This article analyzes the reasons and considers the process of implementing the policy of "confiscation of Kazakh bays of the Almaty district" based on materials from local, regional and central archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Various punitive measures that the state applied against the bays in the process of confiscation of their main wealth – cattle are considered in it. The article also analyses the consequences of large-scale confiscations, which affected not only the bays, but also their families, a close circle of relatives, since they were all subjected to repression and persecution. The archive documents show a picture when the masses of innocent victims were forced to leave their homeland and became refugees, divorced, widows and orphans. Thus, the article highlights the collapse of the role of the bays in Kazakh society, who previously acted as the organizing center of the whole village, took care of their tribes and their economic well-being. Now, in accordance with the confiscation policy, the bays were turned into "criminals" and punished by both judicial and non-judicial institutions. The article provides a wide range of historical documents, archival materials, where there is information about confiscated bays, who are presented as "enemies of the people", uneducated exploiters of ordinary poor Kazakhs. The analysis of the documents shows that the policy of confiscation was carried out spontaneously and led to serious consequences, which the party leadership itself recognized and sometimes had to correct their mistakes. The article considers many aspects of the policy of confiscation of Kazakh bays and its tragic consequences on a broad source base.