Alash was a liberal Kazakh political party. It was named after the mythical ancestor of the Kazakhs. The party was formed in Orenburg in July 1917 at the First All-Kazakh Congress on the basis of the Kazakh intelligentsia national movement. It was an association of several regional groups and was ideologically close to the Constitutional Democratic Party, which until 1917 included many prominent Alashevites.

Alash welcomed the achievements of the February Revolution. The party leaders took high positions: Alikhan Bukeikhanov became the government commissar of the Torgay region and Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpaev became the government commissar of the Semirechensk region. The Alash draft program was published on November 21, 1917, in the party newspaper “Kazakh” and adopted at the Second All-Kazakh Congress. The main goal was the evolutionary development of the Kazakh society in broad autonomy conditions. The party demanded the formation of a federal presidential republic in Russia. Congress also decided to establish a national and territorial autonomy with its own government (Alash-Orda) chaired by Alikhan Bukeikhanov. The Alash Autonomy with its capital in Semipalatinsk existed until 1920.