Kazakh Nomads Research Articles

Kazakh nomads, social class transformations and Soviet power during the period of collectivization

ABSTRACT This research is devoted to the history of the political adaptation of tribal structures to the conditions of social class interactions in the Kazakh aul in the 1920s. Newly uncovered archival materials show how patrimonial and hierarchical institutions tried to adapt and adjust themselves to the system of socialist construction in the Kazakh steppe. The authors have identified three directions that most clearly demonstrated the behavioural motives and adaptation practices of Kazakh tribal cattle-breeding society: the formation of the Soviet apparatus of power in Kazakhstan; the participation of the tribal elite in elections to enter the Soviet institutions of power; and confiscation as a policy of struggle against ancestry and descent groups.

THE EMERGENCE OF BIPOLAR SOCIETY IN KAZAKHSTAN UNDER CONDITIONS OF ITS TRANSFORMATION INTO A COLONY-SETTLEMENT

The article substantiates that the emergence of a bipolar demographic structure of the population of Kazakhstan does not date back to the Soviet period, as is commonly believed, but to the colonial period of its history. The emergence of a bipolar society in Kazakhstan occurred in the period from the 1860s to 1917 during the transformation of Kazakhstan from a protectorate into a colony-settlement of Russia. The resettlement policy of the tsarist authorities had a decisive influence on this transformation, as a result of which about three million peasants moved from the European part of Russia to Kazakhstan, to whom the authorities transferred pasture lands taken from the Kazakh nomads. In the emerged bipolar society, interethnic tension increased sharply, which ultimately led to the uprising of 1916. At the same time, interethnic tension and uprising contributed to the emergence and growth of national self-awareness of the Kazakhs.

Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus By Waleed Ziad

In 1909 in the Russian city of Kazan a Tatar printing house published a small verse hagiography titled Manaqib-i piran-i ʿazizan, devoted to the Sufi saints of what is today far western Mongolia and the Chinese Altay. The work was written in the Kazakh language and centred on a saint from the Ferghana Valley known as Muhammad-Mansur Ishan, who had come to Mongolia and became a patron saint (pir) of the local Kazakh Muslim inhabitants. The work opens with Muhammad-Mansur’s spiritual lineage (silsila), which identifies him as a member of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya order, and as a spiritual descendent of Shaykh Aḥmad Sirhindī, the Indian founder of that order. Sirhindī’s lineage is the topic of Waleed Ziad’s fine monograph, which has serious implications for the history of Sufism in South and Central Asia, and beyond. This Kazakh book bears mentioning because, although not included in the vast body of sources Ziad consults, it illustrates well how even in the twentieth century the Mujaddidiyya network—called in the title the ‘Hidden Caliphate’—extended to the very ends of the Islamic world, and whose inhabitants—here subjects of China—placed themselves firmly under the spiritual protection of the network Ziad examines. A community of Kazakh nomads publishing in a Russian city on the Volga a book centred on a Central Asian member of Ahmad Sirhindi’s spiritual lineage neatly encapsulates the geographic arc of the historical phenomena Ziad examines.

Phenomenon of Movement in the Life and Culture of Nomadic Kazakhs across the Frontier Zone, Late 19th to Early 20th Century

Introduction. Nomads once maximally incorporated into nature and surrounding landscapes had tended to retain their identity through the pastoral way of life, way of thinking, and mentality. The gradual — though further accelerated — emergence of the new development logic set forth by the Russian Empire made the Kazakhs develop new adaptation mechanisms for survival and self-realization in the suggested circumstances. Goals. The article analyzes a variety of sources, works and studies characterizing existential specifics of nomadic economic patterns — to examine the shaping of new life strategies adopted by Kazakh nomads across the frontier zone in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials and methods. The analyzed materials include those contained in Collection 175 of the State Archive of Orenburg Oblast, Interim Provisions on Governance in Steppe Areas of Orenburg and West Siberian Governorates-General, and Materials on Kirghiz Land Use published between 1896 and 1915. Besides, a number of Kazakh literary works that serve as unique historical sources have been considered. Results. The critical approach to different historical sources makes it possible to compare factual materials and reconstruct the transformation and changes in self-identity and outlooks of ex-nomads. At the turn of the 20th century, Kazakh elites were trying to answer the traditional questions of the intelligentsia: Who is to blame and what is to be done? Then and there it was urgent to decide on further prospects of life — whether to preserve nomadism or to seek for other forms of semi-nomadic life, or gradually get sedentarized at all. Conclusions. The Russian Government did not interfere with the nomads’ land use practices, and tended to solve land matters of exclusively plowmen’s communities. In these conditions, the nomadic Kazakhs were left to themselves. As a result, they had to develop new daily practices. Having lost their traditional lifestyle, the Kazakhs still succeeded in preserving their national distinctness in terms of language, oral folklore, genealogies, rituals, etc. The specificity of the frontier zone manifested itself in that Kazakh nomads were actively involved in daily life transformations and developed a habit of turning to local authorities for support (rather than relying on their own resources only) to defend lands from competing peasant immigrants.

