Политические воззрения и родоплеменное устройство казахского общества в условиях советизации в 1917–1920 годы

The article examines the individual biographies of Qazaq political figures of the early 20th century and forms of political activity in Qazaq society from 1917 to 1920. The study period is divided into five stages, starting with the 1917 February Revolution and ending with the Sovietization of the Qazaq Steppe after the Civil War. The motives of Qazaq political figures in relation to the Soviet or Bolshevik model of state structure are specific for each stage. The Qazaq leaders' political views, which have been reconstructed from various disparate and diverse sources, have either supported or rejected the new ideology and did not remain constant; their positions and views changed under the influence of the turbulent revolutionary era. The Qazaq Steppe's revolutionary events began with only one Qazaq Bolshevik, Alibi Dzhangildin. However, by 1921, their number had grown to 1588. The author of the article has attempted to find out the motives that prompted the Qazaqs to link their activities with the Soviets and become communists. In Soviet Qazaqstani historiography, such reasons often included origins "from the lower classes", dissatisfaction with social inequality, and others, without considering the traditional nature of Qazaq society. Meanwhile, the geographical distribution and tribal structure of Qazaq society were among the important factors influencing the political choice of the Qazaq intelligentsia. The difficulty in determining the tribal affiliation of Qazaq political figures was due to the limited documentary base, since this information was not usually mentioned and remained outside the Russian archives. Available information suggests that the Qazaqs who went over to the side of the Soviet government or joined the Bolshevik Party in the period from 1917 to 1918 were previously excluded from the Qazaq national movement, which was dominated by two main tribes, and belonged to weaker or smaller tribes and clans. This study traces the composition of these heterogeneous groups