Abstract:

Mukhamet-Sharif Aitov, from the Tatar nobles of the Orenburg province, served in the Border Commission in various positions (interpreter, official “on affairs in the Horde”, trustee of the Orenburg linear Kazakhs) for about forty years performed intermediary functions between the regional Russian authorities and the Kazakh population and was repeatedly sent to the Kazakh steppe on various issues from regulation conflict situations to collecting carting, auditing the amount of the tent tax and recording materials on the norms of Kazakh customary law and others.

The relationship between the official of the Orenburg Border Commission Mukhamet Sharif Aitov and the Kazakhs of the Orenburg region was riddled with various important events from the Kazakhs recognizing his competence to the capture of the interpreter and sending him to Khiva. and finally, the establishment of personal friendly relations between the Tatar official and the Kazakh sultans and ordinary nomads, the manifestation acts of hospitality both from Aitov (in his home in Orenburg) and from the Kazakhs in their nomads. Evidence of the establishment of cooperation between Aitov and the Kazakhs was the unexpected accusation of the regional administration (the Provisional Council for the Administration of the Kazakhs of the Internal Horde) of aiding the Kazakhs during the interpreter’s investigation in the Bukey Khanate. Based on the foregoing, the paper will analyze the process of building up relationships between the official of the Border Commission, Tatar interpreter M-Sh Aitov, and the Kazakhs in the context of the policy of imperial power in the region. The report will be based on historical literature and archival documents extracted from the funds of Kazakhstan and Russia.