Omsk Ethnographic School and research of Kazakhs of Russia

Omsk, which is on border with the Kazakh Steppe, becomes the largest scientific center in Russia that studies traditional ethnography of the peoples of Kazakhstan and Central Asia back in the 19th century. Here the administrative center of management of the extensive region was located down: at first, the West Siberian General Governorship, later the Steppes one. Unsurprisingly, a scientific ethnographic community was early established in Omsk with not only scientists, but also local historians, travelers, exiled writers and public figures being its members. They left works, articles directly or indirectly describing the culture and life of the Kazakh people. It is fair to consider that Ch.Ch. Valikhanov and G.N. Potanin were at the sources of the Omsk Ethnographic School. G.E. Katanayev, M.V. Pevtsov, A.E. Novoselov, I.N.Shukhov, I.V. Zakharova (in the second half of the 20th century) made a big contribution to the development of ethnography. Professor N.A. Tomilov allocated three periods in the development of Omsk ethnography. The periodization of the history of ethnographic studies of the Kazakhs of Western Siberia was developed by Sh.K. Akhmetova together with N.A. Tomilov. They reasoned three main, interconnected periods in this direction. Since the second half the 1970s, the ethnographic study of the Kazakh population of Western Siberia passes to a new, qualitative scientifically and methodologically stage of development. Omsk scientists managed to combine successfully historical-ethnographic and ethnosociological research of both rural and urban Kazakh population of the West Siberian region, which, as a result, allowed to start a system study of the Kazakh population. Within the designated scientific problem of greatest interest is research devoted to Kazakhs of Omsk Irtysh region by N.A.Tomilov, Sh.K. Akhmetova and O.M. Provatorova. The conclusions they made give an opportunity of the comparative analysis of the ethnosocial and ethnocultural processes in regional communities of Kazakhs of Western Siberia which are defined as ethno-local (ethnographic) groups of the uniform Kazakh ethnos. Nowadays, it is possible to fairly conclude that the Omsk Ethnographic School made an essential contribution to the scientific study of Kazakhs of Russia, their culture, life and ethnic and ethnocultural processes. There are some negative moments that appeared recently. First, there are fewer monographs based on materials of the latest field research of Kazakhs of the West Siberian region, the number of ethnosociological polls among the Kazakh population decreased. Secondly, there is a decrease in the scientific interest of Russian scientists in the ethnography of the Kazakhs of the region. Thirdly, the Omsk Ethnographic School has not yet fully realized its scientific potential for preparation and writing of an integral monography on the aspects of traditional ethnography and tendencies of modern ethnic and ethnocultural processes among the Kazakh population of Western Siberia. Thus, the Omsk Ethnographic School with its rich centuries-old history possesses all scientific and methodological resources for carrying out more fruitful research of the key problems of history, culture and life of Kazakhs of Russia.

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