Early history of the Oirats The contemporary Kalmyks are a branch of the
Oirat Mongols, whose ancient grazing-lands spanned present-day parts of
Kazakhstan,
Russia,
Mongolia and
China. After the fall of the Mongol-led
Yuan dynasty of China in 1368, the
Oirats emerged as a formidable foe against the
Khalkha Mongols, the
Ming dynasty and the
Qing dynasty. For 400 years, the
Oirats conducted a military struggle for domination and control over both
Inner Mongolia and
Outer Mongolia. The struggle ended in 1757 with the defeat of the Oirats of the
Dzungar Khanate against the
Qing Empire, in the
Dzungar–Qing Wars; they were the last of the Mongol groups to resist vassalage to Qing. (1681) At the start of this 400-year era, the Western Mongols designated themselves as the
Four Oirat. The alliance comprised four major Western Mongol tribes:
Khoshut,
Choros,
Torghut and
Dörbet. Collectively, the Four Oirat sought power as an alternative to the Mongols, who were the patrilineal heirs to
Genghis Khan. The Four Oirat incorporated neighboring tribes or splinter groups at times, so there was a great deal of fluctuation in the composition of the alliance, with larger tribes dominating or absorbing the smaller ones. Smaller tribes belonging to the confederation included the Khoits, Zakhchin, Bayids and Khangal. , called a
gher, is a round, portable, self-supporting structure composed of lattice walls, rafters, roof ring,
felt covering and tension bands. Together, these nomadic tribes roamed the grassy plains of western Inner Asia, between
Lake Balkhash in present-day eastern
Kazakhstan and
Lake Baikal in present-day Russia north of central Mongolia. They pitched their
yurts and kept herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, horses, donkeys and camels.
Paul Pelliot translated the name "Torghut" as
garde de jour. He wrote that the Torghuts owed their name either to the memory of the guard of Genghis Khan or, as descendants of the
Keraites, to the old
garde de jour. This was documented among the Keraites in
The Secret History of the Mongols before Genghis Khan took over the region.
Period of open conflict The
Four Oirat was a political entity formed by the four major Oirat tribes. During the 15–17th centuries, they established under the name "10 tumen Mongols", a cavalry unit of 10,000 horsemen, including four Oirat tumen and six tumen composed of other Mongols. They reestablished their traditional pastoral nomadic lifestyle during the end of the Yuan dynasty. The Oirats formed this alliance to defend themselves against the Khalkha Mongols and to pursue the greater objective of reunifying Mongolia. Until the mid-17th century, when bestowal of the title of Khan was transferred to the
Dalai Lama, all Mongol tribes recognized this claim and the political prestige attached to it. Although the Oirats could not assert this claim prior to the mid-17th century, they did in fact have a close connection to Genghis Khan by virtue of the fact that
Genghis Khan's brother,
Qasar, was in command of the Khoshut tribe. In response to the Western Mongols' self-designation as the Four Oirat, the Eastern Mongols began to refer to themselves as the "Forty Mongols", or the "Forty and Four". This means that the Khalkha Mongols claimed to have forty tümen to the four tümen maintained by the
Four Oirat. The Oirat alliance was decentralized, informal and unstable. For instance, the Four Oirat did not have a central location from which it was governed, and it was not governed by a central figure for most of its existence. The four Oirats did not establish a single military or a unified monastic system. Lastly, it was not until 1640 that the Four Oirat adopted uniform customary laws. As pastoralist nomads, the Oirats were organized at the tribal level, where each tribe was ruled by a
noyon or prince who also functioned as the chief
taishi "chieftain". The chief taishi governed with the support of lesser noyons, who were also called taishi. These minor noyons controlled divisions of the tribe (
ulus) and were politically and economically independent of the chief tayishi. Chief taishis sought to influence and dominate the chief taishis of the other tribes, causing intertribal rivalry, dissension and periodic skirmishes. Under the leadership of Esen, Chief Taishi of the Choros, the Four Oirat unified Mongolia for a short period. After Esen's death in 1455, the political union of the Dörben Oirat dissolved quickly, resulting in two decades of Oirat-Eastern Mongol conflict. The deadlock ended during the reign of Batmunkh
Dayan Khan, a five-year-old boy in whose name the loyal Eastern Mongol forces rallied.