V.G. Korolenko’s Essay “At the Cossacks” in the Discourse of Russian Orientalism

D.N. Dyusekenev. V.G. Korolenko's Essay “At the Cossacks” in the Discourse of Russian Orientalism. The article analyzes the essay by V.G. Korolenko “At the Cossacks” (1900) as a work that is directly related to the specific discourse of the “invention of the East”, in which elements of the cultures of Russia, the West and the East are typologically opposed. Based on representations of the Steppe and the way of life of Kazakh nomads in the realistic work of V.G. Korolenko there was detected one of the most important strategies of Russian orientalism of the late Empire period – self-orientalization (the formation of the “inner East” through the description of Russian territories as "eastern"). The steppe frontier is recreated by the writer with the help of ready-made orientalist constructs - stereotypical ideas about the steppe frontier of the Russian Empire, which were formed in Russian society during the period when this space was included in the orbit of Russian culture in the 18th-19th centuries. Based on the material of Korolenko's essay, the following conclusion is made: the “invention” of the Steppe in Russian Orientalism of the late imperial period is carried out due to the construction of a self-sufficient Russian identity.

Kazakistan’daki Bölgesel Cedidcilik Hareketi Kapsamında Milli Kimlik İnşası Meselesi Üzerine Bir İnceleme

In this article, the impact of the Jadid movement on the formation of Kazakh national identity is discussed in the context of the regional characteristics of Kazakhstan. The issue of the Jadid movement in Russian historiography was written within the framework of Islamic integration, pan-Turkism, and ethnic nationalism. The Jadid movement, which is the essence of the national identity construction, has left its traces in Kazakhstan
 thanks to the Tatar scientists who naturally affect the Turkish unity process. National identity and Turkish unity issues developed in parallel in Kazakhstan. Evaluating the religious views of Kazakh nomads in rural areas, and the tribalism and ethnic relations, the Tsarist administration exerted strong pressure on the policy of Russification. Therefore, Russian-Kazakh schools increased in number and developed rivalry to the Jadid schools. The founders of the Alaş movement, who were educated in the Jadid schools in the northern and western regions of Kazakhstan, later studied at the higher education institutions of the Russian Empire. The rest of the Jadids received their education in the madrasahs of today’s Uzbekistan, Kazan, Cairo and Istanbul. In
 this context, two aspects of the Jadid movement have become stereotyped in Kazakhstan, the first is the establishment of the Kazakh state Alaş Orda, the second is the struggle for the unity of the Central Asian Turkic people and the establishment of the Turkestan state.

The problem of the development of land relations in northern Kazakhstan in the second quarter of the 19th – 50-60s of the 20th centuries: historiographic analysis

The article presents a historiographical overview of the history of land relations in northern Kazakhstan in the period from the second quarter of the 19th century to the 50-60s of the 20th centuries. In the scientific study of the problem, the authors conventionally identify several periods, each of which differs not only in the thematic range of issues being studied, but also in the formulation of problems, and scientific approaches to assessing the state’s land policy. Following the principles of scientific objectivity and historicism, the authors consider the history of the study of land relations in the Northern regions of Kazakhstan as a process that has a certain direction and dynamics of development. The systematic approach used by the authors to the analysis of historical facts and events makes it possible to study land relations as an important component of the country's socio-economic system. Based on a critical analysis of the works of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet authors, it is concluded that the problem of the development of land relations in the northern region of Kazakhstan in the chronological period under consideration has not been fully studied from the standpoint of continuity and continuity of historical processes, from the point of view of the relationship between traditional and modernist views on this problem, as well as assessing the role of the local Kazakh population in the ongoing agrarian changes. The necessity of studying the history of land relations in the context of the theory of adaptation of Kazakh nomads to new economic conditions, which makes it possible to study the features and consequences of agrarian modernization in the region, is substantiated.

