Russian Empire in Central Asia: Peripheral Administration Experience

The current state of historical science brings a researcher to a new understanding of the empire phenomenon, to the need to identify definitions that allow to describe the polychrome space of the world civilization of the Modern Age, which unfolded the history of construction, coexistence, confrontation and the collapse of great empires. Some of them had distant overseas territories, which turned the metropolis into brilliant colossi, obtained innumerable resources from the colonies for their own economic and social development. Others sought to retain vast continental heterogeneous spaces under their control. Still others tried to strengthen their economic power by capturing alien and not yet developed territories. The signs of colonial empires are well known, among which the principles of the administration of the colonies occupy the most important place. The proposed article considers the dynamics of Russian administrative practice in the Kazakh Steppe during the 18th century, when the empire chose a model of interaction with the region. At that time, the Russian administration in Steppe was passing from indirect to direct control. The presence of these two administrative models convinces that at the considered time the Kazakh Steppe was a Russian colony. The model of direct control of the Kazakh steppe was implemented from 1822 for the Middle Horde and from 1824 for the Small Horde. From 1867/1868 the Government takes the course of administrative assimilation in the Russian Central Asia. From that time until the end of the 19th century there is no point to talk about the colonial nature of the Russian administration in the region.