Forced westward in what they call their Great Retreat, the Kazakhs were increasingly caught between the Kalmyks and the Russians.

Thousands of Kazakhs were killed, and thousands of others fled to China and Mongolia.

The Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was set up in 1920 and was renamed the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1925 when the Kazakhs were differentiated officially from the Kyrgyz.

( The term Kara-Kyrgyz was used until the mid-1920s by the Russians to distinguish them from the Kazakhs, who were also referred to as Kyrgyz.

With the breakup of the Empire, the dispersed Mongols quickly adopted the mostly Turkic cultures surrounding them and were assimilated, forming parts of Tatars ( not confused with a tribe in ancient Mongolia ), Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Yugurs and Moghuls ; linguistic and cultural Persianization also began to be prominent in these territories.

In the period of tsarist administration ( 1876 – 1917 ), the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz both were called Kyrgyz, with what are now the Kyrgyz subdenominated when necessary as Kara-Kyrgyz " black Kyrgyz " ( Turkic groups often used color terms to show division of the same group based on geography ; black referred to southern groups ).

When distinction had to be made, more specific terms were used: Burut ( буруты ), Kara-Kirghiz ( кара-киргизы ) or " Dikokamennye Kirgizy " ( дикокаменные киргизы ) for the Kyrgyz proper, and Koisaks for the Kazakhs .< ref >

Some speculate that it comes from the Turkish verb qaz ( to wander ), because the Kazakhs were wandering steppemen ; or that it derives from the prototurk word khasaq ( a wheeled cart used by the Kazakhs to transport their yurts and belongings ).

Despite setbacks in the south, overall the Qianlong Emperor's military expansion nearly doubled the area of the already vast empire, and brought into the fold many non-Han-Chinese peoples — such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Evenks and Mongols — who were potentially hostile.

The Russians initially demonstrated a willingness in allowing Islam to flourish as Muslim clerics were invited into the various region to preach to the Muslims, particularly the Kazakhs whom the Russians viewed as " savages " and " ignorant " of morals and ethics.

In 1936, after Sheng Shicai expelled 20, 000 Kazakhs from Xinjiang to Qinghai, Chinese Muslims led by General Ma Bufang massacred their fellow Muslim Kazakhs, until there were 135 of them left.

However some turkologists argue that cossacks are descendants of native Kipchak ( Russian половцы ) people of Ukraine, who lived there long ago before Mongol invasion and were closely related to modern Kazakhs.

At that time there were 11, 700 inhabitants in the town-besides Russians and Ukrainians there were a lot of Sarts ; Kazakhs were nearly absent, as they led a nomadic way of life.

Abdurrashid Khan also fought for control of Moghulistan against the Kirghiz and the Kazakhs, but Moghulistan was ultimately lost ; thereafter the Moghuls were largely restricted to possession of the Tarim Basin.

The Russians initially demonstrated a willingness in allowing Islam to flourish as Muslim clerics were invited into the various region to preach to the Muslims, particularly the Kazakhs whom the Russians viewed with contempt ..

Led by Catherine, the Russians initially demonstrated a willingness in allowing Islam to flourish as Muslim clerics were invited into the region to preach to the Kazakhs whom the Russians viewed as " savages " and " ignorant " of morals and ethics.

In an attempt to conform Kazakhs into Communist ideologies, gender relations and other aspects of the Kazakh culture were key targets of social change.

The factories consisted of flour-mills, distilleries, tanneries and tobacco works ; but a great many domestic trades, including carpet-weaving and the making of felt goods, saddlery and iron goods, were carried on, among both the settled inhabitants and the nomadic Kazakhs.

While the Qing forces in Huiyuan successfully repelled the next attack of the rebels ( 12 December 1864 ), the rebellion kept spreading through the northern part of the province ( Dzungaria ), where the Kazakhs were glad to take revenge on the Kalmyks that used to rule the area in the past.

In their first Olympic Games in 1998, the Kazakhs were able to win their preliminary group, surprising many, and would finish the tournament in 8th place.

Some of the groups traditionally included are the Uzbeks, Siberian Tatars, Kumyks, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tatars and Crimean Tatars.

Ethnic Russians primarily practice Orthodox Christianity, while Kazakhs are traditionally Muslims.