The problem of the development of land relations in northern Kazakhstan in the second quarter of the 19th – 50-60s of the 20th centuries: historiographic analysis

The article presents a historiographical overview of the history of land relations in northern Kazakhstan in the period from the second quarter of the 19th century to the 50-60s of the 20th centuries. In the scientific study of the problem, the authors conventionally identify several periods, each of which differs not only in the thematic range of issues being studied, but also in the formulation of problems, and scientific approaches to assessing the state’s land policy. Following the principles of scientific objectivity and historicism, the authors consider the history of the study of land relations in the Northern regions of Kazakhstan as a process that has a certain direction and dynamics of development. The systematic approach used by the authors to the analysis of historical facts and events makes it possible to study land relations as an important component of the country's socio-economic system. Based on a critical analysis of the works of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet authors, it is concluded that the problem of the development of land relations in the northern region of Kazakhstan in the chronological period under consideration has not been fully studied from the standpoint of continuity and continuity of historical processes, from the point of view of the relationship between traditional and modernist views on this problem, as well as assessing the role of the local Kazakh population in the ongoing agrarian changes. The necessity of studying the history of land relations in the context of the theory of adaptation of Kazakh nomads to new economic conditions, which makes it possible to study the features and consequences of agrarian modernization in the region, is substantiated.

«С крайним старанием и без всякой оплошности...»: Вклад российского купечества в социокультурное и хозяйственно-политическое освоение Центральной Азии в первой половине XIX века

The study involves analysis of the participation of merchants in the process of establishing channels of political, cultural, and economic exchange between the Russian Empire, the Asian khanates, and the Kazakh steppe in the first half of the 19th century. The modern government practice of involving private sector in order to strengthen international relations makes retrospective analysis of cooperation between business representatives and officials in solving national problems more relevant. The study is to identify specific examples of entrepreneurs’ efforts in promoting Russia’s diverse interests in Asia and to demonstrate specifics of merchants’ work in execution of special assignments of the imperial authorities. The value of the article lies in the fact that the existing corpus of scientific works is mainly focused on the activities of merchants in collecting intelligence (i.e., specific espionage for Russia), while acculturational, mediatory, and clerical service of merchants remains outside the scope of national historiography’s attention. Its novelty is confirmed by the fact that the examination of this problem drawing on the materials of the Orenburg gubernia of the 19th century is being carried out for the first time. The ariclde draws on documents from fond 6 (Office of the Orenburg military governor) of the Joint State Archive of Orenburg Oblast (OGAOO). To assess the contribution of individuals to the multidimensional process of the Russian Empire’s interaction and rapprochеment with the Asian region in the 19th century, anthropological approach has been chosen as a methodological mechanism specially adapted to studying the problem of the “small man.” The application of the latest methodological concept of “imperial policy of acculturation” provides a better understanding of historical significance and specifics of economic, trade, political, and cultural contacts of nomadic population of the Kazakh steppe and settled culture of the khanates of Central Asia with business community of the Russian state. The merchants’ main area of responsibility was diplomatic, requiring their participation in resolving internecine conflicts of Kazakh clans, as well as search and ransom of the Russians held captive in Central Asia. The authorities’ key criteria in recruitment of entrepreneurs were their foreign trade success, which implied useful acquaintances in Central Asian cities and in camps of the Kazakh nomads, knowledge of the neighboring peoples’ languages, and advanced communication skills. The study may be useful to scientists studying the history of merchants in the 18th-19th centuries, issues of Russia's interaction with the states of Asia in the pre-revolutionary period, as well as specialists in regional history.

Постзолотоордынский декаданс и судьбы религии в казахском кочевом обществе XV – начала XVIII вв.