Mandukhai Khatun and Dayan Khan took advantage of Oirat disunity and weakness and brought Oirats back under Mongolian rule. In doing so, he regained control of the Mongol homeland and restored the hegemony of the Eastern Mongols. After the death of Dayan in 1543, the Oirats and the Khalkhas resumed their conflict. The Oirat forces thrust eastward, but Dayan's youngest son, Geresenz, was given command of the Khalkha forces and drove the Oirats to
Uvs Lake in northwest Mongolia. In 1552, after the Oirats once again challenged the Khalkha,
Altan Khan swept up from Inner Mongolia with Tümed and Ordos cavalry units, pushing elements of various Oirat tribes from
Karakorum to the
Khovd region in northwest Mongolia, reuniting most of Mongolia in the process. The Oirats would later regroup south of the Altai Mountains in Dzungaria. But Geresenz's grandson, Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji, pushed the Oirats further northwest, along the steppes of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers. Afterwards, he established a Khalkha Khanate under the name, Altan Khan, in the Oirat heartland of Dzungaria. In spite of the setbacks, the Oirats would continue their campaigns against the Altan Khanate, trying to unseat Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji from Dzungaria. The continuous, back-and-forth nature of the struggle, which defined this period, is captured in the Oirat epic song "The Rout of Mongolian Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji", recounting the Oirat victory over the
Altan Khan of the Khalkha in 1587.
Resurgence of Oirat power At the beginning of the 17th century, the First Altan Khan drove the
Oirats westward to present-day eastern
Kazakhstan. The
Torghuts became the westernmost
Oirat tribe, encamped in the
Tarbagatai Mountains region and along the northern stretches of the
Irtysh,
Ishim and
Tobol Rivers. Further west, the
Kazakhs prevented the
Torghuts from sending its trading caravans to the Muslim towns and villages located along the
Syr Darya river. As a result, the Torghuts established a trading relationship with the newly established outposts of the Tsarist government whose expansion into and exploration of
Siberia was motivated mostly by the desire to profit from trade with
Asia. The
Khoshut, by contrast, were the easternmost Oirat, encamped near the
Lake Zaysan area and the
Semey region along the lower portions of the Irtysh River, where they built several steppe
monasteries. The Khoshut were adjacent to the Khalkha khanates of Altan Khan and Dzasagtu Khan. Both khanates prevented the Khoshut and the other Oirat from trading with Chinese border towns. The Khoshut were ruled by Baibagas Khan and then
Güshi Khan, who were the first Oirat leaders to convert to the
Gelug school of
Tibetan Buddhism. Locked in between both tribes were the
Choros,
Dörbet Oirat and
Khoid, who confederated in the early 17th century as the
Dzungar people. They were slowly rebuilding the base of power they enjoyed under the Four Oirat. The Choros were the dominant Oirat tribe of that era. Their leader, Erdeni Batur, attempted to follow Esen Khan in unifying the Oirats to challenge the Khalkha. (1763–1832), a painter-sculptor of Kalmyk origin Under the dynamic leadership of Erdeni Batur, the Dzungars stopped the expansion of the first
Altan Khan and began planning the resurrection of the
Four Oirat under the
Dzungar banner. In furtherance of such plans, Erdeni Batur designed and built a capital city called Kubak-sari on the
Emil River near the modern city of
Tacheng. During his attempt to build a nation, Erdeni Batur encouraged diplomacy, commerce and farming. He also sought to acquire modern weaponry and build small industry, such as metal works, to supply his military with weapons. The attempted unification of the Oirat caused dissension among the tribes and their Chief Tayishis who were independent minded but also highly regarded leaders themselves. This dissension reputedly caused Kho Orluk to move the Torghut tribe and elements of the Dörbet tribe westward to the Volga region where his descendants formed the Kalmyk Khanate. In the east,
Güshi Khan took part of the Khoshut to the Tsaidam and
Qinghai regions in the
Tibetan Plateau, where he formed the
Khoshut Khanate to protect
Tibet and the Gelug from both internal and external enemies. Erdeni Batur and his descendants, by contrast, formed the
Dzungar Khanate and came to dominate Central Eurasia.
