Abstract:

Organization of office work is not just a bureaucratic procedure. It is a powerful communication tool that empires used to govern their vast territories and large populations. In the Russian Empire, office work became an important tool for managing the empire, so among the qualitative indicators of the registration of external districts in the West Siberian General Government in the first half of the 19th century was the establishment of office work, first in the Tatar and Russian languages, then only in Russian.

Representatives of the local Kazakh population, mainly sultans - representatives of aq suyek (white bone), were co-opted into the service of the Russian Empire in the local government system. Representatives of qara suyek (black bone) could also claim power in the local government system; an additional factor in their advancement was the education of translators at school. Fluency in languages and knowledge of local culture made it possible for people from Kara Suyek to take up the position of clerks (pismovoditel’s) in the prikaz of the external districts of the West Siberian General Government on the territory of the Middle Zhuz, performing the functions of mediation between the local elite, sultans, biys and elders and the Russian administration, possessing information, to achieve a certain career growth.

The case of the career of Abdulgafar Mandaev, the son of the foreman, volost ruler, Senior Sultan Mandai Toktamyshev, clearly characterizes the trajectories of social change in Kazakh society in the 19th century. A graduate of the Omsk Asian School, which existed since 1789 to train interpreters and translators, and since 1828 transferred to the administration of the School of the Siberian Linear Cossack Army, Abdulgafar Mandaev began his career as an official in 1835 from the position of the Sultan's pismovoditel’, and managed to advance his career to the position of Senior Sultan of the Kokchetav district in the early 50s XIX century, but for almost 15 years he served as assessor in the same district. The Kazakh official, in the minds of the Russian authorities, should be known “for his well-meaning behavior and, moreover, for knowing the rights of Russian laws and Asian customs.”

The report will be prepared on materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan.