ABSTRACT
Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Russian imperial government constructed a legal-administrative system in the steppe that provided a framework for colonial rule over the Middle Horde Kazakh nomads. Within this framework, law was one of the primary tools of power and control over the nomads. Beginning in 1822, with the promulgation of the “Regulations on Siberian Kirgiz” [Middle Horde Kazakhs] (Ustav o Sibirskikh Kirgizakh), and continuing through the century with the promulgation of major new legislation in 1868, 1891, and 1898, Russian lawmakers sought to effect social and cultural change, as well as to legitimize imperial claims to rule over the steppe territory and its inhabitants.1 This chapter will examine the construction of the legal-administrative system that the Russian government envisioned to be appropriate both for governance over the Middle Horde Kazakh culture as it evolved in the nineteenth century, and for realizing the imperial goals for incorporating the steppe into the empire. It will focus on the government’s visions of how adat would fit into the system, and the laws and policies that legitimized those visions in the eyes of the colonial rulers.