Research objectives: In response to the problem of diametrically opposed views on the Islamization of Kazakh nomads, this paper aims to present a new interpre­tation of the religion`s destiny in connection with post-Golden Horde decadence. In this regard, certain tasks must be addressed: to characterize new research trends; to substantiate the argument for the completion of Islamization under Uzbek Khan and the Muslim identity of the Kazakh Khanate; to propose a hypothesis on the religion’s crisis further in order to challenge the thesis of “Superficial Islam”. Research materials: The research used a variety of sources. Required information is contained in Muslim authors’ works such as those of Seyfi Chelebi, Fazlallah Ibn Ruzbihan, etc., as well as several Russian-European authors’ notes. Particular attention was paid to Kazakh genealogies and folklore. Results of the research: Serious differences in views on the time of the area’s full Islamization are revealed. An alternative point of view about the full-fledged Steppe Islamization already in 14th–early 15th centuries is justified. In general characteristics of Kazakh religion, its peculiar forms in accordance with the concept of regional Islam were not qualified as a pre-Islamic complex. At the same time, taking into account the evidence of Islam`s weakness in the Steppe of the later era, the authors propose a new approach – studying Islam in the context of the post-Golden Horde decadence. From this perspective, the idea of a gradual weakening of tradition and an institutional disintegration of religion “after Uzbek Khan” could be admitted.

The development of fishing in the Turkestan region (XIX century – the beginning of XX century)

The article analyzes the formation and development of fishing in the Turkestan region of the XIX-XX centuries. based on new documentary materials and principles of objective research in the source funds of the archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. As a result of Kazakhstan's accession to Russia, cardinal changes have taken place in the political, cultural, socio-economic life of Renion. The Russian Empire, through administrative and political reforms, destroyed the traditional system of governance in Kazakhstan, dismantled it into governors-general, counties, as a result of which ethnic unity and integrity were violated. As a result of Kazakhstan's accession to Russia, Kazakh nomads were able to carry out exchange and trade relations, capitalist, industrial relations began to develop in the course of trade development in Kazakh villages. The article reveals the identity and importance of the region in the development of fisheries in Kazakhstan. The prerequisites for the formation of fishing entrepreneurship in the Turkestan region and internal and external factors that directly influenced its development, the characteristic features of the southern region, the social and ethnic composition of fishermen are described. Key words: Fisheries, Turkestan region, Syrdarya region, fishing, fish processing.

Famine and evacuation in Kazakhstan (late 1920s-early 1930s)

On the basis of archival data, the article examines the situation of Kazakh refugees who migrated from the famine and Holodomor of 1928-1933 within Kazakhstan and from Kazakhstan to neighboring countries. As a result of the meat tax imposed by the Soviet government on the population, the number of livestock in Kazakhstan sharply decreased, which led to starvation and death of millions of Kazakh people, who were deprived of means of subsistence (consisting mainly of meat and dairy products). In search of a way to survive, hundreds of thousands of Kazakh nomads, who migrated from places inhabited for centuries, fell into the trap of fate, becoming refugees. The data presented in the article once again confirm that our nation, who were victims of the famine of 1929-1933, lost their national culture, and their social situation worsened. The rich, mullahs andhunger refugees – Kazakh refugees who previously inhabited the Mangistau peninsula, migrated through Turkmenistan along the coast of the Caspian Sea, fled from the punishment of the Soviet government in the 1930s and famine to the territory of Irancalled “Mazandaran”. After years of settlement, villages where Kazakhs mostly settlednearby cities of the province – Gorgan, Bundar, Turkmen and Gombad-i-Kaus, secluded from the local population, the Turkmens called “Kazakh village”. Eventually, these villages merged with the mentioned cities and joined the territory of the city. The article analyses the reasons for the migration of refugees from Kazakhstan to neighboring countries such as Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and China, also history of the survival and adaptation of refugees in other countries.

