Russian intellectual elite of the XVIII — middle of XIX centuries about the economy of the kazakhs

Abstract

The article analyzes the assessments of the Russian intellectual elite of the XVIII — the middle of XIX centuries of the economic activity of the Kazakh people. The relevance of the work is due to the poor study of the economic and economic activities of the Kazakhs as an integral part of the perception of the steppe population by Russian officials, scientists and travelers of the period under consideration in historiography.

This process was influenced by several factors: political and socio-economic changes in Kazakh society, resulting from Russian politics in the region, the dominance of the philosophy of the Enlightenment in the worldview of imperial intellectuals. During the period under review, the assessments of the economic activity of the steppe population were not static and evolved continuously. If at the beginning of the 18th century the economy of the Kazakh people was seen by observers only as cattle breeding and the exchange of goods, then in the middle of the 19th century it was assessed by eyewitnesses as a combination of cattle breeding, agriculture, fishing, seasonal work and trade. In addition to diversifying the types of economic activity of Kazakhs, Russian observers noted the social stratification of Kazakh society and the emergence of new social categories of the population.