The article examines the history of the liberation struggle in the Arka steppes, aimed against the introduction of the 1822 «Charter on the Siberian Kirghiz» This colonial reform, implemented by the Russian Empire, abolished the khanate in the Middle Zhuz and stripped the Kazakhs of their former independence. Among the so-called “innovations” were the division of the entire khanate into duans, the imposition of various taxes on the population, and the declaration of subsoil and natural resources as imperial property. All of this provoked widespread public discontent: Kazakh warriors, led by such courageous sultans and batyrs as Maral Kurmanov, Gubaidulla Valikhanov, Sarzhan Kasymov, Sartai Shyngysov, and others, engaged in open confrontation with the heavily armed tsarist army. These unequal battles began immediately after the reform was announced and eventually escalated into the well-known national liberation uprising led by Kenesary Kasymov.

However, the majority of archival documents reflect the imperial ideology and are aimed at shaping the narrative that “the Kazakhs themselves wanted the creation of duans.” In reality, the fierce fighting of the 1820s–1830s reveals the true face of this insidious policy. Drawing on new factual material, the authors highlight Kazakh resistance to the establishment of duans.

The work was carried out within the framework of the project IRN AP23487874 MES RK ‘Activities of the Siberian Committee on the formation and implementation of the official policy of the Russian Empire in North-Eastern Kazakhstan: data analysis and context’.