Introduction. On April 6, 1917. The Provisional Government formed the Turkestan Committee to resolve issues arising in the region. Mukhamezhdan Tynyshpayev and Orest Shkapsky were appointed as commissioners for the Semirechensk region. It is proposed to consider the activities of the commissioners, taking into account temporal and spatial features, to identify atypical cases and strategies of behavior of officials. Without understanding their ideological aspirations and practical steps it is impossible to fully understand the peculiarities of socio-political situation in Zhetysu in the period between February and October 1917. The aim and objectives of the study are to examine the aspects of the work of the Provisional Government's commissars in Semirechye, to identify the difficulties they faced in the process of governing the region. To consider the peculiarities of interaction between Kazakh and Russian intelligentsia on the example of commissars. Results. The range of issues, the solution of which were concerned by the Zhetysu commissars, has been studied. Their efforts were aimed at solving a number of acute problems of the critical period, such as elimination of consequences of the 1916 uprising in Semirechye and compensation of losses, organizational problems in the region, return of refugees from China, resolution of agrarian contradictions between the local population and peasants-settlers, elimination of interethnic discord, issues of education and health care and many others. Conclusions. The activities of M. Tynyshpayev and O. Shkapsky as commissioners of the Turkestan Committee were of exceptional importance in the implementation of the administration of the region in the transition period. Their coordinated interaction demonstrates the convergence of representatives of the Kazakh and Russian intellectual elite with similar views and moral principles.