The campaign to destroy the bai in Central Kazakhstan in the late 1920s.

Abstract

The article examines the campaign to eliminate the bais in Central Kazakhstan in the late 1920s. This was the period when the Soviet government began radical transformations in Kazakh society. According to the Bolsheviks, reconstruction and strengthening of the cattle-breeding economy, collectivization and, on their basis, assistance to the poor were unthinkable without breaking patriarchal-clan relations and destroying the baispatriarchal households. The largest revolutionary measure of the Soviet government in the village was the confiscation of livestock, property and the eviction of the bais. The authors note that in traditional Kazakh society, the bais had great authority and played a key role in the socio-economic life of their people. The process
of liquidation of the bai as a “class” was analyzed by the authors on the basis of declassified archival documents in the course of the implementation of the regional research topic 442-I-23 “Service for organizing and conducting research activities on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in the Karaganda region”, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.-Zh.K. Tokayev No.456 of November 24, 2020 “On the State Commission for the Full Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression”. The authors emphasize that the measures to confiscate livestock and property of bai farms were
carried out without taking into account specific features — the nomadic way of doing business and life of the overwhelming majority of the indigenous population. The article shows the mechanism for implementing mass terror and the tragic consequences of these events on a regional scale. It is concluded that during the campaign of confiscation and eviction of the bai farms, agriculture suffered, and a social stratum of society was destroyed — the bai, the bearers of centuries-old knowledge about cattle breeding.