Sacred places associated with the Kenesary’s National Liberation Movement

Abstract

In the programme line of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
dated April 12, 2017 «Look into the future: modernization of public consciousness» noted that the first condition
for a new type of modernization is the preservation of one’s culture, one’s own national code. He believes that
without it modernization will turn into an empty phrase. And it is indeed true!
Within the framework of this state programme, the project “Spiritual Shrines of Kazakhstan” (“Sacred
Geography”) was created, which included the most revered monuments of natural heritage. Within its
framework, cultural-historical research of the country’s national sacred objects is conducted regularly.
The project aimed to strengthen the public interest, harmonizing the past with the future. It demonstrates the
heroic path of the Kazakh people, their ethnology, religion, worldview and spiritual values. It is logical, because
only viable nations sacredly honor their history and their national heroes.
The objects of the article are sacred places related to the Kenesary’s National Liberation Movement. Historical
data are considered, and through their prism possibilities and desire to learn deeper the heroism of the leader of
the Kazakh people, who rebelled against the Russian Empire for the independence of his country, are opened. Kenesary Kasymov is the last Kazakh khan who has protested against the colonial policy of tsarism.
The reform of 1822-1824, which was the elimination of the traditional khan’s power in the steppe, creation
of administrative-territorial units and the introduction of a new management system, was in fact bringing
complete impoverishment and oppression to the Kazakh people. The uprising of Khan Kenesary lasted 10 years,
it affected many, if not all, regions of Kazakhstan.