The purpose of this paper is to review the historical facts related to conversion of indigenous people of the Kazakh steppe from Islam to Christianity and the conversion of the Russian migrants from Orthodoxy to Islam in Kazakhstan in the nineteenth – early twentieth century. The study deals with the laws that were detrimental to Islam and reforms of the imperial government in terms of administration of Kazakh lands favoring Kazakhs baptism. Using the comparative-historical method, the author analyzes the Orthodox missionary societies in Kazakhstan. The paper also determines reasons of Russian migrants’ conversion to Islam. We found that it was mainly voluntary process and people would remain faithful to the new religion for the rest of their lives, were in not for the intervention of the church and the colonial administration. The results have shown that Christianization of the adherents of different faiths was used for change their minds in order to simplify management of the colonial people having other nationalities. Furthermore, church clergy and missionaries were involved in relevant activities among various categories of the population. The practical value of the study is that the submissions may be useful for historians and religious scholars in investigations of religion conversions.

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