Where is Karakalpakstan located on the map. Description and attractions of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. Excursions around Karakalpakstan

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Sovereign Republic of Karakalpakstan located in the Turan Lowland, in the north-west, having its own constitution, coat of arms, flag, anthem, as well as parliament and government. On the southwestern side the region is adjacent to the Karakum desert, and from the northeast it is adjacent to the expanses of Kyzylkum. Desert areas occupy about 80% of the area of ​​the entire region, possessing many archaeological sites of great interest to lovers of history and ancient artifacts.

Peculiarities

According to its administrative structure, the republic is divided into 14 districts, 12 cities and 25 villages, while half of the population lives in rural areas, engaged in livestock farming and housekeeping. The main industry sectors in the region are the cotton ginning, textile and food industries, as well as the production of building materials and metalworking. The most serious problem of Karakalpakstan is the drying up of the Aral Sea, at the bottom of which the sandy-salt desert Aralkum has formed. At the same time, the economic situation of the region is also far from optimal and, despite the large deposits of valuable natural components concentrated on the Ustyurt plateau, including gas, gold and oil, the republic is considered the poorest region of Uzbekistan, relying largely on the support of the capital. At the moment, throughout Central Asia, Karakalpakstan is a leader in such indicators as the mortality rate among infants and the number of people born with various physical disabilities. The ethnic composition of the area is formed mainly from Karakalpaks and Uzbeks, although there are also representatives of other nationalities from the post-Soviet space.

general information

The region's territory covers an area of ​​more than 165,000 square meters. km, with a population of about 1.7 million people. The desert lands of the region are covered with dune sands. Local time is 2 hours ahead of Moscow. Time zone UTC+5. Karakalpakstan does not switch to summer time.

A brief excursion into history

The Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region was formed in 1924, when it first became part of the Kazakh SSR, and a few years later became part of the RSFSR. In 1932, the region received the status of the Karakalpak Autonomous Republic already on the territory of Uzbekistan. In 1990, it was even recognized as an independent state, but after just 2 years, it was again transformed into Uzbekistan autonomy, having independence, but at the same time being under political and economic influence from Uzbekistan.

Climate

Karakalpakstan has a sharply continental climate. In winter, the average air temperature here is about -7 degrees, and in summer it can go beyond +50. The total amount of precipitation is low, and the best time to visit here is considered to be spring and late autumn, when the sun's rays are not so active and intrusive.

How to get there

Cars play a decisive role in transporting goods and moving around the region, and the length of roads in this area reaches 4,400 km. The main international airport of the republic is located in Nukus, which is able to receive large aircraft. There are also 2 airports in Muynak and Turtkul, but they only serve small planes. The railway connecting Kungrad, Beyneu and Makat runs from Central Asia to neighboring countries, being the main international transport link.

Transport

In cities, the main means of transportation are private cars, taxis and buses.

Main cities

Nukus serves as the capital and largest city of the republic. It is located on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, at a distance of 800 km from. Now, a difficult situation has arisen here, caused by an environmental disaster with the drying up of the Aral Sea and leading to massive environmental pollution. The city is an important transport hub, as well as an industrial, cultural and educational center of Karakalpakstan. There are a number of museums, higher education institutions, historical monuments and cultural institutions. Other large cities in the region include Kungrad, Khojeyli, Beruni, the former administrative center Turtkul and Chimbay.

Attractions and entertainment

Considering that modern Karakalpakstan is located on the lands of the ancient state of Khorezm that once existed in these places, it stores many outstanding ancient structures and artifacts that regularly attract the attention of researchers and travelers. Among the most famous archaeological monuments of the past, the architectural complexes of Toprak-Kala, Mizdakhkan and Kyzyl-Kala, the fortresses of Dzhanbas-Kala and Big Guldursun, the mausoleum of Mazlumkhan Sulu, the defensive fortification of Koykrylgan-Kala and the religious building of the beginning of our era - Shylpyk stand out. In Nukus, the Stanislavsky Musical and Drama Theater, the Savitsky State Museum of Art and the Local History Museum are worthy of special attention.

Kitchen

In the culinary establishments of the cities of the republic, mainly national Uzbek cuisine is presented, where the main dish is delicious pilaf, prepared here as nowhere else in Central Asia. An indispensable attribute of the meal is pita bread, meat, vegetables and fruits.

Shopping

In the markets and shops of the region's settlements you can buy cheap but good-quality textiles, all kinds of handicrafts, souvenirs, jewelry and other goods.

Karakalpakstan embodies the culture and traditions of the region, which at the moment, despite all its tourist attractiveness, is not very popular among travel enthusiasts, which is largely due to the difficult environmental and social situation in the republic, which today is far from optimal.

Karakalpaks are a Turkic-speaking people, formed under the conditions of Soviet society into a socialist nation; They call themselves Tsaratsalpats. They are known under this name in historical sources and among neighboring peoples. In living speech and folklore, variants of the self-name Tsaralpats and Tsalpats are often found.

The Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is part of the Uzbek SSR. Its vast territory (165.6 thousand sq. km) covers the eastern part of the Khorezm oasis, the Amu Darya delta, the southern coast of the Aral Sea, the eastern half of the Ustyurt plateau and the part of the Kyzylkum desert adjacent to the Khorezm oasis.

The territory of Kara-Kalpakiya is a flat plain, descending towards the Aral Sea and intersected in some places by small ridges (Sultan-Uiz-Dag) and hills (Beltau, Kushkanatau, Kubatau, etc.). On the northwestern outskirts of the republic rise steep steep slopes (“chinki”) of the Ustyurt plateau. The flat part of the territory of Kara-Kalpakia rises on average 150-220 m above sea level, the height of individual ridges and hills reaches 485 m.

The total number of Karakalpaks in the USSR, according to the 1959 census, is 172.6 thousand people, of which 156 thousand live in the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; significant groups of them live in different regions of the Uzbek SSR: in the Bukhara region (5950 people), in the Fergana Valley (4704 people), in the Khorezm region (523 people) and a small number in the Zeravshan Valley (Samarkand region). Outside of Uzbekistan, the largest number of Karakalpaks is in the Turkmen SSR (2,548 people, mainly in the Tashauz region). There are also small groups of them in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

In the Fergana Valley and Samarkand region, the Karakalpaks are increasingly losing their national identity and are gradually merging with the Uzbeks. The national features of culture and life are more consistently preserved among the Karakalpaks of the Kenimekh district of the Bukhara region.

Outside the USSR, about two thousand Karakalpaks live in Afghanistan.

The Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is divided into 9 administrative districts: on the left bank of the Amu Darya there are (from south to north) the Amu-Darya, Khodjeily and Kungrad districts; on the right - Turtkul, Birunisky, Kegeylinsky, Chimbaysky and Takhta-Kupyrsky districts; northern part of the Amu Darya delta, coastal strip and islands

of the Aral Sea, belonging to Kara-Kalpakia, are part of the Muynak region.

Capital of the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Nukus (39 thousand inhabitants) is located 8 km from the right bank of the Amu Darya, at the beginning of its delta, on the large main canal Kyz-Ketken.

In addition to Nukus, Kara-Kalpakia has old cities - Chimbay, Khojeyli, Kungrad, and new ones, created, like Nukus, during the years of Soviet power: the new Turtkul, Takhia-Tash, the new city of Khojeyli, which is being built near the railway. There are also many large urban-type settlements. In the north of the republic, on the Muynak peninsula (formerly Tokmak-ata), there is a large urban-type working settlement - Muynak, the center of the fishing industry on the southern coast of the Aral Sea.

Vast areas of Kara-Kalpakia are sparsely populated. The total population in the republic is 510.1 thousand people, and its average density is three people per 1 sq. km. However, in the most densely populated southern regions, the population density reaches 25-30 people per 1 sq. km. At the same time, in the desert zone it does not reach 0.5 people per 1 sq. m. km.

The Karakalpak population is distributed unevenly throughout the republic. The bulk of the Karakalpaks occupy the territory of the northern right-bank regions of the republic and the Amu Darya delta region. Over 87% of the Karakalpaks living in the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic are concentrated in these areas, and 79% of all Karakalpaks recorded in Central Asia.

In the southern regions, the Karakalpaks are a minority: Uzbeks, Kazakhs predominate here, and there is a significant group of Turkmen. There are also many Kazakhs living in the western and eastern regions bordering the deserts. In the Kungrad region, next to the Karakalpaks, lives a group of North Khorezm Uzbeks, formerly called “Arals,” who are ethnically and historically close to the Karakalpaks. There are also several Korean villages on the left bank. The Russian and Ukrainian populations are concentrated primarily in cities; the exception is the so-called “Uralians” - the descendants of the Ural Old Believers Cossacks resettled to the lower reaches of the Amu Darya in 1875, whose villages are in the suburbs of Nukus, Kungrad, Muynak and in rural areas of the southern regions.

Until recently, the Karakalpaks retained remnants of their former division into tribes and clans.

The tribal system of the Karakalpaks was characterized by the division of the entire totality of their tribes and clans into two main branches - arys (literally “shafts”): arys on-tert uruu (14 clans) and arys kotsirat. Arys on-tort-uru was located on the right bank of the Amu Darya, in the basin of the Kegeyli channel in the territory of the present-day Chimbay and Kegeylinsky districts. This is a group of tribes that have long been engaged primarily in agriculture, as well as cattle breeding. Tribes and clans of the arys kongrat were concentrated in the northern part of the delta, on the lands adjacent to the Aral Sea, in the present-day Muynak, Takhta-Kupyr, Kungrad regions and on the Aral Islands. Their traditional occupations were cattle breeding and fishing, combined, however, with agriculture.

The on-tort-uru association included the Tstai, Tsypshats, Keneges and Mangyt tribes. Arys kongrat was divided into two parts: shulluk\zhauyneyr. Shulluk united eight tribes: Agiamails, Tsoldauls, Tsostameals, Balgals, Tsandeklis, Tsaramoyn, Tsyatshmuyten. Zhaungyr was not a tribal, but a clan association, which included seven clans. Each of the genera in turn was divided into smaller groups.

