Statute on the Siberian Kirghiz

a legislative act in prerevolutionary Russia determining the system for governing the Siberian Kirghiz, that is, Kazakhs living in Omsk Oblast. The statute was promulgated in 1822.

The territory inhabited by the Siberian Kirghiz constituted the lands of the Middle Horde, which embraced several okrugs in the oblast. An okrug was composed of 15 to 20 volosts (small rural districts); a volost, of ten to 12 auls (villages); and an aul, of 50 to 70 kibitki (nomadic tents). Administrative, police, financial; and judicial functions in the okrug were carried out by the okrug prikaz (administrative office), which consisted of a chairman (the aga-sultan), two Russians who were appointed to the prikaz, and two “honorable Kirghiz” (beys) who were elected to the prikaz by the local nobility. A volost was headed by a sultan, and an aul by a starshina. Persons occupying positions of authority were state officials. An aga-sultan had the rank of a major, and after three terms (nine years) in office he received hereditary nobility.

With some modifications, the system of administration that was established by the statute was in effect until 1917.