Torghut migration In 1618, the Torghut and a small contingent of
Dörbet Oirats (200,000–250,000 people) chose to migrate from the upper Irtysh River region to the grazing pastures of the lower
Volga region south of
Saratov and north of the
Caspian Sea on both banks of the
Volga River. The Torghut were led by their taishi,
Kho Orluk. They were the largest Oirat tribe to migrate, bringing along nearly the entire tribe. The second-largest group was the Dörbet Oirats under their taishi, Dalai Batur. Together they moved west through southern Siberia and the southern
Ural Mountains, avoiding the more direct route that would have taken them through the heart of the territory of their enemy, the Kazakhs. En route, they raided Russian settlements and Kazakh and
Bashkir encampments. Many theories have been advanced to explain the reasons for the migration. One generally accepted theory is that there may have been discontent among the Oirat tribes, which arose from the attempt by Kharkhul, taishi of the Dzungars, to centralize political and military control over the tribes under his leadership. Some scholars, however, believe that the Torghuts sought uncontested pastures as their territory was being encroached upon by the Russians from the north, the Kazakhs from the south and the Dzungars from the east. The encroachments resulted in overcrowding of people and livestock, thereby diminishing the food supply. Lastly, a third theory suggests that the Torghuts grew weary of the militant struggle between the Oirats and the Altan Khanate.
Kalmyk Khanate Period of self rule, 1630–1724 , 1706 ("Carte de Tartarie" of
Guillaume Delisle (1675–1726), Map Collection of the Library of Congress). Upon arrival to the lower Volga region in 1630, the Oirats encamped on land that was once part of the
Astrakhan Khanate but was now claimed by the
Tsardom of Russia. The region was lightly populated, from south of Saratov to the Russian garrison at Astrakhan and on both the east and the west banks of the Volga River. The Tsardom of Russia was not ready to colonize the area and was in no position to prevent the Oirats from encamping in the region, but it had a direct political interest in ensuring that the Oirats would not become allied with its Turkic-speaking neighbors. The Kalmyks became Russian allies and a treaty to protect the southern Russian border was signed between the Kalmyk Khanate and Russia. The Oirats quickly consolidated their position by expelling the majority of the native inhabitants, the
Nogai Horde. Large groups of
Nogais fled southeast to the northern Caucasian plain and west to the Black Sea steppe, lands claimed by the
Crimean Khanate, itself a vassal or ally of the
Ottoman Empire. Smaller groups of Nogais sought the protection of the Russian garrison at
Astrakhan. The remaining nomadic tribes became vassals of the Oirats. The Kalmyks battled the
Karakalpaks. The
Mangyshlak Peninsula was overtaken in 1639 by Kalmyks. At first, an uneasy relationship existed between the Russians and the Oirats. Mutual raiding by the Oirats of Russian settlements and by the
Cossacks and the
Bashkirs, Muslim vassals of the Russians, of Oirat encampments was commonplace. Numerous oaths and treaties were signed to ensure Oirat loyalty and military assistance. Although the Oirats became subjects of the Tsar, such allegiance by the Oirats was deemed to be nominal. In reality, the Oirats governed themselves pursuant to a document known as the "Great Code of the Nomads" (
Iki Tsaadzhin Bichig). The Code was promulgated in 1640 by them, their brethren in Dzungaria and some of the Khalkha who all gathered near the Tarbagatai Mountains in Dzungaria to resolve their differences and to unite under the banner of the Gelug school. Although the goal of unification was not met, the summit leaders did ratify the Code, which regulated all aspects of nomadic life. In securing their position, the Oirats became a borderland power, often allying themselves with the
Russian Empire against the neighboring Muslim population. During the era of
Ayuka Khan, the Oirats rose to political and military prominence as the Russian Empire sought the increased use of Oirat cavalry in support of its military campaigns against the Muslim powers in the south, such as
Safavid Iran, the Ottoman Empire, the Nogais, the
Tatars of
Kuban and the
Crimean Khanate. Ayuka Khan also waged wars against the Kazakhs, subjugated the
Turkmens of the
