Kazak

“ They had only the long forelocks which every Kazak who carries weapons felt that he had a right to pull. Bulba, just as they were about to leave school, sent them from his stud a pair of good horses.
“‘Well [nu] , little sons, before all let us have some whiskey. God bless you! to your health, my little sons; yours, Ostap, and yours, Andriï! May God grant you be always successful in [Pg 369] battle, that you may beat the Busurmans (Mahometans) , beat the Turks, beat the Tatars, and when the Poles begin to do any thing against our religion, beat the Poles too! ”

“ The scene of his farewell with the old uncle Yeroshka has that exquisite pathos where smiles are mingled with tears. As a friendly gift at this solemn moment of separation, the old Kazak gives the young Russian some advice which will save his life in battles. He casts ridicule on the customs of the orthodox soldiers. “When you have to go into battle, or everywhere,—I am an old wolf, you see, who has seen every thing,—when they fire at you, don’t go into a crowd where there are many men. You see, when your fellows are a bit afraid, they all crowd together ”

“ The Kazaks are an honest and trustworthy people, but heavy, sluggish, sullen and unfriendly. Even the hospitality enjoined by the Koran is displayed only towards the orthodox Sunnite sect. So essentially nomadic are all the tribes that they cannot adopt a settled life without losing the very sentiment of their nationality, and becoming rapidly absorbed in the Slav population. They dwell exclusively in semicircular tents consisting of a light wooden framework, and red cloth or felt covering, with an opening above for light and ventilation. ”

“ The domestic animals, daily pursuits and industries of the Kazaks differ but slightly from those of the Kara-Kirghiz. Some of the wealthy steppe nomads own as many as 20,000 of the large fat-tailed sheep. Goats are kept chiefly as guides for these flocks; and the horses, though small, are hardy, swift, light-footed and capable of covering from 50 to 60 miles at a stretch. Amongst the Kazaks there are a few workers in silver, copper and iron, the chief arts besides, being skin dressing, wool spinning and dyeing, carpet and felt weaving. ”

“ The Kara-Kirghiz are governed by the “manaps,” or tribal rulers, who enjoy almost unlimited authority, and may even sell or kill their subjects. In religious matters they differ little from the Kazaks, whose practices are described below. Although generally recognizing Russian sovereignty since 1864, they pay no taxes.
The Kazaks.—Though not unknown to them, the term Kirghiz is never used by the steppe nomads, who always call themselves simply Kazaks, commonly interpreted as riders. ”

“ Islamic extremist groups will never run out of recruits as long as the Soviet era dictators in Central Asia continue their repressive and corrupt ways. In this regard, I am particularly concerned about Kazakhstan, which is the crown jewel of the region because of its oil, gas and mineral wealth. ”

“ But horsemanship is the great amusement of all true Kazaks, who may almost be said to be born in the saddle. Hence, though excellent riders, they are bad walkers. Though hardy and long-lived, they are uncleanly in their habits and often decimated by small-pox and Siberian plague. They have no fixed meals, and live mainly on mutton and goat and horse flesh, and instead of bread use the so-called balamyk, a mess of flour fried in dripping and diluted in water. ”

“ The camp life of the Kazaks seems almost unendurable to Europeans in winter, when they are confined altogether to the tent, and exposed to endless discomforts. In summer the day is spent mostly in sleep or drinking koumiss, followed at night by feasting and the recital of tales, varied with songs accompanied by the music of the flute and balalaika. ”

“ The word Kirghiz signifies, in Turkish, a man that wanders about the fields, a nomad, and is used to denote all nations leading the pastoral life. It is also employed to designate a tribe; but they are only a subdivision of the Kazaks, to be met with in Khokand in the vicinity of Hazneti in Turkestan. ”

“ Economy
Economy—overview: Kazakhstan, the second largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, possesses enormous untapped fossil fuel reserves as well as plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has considerable agricultural potential with its vast steppe lands accommodating both livestock and grain production. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources and also on a relatively large machine building sector specializing in construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. ”