The names of many Karakalpak clans reflect their ethnic history, coinciding with the names of long-vanished tribes and peoples who participated for many centuries in the formation of the Karakalpak ethnic community.

Before the October Revolution, most of these clan groups were isolated, occupied certain territories, and had their own irrigation canals and pasture lands. In their everyday life, many ancient remnants of the communal tribal system were preserved. Under the Soviet system, tribal remnants gradually disappeared and now the former tribal groups have acquired the character of ethnographic groups of the Karakalpak people, having lost the former traditions of the clan in their economic and social life and retaining only some ethnographic features, which are increasingly erased in the process of development of the Karakalpak socialist nation.

Anthropologically, the Karakalpaks have not been sufficiently studied, so their characteristics can only be given in the most general form.

In general, the Karakalpaks differ little from the Kazakhs and from the most Mongoloid groups of Uzbeks, for example, the Otmangyts of Khorezm or the Kuramins. The characteristics of the Mongoloid race are clearly expressed, but there is no doubt about the presence of a significant admixture of Caucasian elements. The territorially isolated group of Karakalpaks in the Fergana Valley reveals an admixture of the Caucasoid element to a somewhat greater extent than the bulk of the Karakalpak people. The group of Ferghana Karakalpaks has a slightly less wide face, but brown eyes are no less common. Therefore, we can assume that Caucasian features are associated with the participation of the Central Asian interfluve type. In all likelihood, this type, although in smaller numbers, is also present in the bulk of the Karakalpaks. As for the South Siberian, i.e. Mongoloid, type mixed with the ancient Andronovo people, its presence is quite likely.

The Karakalpak language belongs to the Kipchak-Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak languages, which are part of the western branch of the Turkic languages.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

The process of formation of the Karakalpak people from various tribes and nationalities of antiquity and the Middle Ages took place on the territory of the Aral Sea region and was closely connected with the ethnogenesis of other Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia, primarily the Kazakhs and Uzbeks. The oldest of the tribes that, in all likelihood, took part in the ethnogenesis of the Karakalpaks were the Apasiaks, Augasis, and some other tribes that were part of the Saka-Massaget confederation, mentioned by ancient authors, who lived on the southern shores of the Aral Sea in the first centuries BC.

Archaeological excavations of cultural monuments of these tribes, carried out in recent years by the Khorezm expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences, make it possible to determine the peculiar features of their economic life, some elements of material and spiritual culture. The Apasiaks were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and crafts (pottery, blacksmithing, jewelry, etc.). Not only the moist lands of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya deltas were used for crops, but also drier areas irrigated by canals. Along with the remains of temporary nomadic dwellings, archaeologists discovered semi-sedentary rural settlements of the Apasiaks, city settlements fortified by fortress walls (Chirik-Rabat, Babish-Mulla, Balandy), mounds and majestic burial structures made of mud brick and pakhsa.

Some works of the Karakalpak epic (the epic poem “Kyrk Kyz”) still preserve traces of the archaic traditions of this distant era - the remnants of matriarchy, the ancient customs of their family life and beliefs, so characteristic of the Saka-Massaget tribes.

On the ethnic basis of the Sako-Massaget tribes, as a result of their partial mixing with the Huns who surged into the Nriaral steppes from the east (late 2nd century BC - 4th century AD), and then the Turks (VI-VIII centuries). ), the early medieval peoples of the Aral Sea region - the Pechenegs and Oguzes - were formed. It has been proven that these ethnonyms have a continual connection with the names of the ancient Apasiaks and Augasii (see page 78). This continuity is observed in the economy and culture of the Augasis and Oguzes during the archaeological study of their settlements located on the coast of the Aral Sea, between the mouths of the Syr Darya and the now dry Kuvandarya. Just as the Sako-Massaget tribes were associated with the population and culture of powerful states that arose on the territory of ancient Khorezm (see p. 52), the medieval Oguzes and Pechenegs were under the strong political influence of Khorezm and the influence of the Khorezm civilization, while maintaining the originality of the complex pastoral-fishing-agricultural culture and semi-sedentary lifestyle.

In the ethnogenesis of the Pechenegs, in comparison with the Oguzes, a large role was played by Ugric elements - the tribes of the Urals, which later became part of the Bashkir and other peoples; The Pecheneg language was close to Bulgar and Suvar - ancient Turkic languages ​​and differed from the more developed Turkic - Oguz.

In the 10th century The Oghuz state was very extensive - in the southeast it bordered on the regions of Taraz (Dzhambul) and Chacha (Tashkent), and in the west it covered part of the Ustyurt plateau and bordered the possessions of the Khazars. The Oguz Union was headed by a ruler - Yabgu, whose residence was the city of Yangikent in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya (the modern ruins of Dzhankent near Kazalinsk).

Tribes of the Pechenegs and Oghuzs of the 8th-11th centuries. were the ethnic environment in which the formation of the Karakalpak people proper began. However, the Oghuz, having had a significant influence on the ethnogenesis of the Karakalpaks, mainly became part of the Turkmen people.

The possessions of the Pecheneg tribal union adjoined the Oghuz state; the eastern groups of the tribes that made it up were closely connected with the Oguzes, even partly entering their state; until the end of the 9th century. the territory of the Pechenegs extended from the Urals, reached the Volga and bordered the possessions of the Magyars. At the beginning of the 10th century. The Oghuz (“uzes” or “torks” of Russian chronicles), united with the Khazars, ousted the western part of the Pecheneg tribes, which poured into the southern Russian steppes. Gradually, the Pechenegs occupied vast areas of the south of Kievan Rus from the Khazar Khaganate to Byzantium. The eastern Pechenegs who remained on the territory of the Aral Sea region, called “Turkic” in historical sources (in contrast to the western ones - “Khazar”), firmly united with the Oguzes and in subsequent historical events] invariably acted in the political arena together with the “torks” on their side, even in those cases when the latter entered into a fight with the related western branch of the Pecheneg Union of Tribes.

It was this group of eastern Pechenegs, who linked their destinies with the Oguzes, that, according to modern researchers (P.P. Ivanov, S.P. Tolstov, etc.)> became the basis for the formation of the Karakalpak people. The legends of the Karakalpaks testify to the joint life with the Oguzes in the Aral Sea region and the participation of some groups of Karakalpaks in the grandiose Seljuk movement of the 11th century. from the Syr Darya basin through Khorezm and the Nurata Mountains to the southwest, to present-day Turkmenistan, Khorasan and Asia Minor. The material culture and art of the descendants of the Oghuz Turkmen have preserved many common features with the Karakalpak culture.

In the 11th century the state of the Oghuzs was conquered by a large Turkic-speaking people who emerged from among the Kimak tribes - the Kipchaks, who came from Siberia, from the Irtysh basin; under the onslaught of the Kipchaks (Polovtsians, Komans), part of the Oguzes and the eastern Pechenegs who united with them advanced into the borders of Kievan Rus and settled in the river basin. Ros (tributary of the Dnieper). In the 12th century. The ethnonym “Karakalpaks” appears for the first time in Russian chronicles when applied to these settlers in the form of “black hoods” - this is how the chronicler translated the Turkic words “Karakalpak”, literally “black hat”. The “Black Klobuki” entered into contractual relations with the Russian princes, receiving from them border lands for settlement under the condition of protecting the borders of Russia from the Polovtsians. “Black hoods” are constantly mentioned in chronicles; they actively participated in the political life of Kievan Rus, and, being part of its population, as the chronicler put it, they became “their own” in this new homeland for them. In the same XII century. The ethnic term “Karakalpak” also appears in the Aral Sea region, where it was apparently used in relation to the Eastern Pecheneg tribes who remained there. The Kypchak Union, which included the former Oguz possessions in its territory, included the Kara-Borkli tribe; this ethnonym is identical to the name “Karakalpak”.

Modern researchers suggest that the ethnonym “Karakalpak” (“black hoods”, “kara-borkli”) is a Kipchak term used by newcomers from the Irtysh region to the Oguz-Pecheneg tribes of the Aral region and the lower Syr Darya basin they conquered and caused by the type and color of their heads headdresses; In all likelihood, the population of Kievan Rus also borrowed this ethnonym from the Polovtsians.

As part of the Kypchak Union, not only the ethnonym of the Karakalpaks was determined, but also their language; they adopted the language of the conquerors - the Kipchaks.

Evidence of the connection of Karakalpak ethnogenesis with tribal unions of the Aral Sea steppes of the 12th-13th centuries. is the fact that one of the many Karakalpak tribes in the 19th - early 20th centuries. There was a Kipchak tribe, with a clan of Pecheneg origin - the Kangly. These same ethnonyms were preserved in the tribal structure of the Uzbeks, Kazakhs and other Turkic-speaking peoples, the formation of which was associated with the same era, territory and ethnic environment.

In the 13th century The consolidating tribes of the Karakalpaks were conquered by the Mongols, sharing the fate of the peoples of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, including their fellow “black hoods”, the inhabitants of Rus'.

The stay of the Karakalpaks as part of the Mongol Empire was reflected in their tribal composition, which included many tribes and clans with names of Mongolian origin (Kungrat, Kiyat, Mangyt, etc.). However, the Mongolian name does not always indicate Mongolian origin. It is known that the population of the Mongolian uluses, especially the Jochi ulus, which included the Aral Sea region, was mainly Turkic-speaking in composition; The Mongols represented here only a small layer of nobility and troops. The remnants of Turkic tribes with Mongolian names dependent on the Mongolian noyons were probably many of the Karakalpak and other Turkic-speaking tribes of Central Asia, which survived until the 19th - early 20th centuries. Mongolian ethnonyms.

The scarcity of sources makes it impossible to trace historical ones! the fate of the Karakalpaks in the post-Mongol period, when the Golden Horde, defeated by Timur (late 14th century), broke up into several independent possessions, among which the most significant were the Nogai and Uzbek khanates. However, linguistic data and events from a later period (17th century) already covered by sources undeniably prove the fact that the Karakalpak tribes entered the Nogai Khanate.