Mangyshlak Peninsula, and made multiple expeditions against the highlanders of the
North Caucasus. These campaigns highlighted the strategic importance of the Kalmyk Khanate which functioned as a buffer zone, separating Russia and the Muslim world, as Russia fought wars in Europe to establish itself as a European power. To encourage the release of Oirat cavalrymen in support of its military campaigns, the Russian Empire increasingly relied on the provision of monetary payments and dry goods to the Oirat Khan and the Oirat nobility. In that respect, the Russian Empire treated the Oirats as it did the Cossacks. The provision of monetary payments and dry goods, however, did not stop the mutual raiding, and, in some instances, both sides failed to fulfill its promises. Another significant incentive the Russian Empire provided to the Oirats was tariff-free access to the markets of Russian border towns, where the Oirats were permitted to barter their herds and the items they obtained from Asia and their Muslim neighbors in exchange for Russian goods. Trade also occurred with neighboring Turkic tribes under Russian control, such as the Tatars and the Bashkirs. Intermarriage became common with such tribes. This trading arrangement provided substantial benefits, monetary and otherwise, to the Oirat tayishis, noyons and zaisangs. Fred Adelman described this era as the "Frontier Period", lasting from the advent of the Torghut under Kho Orluk in 1630 to the end of the great khanate of
Kho Orluk's descendant,
Ayuka Khan, in 1724, a phase accompanied by little discernible acculturative change: During the era of Ayuka Khan, the Kalmyk Khanate reached its peak of military and political power. The Khanate experienced economic prosperity from free trade with Russian border towns, China, Tibet and with their Muslim neighbors. During this era, Ayuka Khan also kept close contacts with his Oirat kinsmen in Dzungaria, as well as the Dalai Lama in Tibet.
From Oirat to Kalmyk Historically, Oirat identified themselves by their respective sub-group names. In the 15th century, the three major groups of Oirat formed an alliance, adopting "Dörben Oirat" as their collective name. In the early 17th century, a second great Oirat Confederation emerged, which later became the Dzungar Empire. While the Dzungars (initially Choros, Dörbet and Khoit tribes) were establishing their empire in Central Eurasia, the Khoshuts were establishing the Khoshut Khanate in Tibet, protecting the Gelugpa sect from its enemies, and the Torghuts formed the Kalmyk Khanate in the lower Volga region. After encamping, the Oirats began to identify themselves as "Kalmyk." This named was supposedly given to them by their Muslim neighbors and later used by the Russians to describe them. The Oirats used this name in their dealings with outsiders, viz., their Russian and Muslim neighbors. But they continued to refer to themselves by their tribal, clan, or other internal affiliations. The name Kalmyk, however, wasn't immediately accepted by all of the Oirat tribes in the lower Volga region. As late as 1761, the Khoshut and Dzungars (refugees from the Manchu Empire) referred to themselves and the Torghuts exclusively as Oirats. The Torghuts, by contrast, used the name Kalmyk for themselves as well as the Khoshut and Dzungars. Generally, European scholars have identified all western Mongolians collectively as Kalmyks, regardless of their location (
Ramstedt, 1935: v–vi). Such scholars (e.g. Sebastian Muenster) have relied on Muslim sources who traditionally used the word "Kalmyk" to describe western Mongolians in a derogatory manner and the western Mongols of China and Mongolia have regarded that name as a term of abuse. Instead, they use the name Oirat or they go by their respective tribal names, e.g., Khoshut, Dörbet, Choros, Torghut, Khoit, Bayid, Mingat, etc. Over time, the descendants of the Oirat migrants in the lower Volga region embraced the name "Kalmyk" irrespective of their locations, viz., Astrakhan, the Don Cossack region, Orenburg, Stavropol, the Terek and the Ural Mountains. Another generally accepted name is
Ulan Zalata or the "red-buttoned ones".
Reduction in autonomy, 1724–1771 to
Dzungaria. Engraving by Charles Michel Geoffroy, 1845. In January 1771 the oppression of Tsarist administration forced the larger part of Kalmyks (33 thousand households, or approximately 170,000–200,000 people) to migrate to Dzungaria.
