Kazakh bai in the socio-political life of the first quarter of the twentieth century: adaptation mechanisms, strategies and results (on the example of the volosts of the Aktobe province)

This article, based on empirical material, reconstructs the strategy, practice, mechanisms, forms that are im-plemented or consciously applied by the social category of bays to adapt to the political systems of the tsarist and Bolshevik governments. On the basis of the principles of the forces of social history, the authors of the articles tried to interpret the fundamental processes that changed Kazakh society within the framework of two state government and ideological paradigms — the late imperial and early Soviet. The adaptation mechanisms of the bais are also carried out under the conditions of Soviet construction and the transition to the political subjectivity of the bais at the local level is traced. The focus of the publication is the reconstruction of histori-cal events in the Irgiz and Temir districts of the Aktobe province, covering the period between 1909 and 1925 and associated with the participation of bays in the socio-political life of the region. The research method is based on the case study method (case studies). This study took a deeper and more detailed look at a specific case in evidence discovery. Declassified documents of the Aktobe provincial department of the OGPU were chosen as the main source. The experience of studying the institution of bai, its origin, socio-economic and political role in the key events of Kazakh history in the first quarter of the 20th century shows that bai tried to occupy their niche in extreme conditions of the political and social revolution. Various options for «respons-es» to the challenges of the imperial and then the Bolshevik revolution were implemented. However, by the end of the 1920s, the social order in the village, based on the consensus of the majority, was destroyed by the practices of revolutionary terror and war.