THE KAZAKH STEPPE: FROM EMPIRE TO UTOPIA

This dispersion of the Kazakh population was caused by the different stages of Russian conquests in the region. The system of government was created with the annexation of separate steppe territories. For example, the Bukey Horde was formed in 1801 by a part of the Kazakhs of the Junior Jüz and maintained its organization separately until the Russian Revolution in 1917 and even a little later. The Syr Darya and Semirechye provinces were formed after the conquest of Central AsiaiThe commonly used term in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries CE for the regions of Central Asia that were annexed to the Russian Empire. and the establishment of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship.iSince 1873, the official name was the Turkestan Krai.

In the Steppe krai, Kazakhs lived alongside the Russian population, which was very numerous in some areas. At the same time, they had little contact with each other because they had entirely different socioeconomic models of livelihood. The Russians were farmers, and the Kazakhs were nomads. At the same time, the area in which the Kazakh nomadic and semi-nomadic economy operated was gradually shrinking under the pressure of peasant settlers from central Russia. The contradictions between these two worlds were the main content of almost all socioeconomic and political processes in the Steppe Krai before the revolution of 1917 and for some time after it.

In the Syr Darya and Semirechye provinces of the Turkestan General-Governorship, Kazakhs lived alongside other significant groups of the local Asian population, both sedentary and nomadic. In the Syr Darya region they were Uzbeks, Sarts, Kuramas, and others. In the southern part of Semirechye province lived the modern Kyrgyz, and this is the territory of Kyrgyzstan.

It is interesting that in the Russian Empire before 1917, both the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were usually referred to by the same name—Kyrgyz (Kirgiz in Russian)—despite, for example, in the official census of 1897, being seen as separate. The modern Kyrgyz were called Kara-Kyrgyz (Karakirgiz), while the Kazakhs were simply called Kyrgyz. Previous references to the Kazakh population as Kaisaks or Kyrgyz-Kaisaks, characteristic of the eighteenth century, fell out of use in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. Apparently, this was because the Kazakh endonym (Qazaq) was almost identical to the Russian name of the Cossacks (Kazak), who were part of the military class of the Russian Empire. Besides, on the borders and in the territory of the Kazakh steppe there were four Cossack corps—Orenburg, Semirechye, Siberian, and Ural. Therefore, the name 'Cossack' or even the distorted form 'Kaisak' for the Kazakh population competed with the name of the Russian Cossacks.

The tsarist government had no plans to create a single administrative unit for the Kazakhs. It is noteworthy that after the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863–64, the kingdom of Poland was divided into nine Vistula governorates, while the very term 'kingdom of Poland' was almost erased from the political vocabulary.1¹Kingdom of PolandPolish lands became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Following the occupation by the Russian army of the Duchy of Warsaw, established by Napoleon the Great, the Kingdom of Poland was formed in 1815. Since then, ‘King of Poland’ has been one of the titles of the Russian emperor. In general, creating administrative units named after ethnic groups was not in line with the priorities of imperial policy. Until 1917, Finland,2²FinlandThe territory of the Kingdom of Sweden became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Swedish War in 1809. ‘Grand Duke of Finland’ is one of the titles of the Russian emperor. which had considerable autonomy, albeit greatly reduced at the end of the nineteenth century, remained virtually the only exception. By the time the Kazakh tribes had been incorporated into Russia, political power in the steppe had become noticeably decentralized. This was a consequence of the gradual decline of the former statehood of the Kazakh Khanate.

Thus, the dynamics of the organizational structure, which are traditional for any nomadic society, were fully manifested. Large nomadic associations can be formed when it is practical to do so. This happens either to protect the nomads’s interests or to put pressure on neighbors. In the first case, they unite to protect themselves from competitors. A typical example is the unification of Kazakh tribes in the first half of the eighteenth century against the Dzungars to protect the occupied territories and resources of the settled areas they controlled in the Syr Darya valley. In the second case, unification occurs in order to exert pressure on a neighbor—for example, to force an agrarian state to open trade, as was repeatedly the case in the relations of the Mongolian nomads with China, or to force the agrarian state to make direct payments to the nomadic association. An example would be the relations between the Crimean Khanate and the Moscow state in the seventeenth century.

However, if there is no urgent need for unification, and the situation in the steppe is relatively stable from a political point of view, the nomads prefer a softer form of organization. After all, from an economic point of view, it makes more sense to move in relatively small groups than in large nomadic confederations. Thus, for small groups, it is possible to keep more livestock and use a larger territory for nomadic activities.

The Russian Empire provided the nomadic Kazakhs with a measure of relative domestic stability. Russian cities acted as strongholds of Russian authority, covering almost the entire steppe. One of the consequences of this was the end of internal conflicts within the steppe. In addition, the empire's presence was not particularly visible or burdensome in the early decades. Russia ensured that the markets functioned well in the steppe, where the products of the nomadic economy were sold, and the necessary agricultural and industrial goods were purchased.

