This picture is dated back to 1862. It features prominent Kazakhs of West-Siberian Governorate General in the 19th century: sultans and volost managers. But the history of the photograph is quite obscure.
According to one of the suggestions, this snapshot is related to the cycle of photographs that were taken by Russian historians and ethnographers during their scientific expeditions in Kazakhstan. In the 19th century, zoologist Ivan Polyakov, documentary photographer Konstantin De-Lazary and one of the founders of Ethnography museum of Saint Petersburg Samuel Dudin visited this region. All of them were keen to take as many pictures of Kazakhs as it was possible and, probably, this picture was taken by one of these men.
