In the first half of the twentieth century, the imperial and, after it, the Soviet space experienced structural changes in all spheres of economy and politics. Transformations also affected social development, exposing the problem of a divided society and the ambiguity of the prospects for ethnic development. Thus, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kazakhs were in a state of crisis and were deprived of the opportunity to exercise their rights as political and economic subjects of the empire. The Soviet doctrine, when declaring the right of peoples to self-determination, in reality intensified actions to create a new historical community. The situation was aggravated by a rather aggressive form of Russification and Sovietization. The threat of loss of ethnicity has become a challenge for national elites. An adequate response was required from their side in the format of concepts, ideologies. The diversity of political groups in imperial times and the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks had a multidirectional impact on the processes of nation-building. The article will attempt a comprehensive analysis of the processes of nation-building during the period of cardinal transformations both in the imperial period and under Soviet rule. The activity of the intellectual community was supported and strengthened by objective and politically motivated changes, such as universal education, integration into the system of the capitalist, and then the Soviet economy