sentences:  Kazakhstan in the Russian Empire
  
  Russian traders and soldiers began to appear on the northwestern edge of Kazakh territory in the 17th century, when Cossacks established the forts that later became the cities of Oral (Ural'sk) and Atyrau (Gur'yev).Russians were able to seize Kazakh territory because the khanates were preoccupied by Kalmyks (Oirats, Dzungars), who in the late 16th century had begun to move into Kazakh territory from the east.