Although Shoqan Walikhanov’s life was short, it was filled with bold expeditions, groundbreaking research, and insights that astonished not only the intellectual elite of the Russian Empire but scholars across the world. And yet, despite his fame, many aspects of his story remain shrouded in mystery, especially the final years of his life, which were marked by despair and disappointment, and he developed a profound awareness of the nature of tsarist colonial policy. Even the circumstances of his early death continue to fuel debate. Could a man who amazed his famous contemporaries with his knowledge really have become an instrument of the empire? What darkened his heart upon returning to his homeland?
In his article for Qalam, the prominent journalist and researcher Darkhan Abdik reveals little-known aspects of the figure whose life shaped the intellectual horizon of an entire people for decades to come.
The Heir to the Steppe Aristocracy
In the nineteenth century, as the Russian Empire expanded, it abolished khanate power in the Kazakh steppe and replaced it with the institution of senior sultans. Formal control over the three jüzesi
the three tribal confederations of the Kazakhs—and authority within each of them—belonged exclusively to the Töre lineageiThe Töre referred to that section of the nobility within Kazakh society that held a direct connection to the Chinggisid bloodline., descendants of Chinggis Khan. Individual clans were likewise subordinate specifically to sultans of this same origin. They were considered the ‘steppe aristocracy’: the lives and property of members of this lineage were valued far higher than those of other Kazakhs.
Shoqan, however, was not merely one of the Töre. He descended from the eldest son of Ablai Khan—Uali, the last khan of the Middle Jüz—and Ablai himself is remembered as one of the most vivid and heroic figures in Kazakh history. His name became legendary, and warriors would shout it as a battle cry before going into combat. And so, even after the abolition of the institution of the khanate, according to Kazakh tradition, Ablai’s great-grandson retained the title of ‘khanzada’, or prince and potential heir to the throne. Naturally, his lineage influenced Shoqan’s fate, and we will discuss this in more detail shortly.
Chinggis Valikhanov (second from the left), father of Shokan Valikhanov, 1865 / Central State Archive of Film, Photo and Sound Recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Shoqan’s noble birth was only one part of a far more complex story. One thing is certain: he did not identify as either a Töre or a khanzada. He was a man of civic disposition and inner freedom, and he maintained a rational outlook on the world. Yet, in order to understand how he managed to ascend so rapidly to such intellectual heights, it is essential to understand the realities of the epoch in which he matured—its contradictions, social dynamics, and political context.
In 1825, the Decembrist uprisingiThe Decembrist uprising was a failed aristocratic revolt in imperial Russia that took place on 26 December 1825. erupted in Saint Petersburg. Its participants demanded the abolition of serfdom, which was a de facto legalized form of slavery in the Russian Empire, and insisted on liberal reforms. While the movement was rooted in the nobility, its driving force came from veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812, who had seen Europe, encountered the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and came to believe that the existing state system could, and should, be transformed. The uprising, unfortunately, was crushed, and most of the Decembrists were exiled to Siberia. Yet this tragedy gave rise to a new phenomenon—the emergence of centers of free thought. One of the most significant of these took shape in Omsk.
Drawing by Shokan Valikhanov. Portrait of Valikhanov’s brothers, 1855 / Wikimedia Commons
Shoqan’s Childhood
When Shoqan was only twelve years old, he found himself in an environment with a unique intellectual and political dynamic. It was here that his worldview began to take shape, his horizons expanded, and his appetite for knowledge deepened. Yet the spark that drove him did not begin there. His curiosity had taken root much earlier.
Shoqan grew up in an enlightened family that valued modern education. His father Shyngys was an educated and influential man, and one of the first to systematically collect examples of Kazakh oral literature. His grandmother Aiganym was no less remarkable. A woman of immense authority and vision, she oversaw the construction of a wooden estate in the Syrimbet area with support from the Russian administration, and she even established a madrasa nearby, turning her home into a small but influential center of learning and culture. It was there that young Shoqan learned to read and write, mastered the Arabic script, and developed a passion for drawing. According to his friend Grigory PotaniniGrigory Potanin was a nineteenth-century Russian explorer, botanist, and ethnographer who became a prominent Siberian regionalist and a key advocate for Siberian autonomy and cultural self-determination., Shoqan had mastered the basics of visual art even before entering the cadet corps. Potanin wrote:
The Russian town made a strong impression on the boy—he immediately began sketching one of the city’s centers with a penciliPotanin, G.N., Biographical Notes on Chokan Valikhanov.
When the young Shoqan first arrived in Omsk, he found the Russian language difficult to learn. Yet, diligence and natural talent quickly took over, and within a few years, he was not only speaking Russian fluently but had also become one of the top students in the cadet corps. Potanin recalled this in an article titled ‘Chokan Chingizovich Valikhanov’:
Chokan developed rapidly and soon surpassed his peers, especially in the fields of political ideas and literature. The corps’ leadership saw in him a future traveler destined to explore Central Asia.
In another article titled ‘Biographical Notes on Chokan Valikhanov’, Potanin writes:
When his teachers began to see him as a future researcher—even a scholar—Chokan was only fourteen or fifteen years old.
Shoqan the Polyglot
Shoqan never completed the cadet corps' final course. According to the rules of the time, representatives of inorodtsyiInorodtsy was a legal classification in the Russian Empire to designate the non-Slavic, predominantly indigenous populations of Siberia, Central Asia, and other regions, subjecting them to separate administrative rules and restrictions. graduated a year earlier than others. It was believed that the final year included secret disciplines related to colonial policy, and it was strictly forbidden to allow ‘indigenous people’ access to such knowledge.
Yakov Fedorov. The Syrimbet estate where Valikhanov spent his childhood and youth / Wikimedia Commons
Drawing by Shokan Valikhanov. Reception of a Chinese dignitary in Kulja, 1856 / Wikimedia Commons
Eastern Turkestan and its neighbors on a British map, 1874 / Wikimedia Commons
Yegor Kovalevsky, 1860s / Wikimedia Commons
Shokan Valikhanov, 1860 / Wikimedia Commons
Vasily Vereshchagin. The Apotheosis of War, 1871 / The State Tretyakov Gallery / Wikimedia Commons
Shokan Valikhanov and Fyodor Dostoevsky in Semipalatinsk, 1859 / Wikimedia Commons
Yakov Fedorov. Grave of Shokan Valikhanov / Wikimedia Commons