Of all the Turkic languages, the Karakalpak language is the closest to Nogai. All the legends of the Karakalpaks mention as areas of their habitat in the past, along with the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, the regions that were part of the Nogai Khanate - “Edil” (Volga), “Zhaik” (Yaik - Ural River), and sometimes the Crimea. In Karakalpak folklore, the so-called “Nogai layer” is extremely strong, associated with the names of famous Nogai khans and murzas (Edigei, Orus, Ormambet, etc.). Finally, in Russian documents of the 18th century. There are indications of joint military actions between the Karakalpaks and the Nogais of the Altyul ulus (located on Yaik). The totality of these data allows us to establish that the Karakalpaks in the XV-XVI centuries. were part of the Nogais. Within the framework of their political unification, the process of ethnogenesis of the Karakalpaks was completed, the language and main features of the Karakalpak culture were finally formed, characterized by its connection both with the ancient centers of Central Asian civilization (Khorezm), and with the Deshti-Kypchak steppes and the lower Syrdarya regions (Kazakhstan) and, finally, with culture of the peoples of Eastern Europe - the Urals, Volga region and the North Caucasus.

In Central Asian documents of the late 16th century. Karakalpaks are first mentioned as a special people living in the basin of the middle Syr Darya, in the vicinity of the city of Sygnak. Sources of the 17th century make it possible to more accurately determine the territory of settlement of the Karakalpaks: the main part of them occupied the Syrdarya regions between the city of Turkestan and the Karatau Mountains and was subordinate to the Bukhara Khanate.

Another center of settlement of the Karakalpaks was the area of ​​the upper reaches of the Ural and Emba rivers; from here the Karakalpaks, together with the Kazakhs, raided the outskirts of Russian possessions in Siberia; During the colonization of the Zakamsky region by Russia, they took part in the Bashkir uprisings. The third group of Karakalpaks at the end of the 17th century. was in the Zeravshan valley; sources report an uprising of these Karakalpaks in 1681 against the Bukhara Subkhan-Kuli Khan, to whom they were subject. The Karakalpak army took part in the campaigns of the Bukhara khans and was highly valued; they were considered "reliable men in battle." The Karakalpaks took an active part in the political life of not only the Bukhara, but also the Khiva Khanate, participating in the struggle of the Uzbeks of the Aral possession, which was separated from the Khanate (located in the Amu Darya delta) against the central power of the Khiva khans. Separate groups of Karakalpaks, apparently, have long lived in Khorezm.

In the lower reaches of the Syr Darya at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. Karakalpaks, like their distant ancestors, led a complex economy, combining agriculture with cattle breeding and a sedentary life with a semi-nomadic one.

Social relations among the Karakalpaks, like other nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Central Asia, most of whom had not yet left the stage of subsistence farming, were patriarchal-feudal. Remnants of the ancient patriarchal clan organization still remained. Each tribe or individual clan was headed by a noble leader - a biy. The biy's power was great; he usually had leadership during military operations, as well as the right to resolve disputes between individual members of the clan or tribe, including issues related to the distribution of pastures. Biy represented his clan or tribe among the surrounding neighbors. Many biys passed on their power by inheritance. Along with the biys, within each tribal association, a certain role was played by the batyrs, elders, who were famous for their military exploits, as well as the Muslim clergy, which included sheikhs, punks, hojas, etc. This dominant part of society existed at the expense of the oppressed peasantry. The lowest rung of the social ladder among the Karakalpaks was occupied by slaves. The labor of slaves was used not only in domestic life, but also in farming (grazing livestock, partly farming).

Historical documents of the late 18th century. indicate the absence of the institution of khan's power among the Karakalpaks who lived on the Syr Darya. Each tribe was usually governed by its own biys. The long-term neighborhood with the Kazakhs, although it had a significant influence on the economic and political life of the Karakalpak people, did not entail either their dispersion among the mass of the surrounding Kazakh population, or their final subordination to the Kazakh khans, despite the fact that nominally the Karakalpaks were considered subjects of the khans Junior zhuz.

Challenging the Kazakh feudal lords' dominance over the masses of “their” people and trying to strengthen their position by establishing independent external relations, the feudal-tribal nobility of the Karakalpaks tried in the first decades of the 18th century. transfer with his people to Russian citizenship. From the letter sent by the Karakalpak rulers to Peter I, it is clear that among the main motives that prompted the Karakalpak ruling strata to seek an alliance with Russia, trade interests occupied a large place. Both due to remoteness and due to a number of other reasons, negotiations on Russian citizenship under Peter were not implemented; this was implemented later.

CharacteristiclifeKarakalpaks withXVIIIcenturies and to their timejoining Russia.

The 18th century was full of turbulent and tragic events in the political life of the Karakalpaks. In 1723, the middle reaches of the Syr Darya were captured by the Dzungars, who invaded the possessions of the Kazakh khans. The Kazakhs and Karakalpaks were forced to flee from the Dzungar invasion deep into Central Asia and to the northwest, to the borders of Russia.

In connection with this movement, the Karakalpaks entered into a fight with the Kalmyks, subjects of Russia, trying to oust them from the Ural and Emba basin, which they succeeded in doing. Apparently, these Syrdarya Karakalpaks, who moved in the 20s of the 18th century. to the upper reaches of the Urals and Emba, united with groups of Karakalpak people who previously lived here.

The further fate of this part of the Karakalpaks has not been studied.

As a result of the Dzungar defeat, the Karakalpaks who remained on the Syr Darya were divided into two parts - “lower” and “upper”. The latter, having moved to Tashkent and further up the Syr Darya, found themselves under the citizenship of the Dzungars. The “lower” Karakalpaks, who lived in the Syr Darya delta, were under the rule of the Kazakh khan of the Younger Zhuz, Abulkhair Khan. Seeking help from powerful Russia in the fight against the Dzungars, the Karakalpaks, simultaneously with the Kazakhs led by Abulkhair Khan, accepted Russian citizenship in 1731. However, feudal strife among the Kazakh nobility did not allow this citizenship to be realized. In 1733, the Kazakhs and “lower” Karakalpaks swore allegiance to Russia for the second time, but this act, in connection with the political unrest in the Kazakh zhuzes, had no real consequences.

Meanwhile, the Karakalpaks, being under the yoke of the Kazakh feudal lords, who oppressed them and collected large taxes (mainly in bread), were extremely interested in the transition from vassal dependence to Abulkhair Khan to Russian citizenship. In 1740-1741, during the visit of the Russian embassy headed by Lieutenant Gladyshev to Abulkhair Khan in the lower Syr Darya, the Karakalpak elders told him about the aspirations of their people; in 1742 the Karakalpaks sent their embassy to Orenburg for the same purpose, and in 1743 to St. Petersburg. The request of the Karakalpaks to accept them as Russian citizenship was granted.

The attempt of the Karakalpaks to free themselves in this way from the rule of the Kazakh khans provoked decisive opposition from Abul Khair Khan. When in 1743 the Karakalpaks, after taking the oath to Russia, refused to pay taxes to Abulkhair Khan, the latter with his army attacked the unarmed people by surprise and completely ruined the Karakalpaks, taking away their cattle and capturing many people captive. He stopped all relations between the Karakalpaks and Russia.

Fleeing from oppression by the Kazakh khans, the main mass of the “lower” Karakalpaks began to retreat to the southwest, approaching the Khiva Khanate. The new area of ​​their settlement, located at the eastern borders of the Khiva Khanate, in the lower reaches of the now dry Zhanadarya, grew more and more; by the end of the 18th century. here, in the deserted spaces of the northern part of the Kyzylkum desert, a large agricultural oasis, dotted with irrigation canals, formed on lands developed by the Karakalpaks.

The center of the Zhanadarya possessions of the Karakalpaks is Orunbay-kala, the residence of the one who ruled them at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. powerful Orunbay-biy - has survived to this day. It was a feudal estate, surrounded by a wall, behind which the entire Karakalpak population of the Zhanadarya oasis hid during the defense from the attacks of the Kazakhs and Khivans.

The remains of Karakalpak settlements on the banks of the Kuvandarya riverbed have also been well preserved to this day. There are many fortresses here, surrounded by powerful walls and surrounded by ditches, significantly larger in size than the Zhanadarya fortifications of the Karakalpaks. Near the fortresses there were fields and villages; irrigation structures were very complex and varied.

A significant part of the Karakalpak biys, having led the tribes subordinate to them, after the events of 1743, she voluntarily transferred citizenship to the Khiva khans. The latter put at their disposal the deserted wetlands of the Amu Darya delta and immediately imposed heavy taxes on the Karkalpak people, devastated, impoverished, and weakened after a difficult transition through the desert from the Syr Darya to the Khorezm oasis.

At the beginning of the 19th century. Khiva Khan Muhammad-Rakhim organized a campaign of conquest against the Zhanadarya Karakalpaks and, having won a victory over them, forcibly resettled them within the Khanate, settling them in its northern part, on the sea coast and on the lands of the delta. Using their centuries-old experience of integrated farming, livestock farming and fishing, the Karakalpaks heroically resisted all the difficulties that arose in the new territory of their habitat; Moreover, they developed this area over the course of several decades, building an irrigation network, turning the lands of the Kegeyli basin and other large channels of the Amudarya delta into a flourishing oasis, draining large wetlands with the help of reclamation structures, using lakes, rivers and seas for fishing, and desert areas as pastures for their livestock.

The Karakalpaks were not strangers to the Amu Darya delta, since their ancient ancestors inhabited the basins of the lower reaches of both great rivers of Central Asia; they settled in areas with which they had been associated throughout their history. The Aral Uzbeks of northern Khorezm who now lived next to them were ethnically no less close to them than the Kazakhs.

Not interested in uniting the Karakalpak tribes into a single whole, the Khiva khans used the tribal division and tribal antagonism that existed among the Karakalpaks for administrative control, practicing gifts and all kinds of encouragement to the Karakalpak biys loyal to Khiva and persecuting the nobility that became in opposition to them. The consequence of the Khiva policy was the further conservation of backward clan institutions and remnants of patriarchal life.

