The Inner Bukey Horde of Kazakhs, Nineteenth – Early Twentieth Centuries: Stages of Administrative Governance Evolution

Introduction. The article examines some key stages of administrative governance evolution in the Inner Bukey Horde throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — with due regard of the present-day historical research agenda and various methodological approaches adopted to interpret Imperial Russia’s policies toward Orientals across its southeastern domains. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on a number of related historical publications, namely: A Review of the Fifty-Year Long History (1837–1887) by the Ministry of State Property (Pt. 2: Guardianship. Land Affairs Management), and Russian Political Law by N. Korkunov, a renowned Russian lawyer of the prerevolutionary era. The latter reviews the Bukey Horde’s administrative structure as of the early twentieth century. Results. The work employs an institutional approach to the study of administrative governance evolution in the Inner Bukey Horde, and delineates a total of four stages therein: establishment of the Bukey Horde, institutional legalization of the Bukey Khanate, transformation and abolishment of native royal power of khans, integration of the Horde into Russia’s political and economic environments as part of Astrakhan Governorate. The staging model centers around the institution of khanship that did outlive ones in all other Kazakh communities, which is explained by the personal traits of Khan Jäñgir and a special ‘inner’ status of the Bukey Horde.