The name "Semirechye" ("Seven Rivers") itself is the direct Russian translation of the historical region of Jetysu.

The Russian government seized the Semirechyenskaya region in 1854[1] and created the province the same year.

Russian control of the region was recognized by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) between Russia and China.

On October 27, 1924, as a result of the national-territorial reorganisation of Soviet Central Asia, the northern part of the region became part of the Kirgiz ASSR (already created in 1920 and renamed the Kazakh ASSR in 1925 and then established as the union-level Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic), while the southern part became the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (eventually the Kirghiz ASSR and SR) within the RSFSR.

In the north it bordered the Semipalatinsk region, from the south and east - China (on the Bedel Pass to the southwest by the Tian Shan Range),and from the west the Fergana and Syr Darya oblasts.