ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ ИСТОРИЯ ЭВОЛЮЦИИ СЕЛЬСКОГО ХОЗЯЙСТВА КАЗАХСТАНА НА РУБЕЖЕ XIX–ХХ вв.

Abstract

The paper explores the evolution of agriculture in Kazakhstan during its accession to the Russian Empire. At this time, two independent sectors were established in the uniform agricultural mechanism of Kazakhstan: The arable farming, which developed due to the colonization policy of the Russian government, and the livestock sector, based on the traditional cattle breeding, originating in Kazakh steppe. The focus of the research is specifically determined by the fact that the agrarian reforms in Kazakhstan in the 21st century are based on the coexistence of these two independent sectors in agriculture. The article thus looks at three main issues. Firstly, according to the sources of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, the migration policy of the Russian government, initiating a vast territorial expansion of the Russian speaking population, and economic transformations in agriculture on Kazakhstan territory. Secondly, the transformation of the livestock sector in Kazakhstan is analyzed in historical retrospect. The author argues that the classic type of nomadic cattle breeding began to change from the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, but the most noticeable changes in the composition of the herd and the type of nomadism were observed from the beginning of the 20th century. Thirdly, the formation of the arable farming, the impetus for the development of which was given by Russian colonization, is studied. The beginning of arable farming among nomads in the Kazakh steppe dates to the beginning of the 19th century, but it was fully developed at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries due to the allotment of lands to peasants from Central Russia. Arable farming is most widespread in Akmola, Turgay, Semirechensk and Syr Darya regions. Thus, the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, considered in the paper, proved to be the beginning of the Kazakhstan agricultural split into two independent sectors: Arable farming and livestock farming. Simultaneously the ethnic factor came to the fore, manifested in the division of the spheres of activity, where autochthon population was engaged in nomadic cattle breeding, and Russian immigrants were mostly engaged in seminatural agriculture.