This was when the levels of organization in Kazakh tribal society began to decline. The power of the khan gradually lost its significance, and the great tribal confederations also disintegrated. Then, after a short period of independent existence, large tribes split into smaller clan divisions. Since the Kazakhs no longer had a unified khanate in the nineteenth century, it made no sense for the Russian administration to create a new organizational structure to unite the entire Kazakh population, especially since several khans had been signing treaties with Russia since the beginning of Kazakh–Russian relations in the 1730s. For the Russian Empire, it made more sense to divide the nomadic Kazakhs into separate populations to manage them more conveniently. As a result, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kazakhs were living in different governorates, oblasts and uezds, a policy agrarian empires often adopted toward their nomadic subjects.

For example, this was the method used by the administration of the Chinese Qing Empire to better manage its dependent nomads, mainly the Oirats (Dzungars) and Mongols. Controlling nomadic populations was a very important aspect of the policy of agrarian empires immediately after the conquest of these populations. This was due to the historically troubled relationship between sedentary states and nomads and the subsequent misgivings of imperial rulers.

Within the Russian Empire, certain groups of the Kazakh population gravitated to the administrative centers of the territories to which they belonged. For example, the Kazakhs of the Semirechye province gravitated to the city of Verny,imodern day Almaty those of the Syr Darya to Tashkent, of the Bukey Horde to Astrakhan, from the Akmola Oblast to Omsk and Semipalatinsk, and so on. Undoubtedly, the cities in and around the steppe were of great importance as the main regional markets and also points of interaction with the imperial authorities.

For an agrarian empire, the agricultural population was much more important as a source of taxes and soldiers for the army. Therefore, the Russian Empire limited itself to the external management of the nomadic Kazakh population and did not really interfere in their internal way of life and traditions. Incidentally, it was this that made Russian power attractive to certain Kazakh tribes in the early stages of their relationship.

Russia never had a large bureaucratic apparatus in its Asian lands and sought to avoid expanding it either. As a result, their degree of interference in the traditional way of life and prevailing economic practices in these areas was minimal. In fact, at the initial stage, the establishment of the authority of the Russian Empire generally coincided with the interests of the traditional Kazakh nomadic society. In addition to economic opportunities, non-interference in their internal affairs was important to the Kazakh tribes. However, it was obvious that this arrangement was only temporary. The Russian authorities could not help but strive for greater control over the steppe, wanting at the same time to avoid increased expenditure, including spending money on the bureaucratic apparatus of administration.

Therefore, within the framework of the reforms of the second half of the nineteenth century, a volost system of organization was introduced into Kazakh society. To a certain extent, it resembled the system of self-government of the peasant community in European Russia with some adaptations for the conditions of the nomadic steppe. The main task of the Russian peasant community was to fulfill its obligations to the state, and the situation was similar in the case of the Kazakh nomadic self-government.

The election of a chief of a volost actually meant creating a local administration based on local resources in accordance with local traditions. The elected chief was responsible for interactions with the Russian administration and for the fulfillment of the obligations of the volost Kazakh population to the state. Naturally, this gave him a certain proximity to power.

However, unlike the peasant communities of central Russia, Kazakh society was tribal. As a result, volost elections turned into a competition between separate clans for the position of volost chief. The position of the volost chief was an opportunity to secure domination and influence within the volost, thanks in part to ties with the Russian administration.

The group that won the election could control not only the use of pastures, but also the distribution of obligations to the state within the volost. This kind of administration did not require significant expenditures from the state, but at the same time, the Russian administration could mediate intra-Kazakh clan conflicts, which most often happened precisely during the election of volost chiefs. This was one of the main elements of the political power of the empire—the well-known ‘divide and conquer’ principle.

This system of governance did not offer the prospect of modernization to traditional Kazakh society. In British India, for example, the British-led modernization of traditional Indian society affected not only settled Hindus but also some of the nomadic Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), who maintained tribal associations. A college established by the British in 1913 in Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP, was one of the centers for the extensive training of the native Pashtun bureaucracy.iNow Islamia College.

Nevertheless, the election-based volost system created a framework, an institution, of mediators in relations between Kazakh society and the Russian state, who were mainly interpreters. Communication between Kazakh society and local Russian authorities became more regular, the range of issues discussed at the local level gradually expanded, and the volume of documents increased. Moreover, at the level of the volosts, these relations now had to be maintained by a fairly large number of representatives of local Kazakh authorities, whereas earlier these functions had been in the hands of either the Chingisid aristocracy or the elders of large tribes. With the virtual disappearance of the large tribes and the weakening of the Chingisid aristocracy, representatives of smaller clan subdivisions became the main contractors of the Russian administration in the field. Accordingly, the need for intermediaries with the Russian authorities increased, and interpreters played these roles.