The Karakalpaks, as mentioned above, were divided into two large tribal associations - Arys, each of which was in turn divided into a number of clans and smaller divisions.

The total number of Karakalpak tribes was 12, and the number of clans (URUU) reached 100. There were even more large (dash) and small (keshe) clan divisions. Tribes and some large clans had their own tamgas for branding livestock and a battle cry - uranium.

Each tribe occupied a certain territory. Within this territory, the clans had their own irrigation canals and lands located near them (arable lands, pastures, etc.), which legally belonged to the clan land and water communities, but were actually at the disposal of the ruling elite - the biys.

The Vii, together with other representatives of the propertied class, were managers of water use, land use, public pastures, springs and wells, and thus made the bulk of the Karakalpak population dependent on them.

Class differentiation within Karakalpak society already existed in the first half of the 19th century. extremely large, despite the appearance of the still-preserved “ancestral” shell.

Appealing to “tribal solidarity,” referring to the authority of “elders,” and sometimes relying on representatives of state power, the ruling elite forced their relatives to carry out various types of irrigation or other reclamation work, and often completely appropriated the newly irrigated lands. Deprived of the necessary agricultural implements, draft animals and seeds, the mass of the poorest members of the clan were forced to work on the lands of the nobility as sharecroppers or hired laborers for the most insignificant remuneration.

Settlement of tribal groups of Karakalpaks in the 19th - early 20th centuries.

The same relationships existed in the cattle-breeding economy: poor relatives grazed the cattle of the rich, receiving for this, under the guise of tribal mutual assistance, a small share of dairy products or part of the offspring.

In the first half of the 19th century. traders penetrated into areas with a Karakalpak population (primarily Chimbay) from Khiva and partly from Bukhara, whose activities contributed to the expansion of commodity relations and the increasing role of money.

Already around the middle of the 19th century. Among the large landowners in the Karakalpak regions, in addition to the biys and military service nobility, Khiva documents name some beys who did not belong to the feudal nobility and rose from ordinary members of rural communities thanks to their wealth, the source of which was the labor of exploited landless farmers and sharecroppers, and sometimes trade usury operations.

No less large landowners and cattle owners than the biys and bai were the clergy, especially representatives of the dervish orders - the ishans, who sometimes had thousands of herds of cattle and private lands, in addition to the waqf, the income from which they also enjoyed as administrators of the waqf property.

Subjected to the patriarchal-feudal exploitation of “their” ruling class, the peasantry, in addition, experienced heavy oppression from the Khiva Khanate. Considering the Karakalpaks a defeated, unequal people, the Khiva government not only extended all kinds of taxes and duties to them, but also openly forced them to work on lands that belonged personally to the khan and his dignitaries; separate groups of Karakalpaks were forcibly relocated to estates and forced, together with slaves, to cultivate the lands of noble feudal lords. The main official types of taxes were: cash land tax (saleyt); a tax on crops collected in kind (deek) and a tax on livestock (zdket). Taxes (for example, cash land taxes) were collected from the entire clan as a whole, which was an administrative unit. The distribution of taxes between different categories of payers usually depended on bribery of the khan's administration and the biy. In addition, many wealthy individuals could, for money, receive “labels” stating that they were completely exempt from taxes. Under such conditions, the poorest part of the population had to bear the brunt of the tax burden.

In addition to various types of taxes and fees, the Karakalpak population also had numerous in-kind duties and labor, the most important of which were the construction and repair of irrigation structures, roads, bridges, fortresses, the maintenance of Khiva troops and officials stationed in the villages, as well as the supply of soldiers -nukers to the Khiva troops. A significant part of the irrigation canals of the Khiva Khanate in the 19th century. was built by the Karakalpaks. The entire Khan's administrative and tax apparatus did not receive any support from the Khiva treasury and existed solely at the expense of those funds that were able to be squeezed out of the population in excess of the established taxes. Khiva officials were diligently helped by the Karakalpak ruling elite, who kept part of the collected funds for themselves.

The difficult economic and political conditions in which the Karakalpaks were placed during the period of Khiva rule gave rise to a number of uprisings.

The most significant uprisings took place in 1827 and 1855-1856. The reason for both uprisings was the massive abuses of Khiva tax collectors, who went beyond all imaginable limits in their extortion.

The first of these uprisings was led by the noble biy Aidost, who sought to use the broad popular movement in his personal interests against the Khiva khan, who was infringing on his privileges. The uprising was crushed by the Khiva punitive detachment, and Aidost himself was killed. The second of these uprisings began during a period when a fierce struggle took place in the Khiva Khanate between the khan’s power and the Turkmens. The rebel Karakalpaks were also led by a biy (like Aidost, from the Congrats), named Ernazar. The rebels elected their khan, named Zarlyk, and made several attacks on Khiva fortresses, trying to advance deeper into Khiva territory. However, disagreements began among the Karakalpak leaders, which led to the fact that the nobility of many tribes abandoned the uprising, and some of the nobility openly went over to the side of the khan’s power. Zarlyk Khan was betrayed and executed in Khiva. Ernazar, with a small group of relatives and with his supporters, defended himself in the fortress he built on the Kazakh Darya channel, near the shore of the Aral Sea, where he was killed. Following the surrender of the Yernazar fortress in the summer of 1856, the uprising was liquidated.

In 1858-1859 The Karakalpaks again rebelled against Khivan rule, marching in Kungrad together with the Uzbeks and Kazakhs. Turkmen feudal lords intervened in the events; Muhammed-Fena, who led the rebels, went over to their side and the area of ​​the uprising was captured by the Turkmens. Tragic events of 1858-1859 dedicated to the poem “Voz atau” by the national poet Ajiniyaz, which describes the disasters of the Karakalpaks during the suppression of the uprising.

Uprisings of the mid-19th century. were major historical events. The approach of the Russians to the borders of Khiva (the formation of a line of Russian fortresses on the Syr Darya) gave the Karakalpaks hope for liberation from the Khiva khans with the help of Russia. The Russian authorities repeatedly received letters from the Karakalpaks who lived at the mouth of the Amu Darya asking them to accept them as Russian citizenship. In 1858-1859 the rebels openly sought to join Russia. At the same time, the British imperialists and Turkey, through the Khiva khans, tried to develop anti-Russian movements in Kazakhstan and provoke attacks on the Syr-Darya line. Under these conditions, the Karakalpak uprisings, which weakened the political influence of Khiva, an outpost of British imperialism and Turkey in their struggle with Russia for Central Asia, had great historical significance.

In 1873, the Khanate of Khiva was conquered by Tsarist Russia, which by that time had already completely strengthened its position in Central Asia.

A peace treaty was concluded between Commander-in-Chief Kaufman and the Khan of Khiva, according to which the Khanate was declared a vassal state, under the protectorate of Russia. Without Russia's permission, it could not have any connections even with neighboring Central Asian states. The Khan's army was disbanded.

The right bank territories of the Khiva oasis, that is, the main lands of Kara-Kalpakia with a population of 110 thousand people, went to Russia. The final annexation was prevented by the machinations of England; Trying to avoid diplomatic complications, the tsarist government was forced to leave the khan in Khiva and declare the khanate a formally independent state. According to the peace treaty with the Khan of Khiva, slavery and the slave trade were prohibited, the major center of which in Central Asia had long been Khiva. This was an important progressive event in the life of the peoples of the Khiva Khanate, in which among the slaves there were not only foreign captives - Persians, Afghans, Russians, but also poor local residents (Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks), sold into slavery for non-payment of debts.

On August 15, 1873, the Russian army moved from Khiva to the right bank of the Amu Darya to build a fortification and the main administrative center for the administration of the region - Petro-Alexandrovsk.

From the right-bank lands of the Khanate that were transferred to Russia in 1873, the Amu-Darya Okrug was formed, subsequently renamed the Amu-Darya Department. The left-bank Karakalpaks in the Khojeyly, Shumanai, Kunya-Urgench and Kungrad bekstvos remained in the Khiva possessions. In 1887, the Amu-Darya department was included in the Syr-Darya region of the Turkestan Governor-General.

After the annexation of the right bank Kara-Kalpakia to Russia, the position of the Karakalpaks changed significantly compared to the times of Khiva rule.

In 1875, for the land and tax system of the newly annexed region, a special Organizational Commission was sent to the Amu-Darya department under the leadership of Colonel Nosovich. The commission's task was to resolve issues related to land ownership, land use and the introduction of a new tax system. The commission worked in the territory of Kara-Kalpakia in 1875-1878. and collected materials for the organization of volosts, for a new land and tax department. As a result of its activities, the Russian administration took measures that were an important progressive step in streamlining the administrative and tax structure of the Karakalpaks and in the economic development of Kara-Kalpakia. Instead of administration through clan elders and chiefs (biys, atalyks and begler-begs), territorial administration was introduced. Thus, the entire Amu-Darya department was divided into two large sections - Shurahansky and Chimbaysky. At the head of the sections were representatives of the Russian authorities - Russian bailiffs. The plots were divided into volosts, the latter into “rural societies” (communities). At the head of the volosts were “native” volost managers, and at the head of the communities were elders-aksakals. Both volost governors and aksakals were elected to positions by open voting. Of course, during the elections there were all sorts of abuses, bribery, etc., as a result of which, first of all, local rich people, bais and nobility got to these positions. The elected rulers, despite their origin from various classes and social groups, were the conductors of the colonialist policy of the tsarist autocracy. Nevertheless, the election system itself was a step forward compared to the feudal system of government during the period of Khiva rule. The electoral system aroused interest in social and political affairs among the broad masses.

When resolving land and water issues, the Russian administration, as in other regions of Turkestan, took a number of important measures to streamline land use in Kara-Kalpakiya.

