The Formation of Kazakh Officialdom and Its Incorporation into the Russian Imperial System of Administration

Abstract

This paper analyses the processes taking place in the formation of a Kazakh bureaucratic elite and its integration into the Russian imperial system of administration. It developed due to certain changes in the social structure of Kazakh society during the second half of the 19th-early 20th centuries. As a new class of Kazakh officials was created, most of them became faithful executors of Russian imperial policies in the steppe. The state encouraged the activities of all kinds of Kazakh officials with awards commensurate to their rank. However, only a few of these Kazakh officials had high-achieving careers. The analysis here focuses on the biographies of the sultans Ghazi (Ghazy) Bulatovich Valikhanov, and Ish Muhamed Suyuk-ogly Abylaikhanov, which illustrate the predominance of those with illustrious origins being among the prominent Kazakh employees of that time.