The “Kirghiz frontier” and the frontier volosts of the Tomsk Uyezd in the 17th century: formulation of the problem and a review of research

This article reviews the literature on various interpretations of the historical and geographical terms, the “Kirghiz frontier” and “frontier volosts” which often occur in the Russian documents of the 17th century relating to the history of Tomsk. The view of V.S. Sinyaev had been generally accepted for a long time; however, after A.Kh. Elert published historical and geographical descriptions of the Tomsk Uyezd and the Kuznetsk Uyezd by G.F. Müller, it became clear that this view has to be reconsidered. Establishing the true meaning of the “Kirghiz frontier” and its localization is only possible after a deep and thorough analysis of available documents.