* of the Kazakhs ( founded 1465 ; since 1601 divided into three geographical Jüz or Hordes, each under a bey ; in 1718 split into three different khanates ; eliminated by the Russian Empire by 1847 )

Starving and displaced, many Kazakhs joined in the general Central Asian Revolt against conscription into the Russian imperial army, which the tsar ordered in July 1916 as part of the effort against Germany in World War I.

Oghuz Turks ( also known as Turkmens ), Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Khazars, Kyrgyz, Hazara and Uyghurs are some of the Turkic inhabitants of the region who, as history progressed, have spread further into Eurasia forming such Turkic nations as Turkey and Azerbaijan, and subnational regions like Tatarstan in Russia and Crimea in Ukraine.

Today, Kazakhs revere Abay as one of the first folk heroes to enter into the national consciousness of his people.

The Hephthalites could also have been ancestors of the Abdal tribe which has assimilated into the Turkmens and Kazakhs.

This trend was partially off-set by the migration of Kazakhs from rural areas into the city.

Islam was brought to the Kazakhs during the 8th century when the Arabs arrived into Central Asia.

Europe was exposed to several waves of invasions by horse people, from the Cimmerians in the 8th century BCE, down to the Migration period, and the Mongols and Seljuks in the High Middle Ages, and the Kalmuks and the Kyrgyz and later Kazakhs down into modern times.

Sometimes a Bey was a territorial vassal within a khanate, as in each of the three zuzes under the Khan of the Kazakhs.

After Baatur returned to Dzungaria with the title Erdeni ( given by Dalai Lama ) and much booty, he made three expeditions against the Kazakhs.

The Kazakhs ( also spelled Kazaks, Qazaqs ; ; the English name is transliterated from Russian ) are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ( largely Kazakhstan, but also found in parts of Uzbekistan, China, Russia, and Mongolia ).

Further west, the Kazakhs – a Turco-Mongol Muslim people – prevented the Torghuts from sending its trading caravans to the Muslim towns and villages located along the Syr Darya river.

* The Kazakhs – Kazakh language – Arabic script

Oleg Bolyakin will remain as head coach for Kazakhstan as the Kazakhs will play in the 2010 World Junior Championships, Division 1 held in Gdansk, Poland from December 14 – 20, 2009.

By the 1800s, the locals could do little to resist the Russian advance, although the Kazakhs of the Great Horde under Kenesary Kasimov rose in rebellion from 1837-46.

The Nogais and Kazakhs also had divisions called Great Hordes.

Other descendants of Kerait are the Karaylar or Kerey tribe within the Middle Juz of the Kazakhs.

The Kazakhs of the Little Horde intervened on the Russian side, then switched to the Bashkirs and then withdrew.

After expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for many Turkic peoples, including the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyz and Uyghurs.

Kazakhs deliver a white horse as a gift to the Qianlong Emperor of China ( 1757 ), soon after the Qing conquest of Xinjiang.

Many Kazakhs and Russian fought the communist takeover and resisted their control until 1920.

In that period, over a million Kazakhs and 80 percent of the republic's livestock died.

Thousands more Kazakhs tried to escape to China, although most starved in the attempt.

Conquest says that the application of party theory to the Kazakhs, and to a lesser extent to the other nomad peoples, amounted economically to the imposition by force of an untried stereotype on a functioning social order, with disastrous results.

That endeavor left the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan a mixed legacy: a population that includes nearly as many Russians as Kazakhs ; the presence of a dominating class of Russian technocrats, who are necessary to economic progress but ethnically unassimilated ; and a well-developed energy industry, based mainly on coal and oil, whose efficiency is inhibited by major infrastructural deficiencies.

The name of the ethnic majority are Kazakhs.

The proportion of Kazakhs makes up 63. 6 %, Russians 23. 7 %, Uzbeks 2. 9 %, Ukrainians 2. 1 %, Uygur 1. 4 %, Tatars 1. 3 %, Germans 1. 1 %, others 3. 9 %.

Most of this trade is in barter conducted by ethnic Kyrgyz or Kazakhs who are Chinese citizens.

Tibetans and Mongols refused to allow other ethnic groups like Kazakhs to participate in the Kokonur ceremony in Qinghai, until the Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Bufang forced them to stop the racism and allowed them to particapate.