Changes in fatty acid composition of fatty fractions of dry‐cured beef during different drying temperature and chilled storage

Dry-cured beef is a traditional meat product of the Kazakh nomads in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. In order to determine the effect of high temperature and short time drying on the fatty fractions of dry-cured beef. The beef of Xinjiang was used as the raw material and dried beef was dried at different drying temperatures. After being cooled down to room temperature, the meat samples were stored in a refrigerator at 4℃. Sampling occurred on days 0, 15, 30, and 60 for analysis of changes in pH, Water activities (aw), thiobarbituric acid reaction substrate (TBARS) value, and the lipid content and fatty acid composition of total intramuscular lipids, phospholipids, triglycerides, and free fatty acids (FAAs). The results showed that with prolonged storage time, the pH value increased slightly but this increase was not significant (p > .05). The aw value decreased slightly but this decrease was not significant (p > .05). The TBARS values increased by the greatest amount during treatment at 60°C from 0–60 days. After 60 days at 4°C, the TBARS values of the samples had increased from 0.237 to 0.813. The preferential hydrolysis of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the phospholipids was observed, and this resulted in the percentage of PUFA in the phospholipids decreasing markedly and the free fatty acids increasing significantly during storage. Therefore, there is a dynamic relationship between the fat content and the fatty acid composition, the phospholipids, and the free fatty acids during the storage of dry-cured beef treated at different temperatures. Practical applications The fat content and fatty acid composition are among the most valuable quality characteristics for Kazakh dry-cured beef. Understanding of the effects of lipid oxidation on the development of flavor will allow producers to control the flavor qualities of this product. This study is of great practical importance in the industrial development of traditional dry-cured beef.

Companions of the Prophet as Anti-Colonial Fighters: The Political Evolution of ʿAlī Tales in Siberia and the Kazakh Steppe

Abstract Tales about the caliph ʿAlī have circulated as popular entertainment throughout the Islamic world since the medieval era. While their meaning to their audiences has varied, on the frontiers of Islam, including in Siberia and the Kazakh steppe, the battles of ʿAlī and other companions of the Prophet against infidels took on special meaning. Among Kazakh nomads under Russian rule, these tales gained broad popularity in the second half of the nineteenth century as the status of Kazakhs as a Muslim community came under threat from changing Russian policies. It was at this time that Kazakh-language ʿAlī tales were composed and published by Muslim publishers in Russia. One of these was the Qiṣṣa-yi Ṣalṣāl, by the Siberian poet Mäulekey Yumachikov, in which the infidels whom ʿAlī and the other companions battle are clearly identified as being Russians, although placed in the earliest period of Islam. This tale enables us to see the political evolution of such tales, which constitute a response to the cultural and political pressures of Russian colonialism.

ҚАЗАҚ АШ БОСҚЫНДАРЫ XX Ғ. 30-ШЫ ЖЖ. БАСЫНДА БАТЫС СІБІРДЕ: БЕЙІМДЕЛУ ЖӘНЕ ОРНАЛАСУ МӘСЕЛЕЛЕРІ

The authors in the article study the features of migration processes, adaptation and socio-economic situation of Kazakh nomads in Western Siberia during the period of collectivization and mass famine in the early 1930s. In Kazakhstan. In particular, on the example of the Tyumen, Omsk and Novosibirsk regions of Western Siberia, a characteristic was given of the migration movement of Kazakhs during the period of mass famine in the early 1930s, the sources of migration and forms of adaptation to local forms of economy were analyzed using the example of the formation of Kazakh auls, as well as the sphere of employment of Kazakh migrants in heavy industry enterprises. The authors come to the conclusion that the famine refugees from Kazakhstan during the famine of the early 1930s significantly increased the number of the Kazakh population of Western Siberia. Forced to seek a livelihood in new places of settlement, they settled mainly in cities where industrial enterprises were located, were in a difficult and even distressful situation in comparison with the local population.

Transformation of Russian Orientalism in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Works of A. Sorokin

The article describes the ways of Kazakh nomads’ representation in the late imperial and early Soviet works of A. Sorokin in the discourse of Russian orientalism. Within the framework of postcolonial research, the most essential features of Russian orientalism are shown, such as the romanticized image of the “children of the steppe” and the spiritual impoverishment of the “Russian man”, the opposition of modernity and naturalness, the City and the Steppe, where A. Sorokin's own author’s myth construction also plays an important role. It is argued that in the new realities of the early Soviet period, the images of Kazakhs and the steppe could not get rid of the stereotype of the exotic East, of the paradigm "friend or foe" and were still considered as a testing ground for approbation of the "civilizing mission", Soviet modernization, where the authors assigned themselves the role similar to the "enlightened European". The Russian orientalism artistic manifestations in the context of the concept of "Europe - Russia - Asia" in the texts of the early Soviet period confirm the fact that even outside the imperial paradigm, the basic strategies for inventing the steppe as the East are based on the discourse of Russian orientalism.