“ The Kirghiz proper, who call themselves Kazaks, or “riders,” roam from Lake Balkash to the Volga, over the vast level steppes, where they dwell in skin tents and support themselves by breeding camels, horses, oxen, sheep and goats. They live in the saddle, and were formerly a warlike people, who once could put 400,000 fighting men in the field. They are divided into four hordes—Great, Middle or Kipchak, Little, and Inner. They are all now under Russian dominion. ”

“ A moment after she still further relieved her wrought up feelings by giving me a sound whipping, and still later, after I had washed myself and had had my dinner, both she and my older sister listened with many questions to very minute particulars of our little adventure.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] More properly Kozak or Kazak.
[2] In the spring of 1857, a regiment of three sotnias of Cossacks from the Transbaikal region were chosen by lot to settle with their families along the Amur River. Here they were divided into small villages or stanitsas (Cossack posts) about fifteen miles apart. ”

“ Something of the ruggedness of lives spent in struggles with men and nature found expression in the fabrics, which show firmness of texture, boldness of design, richness of colour. In fact they resemble the Kazaks so closely in their long nap, and finish of sides and ends that they are constantly mistaken for them; yet they may be distinguished from all classes by the large amount of brownish red or tawny colour of the field and their stereotyped patterns. ”

“ Like the Kara-Kirghiz, the Kazaks are nominally Sunnites, but Shamanists at heart, worshipping, besides the Kudai or good divinity, the Shaitan or bad spirit. Their faith is strong in the talchi or soothsayer and other charlatans, who know everything, can do everything, and heal all disorders at pleasure. ”

“ Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th century and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. During the 1950s and 1960s agricultural "Virgin Lands" program, Soviet citizens were encouraged to help cultivate Kazakhstan's northern pastures. ”

“ The old Bulba hung his head, and after a long pause he said, ‘Good Kazaks were they.’”
I shall not dwell upon the scenes in which Gogol has described for us the customs of the Setch, such as the election of the new kotchevóï; and the wiles of these Zaporogs, in their longing for pillage, to take up the offensive without having the appearance of breaking treaties. From the Ukraïna, news is brought which arrives at the very nick of time. The Poles and the Jews have been heaping up deeds of infamy: the Cossack people is oppressed; religion is odiously persecuted. ”

“ The Kazaks still choose their own khans, who, though confirmed by the Russian government, possess little authority beyond their respective tribes. The real rulers are the elders or umpires and sultans, all appointed by public election. ”

“ Here the Russians first met them in the 17th century, and by the aid of the Kazaks exterminated all those east of the Irtish, driving the rest farther west and south-westwards. Most of them took refuge with their kinsmen, the Kara-Kirghiz nomad highlanders, whose homes, at least since the 13th century, have been the Ala-tau range, the Issyk-kul basin, the Tekes, Chu and Talass river valleys, the Tian-shan range, the uplands draining both to the Tarim and to the Jaxartes and Oxus, including Khokand, Karateghin and Shignan southwards to the Pamir table-land, visited by them in summer. ”

“ Among the most remarkable of its people are the Kirghiz Kazaks, who form a nation of shepherds. They dwell in huts, or temporary habitations of wicker-work covered with fleeces, and are a robust, hardy race, addicted to sensual enjoyments. ”

“ The actual origin of the Kazáks of Zaporozhe and its date, cannot be determined. In all probability, their pioneers were the men who, loving a free life, followed the calling of fishermen on the lower Dnyeper, and hunted wild animals on the surrounding steppe of the region, known as Nízovya—the lowlands—near the Black Sea. In course of time they organised, to repel the raids of the Turks, Tatárs and Poles. In short, they were the result of the eternal conflict between the settled, agricultural life, and the nomadic free-booter life of the plains. ”

“ As my colleagues are aware, the Taliban are actively supporting an Islamic extremist insurgency in the Fergana Valley, where the borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan converge. It is conceivable that the Taliban's ultimate objective is Kazakhstan, the largest country in the region, rich in oil and minerals. ”

“ The rank and file of the Tatar soldiery were known as Kazaki, or Cossacks, a word meaning “freebooters,” and this term came to be applied indiscriminately to all the free dwellers in the Ukraine, or border-lands. As time went on the Cossacks multiplied exceedingly. Their daring grew with their numbers, and at last they came to be a constant annoyance to all their neighbours, both Christian and Mussulman, frequently involving Poland in dangerous and unprofitable wars with the Ottoman Empire. ”

