THE PROBLEMS OF MODERNIZATION OF TRADITIONAL ECONOMY OF THE KAZAKH PEOPLE IN THE WORKS OF A.N. BUKEYKHANOV

Abstract

This article presents the scientific views of A.N. Bukeikhanov, a prominent Kazakh political and public figure, journalist and publicist, on the modernisation of traditional Kazakh agriculture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The aim of this article is to summarise the various ideas of A.N. Bukeikhanov, published in the press, within a single concept of the future socio-economic development of an independent country. The results of the study included the thesis that Alikhan Bukeykhanov relied on advanced socio-economic views that were widespread not only in Europe but also in Asia (Japan). His ideal socio-economic system was based on ‘people’s’ self-government bodies - ‘zemstvo’-s and cooperatives, which in turn were based on traditional structural communities. According to Alikhan Bukeikhanov, the modernization of traditional types of economy should have become the basis for further economic development. His works show that the problems of the traditional subsistence system should be solved as a single complex problem, taking into account many factors, among which he considered the ecological one to be important. This approach clearly favoured the preservation of a certain part of semi-nomadic cattle breeding as the economic and cultural type most adapted to the natural conditions of the Kazakh steppe.