All previous responsibilities of the right-bank population to milkdars and waqf institutions located within the Khiva Khanate were eliminated. The irrigated lands on the right bank of the Amu Darya, which belonged to large Khiva feudal lords, were recognized as state lands and given to the peasants who used them. Thus, out of 3,227 tanaps of land that belonged to the Khiva dignitary divanbegi Mat-Niyaz, only 132 tanaps (Ullu-bagh garden) were left to him, while the rest were transferred to tenants for use. The Khiva waqf estates, which, according to the Organizational Commission, belonged to 40 different institutions, were also liquidated. The claims of Khiva mosques and madrassas were rejected by the Russian administration, and the peasants using these lands were given equal rights with other farmers on state lands.

However, the lands confiscated from dignitaries and clergy soon concentrated in the hands of wealthy bais, traders and representatives of the “native” administration, who were patronized by tsarist officials. Nevertheless, these land management measures, which undermined the economic and political power of the large feudal lords and clergy, somewhat eased the situation of the landless and land-poor peasants of Kara-Kalpakia.

Changes in the operation of water systems also played a major role in weakening the influence of the feudal nobility. During the period of rule of the Khiva khans, the distribution of water was in the hands of the feudal elite, who widely used it to enslave the peasants.

In the Amu-Darya department, the management of large irrigation systems was centralized by the Russian administration. All irrigation systems came under the jurisdiction of the aryk aksakals, appointed by the head of the Amu-Darya department. Aryk aksakals were subordinate to a special official - assistant to the head of the department for irrigation issues. To help the ditch aksakals, the population elected mirabs, who monitored the serviceability of the canals and the operation of the small irrigation network.

The improvement of irrigation systems and the streamlining of their use contributed to the development of irrigated agriculture in Kara-Kalpakia and the transition of the Karakalpaks from nomadic and semi-nomadic life to full sedentary life.

Major changes were also made to the tax system. Taxes on the population were generally significantly reduced and streamlined, and the local feudal nobility were excluded from collecting them. Residents of the Shurahansky area paid a land tax in the amount of 72 kopecks. from every tanap of cultivated land. In the Chimbay area, where the population was equated to “nomadic”, following the model of other colonial possessions of the Russian Empire, a kibitka tax was introduced. Of course, the Karakalpaks who inhabited northern Kara-Kalpakia were not nomads, they were mainly engaged in agriculture, and the introduction of a land tax here would greatly ease the situation of the landless and landless poor. But the natural conditions of the Amu Darya delta, with a very unstable water regime, prevented regular irrigated agriculture. Frequent floods forced changes in agricultural areas. This circumstance was taken into account by the tsarist administration, which, instead of a land tax in northern Kara-Kalpakiya, introduced a land tax in purely fiscal interests, in order to ensure the regular collection of taxes. However, the peribit tax was still somewhat lower than the feudal taxes paid by the Karakalpaks who remained in the Khiva Khanate.

After joining Russia, Kara-Kalpakia found itself in the sphere of influence of Russian capitalism, which contributed to the development of commodity-money relations and the rise of the productive forces of the region. In agriculture, cotton became increasingly important as a cash crop, which was greatly needed by the Russian textile industry. The area under cotton cultivation began to increase. The development of cotton growing contributed to the emergence of the first, albeit still very primitive, cotton gin plants. In 1892, the merchant Sazonov built the first cotton gin plant in Kara-Kalpakia with a steam engine in the city of Petro-Aleksandrovsk. In 1894, the Manuylov merchants built a plant with two oil-powered engines. And in 1906, the number of factories owned by the Manuilovs increased to four. In addition to cotton gins, a plant was built in Petro-Alexandrovsk for processing cotton seeds into oil. At the beginning of the 20th century. At cotton ginning enterprises, along with Russian workers, Karakalpak workers are already beginning to appear. This was the birth of the national working class, which later played a major role in the history of Kara-Kalpakia.

The further development of cotton growing and trade was facilitated by the construction in 1880-1888. Transcaspian railway. The Aral-Amu-Darya waterway and dirt roads that connected the interior regions of the Amu-Darya department were also of great transport importance. Thus, the road from Petro-Aleksandrovsk to Nukus passed through the Karatau Mountains (Sultan-Uiz-Dag). Roads were built from Kungrad to Chimbay (with a crossing over the Amu Darya), a road from the steamship pier on the Aral Sea through Takhta-Kupyr to Chimbay - the so-called Ak-Bugai caravan road, as well as roads from Takhta-Kupyr to Kazalinsk and Bukhara. The goods of Kara-Kalpakia, mainly cotton, alfalfa, and livestock, were transported either through the Aral Sea to the Tashkent-Orenburg railway, or up the Amu Darya to the Trans-Caspian railway.

The progressive significance of the annexation of Kara-Kalpakia to Russia was manifested not only in some improvement in the political and economic situation of the Karakalpak people, but also in the changes that occurred in the field of cultural development. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. In the Amu-Darya department, three medical centers were opened (in Shabbaz, Nukus and Chimbay) with inpatient treatment. True, these hospitals were used primarily by representatives of the Russian administration and the most prosperous Karakalpak nobility, close to the Russian administration. However, the acquaintance of the working Karakalpak people, who for centuries were under the influence of ignorant sheikhs, local tabibs, porkhans (shamans), who “treated” the population with prayers and all sorts of savage, harmful to health methods, with medical care, with basic rules of hygiene was an important cultural event.

In 1901, the first veterinary centers were opened in Petro-Alexandrovsk and Chimbay; they played a big role in the fight against epidemic diseases in livestock.

In 1874, the first Russian school on the territory of Kara-Kalpakia was opened in Petro-Alexandrovsk. To attract students from local nationalities, a boarding school was opened at the school in 1890. The school had craft classes in which students learned shoemaking, bookbinding and carpentry. The school had a large library for those times.

In 1885, a women's parish school was opened in Petro-Alexandrovsk, and in 1200, Russian-native schools with a three-year course of study were opened in Shurahan and Chimbay. Their main task was to train translators to conduct the affairs of the Russian administration. Despite certain narrow departmental tasks facing these schools, the level of education in them was incomparably higher than in conservative Muslim mektebs and madrassas, where children were taught in a religious-scholastic spirit.

Studying the Russian language contributed to the Karakalpaks’ first acquaintance with Russian literature. The introduction of the Karakalpaks to the culture of the Russian people began. The noticeable influence of advanced Russian social thought was manifested in Karakalpak literature, in the works of progressive poets of Kara-Kalpakia - Berdakh, Utesh and others. Some of their works reflect the strong influence of revolutionary democratic ideas that penetrated from Russia.

The acquaintance of the Karakalpaks with the culture of the Russian people was facilitated by the resettlement of 4 thousand families of Russian Ural Cossacks, who in 1875 settled in the Amu Darya delta and took up fishing. The Karakalpaks adopted a number of fishing techniques from the Russian Cossacks, borrowed fishing gear, and became acquainted with Russian tools. Subsequently, many of the Karakalpaks’ tools received names with the prefix “Russian”: rus bel (Russian shovel), rus tsay’shch (Russian boat), etc.

In the everyday life of the Karakalpaks, Russian factory-made items were widespread - cast-iron cauldrons, porcelain dishes, glass, iron tools (an axe, a shovel, etc.). New crops appeared in agriculture: cabbage, potatoes, etc.

Until 1873, almost nothing was known in Russia about the Karakalpak people, their life and culture. Only after the annexation of the Karakalpak lands to the Russian Empire did the study of Kara-Kalpakia begin. Topographical surveys are being carried out, shipping routes in the delta are being searched, the nature of the region is being studied, and the population is being surveyed. The nature of the Amu-Darya department was studied by famous Russian naturalists - N.A. Severtsov, I.V. Mushketov, A.V. Kaulbars and others. The peoples of Kara-Kalpakia and their history became the object of research by major historians V.V. Bartold, N. I. Veselovsky, V.V. Grigoriev, V.V. Velyaminov-Zernov and others.

The progressive consequences of the annexation of Kara-Kalpakia to Russia did not depend on the will and intentions of the tsarist government, which pursued a policy of colonial exploitation and enslavement of the local “foreign” population in Central Asia, as well as on the other outskirts of the empire.

After 1873, the lands of the Karakalpaks were divided into two parts by the state border running along the Amu Darya, between the Amu Darya department and the Khiva Khanate. This division hindered the development of popular movements of the broad masses and the national unity of the Karakalpak people.

The Russian authorities did not strive for fundamental changes in the economic and cultural life of Kara-Kalpakia. Its economic development acquired a pronounced colonial character. The policy of tsarism was reduced, on the one hand, to the fight against large feudal lords, on the other, to the preservation of patriarchal-feudal life, to the use of archaic communal-tribal remnants. Tsarism did not intend to encroach on tribal remnants, on the established order of exploitation of the village by the feudal clan elite.

As before, various patriarchal-feudal forms of exploitation were most common in Kara-Kalpakia. Under the guise of helping their relatives, the rich gave land to land-poor peasants on the terms of sharecropping - zharymshy; in other cases, landowners entered into eginsherik relations with the peasants. At the same time, the peasant was considered an equal shareholder and partner of the landowner, but in reality the latter received in the person of the poor “companion” a free worker who performed all agricultural work for an insignificant share of the harvest. In addition, rich bais accepted workers into the house, called diykhan, from among the completely ruined, debt-ridden peasants, the most mercilessly exploited and who performed not only field work, but also all other work on the bai’s farm for insignificant pay, feeding and clothes. During periods of hot seasonal work, the entire village worked for rich peasants, convening for traditional kemek - public assistance. The Kamekshi, who worked for free (for a treat), formed a permanent reserve of workers for the feudal-Bai elite of the aul. However, by the beginning of the 20th century. other forms of exploitation also appeared, marking the penetration of capitalist relations into the Karakalpak village: the role of hired agricultural workers - day laborers - k/nliksha - grew, otkhodnik (otkhodnik) increasingly developed, many impoverished peasants became seasonal workers; Class contradictions in the Karakalpak village worsened, the situation of the working masses of the people worsened, and the number of landless people increased.

