We Central Asians.

Cultural life
   Kazaks, probably more than any other Central Asian people, show the impact of nearly two centuries of close contact with Russians. Unlike Central Asians to the south of them, Kazaks look more to Russia than to Islāmic countries for inspiration in the post-Soviet period. At the same time, Kazak scholars and other intellectuals actively work to reclaim Kazak traditions and distinctive ways of life, including the literary and spoken language of a people whose experience emphasized Russian culture, literature, language, and ways of thinking.

   Urban Kazaks of both sexes tend to wear modern clothing, but the women of remote villages continue to wear traditional dresses and head scarves. Kazak-made carpets are a common sight, and less-Russified Kazaks often decorate their homes with qoshmas, bright-coloured feltrugs.

   Oral epics formed the main literary genre among the largely illiterate Kazaks until the 19th century. In the 18th century, as a series of Russian outposts arose along the border of Kazakstan's plains on the north, Kazaks added other written, poetic forms to their literature. Poetry remained the primary genre until prose stories, short novels, and drama were introduced in the early 20th century, before the end of the tsarist era in 1917. Abay Ibrahim Kūnanbay-ul� (Kunanbayev) in the late 19th century laid the basis with his verse for the development of the modern Kazak literary language and its poetry. (Aqmet) Baytūrsyn-ul�, editor of the influential newspaper Qazaq, led the advance of modern Kazak writing in the early 20th century. Baytūrsyn-ul�, along with Aliqan Nūrmuhambet Bokeyqan-ul�, Mir Jaqib Duwlat-ul�, and, later, Maghjan Jumabay-ul�, represented the cream of Kazak modernism in literature, publishing, andcultural politics in the reformist decades before Sovietization set in after 1920. All these figuresdisappeared into Soviet prisons and never returned, as a result of Joseph Stalin's purges, which destroyed much of the Kazak intelligentsia. An early Soviet Kazak writer, Mukhtar Auez-ul�, won recognition for the long novel Abay, based on the life and poetry of Kūnanbay-ul�, and for his plays, including �nglik-Kebek.

   Kazakstan has a number of modern theatres and offers Uighur, Korean, and Russian musicals, opera, ballet, and puppet performances. Cinemas and art schools, dance ensembles, and music groups are active, as are radio and television broadcasting, the last being especially important in communications with distant farms and villages. Reception from outside Kazakstan, especially from broadcasting stations in nearby Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and by way of relays from Moscow, enables listeners and viewers to follow programs from many sources.

   During the late 15th century and throughout the 16th century, the Kazaks were able to consolidate a nomadic empire stretching across the steppes east of the Caspian and north of the Aral Sea as far as the upper Irtysh River and the western approaches to the Altai Mountains. Under Burunduk Khan (ruled 1488�1509) and Kasym Khan (1509�18) the Kazaks were the masters of virtually the entire steppe region, reportedly able to bring 200,000 horsemen into thefield and feared by all their neighbours. The prevailing view is that the rule of Kasym Khan marked the beginning of an independent Kazak polity. Under his rule Kazak power extended from what is now southeastern Kazakstan to the Urals.

   Under the successive rule of three of the sons of Kasym Khan (1518�38), however, there was a partial weakening of the khan's authority, accompanied by a trend, later to become more pronounced, for the khanate to disintegrate into three separate �hordes.� These were, from eastto west: the Great Horde, in present-day southeastern Kazakstan north of the Tien Shan; the Middle Horde, in the central steppe region east of the Aral Sea; and the Little Horde, between the Aral Sea and the Ural River. In each horde the authority of the khan tended to be curtailed bythe power exercised by tribal chieftains known as sultans and perhaps even more by the beys and batyrs (the heads of the clans that were the components of each tribe). Nominally, the khans commanded a formidable force of mounted warriors, but, in reality, they depended on the loyalty of the beys and batyrs. The last son of Kasym Khan to rule the Kazak steppes, Ḥaqq Naẓar (1538�80), overcame these obstacles and, having succeeded in reuniting the three hordes, embarked upon systematic raiding into Transoxania, a trend that continued under his immediate successors down to the reign of Tevkkel Khan (1586�98), who even temporarily occupied Samarkand. By the beginning of the 17th century, the fragmentation halted by Kasym Khan resumed and became endemic; Kazak central power was weak or nonexistent amidst a plethora of petty rulers

