Eastern Kazakhstan is an area connecting Southern Siberia and Altai with Semirechye and Central Asia. Due to its favorable geographical position, it has always played an important role in the historical development of the tribes and peoples of the steppe belt of Western Asia.
Archaeological research suggests that the region has been inhabited since ancient times. This is evidenced by the traces of ancient mining, irrigation canals, and the ruins of numerous buildings preserved to this day in the Altai, in the Zaisan hollow, on the slopes of the Saur and Tarbagatai.
In the upper reaches of the Irtysh, humans first appeared in the Ice Age (Middle Paleolithic), advancing, apparently, from the south. They were small groups of Neanderthal hunters of mammoths, rhinoceroses and bison.
Traces of ancient Neolithic hunters' camps were found in the region of Altai (Zyryanovsk), near Ust-Narym, on Semipalatinsk dunes.
For Andronovo tribes, who lived in the upper reaches of the Irtysh in the Bronze Age, the most important and progressive craft was mining and metallurgy. They produced at least ten tons of finished bronze per year. Even this paltry figure made Eastern Kazakhstan one of the largest metallurgical centers of Northern Asia and Eastern Europe.
In VIII century BC in a life of the tribes occupying edge there was a major economic revolution - transition to nomadism. The era of the early nomads - the powerful tribes of Arimans and Saks - began.
In the first centuries A.D. the patriarchal-feudal relations that continued to prevail among the nomads until the XX century began to take shape and form in the nomadic world.
In the IX-XIII centuries along the banks of the Irtysh River there were fortifications and cities of the Kimaks and nomadic Naimans. The largest city belonging to the Kimaks was Imakiya.
A great role in the development of the material culture of these tribes was played by the Great Silk Road, from the main route of which the roads to Altai, to Zaisan, Tarbagatai, and to the Semipalatinsk steppe departed.
In the XV century, living in the territory of modern Kazakhstan Kazakh clans and tribes were united into the Kazakh Khanate, which consisted of three zhuzes (Senior, Middle and Junior). The Middle zhuz included Kazakh tribes inhabiting Eastern Kazakhstan (Kipchaks and Naymans).
The first half of the XVIII century entered the history of the Kazakh people as the years of great disaster. The Kazakh lands were subjected to the Dzungarian aggression. Russians also fought against the Dzhungar invaders along with the Kazakhs.
By the end of the seventeenth century the southeastern border of the Russian state was very close to the Kazakh lands. The economic and political interests of Russia in the East encouraged it to strengthen and expand ties with Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The first Russian expeditions headed inland along the Irtysh River. As they advanced, Russians began to build the Irtysh Fortified Line, Cossack fortresses and outposts. These defenses played a major role in the development of Kazakh-Russian relations, the protection of the Kazakh clans of the Middle Juz from Dzungarian aggression and the accession of the region to Russia.
In 1718 at ruins of Dzungar monastery-fortress by boyar son Vasily Cheredov the Semipalatnaya fortress (now Semey city) was founded.
In 1720 by the envoy of Russian Tsar Peter I, Lifeguard major Ivan Likharev, Ust-Kamennaya fortress (Ust-Kamenogorsk city nowadays) was founded.
For many decades both Semey, and Ust-Kamenogorsk had mainly trading importance. Caravan routes from Russia to Central Asia, Mongolia and China converged here.
The first colonists of this land were Siberian Cossacks who established the newly annexed areas to Russia. However, they could not solve the problems of economic development of the region. This could only be done by mass peasant colonization.
On the basis of the Decrees of the Russian Senate in 1760 and 1762 serfs, convicts and Russian dissenters were exiled to Rudnyi Altai in addition to wishing peasant settlers from Russian provinces. However, the mass resettlement began only after the construction of the Great Siberian Railway in the late 19th century. Most of the settlers settled in the valley of the Irtysh and its right tributaries, in the Belagach steppe. By the beginning of the XX century, the left bank of the Irtysh, mainly in the foothills of the Kalbin range and Tarbagatay. Much less affected peasant colonization of the hard-to-reach areas of the Southern Altai and the desert regions of the shallow valley.
Due to the gradual transition during the XIX-XX centuries of the indigenous population to a settled way of life, purely Kazakh settlements appeared.
The southern districts of the Rudny Altai were considered the richest in the region. Here farming, cattle breeding, bee-keeping, and various trades such as hunting and fishing were developed. Marals were bred in Bukhtarma volost.
The extraordinary richness of the Altai's mineral resources contributed to the rapid development of the mining industry. In the 18th century the most famous polymetallic ore deposits were discovered: Zyryanovskoye (1791), Ridder (1786), as well as Belousovskoye, Kryukovskoye, Talovskoye, Glubokovskoye and others.
In the 19th century, gold mining was rapidly developing in Priirtyshye.
The richness and diversity of the subsoil, landscapes, flora and fauna of the region over the past three centuries have attracted the attention of many famous Russian and foreign scientists. The great Russian travelers P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, N. Przhevalsky, G. Potanin, V. Sapozhnikov, A. Obruchev, P. Chikhachev, G. Schurovsky, A. Humboldt, author of the famous 6 volume encyclopedia "Animal Life" A. Brem and German scientist Otto Finch, American journalist J. Kennan passed through the region with scientific expeditions. Major researchers of ethnography, history of the peoples of the area were G. Spassky, N. Yadrintsev, N. Konshin.
Cities and settlements of the area were small and insignificant before the revolution of 1917. Eastern Kazakhstan becomes a place of political exile, where the court sentenced the Decembrists, revolutionary democrats. For many this region became a second homeland. Among them: О. Kostyurin - the first mayor of Ust-Kamenogorsk, N. Konshin - the secretary of the Semipalatinsk Regional Statistical Committee; E. Michaelis - researcher of geology, geomorphology, and glaciers of Altai, friend and teacher of the great Kazakh poet and thinker Abay, and many others.
The history of the XX century is closely connected with the history of Russia and the USSR. East Kazakhstan went through revolutions of 1905-1907, 1917, civil war. It went through the revolutions of 1905-1907, 1917, Civil war, Stalin reprisals of 30-50's. Together with other republics of the former USSR it fought on the fronts of World War II. During the war the region produced at the front lead, copper, cadmium, tin, antimony metal, and other metals, vital for the production of ammunition and armament. The production of non-ferrous metals in the region increased 2.5 times during these years.
When searching for a place for construction of the nuclear test site in 1947 the choice was made on the Kazakh steppe near Semipalatinsk: vastness, small population, remoteness from the center, and at the same time near full-flowing Irtysh, railroad and automobile roads, and airport. From 1949 to 1989 at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was carried out about 500 explosions, which caused enormous damage to the health of many thousands of people and the environment.
In 1991, the test site was closed thanks to the efforts of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk international nuclear movement.
By Presidential Decree in 1997, the Semipalatinsk region was abolished and became part of the East Kazakhstan region.
Since Kazakhstan gained state independence in 1991, East Kazakhstan, together with other regions of the republic, has participated in building a new sovereign state focused on civilized market relations in the economy and democratic in social and political life.
Source: http://kray.pushkinlibrary.kz/ru/hist-chronika/istoriya-vko.html