THE ORIGINS OF THE IDEA OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN KAZAKHSTAN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: AN INTERRUPTED FLIGHT OF THOUGHT

Abstract

This article examines the development of political, legal, and constitutional ideas in Kazakhstan at the beginning of the 20th century. It analyzes historical documents that reflect the growth of political and legal consciousness in Kazakh society followi ng the first Russian bourgeois -democratic revolution of 1905–1907 and the intensification of colonial oppression caused by the tsarist regime’s political, judicial, and administrative reforms. The Regulation on the Administration of the Akmola, Semipalatin sk, Semirechye, Uralsk, and Turgay Regions (March 25, 1891) illustrated the local administration’s “complete disregard for the rights of the individual and the sense of human dignity,” as well as its reliance on administrative violence and the “artificially supported ignorance of the masses.” The revolutionary wave that swept across the Russian Empire also reached its colonial peripheries, including the Kazakh steppe. Kazakh society was drawn into political life through the emergence of political parties an d the first Kazakh -language newspapers. The growing political self-awareness of the Kazakhs was reflected in petitions and telegrams sent to the Russian emperor, the chairman of the Committee (later Council) of Ministers, the minister of internal affairs, and local colonial authorities. The short-lived Karkaraly Republic also emerged during this period. At the same time, local colonial officials began to report more actively to higher authorities in St. Petersburg.