500 Tenge Abylai Khan

Abylai Khan ruled the Kazakh Middle Zhuz through the mid-18th century, a period in which he played competing Qing Chinese and Russian imperial interests against one another with considerable skill — formally submitting to the Qing in 1756 while simultaneously maintaining relations with St. Petersburg. He was proclaimed khan of all three Kazakh Zhuz in 1771, though neither major power recognized the full extent of his authority. Kazakhstan declared him a national hero in 1992, almost immediately after independence.