Lunara Nurgaliyeva 201556602

The goals of Russian and Soviet authorities for sedentarizing the Qazaq people changed
in terms of politics, economy, and cultural unity of the nation during the period from the 18th to
the 20th centuries.
Firstly, the main political aims of the Russian administrators for the sedentarization of the
Qazaq people had changed from strengthening the borders along with an establishment of the
connection with Central Asia to the formation of administrative units. Steven Sabol’s “Kazak
resistance to Russian colonization: interpreting the Kenesary Kasymov revolt, 1837–1847”, the
secondary source can be used to give an illustration of the main political goals of the Russian
Empire for the sedentarization of the Qazaq people during the period of the 18th century.
According to Sabol, in the first half of the 18th century the Russian Empire had started to build
fortifications in the territory of Qazaq Steppe with the purpose to secure the borders and abandon
the nomadic lifestyle of the Qazaq people by restricting their movement within these borders
(Sabol, p. 234). This can be clearly seen from the fact that “access to former pastures,
particularly on the western side of the Ural River, was further restricted.” (Sabol, p. 236). In
addition to that, authorities of the Russian Empire were interested in the construction of these
fortifications for the reason that it allowed them to establish trade routes with Central Asia. For
example, Sabol had mentioned that the further expansion into the Qazaq Steppe that is building
fortifications would be useful for the Russian Empire “to develop stronger trade relations, and to
consolidate their position in Bashkiria” (Sabol, p. 235). This proves the idea that the main
political goals of the Russian Empire had also covered the formation of the connection with
Central Asia through the trade routes. Conversely, in the 20th century, Nikita Khrushchev
established the Virgin Land project with the main political purpose of building administrative
units for the sedentarization of the Qazaq people. To illustrate this point, the secondary source
“Planet of one hundred languages” of Michael Pohl can be used for the reason that it was written
based on the archives from the administrative and cultural center of the Virgin Lands and hence
can be considered as a credible source. Referring to Pohl, “In 1960 Khrushchev decided to carry
out an administrative reorganization to get this problem under control” (Pohl, p. 253). Moreover,
it was also mentioned that as a result of this administrative reorganization the new administrative
unit was created and was “so called Virgin Lands Region or Tselinnyi krai” (Pohl, p. 235). From
Lunara Nurgaliyeva 201556602

that point of view, it can be seen that political goals of the Russian Empire for sedentarizing of
the Qazaq people, specifically securing the border and opportunity to establish trade routes to
Central Asia changed to the establishment of administrative units, which was the main political
aim of Soviet Union during the Virgin Land project.
Secondly, the main economic goals of the Russian Empire for the sedentarization of the
Qazaq people were different from the goals of the Soviet Union during the Virgin Land
Campaign. According to Sabol, Michail Speransky’s reform was based on the five principles,
one of which was “levying proportional taxes and tribute based upon reasonable abilities to pay”
(Sabol, p. 238). Furthermore, Sabol also had claimed that in 1824 Russian administrators
introduced the first tax system called kibitka (yurt) on the Qazaqs for the reason that they “lacked
currency and lacked means to sell produce from hunting or fishing” (Sabol, p. 238). This means
that in the 19th century the main economic goal of the Russian Empire for sedentarizing of the
Qazaq people was the collection of taxes. In addition to that, the Russian Empire promoted
settlement and agriculture among Qazaqs for the sedentarization, despite the fact that “it was not
as profitable as their traditional livestock raising”, which proves the idea that authorities of the
Russian Empire did not have an economic purpose in terms of profitability of agriculture as the
Soviet Union did (Sabol, p. 236). In the mid-20th century authorities of the Soviet Union was
aimed to develop the economy and gain profit by investing in grain production. Michaela Pohl
has claimed that “the question of the profitability of the entire venture was one of Khrushchev’s
main preoccupations” (Pohl, p. 255). Moreover, it was also stated that even though the opponents
of the project had expected that the investments to the grain production would not be worthwhile,
at the December Plenum of the Central Committee in 1958 Khrushchev reported that the project
had started to pay itself after four years (Pohl, p. 255). These support the idea that the main
economic aim of this project for the sedentarization was the profit from grain production.
Summarizing the pieces of evidence mentioned above, it is conspicuous that the aims of the
Russian Empire and the Soviet Union for sedentarizing the Qazaq people were different in terms
of economy, that is the collection of taxes and profitability from grain production respectively.
Thirdly, the land policy introduced by Russian authorities at the beginning of the 20th
century did not have an aim in terms of the cultural unification for the sedentarization of the
Lunara Nurgaliyeva 201556602

Qazaq people as Soviet authorities had during the Virgin Land Campaign. Even though in both
settlement campaigns, in the Semirechye and Virgin Land Project, new settlers were brought to
the Qazaq Steppe, projects were implicated for different purposes. According to Pahlen’s
“Mission to Turkestan”, Russian authorities brought Cossacks to the Qazaq Steppe with the
purpose of colonization (Pahlen, p. 192). This can be prominently observed from the fact that
after the introduction of the land policy towards Qazaqs “the Ministry of the Interior created a
brand new 'Department of Colonization'” (Pahlen, p. 181). Additionally, Muhammadjan
Tynyshpaev reported that Russian “ignorant bureaucrats strictly divide the population into
Russians and Kirgizes” (Tynyshpaev, p. 3). This implies that during the resettlement campaign in
the first half of the 20th century, Russian authorities did not have the purpose of cultural
unification. Sources of both of these pieces of evidence can be considered as reliable and
credible sources since they are primary sources that were written based on authors’ experiences
and observations of that time. In contrast, one of the main goals of the Virgin Land Project was
cultural unification. According to the observation of Kazakhs and Western scholars, that was
mentioned in the Pohl’s work, migration of the Slavic settlers to the territory of the Qazaq steppe
“was a “heavy price” to pay for the “mixed successes” of the Virgin Lands episode.” (Pohl, p.
238). This suggests that it was initially anticipated that within the Soviet Union mixing the
nationalities would be a push factor in achieving unity. In view of these facts, it is quite likely
that the goals of Russian administrators changed from the colonization of the Qazaqs to the
cultural unification of the nation that was experienced during the Soviet Union.
On the other hand, it is also important to highlight that the political goals of the Russian
Empire did not change and were similar to that of the Soviet Union in terms of the establishment
of administrative units. As an example, in the 18th century, Russian authorities had an aim to
subdivide the territories of the Little and Middle Hordes in the Russian pattern, that is create
okrug, volost, uezd’, aul in the territory of the Qazaq Steppe (Sabol, p. 237). However, it cannot
be denied that the purpose of building administrative units in the 18th century was not the main
political goal and was quite different from that of the Virgin Lands project.
Overall, taking all things into consideration, it can be concluded that the goals of Russian
and Soviet administrators regarding the sedentarization of the Qazaq people were different in
Lunara Nurgaliyeva 201556602

terms of politics, economy, and cultural unification of the nation in the period from the 18th to
the 20th century.