Abstract
The article deals with the Russian historiographical tradition of the pre-revolutionary period in relation to the Turgai region. The contribution of the main institutions of this region is analyzed: the Orenburg department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, the Turgai regional statistical committee, the Orenburg scientific archival commission. As well as the figures of these institutions, who were also officials of the colonial apparatus: V.V. Katarinsky, I.I. Kraft, A.I. Dobrosmyslov and others, as well as Kazakh researchers. From the position of “new imperial policy” the main reasons of research interest dictated by the study of the region for the purpose of further colonization are shown. Nevertheless, these works are of great informational value. The study allows us to define the activities of pre-revolutionary scientists, both research and service, as cultural regeneration, contrary to the modern assessment of Russian scientists characterizing it as an imperial policy of acculturation.