THE NEED TO INTRODUCE A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN BY THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Abstract

The paper reviews the attitude of the Russian Empire to the management of the Kazakh steppe and the execution of the "Provisional Decree on the Governance of Steppe Regions" on the territory of the Orenburg region in 1868. Based on objective analysis and the use of archival materials, the need of the Kazakh steppe in new governance and the colonial essence of administrative reforms were identified. To study the matter in hand, historical sources from the State Archives of the Orenburg Region of the Russian Federation and the Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan were used. Through administrative reforms, the tsar of the Russian Empire decided to forcibly colonise the Kazakh lands. Through reforms, the tsarist government took measures that served as the basis for a predatory, colonial agrarian policy. The interests of local residents were not taken into account; moreover, the colonists intended to seize fertile lands and water resources, and push local residents into the desert, arid territory, giving their lands to Russian settlers and the Cossack army. It was an unreasonable policy that led to the destruction of the traditional way of using the pasture meadows, the free movement of Kazakhs to winter and summer meadows, which disrupted the nomadic lifestyle. The need for colonial development of the eastern territories, the importance of the Orenburg region for the implementation of political, strategic, tactical goals by the tsarist government, and the profit received from the colonisation of the Kazakh lands, all this required the Russian government to develop and strengthen the administrative system in Kazakhstan. The findings of the historical analysis indicated that the final consolidation of tsarism in the steppe helped to form a network of power relations at the local level with the help of military and administrative institutions, which, through powerful state structures, allowed Russian capital to redistribute income to the empire. In turn, the expanded capillary network of stable power relations at the local level allowed the administrative apparatus to extend the imperial legislation to the territory of Kazakhstan. The tsarist government concentrated administrative power in its hands, finally pushing the Kazakh people out of political power. As a result, the Kazakhs, like their neighbours, became victims of the colonial policy of the Russian Empire.