Bokeyorda

Bokey Orda is a district in West Kazakhstan Region that takes its name from the Bokey Khanate, also known as the Inner Horde, founded in 1801 in the steppe between the Volga and Ural rivers. It was established by Sultan Bokey Nuraliev, who secured permission from the Russian emperor to resettle part of the Junior Zhuz Kazakh population onto these fertile lands. The khanate grew rapidly, from about 5,000 families at its founding to roughly 300,000 people by 1850, and supplied cattle, meat, and wool to Russia. It reached its height under Bokey's son, Khan Zhangir, during whose rule the horde counted some 20,000 households and 80,000 people by the late 1830s; in 1841 Zhangir opened the first Kazakh secondary school to teach in Russian. The khanate's political institution lasted about 45 years, ending with the abolition of khan's power after Zhangir's death in 1845. The district's administrative center today is the village of Saykyn.