The Health Care System of the Semipalatinsk Region of the Steppe Territory: Stages of Formation (60s of the 19th Century — the Beginning of the 20th Century)

On the basis of different sources, mainly annual regional statistical surveys, the stages of the formation of the health care system of the Semipalatinsk region of the Steppe Governor General are revealed. At the first stage, the end of the 60s — 80s of the 19th century, the accession of the Steppe Territory to the Russian Empire was completed. The integrating policy of this ethnoregion into the political-legal and socio-economic space of the empire was initiated. In the social sphere, it led to the creation of a health system. The procesas had a number of specific features due to the absence of zemstvos and zemstvo medicine and the predominance of Kazakh nomads in the ethnosocial structure of the region. Therefore, in contrast to the central regions of Russia, the development of the health care system in the Steppe Territory was dealt with by the provincial and regional administrations. The second stage (the end of the 80s 19th century — 1917) is associated with the beginning of the mass migration of peasant migrants from the European part of Russia to the Steppe Territory. This stage is characterized by the expansion of the network of regional and county medical institutions, the improvement of their material and technical base, the expansion of the specialization of practicing doctors, and the solution of the personnel problem.
 Also, at that stage, the system of management of medical institutions was improved and government organizations, for example, the Resettlement Department, were involved in solving problems related to health care services for the p opulation. In general, statistics show that by 1917 the quality of health care services and the percentage of population involvement remained at a low level.

К вопросу о взаимоотношениях меж­ду Казахскими ханствами, Цинской и Российской империями. Рецензия на книгу: Noda J., Onuma T. A Collection of Documents from the Kazakh Sultans to the Qing Dynasty

This study, titled A Collection of Documents from the Kazakh Sultans to the Qing Dynasty, deals with 16 documents addressed from Kazakh sultans to the Qing Dynasty (and the Russian Empire/Governor-General of Siberia). These were written in the Oyirad (Mongol) language with Tod script or in the Turkic language with Arabic script from the eighteenth to nineteenth century, and come complete with text, transcription, and translation. In addition, this study includes two essays written by the authors who made use of these documents. The majority of Qing documents are preserved in a collection of the First Historical Archives (第一歴史襠案館) in Beijing. Many of these documents related to the Kazakhs have started to be published as The Collection of the Archival Documents Concerning Sino-Kazakh Relations at the Time of the Qing Dynasty (清代中哈関係襠案彙編) and so on, and to be used for historical research. Of the documents dealt with in this study, 14 are from the Manchu Language Reference Copy of Grand Council Palace Memorial (軍機処満文副奏摺) of the First Historical Archives, one is from Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Respubliki Kazakhstan, and one is from Vneshnyaya politika Rossii XIX i nachala XX veka (Moskva: Izd-vo Nauka, t. 11–12, 1979–1980). However, most of these documents are not included in the published collection mentioned above. Therefore, this study, together with the above-mentioned collection, represents another major step in the study of these documentss. In addition, by utilizing these documents, Takahiro Onuma clarifies that the international world order between the Qing dynasty and Kazakh nomads in Central Asia was not based on the “suzerain-dependency (Ch. zong-fan 宗藩) relationship”, which was heavily influenced by Confucianism, but rather, on the “master-slave (Mon. ejen-albatu) relationship”, which originated in Mongol nomadic society. Jin Noda, who also utilized these documents, states that the title of Kazakh sultans, which has been regarded as a product of the Qing benefit policy, was in fact a result of both the Kazakh sultans and Qing requiring the ‘title-bestowal system’ in the process of the establishment of relations. This system was gradually becoming a mere formality, partly because of the influence of Russia. These findings suggest that the Kazakh khanates were independently developing a “bilateral diplomatic policy” while mediating between the Qing and Russian empires, and they highlight the policy differences of both empires toward the Kazakh khanates. We hope that the fin­dings from this study will further advance the study of the history of the mutual relations between the Kazakh khanates and the Qing and Russian empires.

