Educational policy of the Russian Empire and Kazakh intelligentsia formation on the Orenburg Krai territory in the second half of the XIX century

The paper analyzes the changes that occurred in the second half of the XIX century on the territory of the Orenburg Region in relation to the education system in the Kazakh environment. The role of these changes is shown both for the implementation of the imperial policy of acculturation, and for the formation of the Kazakh intelligentsia. The author examined the formation of the Kazakh intelligentsia on the territory of the Orenburg Region as a result of the Kazakh ethnos westernization under the influence of Russian-secular education and public education in this region. It is concluded that with the establishment of the Special Committee for Foreign Education (1866) under the administration of the Kazan Academic District, the Empire took a course toward Russification, which can be interpreted as restricting the cultural identity of the ethnic region and enhancing the use of the Russian language, literature, orthodoxy. The main emphasis was placed on education. The imperial authorities implemented the idea that a single and stable multinational state is possible only if there is a strong ideological base, based on the Russified system of public education. As a result, gradually in late imperial Russia there was a concept of expanding the «alien» education with the help of enlightened «aliens». Gradually a stratum began to form that consisted of Kazakhs who, participating in the cause of education and dedication, supported the government, introduced representatives of the Kazakh ethnos to the expansion of the network of schools, they were educators and teachers. The process of creating schools for «aliens» implicitly led to the emergence of the Kazakh intelligentsia, which further exacerbated the national Kazakh movement within the Russian Empire.