The processes of active sovereignty and the formation of an independent Kazakhstan were accompanied by a significant rise in public interest in the rich historical and cultural past of the Kazakh people. In the modern era, society purposefully seeks to rethink the main milestones of the long historical path traversed and to determine its fundamentally new place in modern social reality.
Independent Kazakhstan is firmly following the path of deep renewal and social progress. With the aggravation of sovereignty, the processes of the revival of national self-awareness, the study of the spiritual and moral values of the Kazakh people, which were severely suppressed under the dominance of the Soviet totalitarian system, acquired special relevance.
In the historiography of the problems of studying the ethnography of Kazakhs, the research activity of pre-revolutionary Russian researchers of the early and middle of the 20th century was very significant.
In our opinion, the rich empirical material they have collected gives representatives of the scientific community the opportunity to present a real picture of the traditional way of life, everyday life and culture, psychology and mentality of the peoples of Central Asia.
The desire to obtain useful information at first hand is the research credo of many pre-revolutionary Russian researchers of the period under consideration.
After the conquest of Kazakhstan by the Russian Empire, the mass publication of numerous reports, essays, publications of military, civilian officials, governor-generals and, including researchers, began. Most of the authors wrote about the Turkestan region they saw and the materials specially studied by them, which also included South Kazakhstan.