Books published in Kazakh before the October Revolution are currently considered a valuable source of material. They hold great significance for the study of literary and cultural life, alongside folklore texts, ethnographic information, and historical data. These publications contain rich information about the collection and preservation of Kazakh folk literature, as well as the activities of collectors and publishers. Collections issued in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries were published in Petersburg, Kazan, Orenburg, and Tashkent. The Karimov and Kusainov Publishing House at Kazan University played an active role in this process. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Russian scholars studied the life, traditions, customs, language, religious beliefs, military art, and oral literature of Turkic-speaking peoples, including the Kazakh people, and began collecting materials for their comprehensive analysis and study. Among them were N.F. Katanov, A.E. Alektorov, P.M. Melioransky, V.V. Bartold, I.N. Berezin, N.Ya. Bekimov, A.A. Divaev, A.D. Nesterev, N. Pantusov, N.I. Ilminsky, G.N. Potanin, and other Turkologists. The examination of archival materials and rare editions in libraries revealed that a significant portion of the oral tradition materials they collected had been published more than a century ago. It is known that these works were not reprinted during the Soviet period. Over the years of independence, they have gradually been published in various folklore collections and scholarly publications. In this context, our research conducted a textual analysis of the fairy tale “Karamergen”, originally published before the October Revolution, which revealed differences and distinctive features between the original and later published versions. The article also examines the works of Russian orientalists and Turkologists who collected and studied the rich heritage of Kazakh folk oral literature.
Auyesbayeva et al. (Sun,) studied this question.