In recent years, the study of the institution of baistvo (the class of bais) as a distinct social category has been gaining increasing significance within the development of national historiography. One of the key factors contributing to the renewed scholarly interest in this subject has been the political rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinist repressions. This process led to the declassification and incorporation into academic discourse of archival materials that had previously been inaccessible and that are directly related to the topic.

Kazakh society, with its unique cultural and historical characteristics, developed a distinctive social model in which the hierarchy and stratification were determined not only by material wealth but also by enduring traditional mechanisms. Historical scholarship offers no unified interpretation of the concept of bai: the term could refer to a prosperous livestock owner, a merchant, or an entrepreneur whose activity intensified as a result of the economic reforms of the second half of the 19th century.

This study aims to identify the factors that contributed to the emergence of bais as a separate social estate. The chronological framework focuses on the second half of the 19th century.

The empirical foundation of the research consists of statistical surveys and Remembrance Books relating to the Semipalatinsk, Akmola, and Turgai regions. These sources possess significant academic value and allow for the reconstruction of everyday life among the Kazakh population. The materials from these publications help uncover nuances in the social structure of nomadic society. Correlating quantitative data with the sociocultural context offers insights into how economic indicators influenced changes in social organization and household practices. The research also draws upon works by scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thereby expanding the interpretative scope of the analysis.

Transformations in the traditional social order became evident in the second half of the 19th century, coinciding with the implementation of administrative and economic reforms. The development of bais as an independent institutional phenomenon was closely connected to the emergence of a qualitatively new economic reality and a reconfiguration of social relations within a modernizing society.