“ This tradition evidently rests on a poor pun, but it proves that the Kirghiz regard themselves as a branch of the Kazaks, or “Cossacks,” as we write the word. They furthermore believe that the same Prince had thirty sons, Utuz Ughul, whose descendants inhabit [Pg 241] the Alai and the country between it and the Ili province. In Chinese Turkestan the principal Kirghiz tribes inhabiting the uplands between Kashgar and the Taghdumbash Pamir are the Naiman, the Kapchak and the Tait. The Kirghiz are all Moslems of the Sunni sect. ”

“ Kazakhstan is working rapidly with China and Russia to delimit its large open borders to control population migration, illegal activities, and trade; signed bilateral agreement with Russia delimiting the Caspian Sea seabed, but littoral states are far from any multilateral agreement on dividing the waters and seabed regimes - Iran insists on division of Caspian Sea into five equal sectors while Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan have generally agreed upon equidistant seabed boundaries ”

“ Area:
total: 2,717,300 sq km
land: 2,669,800 sq km
water: 47,500 sq km
Area—comparative: slightly less than four times the size of Texas
Land boundaries:
total: 12,012 km
border countries: China 1,533 km, Kyrgyzstan 1,051 km, Russia 6,846
km, Turkmenistan 379 km, Uzbekistan 2,203 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked) note: Kazakhstan borders the Aral Sea, now split into two bodies of water (1,070 km) , and the Caspian Sea (1,894 km)
Maritime claims: none (landlocked)
Climate: continental, cold winters and hot summers, arid and
semiarid ”

“ They can easily see that they inhabit a rich country, and they are justifiably beginning to ask why so little of their country's great wealth seems to be trickling down to them. The people are also not blind to sham elections, the stifling of press freedom, and the jailing of opposition leaders that have come to characterize the country's political life. I have been told that more and more people in Kazakhstan are losing hope, and are more willing to give Islamic extremists groups, who claim that they will eliminate the corruption of the current regime, a chance to govern. ”

“ Ethnic divisions: 90% Mongol, 4% Kazakh, 2% Chinese, 2% Russian, 2% other
Religion: predominantly Tibetan Buddhist, about 4% Muslim, limited religious activity because of Communist regime
Language: Khalkha Mongol used by over 90% of population; minor languages include Turkic, Russian, and Chinese
Literacy: 80% (est.) ; 100% claimed (1985)
Labor force: NA, but primarily agricultural; over half the adult population is in the labor force, including a large percentage of women ”

“ Russia leases approximately 6,000 sq km of territory enclosing the Baykonur Cosmodrome; in January 2004, Kazakhstan and Russia extended the lease to 2050
People Kazakhstan Population: 15,143,704 (July 2004 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 24.4% (male 1,884,369; female 1,807,585)
15-64 years: 68% (male 5,028,455; female 5,268,726)
65 years and over: 7.6% (male 404,940; female 749,629) (2004 est.) Median age: total: 28.3 years
male: 26.6 years
female: 30 years (2004 est.) Population growth rate: 0.26% (2004 est.) Birth rate: 15.52 births/1,000 population (2004 est.) ”

“ Come, send all thinking to the Devil on the spot! Take your pipes in your lips, and we'll smoke, and spur on our horses, and fly so swiftly that no bird can overtake us."
And the kazáks, bending low over their horses, disappeared in the grass. Their black caps were no longer visible; a wake of trodden grass alone showed a trace of their swift flight.
The sun had long since peered forth from the clear heavens and inundated the steppe with his vitalising, warming light. All that was dim and sleepy in the minds of the kazáks fled away in a twinkling; their hearts fluttered like birds. ”

“ Were there a trench-like strip of country that communicated between the Caspian and the Gulf of Finland to be depressed beneath the level of the latter sea, it would so open up the fountains of the great deep as to lay under water an extensive and populous region, containing the cities of Astracan and Astrabad, and many other towns and villages. Nor is it unworthy of remark, surely, that one of the depressed steppes of this peculiar region is known as the "Low Steppe of the Caucasus," and forms no inconsiderable portion of the great recognized centre of the human family. ”