   The brunt of the Dzungar wars was carried by the Great Horde; the Middle and Little hordes fared better, partly because they moved westward toward Russian-held territories. In 1730 Abūʾl Khayr, khan of the Little Horde, swore allegiance to the tsarina Anna Ivanovna

   Some Kazaks believed that the Russian presence might at least provide some security against Oyrat raids, and in 1731 the Little Horde accepted Russian protection, followed by the Middle Horde in 1740 and by part of the Great Horde in 1742, although its effect upon the Oyrats was to prove minimal. Finally, after a series of ineffectual Kazak uprisings of which the most extensive was that of Batyr Srym in 1792�97, Russia resolved to suppress such autonomy as the Kazak khans still possessed. In 1822 the khanate of the Middle Horde was abolished, in 1824 the Little Horde, and in 1848 the Great Horde.

   Because of Kazakstan's incorporation into Russia, modern ideas found a more fertile ground among the Kazaks than in the semi-independent Uzbek khanates. Russian schooling brought these ideas into Kazak life, and Russian-formed intellectuals such as Chokan Valikanov and Abay Kūnanbay-ul� adapted them to specific Kazak needs and created a secular culture unparalleled in other parts of Asian Russia.

   Kazakstan formally became a constituent (union) republic of the Soviet Union on Dec. 5, 1936. During the first secretaryship of Nikita Khrushchev, the role of Kazakstan within the Soviet Union increased dramatically. The Virgin and Idle Lands program launched in 1953 opened up the vast grasslands of northern Kazakstan to wheat farming by Slavic settlers. The importanceof Kazakstan also increased through the location on its territory of the main Soviet space-launch centre and a substantial part of the Soviet Union's nuclear weaponry and the sites associated with nuclear testing.

   For a quarter of a century Kazak politics were dominated by Dinmukhamed Kunayev, first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakstan from 1959 to 1986. The only Kazak ever to become a member of the Soviet Politburo, Kunayev proved to be not only a masterful Soviet politician but also a man capable of constructive thoughts and achievements. Realizing that Kazaks constituted a minority of Kazakstan's population, he looked with equal care after the needs of both Russians and Kazaks. His dismissal in 1986 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev caused the first serious riots of the 1980s in the Soviet Union.

My Dear Turk,
   Thank you very much to invest your time in this new forum. Well, it's got a long way to go. I need all your advices. I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon. Take care and take it easy.


Kind regards,
Iltirish

   They were, in 13th century, in the reign of Chengiz Khan; ruled by Juchi. Later, Batu made them part of �Kizil Ordu�.

   They have three sub-divisions: �uli juz�, �orta juz� and �kuchuk (kishi) Ulu Juz spent winter in southern Balkhash and YetiSu and summer in Tien Shan. Orta Juz spent winter in SirDerya and summer in Irtish. Finally, Kuchuk juz spent winter in Caspian beaches and summer in northern/southern mountains.
   They are Sunnite Moslems� they are Kazaks.

    In 1446 A.D, a Turk khan, named Ormanbet, died and some changes happened after his death. Princes and other khans (beyler), started to dispute, for power. Finally, in 1450, Abulxiyer Khan approved his superiority. And the separated groups were called �Kazak�.

�Ose kez bizding kazak atanqandik�
Turikte bir adet dar eski zangdik:
tamizip kanin sutke koship iship,
antdasada eken, tuveskandik�

�At that time, we were called Kazak�
from old ages, there has been a tradition among Turks:
they mix the clear blood and the mil, and then serve it;
in this manner, they become co-oath�

�Kuralqan mejlis kip �kazak� ati,
atdasip kan kosilqan karindasi,
el bolip oz erkimen kochip konar
degen soz �kazak�tin maqanasi��

�A session was hold; and the name �Kazak� was picked up,
promise- made, blood-mixed, they became brothers,
the divided tribe, freely travels and lodges
this is the meaning of the word �kazak