This article examines the formation of Soviet governance institutions in Mangystau between 1917 and 1920 and the establishment of the Adai Uyezd through the interrelationship between political legitimacy, coercion, resource provision, and territorial adaptation. The study aims to identify the mechanisms through which disruptions of political authority during the Revolution and the Civil War transformed local governance structures and ultimately led to the establishment of the Adai Uyezd.

Methodology. The study draws on documents from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the State Archive of Mangystau Region, published collections of archival documents, and memoirs of participants in the events. The research employs problem-chronological, historical-comparative, and institutional methods, as well as process tracing. Institutional changes from the February Revolution of 1917 to the incorporation of the Adai Uyezd into the administrative system of the Kazakh ASSR in 1920 are divided into five stages. The analysis compares the competencies of governing bodies, forms of local representation, patterns of resource mobilization, and changes in territorial subordination.

Results. The analysis demonstrates that the formation of Soviet governance in Mangystau did not follow a consistent or linear trajectory. Four interconnected mechanisms were identified: institutional layering; the emergency replacement of elected bodies by extraordinary governing structures; the interaction between coercion and resource mobilization; and territorial adaptation. Following the February Revolution, the former administrative apparatus was not completely dismantled: commissarial administration, executive committees, public organizations, and soviets operated simultaneously. During the Civil War, revolutionary committees concentrated political and military authority, yet their actual governing capacity depended on local transport, livestock, food supplies, communication networks, and systems of representation. In 1920, competition for jurisdiction between the Mangyshlak and Adai revolutionary committees brought together questions of territorial governance and resource mobilization.