The colonial authorities left completely intact local orders, the dominance of Sharia and adat in everyday life. Islam continued to cloud the consciousness of the people with dead dogmas, superstitions and prejudices, and legitimized the slave position of women in the family.

But still, the level of the political system of the Russian Empire was higher than in the backward feudal despotism represented by the Khanate of Khiva; therefore, the Karakalpaks within the Amu-Darya department were in relatively better political, economic and cultural conditions than the Karakalpaks of the Khiva Khanate.

On the Khiva coast, the life and property of each Karakalpak were completely dependent on the whim and arbitrariness of the local feudal rulers; within the Amu-Darya department, the population was subject to the general laws of the Russian Empire, the implementation of which was monitored by the Russian administration. Feudal strife and raids, from which the agricultural population of the Khiva oasis - the Karakalpaks and Uzbeks - had previously suffered so much, were stopped forever.

The annexation of Kara-Kalpakia to Russia, which became at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. the center of the world revolutionary movement and the birthplace of Leninism, introduced the broad working masses of the Karakalpaks to the revolutionary liberation movement of the Russian people.

Together with other populations of Central Asia, the Karakalpaks took part in uprisings directed against tsarism and local exploiters - bais, volosts, and governors. Class contradictions reached their greatest aggravation in Kara-Kalpakia during the imperialist war of 1914-1918. During these years, economic ties with Russia were disrupted due to the deterioration of railways and river transport, the import of bread and other food from Russia decreased, prices rose, and the population was subject to new taxes for the needs of the war.

The publication in the summer of 1916 of the tsar's decree on the mobilization of the local population for so-called rear work in the area of ​​​​the active army and the abuse of the baist, who paid off mobilization with bribes, became the reason for the active participation of the Karakalpak population in the Amu-Darya department. At the end of July 1916, a massive armed uprising broke out in the territory of Kara-Kalpakia, as in other regions of Central Asia. Its most violent outbreaks occurred in Chimbay, where over a thousand rebel Karakalpaks defeated the local precinct administration. In the Sarybiysk volost of the Shurahansky district, the volost manager and several elders were killed. In the Daukarinsky volost and in some other areas, the population also committed reprisals against the administration, after which they left their villages and migrated deep into the desert, where they hid for a long time from the punitive detachments sent to the areas of the uprising. Nationalists led by the Turkmen feudal lord Junaid Khan, who maintained ties with Turkey, tried to take advantage of the broad popular movement of 1916 in Kara-Kalpakiya and the Khanate of Khiva. Turkish emissaries and the reactionary Muslim clergy, including the punks Khodjeyli and Chimbaya, tried to enlist the masses and strangle the revolutionary movement. However, they did not succeed.

Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, part of the Independent Republic of Uzbekistan, located in the north-west of the country, has an area of ​​165 thousand square meters. km, which is 40% of the area of ​​the entire state. In the north and east it borders Republic of Kazakhstan, and in the south - from Republic of Turkmenistan.
Population- about 1.5 million people, mainly Karakalpaks and Uzbeks.
Karakalpaks- representatives of the Central Asian racial group with strong Mongoloid admixture.
Religion: Islam. Religion: Sunni Muslims.
official languages- Uzbek and Karakalpak.
Capital of Karakalpakstan - Nukus city(262 thousand people).

Almost the entire territory of the autonomy is occupied by the mysterious Ustyurt plateau, irrevocably drying Aral And Kyzylkum desert.
Climate: sharply continental with cold winters and very hot summers, which have recently become worse due to drying out Aral Sea.
Settlement of the territory of Karakalpakstan, located in the Khorezm oasis And lower reaches of the Amu Darya, began a long time ago, back at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds. At this time, irrigated agriculture, cattle breeding, and fishing began to develop. Semi-nomadic tribes who came from the steppe zone of Eurasia settle.

In general, the history of the current autonomy, as part of the once powerful Khorezm civilization, is replete with facts of falls and rises, prosperity and decline.
In the middle of the 5th century. BC. Khorezm conquer Achamenids, a wide cultural exchange begins. At the turn of the V-IV centuries BC Khorezm gains independence, its own artistic culture emerges, formed by a synthesis of local and borrowed elements. In the 8th century, after the conquest by the Arabs, the way of life, art and culture began to increasingly acquire features characteristic of all countries of the Caliphate. Then the era Great Khorezm Shahs and conquest by the Mongols in the 13th century. At that time Urgench- capital of Khorezm, lying at the intersection of caravan trails The Great Silk Road, becomes one of the largest handicraft and cultural centers of Central Asia.

From the middle of the 16th to the 18th centuries. nomadic tribes of ethnic Karakalpaks who inhabited the steppe regions come and remain in these places Syrdarya And Aral region, by the 19th century. this process is complete. Tribes become sedentary, permanent dwellings are built, agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing develop.
Thus, ancient and medieval civilizations contributed to the emergence of a unique culture and art, evidence of which is the archaeological monuments that have survived to this day, which have witnessed history of Karakalpakstan dating back many centuries.
Today's Karakalpakstan is a sovereign state within Republic of Uzbekistan. It has its own flag, coat of arms, anthem. It includes 15 districts, 12 cities, 16 towns and 112 villages.

Karakalpakstan rich in mineral resources, in its depths there are huge deposits of gas, iron, kaolin clay, Glauber's salts, marble and granite.
The foundations of the state economy are: agriculture, which includes cotton growing, rice growing, the production of melons, vegetables and licorice, as well as industrial karakul farming and industry, represented by energy, metalworking, food and textile industries.

Administrative, political and cultural center of Karapakstan - its capital, Nukus city. Established in 1932 on the site of a small village, Nukus, thanks to its favorable location, already in 1939 it became the capital of the autonomy. Modern Nukus with an area of ​​more than 200 sq. km, built on the site of an ancient settlement Shurcha, which arose back in the 4th century BC. and existed for almost eight centuries. Today the capital Karakalpakstan- a modern city with an established infrastructure, home to about 300 thousand inhabitants. IN Nukus There are theaters, sports and entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants, shops and markets. High technologies, integral attributes of our time, are being introduced into all spheres of life: high-speed Internet, satellite television, cellular communications with roaming around the world. But for tourists, the main interest in the city, along with historical monuments, is, of course, museums.

Few museums countries can boast such a rich collection of paintings by Russian artists, and such popularity in the world community as Nukus Museum of Art named after. Savitsky. Museum bears the name of Moscow artist I.V. Savitsky who came to Nukus in the 50s of the last century, and in 1966 he was appointed director of the museum. Igor Vitalievich begins to collect a collection of works of contemporary art, mainly avant-garde artists, whose paintings were banned by the existing regime. As a result, the collection was replenished with 50,000 pieces of paintings from the avant-garde and post-avant-garde periods, and it was here in the distant Nukus, one could see what had been persecuted for so long in the USSR.

Modern exposition of the Nukus Museum of Art has more than 90,000 exhibition items, including: a collection of Russian avant-garde, paintings by Uzbek artists, exhibits of folk applied art of Karakalpakstan, the art of ancient Khorezm, a number of paintings - wonderfully executed copies of famous paintings of the Louvre.

According to experts, the collected collection is the best art collection Asian region And second in importance in the world and the volume of the collection of Russian avant-garde.

Also of undoubted interest is one of the oldest museums in Uzbekistan - Republican Museum of Local Lore of Karakalpakstan, located on the first floor of a building occupied by art museum. Founded in 1929, over the years it has expanded its collection to 56 thousand items. Museum consists of three exhibitions: nature, archeology And ethnography. The department of modern history, which is dedicated to the achievements of autonomy over the years of independence, also deserves attention. Of particular interest to visitors are models of ancient settlements and household items found during excavations. In the ethnography halls, attention is drawn to an ancient women's costume with intricate hand-embroidered patterns and a wealth of jewelry. Household items, kitchen utensils and everything that a nomad’s yurt could accommodate are also displayed here.

The nature department boasts meticulously crafted landscape dioramas Ustyurt plateau, Kyzylkum And Aral Sea.
In Nukus and the surrounding area there are a great many unique attractions, remarkable archaeological monuments, stories And culture.

Archaeological monuments of history and culture of Karakalpakstan.

Muynak

Muynak is a real tragic city, dying along with the Aral Sea losing its waters and significance. Previously, Muynak was one of the two main fishing ports of the Aral Sea; now it lies 40 km away. from water. What remains of Muynak's fishing fleet now rusts on the sand near the basins that mark the city's futile attempts to keep open the shipping channels leading to the sea that is losing its waters. Following...

Toprak - kala (I-IV centuries AD)

Toprak-kala is a soil fortress, as the local population dubbed it, the ruins of a once majestic structure. The settlement is located on the territory of the Ellikalinsky district; excavations began in 1940. The area received its name (ellik - fifty, kala - fortress) because of the many fortresses concentrated not far from each other. Now destroyed by time, the fortress is a rectangular…

Kyzyl-Kala (I-XIII centuries)

The fortress stands on a plain 27 km north of the city of Biruni. The structure is oriented to the cardinal points and has an almost square shape, measuring 65x63m. Most likely, the fortress was built as a defensive structure and was part of a chain of border fortifications created to protect the northeastern borders of ancient Khorezm. The military purpose of the building is indicated by the outer wall...

Ayaz-kala complex (IV-II centuries BC)

Kompkles consists of two fortresses - Big and Small. The large fortress is located on a hill with a relatively flat surface. The fortress has a rectangular shape, with dimensions of 152x182m. The outer perimeter of the wall is surrounded by 35 unfinished towers in the shape of a semicircle. The surviving fragments of two-row external walls have a little more than 2 meters at the base, between them ...

Great Guldursun (IV-III centuries BC)

A large border fortress of ancient Khorezm, located 26 km northeast of the city of Turtkul. According to the plan, this is a trapezoidal structure measuring 350x230 m, the corners of which are oriented to the cardinal points. To this day, the outer walls made of clay and large-format bricks have been relatively well preserved. The corners, together with the semicircular observation towers, protrude from the walls by almost 18...