Ubashi Khan, the great-grandson of Ayuka Khan and the last Kalmyk Khan, decided to return his people to their ancestral homeland, Dzungaria, and restore the Dzungar Khanate and Mongolian independence. As C.D Barkman notes, "It is quite clear that the Torghuts had not intended to surrender the Chinese, but had hoped to lead an independent existence in Dzungaria." Ubashi sent 30,000 cavalry in the first year of the
Russo-Turkish War (1768–74) to gain weaponry before the migration. The
8th Dalai Lama was contacted to request his blessing and to set the date of departure. After consulting the astrological chart, he set a return date, but at the moment of departure, the weakening of the ice on the Volga River permitted only those Kalmyks (about 200,000 people) on the eastern bank to leave. Those 100,000–150,000 people on the western bank were forced to stay behind and
Catherine the Great executed influential nobles from among them. After failing to stop the flight, Catherine abolished the Kalmyk Khanate, transferring all governmental powers to the governor of Astrakhan. The title of Khan was abolished. The highest native governing office remaining was the Vice-
Khan, who also was recognized by the government as the highest ranking Kalmyk prince. By appointing the Vice-Khan, the Russian Empire was now permanently the decisive force in Kalmyk government and affairs. After seven months of travel, only one-third (66,073) This migration became the topic of
The Revolt of the Tartars, by
Thomas De Quincey. The Qing shifted the Kalmyks to five different areas to prevent their revolt and influential leaders of the Kalmyks soon died. The migrant Kalmyks became known as Torghut in Qing China. The Torghut were coerced by the Qing into giving up their nomadic lifestyle and to take up sedentary agriculture instead as part of a deliberate policy by the Qing to enfeeble them.
Life in the Russian Empire After the 1771 exodus, the Kalmyks that remained part of the Russian Empire continued their nomadic pastoral lifestyle, ranging the pastures between the Don and the Volga Rivers, wintering in the lowlands along the shores of the
Caspian Sea as far as
Sarpa Lake to the northwest and
Lake Manych-Gudilo to the west. In the spring, they moved along the Don River and the Sarpa lake system, attaining the higher grounds along the Don in the summer, passing the autumn in the Sarpa and Volga lowlands. In October and November they returned to their winter camps and pastures. Despite their great loss in population, the Torghut still remained numerically superior, dominating the Kalmyks. The other Kalmyks in Russia included Dörbet Oirats and Khoshut. Elements of the Choros and Khoit also were present but were too few in number to retain their
ulus (tribal division) as independent administrative units. As a result, they were absorbed by the ulus of the larger tribes. The factors that caused the 1771 exodus continued to trouble the remaining Kalmyks. In the wake of the exodus, the Torghuts joined the Cossack rebellion of
Yemelyan Pugachev in hopes that he would restore the independence of the Kalmyks. After
Pugachev's Rebellion was defeated, Catherine the Great transferred the office of the Vice-Khan from the Torghut tribe to the Dörbet, whose princes supposedly remained loyal to the government during the rebellion. Thus, the Torghut were removed from their role as the hereditary leaders of the Kalmyk people. The Khoshut could not challenge this political arrangement due to their smaller population size. The disruptions to Kalmyk society caused by the exodus and the Torghut participation in the Pugachev Rebellion precipitated a major realignment in Kalmyk tribal structure. The government divided the Kalmyks into three administrative units attached, according to their respective locations, to the district governments of Astrakhan, Stavropol and the Don and appointed a special Russian official bearing the title of "Guardian of the Kalmyk People" for purposes of administration. The government also resettled some small groups of Kalmyks along the Ural, Terek and Kuma rivers and in Siberia. The redistricting divided the now dominant Dörbet tribe into three separate administrative units. Those in the western
Kalmyk Steppe were attached to the Astrakhan district government. They were called Baga (Lesser) Dörbet. By contrast, the Dörbets who moved to the northern part of the Stavropol province were called Ike (Greater) Dörbet even though their population was smaller. Finally, the Kalmyks of the Don became known as Buzava. Although they were composed of elements of all the Kalmyk tribes, the Buzava claimed descent from the Torghut tribe. Their name is derived from two tributaries of the Don River: Busgai and Busuluk. In 1798,
Tsar Paul I recognized the Don Kalmyks as Don Cossacks. As such, they received the same rights and benefits as their Russian counterparts in exchange for providing national military services. At the end of the
Napoleonic Wars, Kalmyk cavalry units in Russian service entered
Paris. Over time, the Kalmyks gradually created fixed settlements with houses and temples, in place of transportable round felt
yurts. In 1865,
Elista, the future capital of the
Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was founded. This process lasted until well after the
October Revolution of 1917.
