DEMOCRAT-ENLIGHTENER G.N. POTANIN AND THE KAZAKH PEOPLE

Abstract

Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin is an outstanding orientalist, folklorist, ethnographer,
historian, traveler and public figure who made a huge contribution to the scientific study of Kazakhstan, Siberia and Central Asia. The report attempts to comprehend the role of G.N. Potanin
in the formation of the national identity of the Kazakhs in the second half of the 19th - early 20th
centuries. This goal is achieved by analyzing his statements about the Kazakh people in different
periods of life. G.N. Potanin had great respect for the Kazakh people, since he himself was born into a Cossack family in the Kazakh steppes, from a young age he was friends with the famous Kazakh scientist Shokan, and in old age he had close ties with the Alash activists. In the end, we come to the logical conclusion that G.N. Potanin, as a humanist thinker, contributed to the
awakening of the «Young Kazakhia», had a significant impact on the formation of the selfconsciousness of the Kazakh people.