Dzungarian pogrom: how the last nomad empire broke up
World story She knew the birth, flourishing and decline of more than one empire. However, there were not too many states whose civilization was based on horse-nomadic culture. About the tragic end of the last state of nomads - Dzungaria - tells the well-known research scientist Maral Tompiev.
The collapse of the Oirat UnionThe political term “jungars” appeared at the beginning of the 17th century as a result of the separation of the Oirats (translated as “inhabitants of the forests”) into the north-western and south-eastern groups.
According to the Turkic-Mongolian tradition, the south was the main and decisive side of the world. If you look to the south, the southeastern group under the direction of the choros Hara Hula will be on the left. The Mongolian left wing was always called jun-gar - the left hand. Therefore, chorosy as the main tribe received their political name - the Djungars.
Many historians mistakenly believe that the Djungars are the left wing of the army of Genghis Khan. The Torgouts and a part of the Derbet from the north-western grouping, logically, were to become barringers - with the right hand. But having gone to Zhaik and Edil and having fallen into the sphere of influence of Russia, they began to be called Kalmaks (in Russian - Kalmyks). The word "Kalmak" Islamized tribes of the Turks called nomads, whom they considered to remain in paganism (Tengrism). It was only in the 18th century that Russian travelers and historians, in order to distinguish their “lower” Kalmyks on the Volga from the “upper” in Tarbagatay, began to call them Zyungor Kalmyks, and in abbreviated form - Dzungars.
From the middle of the XVI century, the Oirats, having suffered defeats from the eastern and southern Mongols, were forced to retreat to the north and west, to the headwaters of the Khobda River, and cross the Mongolian Altai. On the broad desert plain between the ranges of the Altai and Tien Shan mountains, they found their main homeland - the geographical Dzungaria. Thus, the Oirats ousted from the Altai and Tarbagatai the scattered Kazakh tribes of the Naimans, Kereys, Zhalayirs, Uakov and Kipchaks, who scattered in Mogulistan and the Kazakh Khanate, as well as the Kyrgyz, forced to go to the Tien-Shan mountains.
The relocation of the Oirats to the west was not due to the desire to repeat the campaigns of Genghis Khan, but by choosing the path of least resistance. In this way, the lands of the collapsed Siberian Khanate, which consisted mainly of Kazakh tribes, turned out to be for them. After leaving the borders of Dzungaria, the Derbets and Torgouts moved in two streams along the Irtysh River to the north-west, displacing further to the west and into the mountainous part of the Altai the remnants of the Kerei, Uakov, Kipchak, and Telengit tribes. As a result, the north-western group of Oirats settled west of the Irtysh and south of the new Russian cities of Tyumen, Tobolsk, Tara, Tomsk. It was led by Derbet taiji Dalai Batur (? –1637) and Torghut taiji Ho Urluk (? –1644). The first was married to the second sister, so the relatives wandered together and in agreement.
Four hordes
Internal strife and defeat from Yesimkhan (1565-1628) led to a break between the Dalai Batur and Kho Urluk. The latter led his Torgouts through the mountains of Mugodzhary into the headwaters of the Emba River and, moving along its course, fell on the Nogai wanderings. This war ended with the defeat of the Nogai Horde and the emergence of the Kalmyk horde in the late 1630, stretching from Emba to Don. Derbyts led by Dalai Batur and Hoshouts led by Kuishi Taiji remained in Saryarka.
In the southeastern group of the Oirats, after the death of Hara Hula in 1635, his son Hoto Hoqing took the title of Huntaiji, and the Dalai Lama assigned him the motto of Erdeni Batur. This date is considered to be the birth of Dzungaria as a state. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but just in 1635, the Manchus defeated the last independent Mongol khan, Likden, and took from him the jasper seal of Genghis Khan.
Erdeni Batur continued the policy of his father, aimed at uniting the Oirats under the rule of the Choros in one state. The creation of a standing army, administrative administration and taxation began, and Buddhism was widely introduced. In the southern Tarbagatay, near the modern Chuguchak on the Emel River, Erdeni Batur built a capital of stone. Around her, he began to develop agriculture and handicraft production, which began to engage in Sarts and Uighurs. The ruins of the old capital on Emele are well preserved - they are located near the village of Kogvsar (in translation from Oirat “many deer”) at a height of 1330 meters.
The territory of Dzungaria due to the ousting of scattered Kazakh tribes expanded not only to the west, capturing the lands of the Kazakh Khanate, but also to the east. Hoshout Turu Baihu Taiji with its ulus in 1636 – 1637 conquered the land adjacent to Tibet around Lake Kukunor, displacing the Mongols and Tibetans from there and creating a separate Hoshout state there.