As a result, some of the traditional Kazakh elites had much more motivation to have their children educated in Russia. This was seen as a means of raising the status of the family. ‘Since the assertion of the political and economic interests of the indigenous population had to take place in dialogue with the regional administration and the central government, knowledge of the Russian language and experience with the administrative and political institutions of the former Russian Empire became an important resource for the new political elite.’

The pursuit of a Russian education was not a mass phenomenon as it required considerable effort. This was especially true for higher education, which could be obtained only in Russia, while the skills of an interpreter were sufficient for interaction with the regional Russian administration at the local level. Therefore, the advantages of Russian education, especially higher education in Russia, were not very obvious. The education that could be obtained locally, in the relatively few schools where Kazakh children could study, was considered sufficient.

This was one of the reasons why the number of Kazakhs with a Russian education, especially higher education, was very limited. By the time of the 1917 revolution in Russia, only 120 Kazakhs had received a Russian higher education. Many of them came from social classes that were directly connected to the Russian administration. Sanjar Asfendiyarov,3³Sanjar Asfendiyarov (1889–1938)Military doctor, People's Commissar of Health (1919–1920, 1923–1924) of the Turkestan ASSR, People's Commissar of Health of the Kazakh SSR (1931–1933), professor. for example, was born into the family of a military interpreter under the governor-general of Turkestan. He graduated from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg in 1912, and his two sisters also studied in the capital of the empire. Mukhamedjan Tynyshpayev's4⁴Mukhamedjan Tynyshpayev's(1879–1937) Engineer, Deputy of the Second State Duma (1906), the first prime minister of the Turkestan (Kokand) Autonomy (1917), and an active participant in the construction of the Turksib (Trans-Siberia Railway) constructed from 1927–1930. father, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Railroad Engineers, was a member of the Land Committee under the governor of Semirechye Gerasim Kolpakovsky. Alikhan Yermekov's father,5⁵Alikhan Yermekov(1891–1970) Mathematician, member of the People's Council of Alash-Orda. From 1937 to 1947, he was in a detention camp on charges of counter-revolutionary activities. Arrested again in 1948, he was released in 1955. a graduate of the Tomsk Institute of Technology, was, like his grandfather, the chief of the volost.

Obviously, higher education in Russian universities required a lot of effort, even from the student themself. The same Tynyshpayev had to pass a specially arranged exam in Verny in order to receive a scholarship to study in St. Petersburg. The cost of education was affordable to only a few. For example, Jakhansha Dosmukhamedov's6⁶Jakhansha Dosmukhamedov(1887–1938) Lawyer, one of the leaders of the western wing of Alash-Orda. education at the Ural Troops Realschule was supported by the local head of the volost, while Sultan Bakhytjan Karatayev7⁷Bakhytjan Karatayev(1863–1934) Lawyer, deputy of the Second State Duma from the Cadet Party. helped him gain admission to Moscow University.

This once again supports the idea that the Russian Empire didn't have a modernization plan for Kazakh society, unlike the British Empire, which actively pursued such a policy to manage administration and boost economic gains in its dependent colonies. Education was entirely the private initiative of individual members of Kazakh society. Sometimes it was a desire of the part of the elite to improve the quality of representation of Kazakh interests at the national level. The story of how the Chingisid sultan Bakhytjan Karatayev helped Jakhansha Dosmukhamedov obtain a higher legal education at Moscow University is a very typical example. It is quite likely that in this case Karatayev, who was a deputy of the State Duma in 1906, realized that a higher legal education was necessary for his work as a member of the legislative body as well as for the general representation of Kazakh interests in relations with Russia.

Although some Kazakhs received higher education in Russia, it did not have any particular modernizing effect on the traditional society or lead to systemic changes. Graduates of Russian higher education institutions mostly worked outside Kazakh-populated areas. For example, on the eve of the February Revolution of 1917, the same Jakhansha Dosmukhamedov was working in the district court in Tomsk, Akhmet Beremjanov8⁸Akhmet Beremjanov(1871–1927)Lawyer, deputy of the First and Second State Dumas from the Cadet Party. In 1918, a member of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), one of the anti-Bolshevik governments during the Civil War. In Soviet times, he worked in the People's Commissariat of Justice and the Supreme Court of the Kazakh ASSR. as a court investigator in Buzuluk, Khalel Dosmukhamedov9⁹Khalel Dosmukhamedov (1883–1939) Doctor, member of the government of Alash-Orda. Arrested in 1930, died in a prison hospital. as a military doctor for the Ural Cossack troops, and Sanjar Asfendiyarov as a military doctor in Russian military units in Termez and then in Tashkent. Obviously, their experiences did not contribute to the modernization of Kazakh society.

