Ili region

The Ili region is the geographic region in the valleys of the Ili River and its tributaries Tekes , Ikutes and Kas . The region has fertile soils, its population was about 150 thousand inhabitants, among which Kazakhs predominated. The main city of the region is Kuldzha .

Before class

Turkestan Governor Konstantin Kaufman

In the initial period of the Uyghur-Dungan rebellion against the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang in 1864 - 1865 . The Russian Empire took a position of non-interference in the internal affairs of Western China. As a result of these events, the rebellious Muslim peoples overthrew the power of the Qing empire in the region and created several state formations of a feudal theocratic character. One of them was the Kuldzhinsky or Taranchinsky Sultanate located in close proximity to Russian possessions ^[1] .

Relations of the Kuldzhinsky Sultanate with the authorities of the Russian Empire remained tense. The territory of the sultanate provided refuge to fugitives and state criminals from the territory of Russia, there were frequent cases of border violations and robbery by subjects of the sultanate within the Russian borders, which the Kuldzhian authorities looked at without any special desire to suppress them. In May-June 1870, the Turkestan Governor-General Konstantin Kaufman visited the Semirechensk region , and his conclusions caused a change in the political course of Russia in Central Asia. Returning to Tashkent on August 14, 1870, Kaufman wrote to State Chancellor A. M. Gorchakov about the need to send Russian troops to the Ili region to stabilize the region and create favorable conditions for trade ^[1] .

The formal reason for the invasion was the shelter by the Kuldzhinsky Sultan Abil-oglu of the Kazakh elder Tazabek, who had fled from the Semirechensk Region, who had rebelled against the Russian administration. At the beginning of 1871, Captain Kaulbars was sent to Kuldzhu to find out the conditions for the transfer of the fugitive. The sultan, having accepted the captain, promised to assist him. However, later in a personal message to the governor of Semirechye Gerasim Kolpakovsky , according to its content, the sultan actually refused promises, rejected the conditions for admission of merchants from Russia to the sultanate, demanded the withdrawal of the Russian military detachment from the recently occupied Muzart passage in the Tien Shan , and also expressed claims for basin of the Borohudzir River ^[1] .

Kolpakovsky in January 1871 asked the Turkestan governor for permission "to take Kulja to punish the Sultan for his treachery and threats," but received the refusal of Governor Kaufman ^[1] .

Taking into account the common interests of the Russian Empire in the region, including the retention of the Muzart passage, Alexander II gave permission to start a campaign against the Kuldzhinsky Sultanate, provided that Chinese residents and officials were involved in the process of occupying the province. The Turkestan administration considered the same possibility of using the forces of Chinese emigrants, but this idea was ineffective and was rejected ^[1] .

Border occupation

On June 14, 1871, Russian troops under the command of Kolpakovsky marched from Borokhudzir to Kuldzh . On June 20, 1871, on the eve of the Russian approach, a revolt of the Chinese took place in Kuldzhi. On June 22, Sultan Abil-ogly handed the keys to Kuldzhi to the commander of the Russian military expedition, General G. A. Kolpakovsky . The population of the newly created Ili region recognized the new Russian administration. The exception was the Kazakhs-Kazakhs , who left with herds for the Talki Range on Boro-Talu , but the very next day, June 23, received a formidable warning from G. A. Kolpakovsky and returned with confession.

Edge Conversion

The territory of the Ili region was divided into 4 sections, in which power passed to the Russian officers of the Kolpakovsky detachment. The local administration of the nomadic peoples was left to their tribal leaders, and among the Chinese, Uighurs , Dungans, local rulers were elected. Sultan Abil-Ogly was transferred to Verny on July 17, 1871 ^[1] .

One of the main opponents of the Ili region was Kashgaria ( Yettishar ) led by Yakub-bek - another state created by the results of anti-Chinese uprisings. But Yakub-bek abandoned the idea of ​​starting hostilities with Russia and in 1872 entered into negotiations with the Turkestan governor Kaufman, which ended with the signing of a mutually beneficial trade agreement. Since 1873, the state formation of Yakub-Bek fell under the influence of the British, who provided military and diplomatic assistance to Yakub-bek in order to confront his state and Russia, and China ^[2] .

Qing troops under the command of Zuo Zuntang in the early 1870s. suppressed the Dungan uprising in Shaanxi and Gansu , and in 1875 began fighting against Yakub-Bek, slowly moving deeper into his possessions. In 1877, Yakub-Bek died, which provoked a drop in the combat effectiveness of the army of Kashgar and in 1878 the forces of the Qing authorities finally occupied its territory. Under these conditions, the Chinese came into direct contact with the Ili region and Russia was made necessary to return the region to China. The Chinese ambassador Chun Hou was sent to Petersburg to negotiate, and in September 1879 he followed the Russian Tsar to Livadia, where on September 20 Chun Hou and Russian Foreign Minister Nikolai Girs signed the Livadia Treaty, according to which Russia retained a small western section of Ili valleys in the area of ​​the Tekes River and Muzart Pass, and as a reimbursement of Russia's expenses for the occupation and management of the region, China accepted an obligation to pay Russia 5 million rubles ^[2] .

The Livadia Treaty was not ratified by the Chinese side in Beijing, mainly because of the concession of part of the territory of the territory of Russia. In 1879-1880 tension on the borders of Russia and China increased, as both sides increased their forces and prepared for a large-scale war. A Russian squadron under the command of Admiral Lesovsky was introduced into the Gulf of Bohai ^[2] .

The new ambassador Zeng Jijie was sent to St. Petersburg from China. On February 24, 1881, he signed the St. Petersburg Treaty , according to which the land transferred to Russia was cut to a minimum, and was left only "to settle in it those residents of this region who will accept Russian citizenship," and China’s monetary compensation from Russia increased to 9 million rubles. The terms of a complete amnesty for all participants in the anti-Chinese uprising of the 1860s were also agreed. ^[2]

The Russian administration ruled the region until 1881 . After long diplomatic negotiations and agreeing on conditions, the region was returned to China according to the treaty on the Iliysk Territory of February 24, 1881 in exchange for compensation by China of Russia for expenses associated with a ten-year period of regional administration. 80% of Uyghurs after transferring the land to China moved to the Russian Semirechye, where they received land from the Russian administration for resettlement.

• Ili Sultanate

• Ili Territory // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Fedorov D. Ya. Experience of military-statistical description of the Ili region .