Thus, after 1636, four Oirat hordes appeared: Kalmyk on the Volga, Dzungarian on the Emel, Khokhout on the Kukunor lake and Derbeto-Khoshout in Saryarka. Later, three of them formed separate states, but the Saryarkan Oirats could not formalize statehood and were conquered by Galdan Boshoktu Khan.
At the same time, the Manchus conquered Northern China, formed a new ruling Qing dynasty, and continued the conquest of Mongolia. In the face of the Manchurian threat, Erdeni Batur began the preparation of an all-Mongol hural, which was supposed to unite the eastern and western Mongolian tribes and adopt a general code of punishment - Ihe Tsaazh. Khural was held in September 1640 in the Ulan Bura tract in the southeast of the Tarbagatai mountains. The majority of notable Taiji and noyons from Dzungaria, Kalmykia, Kukunor, northern Saryarka and Khalkh of Mongolia came to him.
The main goal of Erdeni Batur was to stop the civil strife and unite the various Mongol-speaking tribes for the future struggle with a common enemy - Chin China. This goal was not achieved, and the long-term political union of Khalkha and Oirat-Mongols did not happen. But on the whole, the adoption of Ihe Tsaazh's laws contributed to streamlining the social structure of society, more equitable legal proceedings, strengthening the militarization of the economy and discipline among the troops, as well as strengthening the influence of Buddhism.
The second capital of the Khanate, Urdun, founded by Tsevan Rabdan, was built on the site of the former capital of the Chagatai ulus, called Kuyash, or Ulug-if. Now it is the ruins of the old Kuldzhi, which was located between the southern coast of Ili and Chapchalsky moat and was stretched 20 km between the modern villages of Konohy, Ukurshy, Birushsumul, Altysumul, Kairsumul and Naimansumul, north of which were the Khan's palace and the central square. In the summer, through the Chapchalsky ditch, which at that time was impassable for cavalry, they threw down a dozen wooden bridges, which were quickly dismantled during the danger. In winter, the water from Chapchal was diverted to Or, so that the enemy cavalry did not pass over the ice.
An interesting fact: the capital of Mogulistan, Almalyk, used to be the second capital of the Chagatai ulus. The son of Chagatay, Esu Monkey, transferred it from the south to the north bank of the river (deep and fast Or was impassable for cavalry). There lay caravan routes to Karakorum - the capital of the empire and further to China and to the west Sarai-Berke - the capital of the Golden Horde. The western route went from Almalyk along the northern bank of Ili and along the eastern bank of its channel Bakanas through the settlements of Akkol, Aktam, Karamegen and Lake Balkhash, along the Tokrau River to Saryarka and further to the Volga and Russia. After the defeat of Almalyk by the Oyrats, the caravan route and cities along Ili and Bakanas fell into disrepair, but their ruins are well preserved to this day.
According to ignorance of history, the Russian authorities in 1881 gave China the Ili region along with four capitals: Karluk Khanate - Ily-Balyk; Chagatai ulus - Kuyash, Ulug-if; Mogulistan - Almalyk; Dzungaria - Urdun. This was the reason for the ambitions of China in terms of territorial claims.
Beginning of the End
In 1750, a series of misfortunes struck Dzungaria, so after the death of Galdan Tseren, a split occurred among the nobility. Some taiji and noyons did not recognize his illegitimate son, Lama Dorji, who had seized the throne. Noyon Chorosov Davatsi, who considered himself to be more notable, in the 1751 year with his supporters Amursana (1722-1757), the Noyons of Banjur, Batma, and Renge Tserenami fled from the persecution of Lama Dorji to the Kazakh Middle zhuz to the Sultan of Abilay. And the rebellious noions of Derbet Saral and Ubashi Tseren went to the emperor Qian Lun. Thus, the Dzungar internal strife developed into an international one and served the neighboring countries as a signal of the weakening of Dzungaria.
Faster than everyone in a situation, he oriented himself and led his game on the principle of “divide and seize” the head of the Middle Zhuz, Sultan Abylay. He did not betray the rebels led by Davatsi, ignoring the demands of Lama Dorji. The last in 1752, with three tumens, invaded the nomads of the Middle Zhuz in eastern Saryarka. However, the war became protracted, and the Djungars, having actually lost it, retreated.
Taking advantage of the reports of Tolebi about the complete absence of the Dzungar troops in western Zhetysu (a serious miscalculation of Lama Dorji), in December 1752 of the year Abylai sent a special landing party from 500 Kazakhs and 150 from Oirats-supporters of Davatsi and Amursana. This army quickly passed Balkhash from the west, along the southern coast of Ili, and in early January 1753, without meeting any resistance, broke into Urdun, where the bridges across the Chapchalsky ditch were not dismantled. Lama Dorjee was captured and January 12 was executed. With the support of the Kazakhs, Davatsi became the new juntai. After this brilliantly carried out operation, Abylai was even more firmly established in his plans to establish control over Dzungaria.
