The Russians expanded south, first with the transformation of the Ukrainian steppe into an agricultural heartland, and subsequently onto the fringe of the Kazakh steppes, beginning with the foundation of the fortress of Orenburg.

The slow Russian conquest of the heart of Central Asia had begun in the early 19th century, although Peter the Great had sent a failed expedition under Prince Bekovitch-Cherkassky against Khiva as early as the 1720s.By the 1800s, the locals could do little to resist the Russian advance, although the Kazakhs of the Great Horde under Kenesary Kasimov rose in rebellion from 1837 - 46.

Until the 1870s, for the most part, Russian interference had been minimal, leaving native ways of life intact and local government structures in place.

With the conquest of Turkestan after 1865 and the consequent securing of the frontier, the Russians gradually expropriate large parts of the steppe and give these lands to Russian farmers, who begin to arrive in large numbers.

This process is initially limited to the northern fringes of the steppe and it will only be in the 1890s that significant numbers of Russians begin to settle farther south, especially in Zhetysu (Semirechye).