Mizdakhkan ancient settlement (IX century)

The pride of Mizdakhkan is located near the city of Khojeyli, not far from Nukus. It is located on an area of ​​200 hectares and consists of the fortified fortress Gyaur-kala (fortress of the “infidels”), which was founded on the site of a settlement, which dates back to the 4th century. BC, necropolises with mausoleums of Shamun Nabi, Mazlumkhan Sulu, Halfa Erezhep and Caravanserai. On the territory of the fortress there are…

Mausoleum of Mazlumkhan Sulu (XIII-XIV centuries)

A semi-underground mausoleum, very unusual in composition and design, located in the northern part of the Mizdakhkan necropolis. According to legend, this was originally the palace of the khan's daughter Muzlum-Sulu (Beautiful Martyr). When the city was captured by the “infidels”, their leader, blinded by the beauty of the girl, fell in love with her, the unfortunate woman reciprocated his feelings, the angry father killed Muzlum-Sulu...

Chilpyk (II-IV century)

It is located 43 km from Nukus to the south and is presumably a ritual structure of pre-Islamic culture. Built on a pyramid-shaped volcanic hill. The construction material is clay taken from the sediments of the Amu Darya and raw brick made from the same clay. The building is a round structure with a diameter of 70 m and a height of approximately 15 m. According to archaeologists, Chilpyk is ...

Dzhanpyk-kala (IX-XIV centuries)

The settlement of Dzhanpyk-kala is one of the most picturesque monuments on the right bank of the Amu Darya. Once in the Middle Ages, it was a port city that had extensive trade relations with various countries of the East and West. The settlement is located 6 km southeast of the village of Karatau in the spurs of the Sultanuizdag ridge. The date of the last settlement of Dzhanpyk-kala is dated by scientists to 1345-1346. Based on the findings...

Koykrylgan – kala (IV century BC – IV century AD)

A religious building, in the center of which there is a round two-story building with a diameter of 44.5 m, surrounded by a defensive wall with nine towers. The design of the building and the location of the windows allowed scientists to reliably establish that the construction of the structure was specifically aimed at using this object for astrology and observing the starry sky. Also indirectly...

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Karakalpaks are a nation, most of whose population lives in, which is part of Uzbekistan. The capital of the state is the city.

Karakalpaks are descendants of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples, Muslims. They have their own national language, culture, traditions and customs.

History of the Karakalpak tribes

The history of the Karakalpaks goes back several centuries. The ancient ancestors of the people are the Sako-Massaget tribes (Iranian-speaking nomads), who lived on the southern coast of the Aral Sea in the 2nd–7th centuries BC.

In the chronicles there are references to “black caps”. Historians associate the term with the name of the Karakalpaks people.

By the middle of the 16th century, the process of forming a nationality from several Pecheneg, Kipchak (Turkic-speaking Polovtsian tribes), Nogai and Oguz tribal clans was completed. In the same century, in an internecine struggle for the throne, the Nogai Khanate was divided into three parts: the Greater, Lesser and Altyul Hordes. The Karakalpaks became part of the Horde of six uluses.

In sources dating back to the end of the 16th century, there is a mention of the Karakalpaks as a single people.

Constant raids by Kalmyks divided the Aral settlement into two groups. The Karakalpaks settled in the free territories between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya and began to engage in irrigation and agriculture.

During excavations in the dry beds of the Kuvandarya River, archaeologists discovered semi-sedentary rural settlements with fortified walls of Chirik-Rabat, Balanda, as well as burial mounds.

In the first years of the 19th century, the Karakalpak tribes came under subjugation.

In 1873, an agreement was signed between Russia, as a result of which the Khanate of Khiva became a vassal of Tsarist Russia. The lands on the right bank of the Amu Darya, where the main population were Karakalpaks, became part of the Russian Empire.

The nation was formed under the Soviet system. In 1924, the Karakalpak Autonomous Region was formed, and in 1936 it became part of the Uzbek SSR.

Khans

Karakalpak khans are descendants of the khans of the Golden Horde. Each tribe was headed by a biy (senior, Turkic title) - a representative of a rich family. He controlled the land, pastures, and irrigation canals.

Constantly dependent on stronger neighboring khanates, the Kazakh khans ruled the Karakalpaks. The most noticeable mark in history was left by Abulkhair Khan. Under his leadership, citizenship of Tsarist Russia was accepted.

Where live

Representatives of the nation live compactly in Central Asia.

The Karakalpak population in all territories is less than 800 thousand people.

Most of them live in river valleys, on the territory of Uzbekistan in the autonomy of Karakalpakstan. There are settlements of this people in the Fergana Valley, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, as well as in Russia (in the Orenburg, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions).

Appearance of the Karakalpaks

The national clothing of the Karakalpaks is very similar to the attire of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, and the outfits of the Uzbeks of the Khorezm Khanate. The basis of traditional clothing is the robe. It was made from expensive polished silk fabric, with slits left in the armpits. These were quilted robes made of cotton wool or camel hair. Shoes – leather boots with heels with a sharp, slightly curved toe.

The older generation adheres to traditional rules in clothing. Men wear loose, untucked cotton shirts and trousers tucked into boots. In winter, they wear a sheepskin sheepskin coat, and a black fur sheepskin hat serves as a headdress all year round.

A woman's outfit consists of a spacious dress in the form of a shirt (koylek), pants, and a cape. In winter, fur coats are worn on top.

Karakalpak women walk with their faces open. A large scarf in the shape of a turban is tied over the head over the skullcap. Women adorn themselves with silver bracelets, earrings, rings, breast pendants and necklaces with amulets.

The modern young generation, even in distant villages, rarely wears national clothes, but certain elements are present: skullcaps, sashes, boots.

In appearance, the Karakalpak people are more similar to the Kazakhs with strongly expressed Mongoloid features; they have something in common with the Buryats and Kalmyks.

Language and religion of the Karakalpaks

Uzbek and Karakalpak languages ​​have different dialectical branches. The Uzbek language was formed by the merger of several Turkic and Iranian languages. Karakalpak is influenced by the Turkic languages ​​belonging to the Kipchak group. It is close to Kazakh and Nogai.

The literary language of the people was formed on the basis of the northern dialect.

Education in all educational institutions is conducted in the Karakalpak language. Until the twenties of the last century, the Karakalpaks had Arabic writing. But at the end of the century the nation completely switched to the Latin language.

The speech (to the ear) is harsher than Uzbek, reminiscent of Kazakh and Kalmyk dialect.

Culture and traditions

The Karakalpak culture is multifaceted and closely related to the culture of Asian peoples. Ethnic elements of Turkic tribes are present in traditions, foundations and rituals. There are some differences in the culture and traditions of Karakalpaks from different clans and tribes.

The cultural heritage of the people can be traced in folklore and applied arts. Family customs and traditions are followed here. Folklore contains fairy tales, legends, ritual songs and dances.

Folk songs are always heard at all family holidays and weddings. The most common national instrument is the tambourine. It is also the most important subject of folk rituals.

National holidays are of great importance in introducing spiritual and family values. All Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia honor Kurban Bayram (Islamic holiday of sacrifice) and Eid al-Adha (the end of fasting in the month of Ramadan), and other spiritual celebrations.

Housing

The dwelling of the Asian steppe peoples was traditionally a yurt and adobe houses with outbuildings. Karakalpaks, nomadic pastoralists, placed portable housing next to water bodies.

To build a yurt, the main building materials were poles and animal skins. Features of the Karakalpak yurt: it is cool in summer and warm in winter. The construction of housing began with the door and side posts. Reed mats were hung as decoration.

The poles were made from birch and willow. The willow slats were bent to form a semicircle and then tied together with rawhide leather straps. This is how the walls (kerege) were made. The size of the yurt was determined by the number of wings of the kerege: the largest had 12 and could accommodate about 100 people. Both men and women were involved in the construction of housing.

Making a yurt is one of the types of folk craftsmanship that has been passed down from generation to generation. The traditional folk dwellings of the Karakalpaks can still be found today: in cities, villages, and settlements in the Amu Darya delta. Until the beginning of the 20th century, yurts were the main dwelling for semi-nomadic people.

During excavations of ancient settlements in the dry bed of the Zhandarya River, archaeologists discovered the ruins of residential buildings of circular yurts made of clay huts. Semi-sedentary steppe peoples settled near caravan routes, and their homes were built from pressed clay (pakhsa). Strong, durable material was used to build walls of houses and defensive structures.

Food

Karakalpak cuisine has evolved from centuries-old traditions. These people adhere to Muslim rules in eating. The Koran strictly prohibits the consumption of pork and donkey meat. Many restrictions on the use of certain products are associated with generally accepted Muslim regulations. Allowed dishes are combined into the “halal” category (ecologically pure products permitted according to Islamic standards).

The cuisine of this people is a distinctive national cuisine, the culinary traditions of which are closely intertwined with the dishes of the Asian steppe peoples.

Traditionally, like all Asian steppe peoples, Karakalpaks eat any food while sitting on the floor, located around the tablecloth. Prepared dishes are eaten without cutlery, with your hands, and liquid food is poured into bowls or bowls.

The main meat dishes are prepared from lamb, beef, camel meat, and horse meat. Rice, vegetables, noodles, beans, and bread sorghum are widely used in cooking.

The national dishes of Karakalpak cuisine are: pilaf, shurpa (broth of fatty meat with vegetables), manti (similar to dumplings), lagman (noodles with meat and vegetables), samsa (pies with various fillings), naryn (boiled meat with onion sauce) and other very high-calorie meat dishes.

The meal is completed with fermented milk products: katyk, ayran, kumys, green or black tea with added milk.

