Abstract
Regional features played a critical role in determining the nature of the transformation ofperipheries under imperial rule and the particularities of their integration into that larger polity. Essentialto this process was the manner in which distinct societies adapted to the empire’s socio-political system–that is, their individual way of embedding themselves within a uniform imperial model. As with manyother cases, Kazakh nomadic society had an individual way of adapting and entering into the imperialsystem. Yet if regional political transformations of the Kazakh steppe in the 19th century have been theobject of historical investigation, then problem of social change in this region at the time remains largelyunstudied. This essay represents an attempt to fill this designated lack. It explores social transformationsin the second half of the 19th century, when certain members Kazakh nomadic society embraced thesocial system of the empire. The essay seeks to show how the historically closed Kazakh elite began toacquire the characteristics of an imperial estate and furthermore opened to ordinary Kazakhs. It arguesthat the integration of ordinary Kazakhs into the empire’s privileged estates –principally the nobility andso-called honored citizens–is the proof of evolution of the Kazakh nobility. The research work based onmethodology as new imperial history, social history.