Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2018 number

Zemstvo reform was carried out in the territory of Kazakhstan during the period of Revolutions and Civil War in 1917-1919. Kazakh liberal intelligentsia, which considered zemstvo as the first step towards self-administration on the national level and as a way of transfer to the territorial national autonomy, were interested in creating territorial institutions. The majority of the Kazakh population showed their interest in zemstvo. Changing governments were also interested in spreading the national self-administration system. Despite this, zemstvos were not created in a majority of Kazakh regions. It was due to a low activity of regional committees organizing zemstvo’s self-administration. The regional election commission activity was complicated by the Kazakh population’s nomadic way of life. The launched work on introducing zemstvo was interrupted by the Soviet system’s establishment, and after its overthrow, the elections of public persons (glasnyi) to zemstvo, appointed for the winter of 1918-1919, were slowed down by the difficulties of communication in winter, snowstorms and severe weather conditions. The zemstvo elections stopped due to the cold winter, loss of livestock, typhus epidemic in some regions and a difficult economic situation of the Kazakh population. In the summer the military operations began. The government of Alash-Orda, which had a great influence on the Kazakh population, played a contradictory role related to zemstvo. It was supposed that it closely cooperated with zemstvos. Zemstvos were often headed by its supporters. The councils of Alash-Orda created in districts, trying not to interfere in the competence of territorial justices, performed lots of their functions de facto. Representatives of the Kazakh population working as a part of district territorial zemstvo justices got familiar with the experience of local government. Involving the Kazakh population in zemstvo’s elections was a great achievement in their political rights development.