Russian Revolution and Civil War , WWI general of the
Imperial Russian Army and commander of the
Volunteer Army during the
Russian Civil War, was of mixed Kalmyk ancestry. In the aftermath of the
February Revolution, Kalmyk leaders believed that the
Russian Provisional Government, which replaced the Tsarist government, would allow greater autonomy and freedom with respect to their culture, religion and economy. This enthusiasm, however, would soon dissolve after the
Bolsheviks took control of the national government during the second revolution in November 1917. After the Bolsheviks took control, various political and ethnic groups opposed to Communism organized in a loose political and military coalition known as the
White movement. A volunteer "White Army" was raised to fight the
Red Army, the military arm of the Bolshevik government. Initially, this army was composed primarily of volunteers and Tsarist supporters but were later joined by the
Cossacks, including Don Kalmyks, many of whom resisted the Bolshevik policy of
decossackization. The second revolution split the Kalmyk people into opposing camps. Many were dissatisfied with the Tsarist government for its historic role in promoting the colonization of the Kalmyk steppe and in encouraging the russification of the Kalmyk people. But others also felt hostility towards Bolshevism for two reasons: (1) the loyalty of the Kalmyk people to their traditional leaders (i.e., nobility and clergy) – sources of anti-Communism – was deeply ingrained; and (2) the Bolshevik exploitation of the conflict between the Kalmyks and the local Russian peasants who seized Kalmyk land and livestock. The Astrakhan Kalmyk nobility, led by Prince
Danzan Tundutov of the Baga Dörbets and Prince Sereb-Djab Tiumen of the Khoshuts, expressed their anti-Bolshevik sentiments by seeking to integrate the Astrakhan Kalmyks into the military units of the Astrakhan Cossacks. But before a general mobilization of Kalmyk horsemen could occur, the Red Army seized power in Astrakhan and in the Kalmyk steppe thereby preventing the mobilization from occurring. After the capture of Astrakhan, the Bolsheviks engaged in savage reprisals against the Kalmyk people, especially against Buddhist temples and the Buddhist clergy. Eventually the Bolsheviks would draft as many as 18,000 Kalmyk horsemen in the Red Army to prevent them from joining the White Army. This objective, however, failed to prevent many Red Army Kalmyk horsemen from defecting to the White side. emblem of the Kalmyk units. Founded on 3 Nov. 1919. The majority of the Don Kalmyks also sided with the White Movement to preserve their Cossack lifestyle and proud traditions. As
Don Cossacks, the Don Kalmyks first fought under White army General
Anton Denikin and then under his successor, General
Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel. Because the Don Cossack Host to which they belonged was the main center of the White Movement and of Cossack resistance, the battles were fought on Cossack lands and were disastrous for the Don Cossacks as villages and entire regions changed hands repeatedly in a fratricidal conflict in which both sides committed terrible atrocities. The Don Cossacks, including the Don Kalmyks, experienced heavy military and civilian losses, either from the fighting itself or from starvation and disease induced by the war. Some argue that the Bolsheviks were guilty of the mass extermination of the Don Cossack people, killing an estimated 70 percent (or 700,000 persons) of the Don Cossack population. By October 1920, the Red Army smashed
General Wrangel's resistance in the
Crimea, forcing the evacuation of some 150,000 White army soldiers and their families to
Constantinople, Turkey. A small group of Don Kalmyks managed to escape on the British and French vessels. The chaos at the Russian port city of
Novorossiysk was described by Major H.N.H. Williamson of the British Military Mission to the Don Cossacks as follows: From there, this group resettled in Europe, primarily in Belgrade (where they established the
fourth Buddhist temple in Europe), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and France where its leaders remained active in the White movement. In 1922, several hundred Don Kalmyks returned home under a general amnesty. Some returnees, including Prince Dmitri Tundutov, were imprisoned and then executed soon after their return.