The problem also was that these people simply could not find suitable jobs in Kazakh society. They were also of no particular interest to the Russian administration in the Kazakh steppe in terms of creating an administration, as the British did in India, or institutions of education and healthcare, even for a small part of the local elite. The few Kazakhs who had received quality Russian higher education before 1917 simply joined the ranks of Russian educated society. It is quite typical that they actually followed the path of the first wave of Kazakhs, mostly from the Chingisids, who had previously received higher education in Russia. The most prominent representatives of that wave were Shokan Valikhanov and Gubaidulla Shynghyskhan (Jangirov).

Jangirov, the son of Khan Jangir of the Bukey Horde, had a brilliant career in Russia and reached the rank of general in the cavalry. But the fact that he and other Chingisids received higher education in Russia, or even their successful careers in the highest structures of power, did not matter much to the modernization of Kazakh society. They left the Kazakh steppe and became part of the Russian elite, like Gubaidulla Jangirov, or found themselves stranded between traditional society and the Russian administration, like Shokan Valikhanov. Unfortunately, all of Valikhanov's attempts to promote the ideas of modernizing Kazakh society came to nothing

Of course, the second wave of educated Kazakhs was larger than the first, and their activities developed under different conditions. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian Empire was undergoing great changes, including a significant increase in social and political activity. Therefore, some educated Kazakhs were able to engage in active journalistic work. After the first Russian revolution in 1905–07, the newspapers Serke and Qazaq Gazeti were published for a short time in the territory of the future Kazakhstan. Before that, only official newspapers of the Russian administration were published. In Tashkent, Türkistan Ualayatynyn Gazeti was published from 1870 to 1882 as a supplement to the Turkestanskie Vedomosti. In Omsk, Dala Ualayatyyn Gazeti was published from 1888 as a supplement to the Akmolinskie Vedomosti.

From 1911 to 1915, the scientific and educational magazine Aiqap was published with a circulation of 500 copies. The newspaper Qazaqtan began to be published in 1911, but it shut down after the fifteenth issue. The most successful publication was the newspaper Qazaq founded in 1913 by Akhmet Baitursynov, Alikhan Bökeikhanov, and Mirjaqyp Dulatov. It played an important role in raising the cultural and political levels of the Kazakh people. In 1914, the newspaper had 3,000 subscribers, not counting the copies distributed at fairs, and in 1917, its circulation reached 8,000 copies. In 1917, a number of new newspapers appeared, including Saryarqa, Birlik Tuy, Ulan, Üsh Jüz, and Khalyq Gazetasi in Kokand.

During the revolution and civil war, many educated Kazakhs would play a significant role in attempts to revive Kazakh statehood. In fact, it was a small group of educated Kazakhs, a few dozen people, who propagated the idea of modernizing Kazakh society on the basis of the new political and socio-economic ideas of the twentieth century. The same Mukhamedjan Tynyshpayev, who passed a special exam in Verny to enter St. Petersburg, would become a commissioner of the Russian Provisional Government in the Semirechye province after the February Revolution, then one of the leaders of Turkestan (Kokand) autonomy. Chingisid Sanjar Asfendiarov worked in the administration of the Turkestan Republic and became the first rector of Kazakh University. In 1917, the lawyer Seraly Lapin led the party Jamiat-i Ulema in Turkestan, which united conservative ulama and competed with the movement of Islamic progressives, the Jadids.

Chingisid Alikhan Bökeikhanov, a graduate of the Economics Department of the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute, was one of the most prominent Kazakh writers in Russian publications before 1917. He was a member of the central committee of the Kadet (Constitutional Democratic) Party and was elected to the First State Duma from Semipalatinsk oblast. Like many cadets and socialists, including Alexander Kerensky, the future head of the Provisional Government of Russia, Bökeikhanov was a member of the Great Orient of the Peoples of Russia Masonic Lodge. After the February Revolution, he became a commissioner of the provisional government in the Turgai Oblast, and in December 1917 he was elected head of the Alash Autonomy (Alash-Orda) government based in Semipalatinsk.

Representatives of the second generation of educated Kazakhs could also be found among the Bolshevik supporters. For example, Turar Ryskulov became chairman of the Musburo (Muslim Bureau) of the Turkestan Communist Party. In 1920 he became chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Turkestan, and later the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Turkestan and the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation (RSFSR). It was Ryskulov who, as the Comintern's representative in Mongolia in 1924, proposed that the country's capital be called Ulaanbaatar. Nazir Tyuryakulov succeeded Ryskulov as chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Turkestan and soon became head of the Central Oriental Publishing Company in Moscow and the Soviet Union's first ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

However, the fate of the second generation of educated Kazakhs was tragic. Of the aforementioned figures of the early twentieth century, only Seraly Lapin seemed to die a natural death in 1919, though under mysterious circumstances. The others were executed in 1937–38.