The history and current state of studying the problem of Kazakh-Kalmyk (Kereites, Telengites) interethnic contacts of the XVII -XVIII centuries

The scientific significance of the problem of ethnic ties between the Kazakh and Kalmyk ethnic groups is of no small importance not only for creating the most objective picture of their historical, genetic, cultural development from the very beginning to the present, but also for understanding those multi-vector, contradictory intraethnic and interethnic relations that have determined and continue to determine national consciousness and national idea of these peoples in the vastness of the Great Steppe. The purpose of research is to study the problems of ethnic contacts between the Kazakh ethnos, Kereites and Telengites from the point of view of the ethnic nature of these sub-ethnic groups, the causes and nature of interethnic and family ties. The authors analyzed the published historical and ethnographic materials of Kazakh and foreign researchers, archival data, historical and literary monuments. The study showed that, despite the existing historical sources available for analysis, the stated problem did not find a sufficiently objective, exhaustive solution in the works of modern historians and ethnographers. Today, in the scientific community, there are many versions and opinions regarding the ethnic nature of such tribal nomadic associations as the Torguts and Kereites, between which it seems to be incorrect to put an equal sign, while the identity between Telengites and Altai Kalmyks has been very convincingly proven. Kazakh-Kalmyk ethnic contacts are unidirectional, since it was on the basis of the Kazakh ethnic group and its territory that the clan formations of the Kereites and Tolengutes were created. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the fact that it attempts to systematize, generalize and critically comprehend a number of historical facts and respond to them by modern historical science concerning the causes and nature of interethnic interaction of nomadic peoples who lived and live in adjacent territories.