Formation of the Kalmyk Soviet Republic The Soviet government established the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast in November 1920. It was formed by merging the Stavropol Kalmyk settlements with a majority of the Astrakhan Kalmyks. A small number of Don Kalmyks (Buzava) from the Don Host migrated to this Oblast. The administrative center was Elista, a small village in the western part of the Oblast that was expanded in the 1920s to reflect its status as the capital of the Oblast. In October 1935, the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was reorganized into the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The chief occupations of the Republic were cattle breeding, agriculture, including the growing of cotton and fishing. There was no industry. Under Soviet
Likbez efforts, the literacy rate in Kalmykia grew from 12 to 59 percent between 1926 and 1939, and continued to make up nearly half the their autonomous republic's population in 1939.
Collectivization and revolts On 22 January 1922,
Mongolia proposed to migrate the Kalmyks during famine in Kalmykia but Russia refused; 71–72,000 Kalmyks died during the famine. The Kalmyks revolted against Russia in 1926, 1930 and 1942–1943. In March 1927, Soviet deported 20,000 Kalmyks to Siberia,
tundra and
Karelia.
World War II and exile In June 1941 the German army invaded the Soviet Union, ultimately taking (some) control of the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In December 1942, however, the Red Army in their turn re-invaded the Republic. On 28 December 1943, the Soviet government accused the Kalmyks of collaborating with the Germans and deported the entire population, including Kalmyk Red Army soldiers, to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. Within 24 hours the population transfer occurred at night during winter without notice in unheated cattle cars. According to N. F. Bugai, the leading Russian expert on deportations, 4.9% of the Kalmyk population died during the first three months of 1944; 1.5% in the first three months of 1945; and 0.7% in the same period of 1946. From 1945 to 1950, 15,206 Kalmyks died and 7843 were born. The Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly dissolved. Its territory was divided and transferred to the adjacent regions, viz., the Astrakhan and Stalingrad Oblasts and Stavropol Krai. Since no Kalmyks lived there any longer the Soviet authorities changed the names of towns and villages from Kalmyk names to Russian names. For example, Elista became Stepnoi. Around half of (97–98,000) Kalmyk people died in exile. The government of the Soviet Union forbade teaching
Kalmyk Oirat during the deportation.
Return from Siberian exile ,
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov In 1957, Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev permitted the Kalmyk people to return to their home. Upon return, however, the Kalmyks found their homeland had become settled by
Russians and
Ukrainians, many of whom chose to remain. On January 9, 1957, Kalmykia once again became an autonomous oblast, and on 29 July 1958, an autonomous republic within the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In the following years bad planning of agricultural and irrigation projects resulted in widespread
desertification. In addition, industrial plants were constructed without an analysis of the economic viability of such plants. Under the Law of the Russian Federation of April 26, 1991, "On Rehabilitation of Exiled Peoples", repressions against Kalmyks and other peoples were qualified as an act of
genocide. In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kalmykia chose to remain an autonomous republic of the successor government, the Russian Federation. The dissolution, however, facilitated the collapse of the economy at both the national and the local level, causing widespread economic and social hardship. The resulting upheaval caused many young Kalmyks to leave Kalmykia, especially in the rural areas, for economic opportunities in and outside the Russian Federation. The local Supreme Soviet decided in 1992 to change the name of the republic to Khalmg Tangch. In June 1993, the Kalmyk authorities laid claim to the of the Volga delta that were not returned to Kalmyks when the Kalmyk ASSR was recreated in 1957. The Kalmyk authorities claimed that under the terms of the 1991 law
On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples, the lands, currently in the Astrakhan Oblast and Dagestan, would formally belong to Kalmykia with effect from July 1, 1993. The long-standing dispute over the delineation of Kalmykia's borders with Astrakhan oblast and
Dagestan resurfaced in 2005, but no border changes were made. The Kalmyks' ability to maintain a mostly homogeneous existence contrasts with the Russian admixture with other similar people, "as there is evidence for Russian admixture with
Yakuts," for example. == Etymology ==