Materials on the ethnography of the Kazakh-Bukeev in the Russian pre-revolutionary periodical

This article presents the review and analysis of pre-revolutionary periodicals devoted to ethnography of Bukeev Khanate Kazakhs. The study of multiple publications printed in Metropolitan and regional newspapers and magazines showed that the Russian public expressed huge interest towards the territories and ethnicities that were part of Russian Empire. Work on collecting ethnographic material throughout the whole country including those territories inhabited by Kazakhs was conducted by public and state organizations (like Russian Geographical Society, Free Economic Society, etc.) as well as by enthusiasts: local lore specialists, medical doctors, government officials that expressed not only a scientific interest but also civil responsibility with regard to the fate of affiliated ethnicities. Pages of periodicals of the second half of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries turned into arena of sharp disputes about variants of state policies with regards to those ethnicities, ways and forms of their integration into Russian society, and modernization of their traditional culture. Newspapers' and magazines' publications of that period give vast material that allows to reconstruct main elements of material and spiritual culture of Bukeev Horde Kazakhs, as well as to identify emotionally coloured images of “friends” and “strangers”, to discover the features of mentality not only of the studied Kazaks but also Russians that conducted those studies.