This study concentrates upon the socio-political and nationalist views of three influential representatives of the early twentieth-century Kazak intelligentsia: Alikhan Bokeilhanov, Akhmet Baitursynov, and Mukhamedzhan Seralin. The resulting discourse on literature, education, and politics shaped the Kazak nationalist movement before 1920. This study draws on the published works of the Kazak intelligentsia, the periodicals Ai qap (1911-1915) and Kazak (1913-1918), and archival records from the Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakstan.