicted on the Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples during their forced relocation to China. The main approach to the study of this problem is a system-structural method of research. In the course of this study, the following results were achieved. The historical facts that caused the 1916 rebellion in the Zhetysu district of Central Asia were presented. The research of contemporaries of the resettlement of Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other peoples from repressions to the Chinese lands was revealed, as well as the detailed description of their location and the problems they faced at that time as a challenge. New insights into the national-liberation uprising of the oppressed population in the lands of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the Zhetysu district and the extent of its spread were uncovered by comparing the archival data with information from other sources. It was substantiated how Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Dungans, Uigurs and other natives of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan became refugees and were forced to emigrate to China during the uprising in Zhetysu. It is proved that the recognition forced relocation of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz people as a catastrophic episode in the historical destiny of these peoples will allow to give the problem of the national-liberation uprising in 1916 the status of a world-historical event.