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Abstract

This paper examines the role of imperial infrastructure – railways, telegraph networks, and postal services—in governing the Kazakh steppe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on the Semipalatinsk, Akmola, and Semirechye regions. Drawing on archival materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the paper analyzes the dual nature of infrastructure as both an instrument of integration and a space of resistance.

The central argument is that infrastructure functioned not only as a mechanism of imperial control but also as a field of interaction in which Kazakh populations were simultaneously incorporated into imperial economic processes and engaged in practices of resistance. On the one hand, Kazakhs actively participated in the economic system by supplying livestock and raw materials and facilitating their transportation to railway stations and regional fairs. On the other hand, this very integration created opportunities for contestation.

A revealing case is documented along the Altai railway line on April 5, 1914, when a telegraph official discovered damage to a communication line. According to the report, the damage was caused by local individuals, presumably with the intention of removing telegraph equipment, although no theft ultimately occurred. The incident required immediate repair and official investigation, demonstrating the vulnerability of the communication network.

Such actions should not be interpreted merely as isolated criminal offenses but rather as forms of everyday resistance aimed at disrupting infrastructural functioning. By targeting telegraph lines, railways, and postal routes, local actors could slow administrative processes, interfere with the transmission of orders, and create zones of relative autonomy. Thus, participation in the imperial system did not preclude resistance; on the contrary, it enabled the emergence of new strategies of contestation.