Davatsi turned out to be limited and greedy, which only added fire to the fire of the Dzungarian civil strife. Amursana’s claims to the “half kingdom” were also not satisfied. And then Amursana again appealed for help to Abylay, who without fail rendered his ally already against Davatsi with the necessary number of horses and even singled out a Kazakh detachment. In turn, Davatsi turned to the help of the Zaisans of the Altai Telengits (Tolenguts), who in the spring of 1754 completely defeated the Kazakh-Dzungarian detachment of Amursana. The latter with 20, thousands of Hoyts, fled to the Hulk, where, appearing to the Chinese authorities, he declared a desire to serve Bogdykhan Qian Lung (1711-1799). He was sent to Beijing. In the future, this request for help served as a win-win reason for the capture and destruction of Dzungaria. Already from 1753, the Qing began to conquer the local Oirats from the Gobi Altai and Eastern Tien Shan. The recalcitrant were executed or evicted in Southern Mongolia (a total of about 40 thousands of families). Their descendants still live in China’s Inner Mongolia under the generic name Jangar in the Chakhar tribal union.
Given the previous military experience, in the spring of 1755, a huge Chinese army of thousands of people in 50 went to the final conquest of Dzungaria. Consisting of 10 thousand Manchus, 10 thousand Khalkha and 20 thousand southern Mongols, it was divided into two parts. Actually the Chinese (Han) was about 10 thousand, but they did not participate in the hostilities. The Han Chinese who abhorred war and violence constituted only logistic units — they were to engage in agriculture in the occupied territories and create military-arable settlements for food supply.
The infantry consisted mainly of the Manchu tribes, while the cavalry, by analogy with the Russian Cossacks and the Volga Kalmyks, was completed from the Mongols, later the Oirats. For the conquest of Dzungaria, the plan of General Aran was used, who, as the troops moved into the depths of the enemy’s territory, proposed building fortresses with permanent military garrisons — Tuyuns — in the rear along the caravan routes. The first fortresses were built in Kumul and Barkola in the eastern Tien Shan.
Dzungaria was doomed, since the number of its army, even with the Kazakh troops, was two times less. This is not to mention the superiority of the advancing troops in the amount of artillery and mass firearms. weapons.
The northern part of the 20 of thousands of sabers, which came from Mongolia under the command of the Mongol general Pan-ti (from the vanguard of which were the khoits of the Amursans), arrived from Mongolia and began to seize the Mongolian Altai and the Eastern Tien Shan. The southern part, which came from Manchuria under the command of General Yun Chun (its conductor and avant-garde was another Derbet noyon - Saral), captured Tarbagatai and the Dzungarian Plain. Then Saral led his warriors south of Lake Ebinore, across the Borokhor ridge to capture the northern part of the Ili valley. And Amursana moved along the southern bank of Ili, where Pan-ti entered Urdun, the capital of Dzungaria, practically without a fight.
Despite the assistance of three thousand Kazakh soldiers from Abylaya, Davatsi, who did not trust them, evaded the battle in the Tekes area and, with a small detachment, fled through the Yulduz pass to the southern Tien Shan. But he was soon captured with the help of a Uighur hakim in Uch Turfan, near the Aksu River, and sent to Beijing. Qian Lun treated him humanely, and in 1759, he died a natural death. Meanwhile, Pan-ti, sitting in Guldje as the main Chinese governor, announced the disintegration of Dzungaria and appointed new juntaiji for each of the Choros, Derbet, Hoshout and Hoyt tribes.
Amursan, who had hoped, at least for a part of Dzungaria, received nothing. To curb the dissatisfaction of the former ally, Pan-ti escorted him to Beijing. On the way, Amursan fled to his native Khoyt camp in Tarbagatay, where, with the support of Abylay, along with former armanat argyn, Kazak sary started a rebellion against China. After collecting the remnants of the troops, in the fall of 1755, he returned to Gulja. Pan-ti, confident of victory, imprudently disbanded the bulk of the army and was left with the 500 warriors in full circle, was defeated and killed himself.
Death of Dzungaria
After the restoration of independence of Dzungaria, the Choros Tayji were considered humiliating for themselves to obey Amursan, who was only a Khoyt noyon. His mother was the younger sister of Galdan Tseren, so in the eyes of Choros he was considered a man of lower origin. Because of this mistake, the ruling choros and the rebellious Khoits were almost completely exterminated by Qin.
In the camp of the rebels, strife and bloody civil strife resumed, aggravated by the devastating raids of the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, who felt the weakness of the former tyrants. The roads of Dzungaria were strewn with corpses, the rivers were reddened with human blood shed, and the air was full of smoke from burning monasteries and tents. During the 1753-1755 period, the Kazakhs captured more than 10 thousands of families from Ili and Emil (Dzhungarsky Plain). Amursana, becoming juntaiji, in retaliation for the defeat in 1754, executed 15 Altai zaisans and handed over XYLUM to thousands of teleggit families. In total, over 7 thousands of Oirats were distributed among the Kazakh tribes, where they were assimilated.
Kyrgyz from Alai under the leadership of Kubatur-bi from the Kushchu clan captured the Talas valley, and the Sarybagysh - the upper reaches of the Chu and Issyk-Kul. The Jungars themselves began to migrate from the central regions: the Derbet - in Kobdo Khalkh of Mongolia, and a part of the Khoshouts - in Kashgaria. The Chinese, with satisfaction, watched the disarray in the country of the sworn enemy, seeking to intensify their differences, welcoming the fugitives. Thus, anticipating the impotence of the Dzungarian wolf, the Chinese dragon began to prepare for the final and decisive throw.
In the spring of 1756, the Qin army under the command of the Manchu general Chao Huei laid siege to Urumqi, and in the spring of the following year passed to Emil and Tarbagatai. The Manchus, along with 5 thousands of noyon Saral derbet, marched towards Kuldja. Amursana, tried to organize resistance and even won several small battles. But in the end, the Manchus, using their numerical advantage and regrouping their forces, broke the Jungars. Dropping everything, Amursana fled to the Kazakhs again. Pursuing it, the Manchus crossed the Irtysh and went to the lands of the Middle Zhuz.
This was the end of Dzungaria, the last empire of nomads, which in 1761 turned into a Qin governorship called Xinjiang (new frontier). Kobdo district, Tarbagatai, Ili province and Urdun (Kuldzha) were annexed to China. The Dzungars, especially the rebellious tribes of Choros and Hoyt (while the Derbet subjugated in time and suffered less), were almost completely exterminated. The Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were actively involved in the struggle for the Dzungar inheritance.
In 1757-58, the Kazakh batyrs attacked the Altai cube of Kalmaks. Batyrs Naiman Kokzhal Barak and Kipchak Koshkarbai were especially famous. Acting on the instructions of Sultan Abylay, they avenged the Kalmyks for the raids on the Middle Zhuz and for participating in the defeat of the Amursans and Abylay detachments in 1754. Passing the Irtysh and invading the mountainous and Mongolian Altai, the Kazakh warriors began to instill fear, taking the boys to golenguts, women and girls to the tokas, and adding cattle to their herds. Russia, which had previously watched the situation indifferently, also decided to join the division of Dzungaria. Queen Elizaveta Petrovna in May 1756 of the year issued a decree on the admission of fugitives to her citizenship, and in June - a decree on the annexation of Gorny Altai territory to Russia.
In contrast to the resettlement of the Kazakhs in Dzungaria, the Chinese began to relocate there the Manchurian tribes of archers - Sybe, Daurov and Solonov, also Chakharov and Khalkha - Mongols, Taranchi-Uigurs from Kashgaria, Dungan from Gan-Su (Ken-su), and also Uryangkhaytsev (Soyotes) from Tuva. In 1771, on the initiative of the Chinese, Torgouts were resettled from the Volga region, which were located to the south and east of Kuldzha in the Yulduz valley and the upper course of the River Urugu on the empty lands of their brothers Choros and Khoytov.
In 1757-1758, Dzungaria, the last nomad empire, was completely destroyed.
The Chinese historian of the Tsin Empire, Wei Yuan (1794-1857), wrote that the number of the Dzungars by the year 1755 was at least 200 thousands of tents. The Russian historian S. Skobelev believed that, taking into account the average 4,5 person’s ratio per tent, the population of Dzungaria was about 900 thousand. Therefore, the size of the losses can be represented as follows:
The number of Derbet (supported by the Chinese and did not participate in the riots) - about 150 thousands, or 20%.
Saved in Siberia, in northern Mongolia and in the Altai Mountains - 60 thousands.
Saved in Dzungaria itself - 40 thousand.
Carried away by Kazakhs and Kyrgyz - 100 thousand.
Died from hunger and smallpox epidemics - 200 thousands.
Killed by civil strife, Kazakh and Kyrgyz raids - 50 thousands.
If you add up these figures and subtract the resulting amount from the total number of 900 thousands, then the number of the Dzungars (mainly Choros and Khoyts) destroyed by the Qin troops will be about 300 thousands.
As for 170 years before this weakened Siberian Khanate was divided between Russia and the strong Dzungaria, the weakened Dzungaria was divided between its neighbors.
(From the book "Shekara shegin aykyndau dauіrі. The era of gaining borders." [email protected])
Information