The Kazakh steppe of the Orenburg Department in the regional policy of the Russian Empire in the 19th century

The aim of this article is to study the standpoints and opinions of N.I. Lyubimov, M.V. Ladyzhensky and F.M. Lazarevsky, officials of different ranks who carried out regional policy in the Kazakh steppe, on further improvement of the government policy in the periphery after the introduction of the Regulations on the Management of the Orenburg Kirghiz in 1844. The aim is achieved by studying the following issues: identification of the range of suggestions requiring further improvement in the administrative and territorial policy of the empire in the outskirts; study of the opinion of the above-named officials in solving the assigned tasks of the government; analysis of their ideas on achieving the tasks. The research is based on the archival materials that the author found in archives of Russia and Kazakhstan and on a wide range of various published sources. The structural-system approach in studying the data allowed the author to describe the outlines of the government policy, to investigate the genesis of the views of officials of different ranks on the development of the Kazakh society and on the improvement of the administrative policy after the introduction of the 1844 reform in the Orenburg region. The approach helped to reveal weaknesses in the law, to identify suggestions on improving the management of the Kazakh steppe and to track the implementation of these suggestions. During the study the author came to the following conclusions: 1. The regional policy of the Russian Empire pursued the goal of political and economic integration of the country, the establishment of its legal, social and administrative homogeneity, but the center was forced to take into account the characteristics of the outskirts. 2. On the territory of the Kazakh steppe, the government course was aimed at transforming the political and legal status within the Russian state, but taking into account Kazakh customs, at introducing judicial proceedings on the basis of Kazakh customary law. 3. The Russian administration in the periphery was supported by the elite of the Kazakh society, the Ching-gizids, who were appointed sultans-rulers, but later representatives of the “black bone” were also brought to the service of the Russian Empire. 4. The main problems in the province were the issues of regulating relations between Kazakhs, Cossacks and line residents. 5. The kibitka (house) tax required a precise determination of the population and the improvement of its collection technique. N.I. Lyubimov, M.V. Ladyzhensky and F.M. Lazarevsky proposed various methods for improving regional policy in the Kazakh steppe, but some of them remained on paper. Most of the suggestions were taken into account in the implementation of the new reform of 1867-1868 in the Steppe.

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