Famous Karakalpak people

The Karakalpaks are very proud of their famous compatriots, prominent figures of culture and science. Among them:

• People's writer, laureate of State and international awards, T.I. Kaipbergenov. More than 100 works have been translated into Russian, Uzbek, Turkish;
• Hero of Uzbekistan - Yusupov Ibrahim. Poet and playwright who translated the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Shakespeare, Shevchenko and other classics into Karakalpak;
• Shamuratova Aiskhan - People's Artist of the USSR, the only Karakalpak actress awarded this title for outstanding services in the field of culture, performer of national songs;
• People's poet of Karakalpakstan Abaz Dabylov is the author of epic folklore works glorifying fairy-tale mythical heroes. The epic “Bahadir” about the legendary commander has been translated into several languages;

Karakalpakstan occupies part of the Kyzylkum desert (the total desert area is more than 136 thousand km 2 - over 80% of the territory of the republic) and the Ustyurt plateau; here is also the vast 100-kilometer delta of the only river of Karakalpakstan - - and the southern part of the Aral Sea. In the Amu Darya delta there are many channels, lakes, tugai and reed thickets, and wetlands. The river is capricious: during floods it often changes direction, erodes the banks, and in the spring, during ice jams, it leaves its usual channel, which leads to floods.
The Aral Sea is surrounded by a vast flat plain, covered mainly with ridge and dune sands. There are few mountains and they are not high: the highest is the Sultanuizdag mountain range, the maximum height of which reaches 473 m.

Nature

Desert vegetation predominates (saxaul, wormwood, ephemerals, dzhuzgun, cherkezi), takyrs (soil that has dried to a crust) and salt marshes are often found. Only in the Amu Darya delta did tugai vegetation, represented by poplar, tamarisk, and reed, form.
The desert fauna includes reptiles (lizards, snakes), small rodents (gophers, gerbils, jerboas), large mammals (goitered gazelle, wolf, fox), birds (saxaul jay, golden eagle, bustard, larks), arachnids (scorpions, phalanges). In the tugai the nature is richer: many birds (pheasants, ducks, geese, cormorants), mammals (jackal, manul - reed cat, wolf, fox, tolai hare, wild boar). Commercial fishing is carried out in the Amu Darya and Aral Sea (carp, bream, catfish and flounder). The rarest fish - the Amu Darya large shovelnose (the small one is already extinct) is on the verge of extinction and will probably soon become extinct.

Story

Traces of Neolithic people have been found on the lands of present-day Karakalpakstan. Little is known about the ancient history of the Karakalpaks: until the 16th century. there were no written sources by which the fate of this people could be traced.
The first written mention of the ancestors of the Karakalpaks is an inscription of the 5th century. BC e. on the tombstone of the Persian king Darius I (550-485 BC), which reported that in the territory of the Aral Sea region and the lower reaches of the Syr Darya (the territory of modern Karakalpakstan) lived “Tigrahauda Sakas” (nomadic tribes in pointed hats).
In the II-VI centuries. Turkic tribes migrated here from Altai and Eastern Turkestan, and as a result of the assimilation of the nomadic Turks and the indigenous Saka population, the Pechenegs and Oguzes appeared. They wore hats made of black sheep wool, for which they were called Karakalpaks.
In 1714, the Karakalpaks founded the Karakalpak Khanate in the Aral Sea region and the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, which was soon defeated by the Kalmyks. Having lost the Khanate, the Karakalpaks divided: some went to Tashkent and became known as the upper Karakalpaks, others remained in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and were called the lower Karakalpaks. It was the lower Karakalpaks who turned to the Russian emperor in 1731 with a request for citizenship - and in 1735 they became subjects of the Russian Empire.
After the revolution of 1917, Karakalpakstan was part of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1925-1930), then subordinated directly to the RSFSR (1930-1932). In 1932, the Karakalpak ASSR (Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) was created, and in 1933 the capital of the autonomous republic was moved from the city of Turtkul to Nukus. In December 1936, the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became part of the Uzbek SSR. The Declaration of Sovereignty was adopted on December 14, 1990, and in 1992 the sovereign Republic of Karakalpakstan was created.
The Republic of Karakalpakstan is located in the east of the Ustyurt plateau, in the western part of the Kyzylkum desert and the Amu Darya delta. Located in the north, back in the late 1980s. declared an environmental disaster zone. The northwest is a vast flat plain covered with dunes. The ancient and rich history of the region has left more than 300 archaeological sites on the territory of the republic.
The region once lived off fishing and arable land, but now, due to the drying up of the Aral Sea, the population of Karakalpakstan has to live in desert conditions.

Economy

The Sovereign Republic of Karakalpakstan is the westernmost region of Uzbekistan, furthest from the capital, Tashkent.
Karakalpakstan has the right to secede from the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of a referendum and independently resolves issues of its administrative and territorial structure. In addition, there is the possibility of vetoing any decision of the government of Uzbekistan regarding Karakalpakstan, including in the economic field. The Republic of Karakalpakstan occupies 37% of the territory of Uzbekistan.
In the past, the region's economy was quite dependent on fishing. Fish were caught at the mouth of the Amu Darya and its numerous branches, as well as in the Aral Sea. The once overpopulated delta of the Amu Darya River was the breadbasket of the entire Aral region for thousands of years. Climatic changes at the end of the 20th century. (summer temperatures rose and winter temperatures dropped by 10°C), combined with excessive water intake from the river, led to desertification of the territory. The winds also played a role, bringing salt (millions of tons of which had accumulated in the dry areas of the Aral Sea) to the arable lands and destroying them. Declining soil fertility forces the use of more and more chemical fertilizers, the runoff from which flows into the river.
Because of the Aral problem, many Karakalpaks are moving to other regions of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as to Kazakhstan, where more than 250 thousand people have migrated.
Another scourge of Karakalpakstan is periodic invasions of termites, which completely eat away wooden buildings. Conventional insect control products do not work on these pests.
As the economic situation in the republic worsens, separatist sentiments intensify among the local population, which demands the proclamation of a new independent state - the Republic of Karakalpakstan.
Nowadays, the basis of the economy of Karakalpakstan is cotton (a frost-free period of up to 214 days is sufficient for its cultivation), rice and melons. Karakalpakstan also sells electricity from the hydroelectric power station on the Amu Darya, which was built during the Soviet era. In addition to natural resources, Karakalpakstan is of strategic importance: on its territory there is one of Uzbekistan’s two northern exits to railways and highways.
Traditional crafts are developed in the republic: wood carving with cloth and ivory inlay, leather stamping, carpet weaving, weaving, embroidery.
The main attraction of the country is Mizdakhan, an ancient necropolis founded on the site of sanctuaries of fire-worshipping Zoroastrians.

general information

Location: Central Asia.

Official name: Republic of Karakalpakstan.

Administrative affiliation: sovereign republic within the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Administrative division: 14 districts: Amudarya, Beruniysky, Karauzyaksky, Kegeyliysky, Kungradsky, Kanlykulsky, Muynaksky, Nukussky, Takhtakupyrsky, Turtkulsky, Khojeyliysky, Chimbaysky, Shumanaysky, Ellikkapinsky).
Capital: Nukus city - 271.4 thousand people. (2010).
Large cities: Khojeyli - 104,589 people. (2009), Biruni - 50,700 people. (2004), Turtkul - 38,200 people. 1991).
official languages: Karakalpak, Uzbek.

Ethnic composition: Uzbeks - 32.8%, Kazakhs - 32.6%, Karakalpaks - 32.1%, others (Russians, Ukrainians, Turkmens, Koreans, Tatars) - 2.5% (2007).

Religions: Islam - 95%, others (Orthodoxy, Catholicism) - 5%.
Currency unit: sum

Largest river: Amu Darya.
Largest lake: Aral Sea.

Major airport: Nukus (international).

Neighboring countries and territories: southeast - Khorezm region of the Republic of Uzbekistan, east - Navoi region of the Republic of Uzbekistan, northeast and north - Republic of Kazakhstan, southwest and south - Turkmenistan.

Numbers

Area: 165.6 thousand km2.

Population: 1,711,800 people (2013).

Population density: 10.3 people/km 2 .

Urban population: 52%.

Highest point: Sultanuizdag mountain range (473 m).

Climate and weather

Sharply continental.
Dry hot summers, cold snowless winters.
Average January temperature: -4.9°C in the south, -7.6°C in the north.
Average temperature in July: +28.2°C in the south, +26°C in the north.
Average annual precipitation: 110 mm.

: Orunbay-Kala estate, Zoroastrian city and necropolis Mizdahan (IV century BC), Kuzeli Tyr settlement and Dingilje estate (VII-V centuries BC), Great Guldursun fortress (III-IV centuries BC AD - XII-XIII centuries), Dzhanbas-Kala fortress
(IV century BC - 1st century), Toprak-Kala settlement (I-IV centuries), Kyzyl-Kala fortress (I-II centuries, XII - early 13th century), Mazlumkhan-Sulu mausoleum ( first half of the 14th century), the former religious building Chilpyk (II-IV centuries, IX-XI centuries), the ancient settlement of Dzhanpyk-Kala (IX-X centuries, XIII-XIV centuries), the former religious building Koykrylgan-Kala (IV century BC - IV century).
■ Nukus city: State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky (collection of Russian avant-garde art), local history museum, Berdakh Museum.

Curious facts

■ The first written document in which the Karakalpaks are mentioned is the grant of grant to the mausoleum of Ziyauddin in the city of Sygnak, issued in 1598 by the Bukhara Khan Abdullah. The certificate testifies that the Karakalpaks then lived on the banks of the Syr Darya, in the area adjacent to Sygnak, and, together with the Kazakhs, were classified as “aimags” - a semi-sedentary population.

■ The traditional craft art of Karakalpakstan is characterized by strict geometric and floral patterns, the main motif of which is “muyiz” (ram’s horns).
■ Before the collapse of the USSR, a writing system using a modified Cyrillic alphabet existed in Karakalpakstan since 1940. From 1993 to 2009, Uzbekistan underwent a series of reforms to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, but the alphabet and writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet are still in wide circulation.
■ There is a legend that the ruins of Mizdakhan are a “world clock”: from the ruins of the mausoleum built over the “grave of Adam”, one brick falls out every year, and when the last one falls out, the end of the world will come. About 3,000 bricks remain in the ruins.