Srym Datov

(Batyr Srym). Date of birth unknown; died circa 1802. Prominent bey of the Kazakh Baybakt family.

In 1783, Srym Datov led a revolt in the Little Horde that was provoked by the aggravation of the land question, the tsarist government’s denial of access of cattle-breeders to the “interior” (beyond the Urals), the increase of feudal and colonial oppression, and overt robbery and violence on the part of the khan and the feudal nobility (the sultans). The peasant masses constituted the principal driving force behind the revolt. The ancestral patriarchal aristocracy, whose rights were infringed upon to a considerable extent by the khan and the sultans, also took part in the revolt. The beys and elders sought to exploit the people’s movement for their own ends; unlike the peasant masses, who were fighting to destroy the power of the khanate, they merely demanded that restrictions be placed on it to their own advantage. The Muslim spiritual leadership also played a reactionary role in the movement. The tsarist government, making concessions to the insurgents, issued a rescript in 1786 declaring the dismissal from power of Nur Ali Khan, who had fled before the onslaught of the revolutionaries. A new upsurge in the movement was begun in 1792 as a result of the tsarist government’s reinstatement of khanate rule in the Little Horde. Most of the beys had left the movement by this time. Srym Datov had sided with the partisans in the struggle. In 1797, Esim, the khan of the Little Horde, was killed by the rebels. In response to this, the tsarist government, in addition to punitive operations against the rebels, resorted to the stratagem of establishing in the horde a council of khans (but without a khan), which corresponded to the interests of the sultans, the beys, and the elders, and brought about their unification and joint action against the popular masses, who continued to struggle. These conditions revealed the inconsistency of Srym Datov, who arrived at the meeting of the council of khans on Aug. 29, 1797, in command of a detachment of 1,000 men and declared an end to the struggle. Srym Datov was included as a member of the council of khans. However, persecuted by the sultans, he was compelled to flee to Khiva (at the end of 1797). His subsequent fate is unknown.