On the Issue of Land Ownership among Kazakhs Nomads in the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries and its Reflection in the Legislation of the Russian Empire

Abstract

In this article the authors explore the origins, reasons and determine the chronological framework of the emergence of private ownership of pastures among the nomadic Kazakhs. Having studied archival sources, the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, testimonies of contemporaries and research of scientists, the authors conclude that these processes refer to the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries. The issues of land use and land ownership among the Kazakhs who were engaged in nomadic cattlebreeding were and remain topical, since this problem is caused by the special role of land in nomadic society. Despite the polemics which have started in the 30's of the last century, up to the middle 50's of the XX century there was no unified opinion among scientists on the question of the nature, forms and the right of feudal property in Kazakhstan. The Soviet historiography was dominated by two opposite opinions: the first – since the times of the Karakhanid state (XI century) in Kazakhstan existed the right of feudal land ownership (S.V. Yushkov, S.Z. Zimanov, A.E. Erenov and others). The second point of view – in conditions of nomadic cattle breeding the basic means of manufacture was and remained the cattle, instead of land..., not possession of the land, but possession of cattle was a defining factor of exploitation (V.F. Shakhmatov, S.E. Tolybekov and others). One or the other position dominated at different periods in history, but scientists did not come to a consensus and the question remained unresolved in the historical literature. Communal land use existed in Russia until the beginning of capitalism, but this does not mean that there was no private land ownership. In some Asian countries, communal land tenure coexisted in parallel with state ownership. There is no doubt that in the Steppe the main form of land use was communal land use (aul or clan), but the presence of communal land use does not negate the existence of private feudal property.