The Scientific Significance of the Search and Publication of Kazakh Fairy Tales Preserved in Manuscripts
The process of collecting and publishing Kazakh fairy tales dates back to thesecond half of the 19th century. During the period of the colonization of the Kazakh steppe by theRussian Empire, people of different professions who came here for different purposes and workedin the civil service began to pay attention not only to the registration of land wealth, but also to thestudy of samples of oral folk art. On the pages of the first editions “Turkistan ualayatynyn gazeti”,“Dala ualayatynyn gazeti”, published in the second half of the 19th century in the Kazakh languageand spreading in the Kazakh steppe, numerous folk tales were published, taken from oral folk art.Along with Russian scientists, representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia and educators were alsoengaged in the study of fairy tales. Kazakh fairy tales were published several times at the beginningof the twentieth century and after the establishment of Soviet power. After gaining independence ofKazakhstan, numerous fairy tales were published in whole volumes. At the same time, somepublications were found and re-published fairy tales that had not been previously published. Weknow that Kazakh fairy tales, collected in manuscript centers and library funds, have a rich heritage.Finding and republishing unpublished tales is an urgent need today. In the article, the author notesthe importance of searching for fairy tales in the archives of the regional level, as well as among themanuscripts collected in manuscript funds and written in Cyrillic, Arabic or Latin letters, and thepublication of these fairy tales, especially previously unknown ones. He also draws attention to thespiritual heritage of the people and the significance of fairy tales in modern folklore.