The аctivity of the Orenburg's border committee as a department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The article concerns the activities of the Ministry of Foreign affairs employees at the Orenburg border committee. The Orenburg governors had powerful mandate to negotiate with the Junior Horde which nomadized along the border territories. Their relations with sultans were peaceful, though the trade route which run through the Junior zhuz to the Central Asia was of a great interest for both British and Russian empires. There were the same territories which later became the area of the so-called «Great Game», a rivalry for political and economic privileges between Britain and Russia. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had in Orenburg its own «observation post» that was designed to prevent growth of British power in the region and promote stead Russian expansion towards the south.