Pastoralism at Scale on the Kazakh Rangelands: From Clans to Workers to Ranchers

Eurasia contains the world's largest contiguous rangelands, grazed for millennia by mobile pastoralists' livestock. This paper reviews evidence from one Eurasian country, Kazakhstan, on how nomadic pastoralism developed from some 5,000 years ago to the present. We consider a timespan covering pre-industrial, socialist and capitalist periods, during which pastoral social formations were organized in terms of kinship, collective state farms, and private farms and ranches. The aim is to understand how events over the last 100 years have led to the sequential dissolution and re-formation of the social units necessary to manage livestock across a wide expanse of spatially heterogenous and seasonally variable rangeland ecosystems. It is argued that the social scale of extensive livestock management must be tailored to the geographical scale of biotic and abiotic conditions. The paper starts by pointing out the long duration of mobile pastoralism in the Kazakh rangelands and provides an overview of how events from the late 17th C onwards unraveled the relationships between Kazakh nomads' socio-economic units of livestock management and the rangeland environment. At present, mobile animal husbandry is not feasible for the majority of Kazakh livestock owners, who operate solely within small family units without state support. These reformulated post-Soviet livestock grazing patterns are still undergoing rapid change, influencing the composition of rangeland vegetation, wildlife biodiversity, and rates of carbon sequestration. By concentrating capital and landed resources, a minority of large-scale pastoralists have been able to re-extensify by combining mobility with selective intensification, including an increased reliance on cultivated feed. Current state and international efforts are leaving out the majority of small-scale livestock owners and their livestock who are unable to either intensify or extensify at sufficient scale, increasing environmental damage, and social inequality.

Kazakh nomads: the road to socialism

The article deals with the history of socio-economic modernization of Kazakhstan in the 1920s-1930s. Based on the methodology of interdisciplinary approach the author has revealed the micro-sketches of the process of forced collectivization and its consequences. The relevance of the proposed study is the need to develop, a platform generally accepted historical concept of the Sovietization of the Kazakh aul, the definition of its regional specificity to understand the causes of such disastrous consequences. The spearhead of the permanent violence in the Kazakh steppe was directed to the eradication of the kin networks of the Kazakh aul and the formation of the Soviet identity of the Kazakh aul. The path to socialism destroyed the structural elements of the social life and traditional culture of the Kazakhs. Adaptation processes of Kazakh people conditioned new rules of Soviet social life, combined with applied survival strategies and practices of conformist behaviour. The content of the article is based on the analysis of adaptation practices of Kazakh nomads on documents and materials from archival fonds. The author shows daily, individual strategies of adaptation and survival of the population, in conditions of implementation of the program of social and economic modernization of the Kazakh aul. The result of author’s research is the analysis of two behavioural levels: fleeing - migrating and adaptation, that became a consequence of economic coercion and destruction of the social layer of «the former». Kazakh auls transferred the network of tribal communications and the system of traditional values to the collective farm, forming unique «Kazakh-style collective farms». Election campaigns to the grass-roots apparatus of the Soviet power became the place of clan battles. The power actively used intra- and inter-clan conflicts for realization of strategic tasks of socialist construction. However, the status ranking of clan structures provoked unethical forms of behaviour such as denunciation, incitement, and the use of compromising materials. The documents have preserved many micro-histories which focus on the fates of individuals and the tragedy of family breakdown because of confiscation, eviction, and divorce. These fragments of oral history reveal the reasons behind the Kazakh aul’s nomadic move. To summarize, the author noted that on the one hand clan traditionality was trying to solidify itself under Sovietism, while on the other hand it was trying to escape from direct conflict by fleeing. However, all the adaptive behavioural levels taken together could not save the nomads from starvation. The «imagined community» of the Kazakhs was destroyed not so much by generic contradictions as by the political will of the Soviet state, for the sake of forming a new Soviet identity, a new Soviet society. On the way to socialism the historical memory was transformed, and the ancestral memory of the Kazakh people was destroyed