The position of the head of a foreign affairs office on Kazakh territory was first documented during the period of existence of the
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was created in the initial period after the
October Revolution of 1917. This position was called the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Turkestan ASSR, whose activities were regulated by the Regulations on the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Turkestan Republic in the Russian Federation. The functional duties of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Turkestan ASSR included political relations with foreign governments, patronage in foreign lands to trade and the interests of the republic, an application for the lawful protection of the citizens of the republic abroad. The position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the modern sense appeared in February 1944 after the adoption of the USSR Law «On Submission of Powers to the Union Republics in the Field of Foreign Relations and on the Transformation of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs from the All-Union into Union-Republic People’s Commissariat». By then, all of the Union republics of the USSE gained the right to enter into direct relations with foreign states, with the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR performing all of the main foreign policy functions. Between 1944–1974, the office also concurrently served as the office of the Deputy Chairmen of the Council of Ministers of the
Kazakh SSR. The position of Kazakhstan's foreign minister in its current form was established in 1991 after the
Kazakh SSR changed its name to the
Republic of Kazakhstan and gained its independence from the
Soviet Union. ==List of ministers==