[1] Town was originally called Karakunuz (Russian: Каракунуз, sometimes Караконыз or Караконуз), which means "black beetle" in Turkic languages.

[2] The Dungans themselves used to refer to Karakunuz as Ingpan (Dungan: Инпан; Russian: Иньпан; Chinese: 營盤; pinyin: Yíngpán),[3] which is an archaic word in Chinese languages for "military camp."

From 1903 to 1918, the town was briefly renamed Nikolaevka after Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

[2] In 1965, Karakunuz was renamed Masanchi (sometimes spelt as "Masanchin"), after Magaza Masanchi or Masanchin (Dungan: Магәзы Масанчын; Chinese: 马三奇), a Dungan participant in the Communist Revolution and a Soviet Kazakhstan statesman.

[5] The subsequent clashes have reportedly killed 11 Dungan, caused the arrest of 47 more, and resulted in damage to local properties.