Kalmyks

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Portrait of a Kalmuck. By Ilja Repin (1871)
Location of the Republic of Kalmykia in Russia, settlement area of ​​almost 90% of the Kalmucks

The Kalmyks ( Kalmyk хальмг ; Russian калмыки ; German and Kalmyks or Kalmyks written) are a Western Mongolian people, primarily in the Russian autonomous republic of Kalmykia lives. The term was already used in the early 14th century by Islamic historians for the Oirats and later adopted by the Russians for splinter groups of the Oirats who settled on the Volga .

The Kalmyks are the only Buddhist Mongolian-speaking people within the geographical borders of Europe. According to the 2002 census, there were 173,996 Kalmyks living in Russia. According to the 2010 census, there were 183,372 Kalmyks living in Russia, of which 162,740 were in Kalmykia (57.4% of the population of Kalmykia).

Language and literature

Map of the distribution of Mongolian languages. The Oirat language and, far to the west, the Kalmuck language, which is very similar to it, are represented in shades of brown.

The Kalmyk language belongs to the western branch of the language family of Mongolian languages alongside the Oirat language and is spoken by around 174,000 (as of 2002) speakers in Russia. The differences between the Oirat and Kalmuck languages ​​are small and only caused by the geographical distance of the last 200 years and by language politics. In contrast, communication with speakers of other Mongolian languages ​​is hardly possible.

Originally Kalmuck (as well as Oiri) was written in its own vertical alphabet, the plain text or Oirat script . In 1923, however, this was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet on request. In the 1930s, there were brief attempts to adopt the Latin alphabet , but this did not last forever. The Oirats in Xinjiang (China), in Chinese provinces further east and less often in western Mongolia still write their own Oirats, which is derived from the Mongolian script (in the narrower sense, for a general overview see Mongolian scripts ).

One of the most important works in the Kalmyk language is the heroic epic Džangar (Dschangar; Kalmuck and Oirat Dschanghr) in twelve chants , which was passed down orally from the 15th century .

Traditional lifestyle

Kalmuck settlement of transportable yurts (Kalmuck: 'Gher') before the time of the Soviet Union.

As nomads and semi-nomads , the Kalmyks lived mainly from cattle breeding, fishing and, in some cases, arable farming until the 20th century. As cattle breeders, the Kalmyks mainly kept cattle (the Kalmyks are named after them), but also camels, horses, sheep and goats. Although Kalmykia has partially fertile soils, traditionally arable farming in the almost waterless steppe is only possible in the few river valleys.

A Kalmuck tea ceremony in the late 19th century in the Don district.

In keeping with the nomadic way of life, the traditional family bond was strongly oriented towards solidarity. Parents, married children with families, and unmarried children made up the extended family . Several of these clan associations formed nomadic village associations, several of which in turn formed a clan according to their lineages . Several clans formed a traditional tribe. The Kalmuck-Oirat society consists of four large and several small tribes (see below). Traditionally, princes (called tayischi or khan ) presided over the various tribes. Although every Kalmuck and Oirate is aware of his hereditary tribal affiliation, it has happened time and again in history that his followers joined other tribal chiefs after military defeats of individual tribal chiefs. As a result, members of several tribes live mixed in Kalmykia and also in western China. In addition to the princes and the lower nobility, there were the commoners and a Buddhist priestly and monk class. The Kalmuck culture was similar to that of other Mongols.

As a result of the settlement carried out by the Soviet regime in the 1930s, the Kalmyks have since lived in permanent villages and towns, and society is more socially differentiated and modern. In addition, full literacy of the Kalmyks was enforced in Soviet times . However, the Soviet economic policy damaged agriculture, because in the economic plans since the 1960s Kalmykia was primarily intended for the keeping of merino sheep , which eroded the vegetation so much that desertification occurred in some regions .

religion

  • Areas in Europe where Tibetan Buddhism makes up the majority of religious followers.
    • The "Golden Temple" in Elista for Buddha Shakyamuni, inaugurated on December 27, 2005

    Many Kalmyks are, like other Mongolian peoples, followers of Tibetan Buddhism , which is also called Lamaism , the Gelug (pa) school ("yellow hats"). They converted to this religion in the course of the 17th century, mainly in the first half, before they were shamanistic . The first Oiraten tribe to convert to Gelug Lamaism and the second Mongolian tribe at all (after the tribe under Altan Khan ) were the Choschuts , who settled far to the east in Tibet and neighboring areas to the north. The Choschuten ruler Gushri Khan (1582–1655) helped the head of the Gelugpa, the fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatsho (1617–1682) with military means to power in Tibet in the war against the heads of other schools, especially against the head of the Karma-Kagyü - ("Black Hats" -) School, the tenth Karmapa Chöying Dorje and against the Tibetan Tsangpa dynasty . This is how the Oirat choschuts established the rule of the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. At the same time, the Khoshi sent missionaries of Gelug Lamaism to the other Oirats as far as the area of ​​the lower Volga , who also converted. The most famous missionary was Zaya Pandita .

    Some of the Kalmyks used to attend Buddhist ceremonies in mobile yurts , and several monasteries and temples have been built since the 17th century (Kalmyk: Churul ). Before the time of the Soviet Union, about 60 of them existed. All were demolished or otherwise used in Soviet times, and atheism was encouraged. Almost all existing temples and monasteries in Kalmykia and the neighboring regions were only rebuilt after the fall of the Soviet Union, only one is being reconstructed.

    Besides the Buddhists there are also some Muslim Kalmyks and small Christian communities as well as many atheists .

    history

    Early history of the Oirats and the Oirate expansion 13. – 17. century

    Remains of the Mongol Empire (brown background) before 1500. Green letters: successor states, all now Turkish-speaking and (apart from the Siberian Khanate ) also Islamized. Blue letters: Mongolian tribal associations, including the four Oiraten tribes ( Dörben Oirat ). Black writing: other states and peoples.

    The Western Mongolia Oirats the are around since 1200 southern Altai Mountains detectable and were there from Genghis Khan subject and participated in the Mongol expansion in the 13th century. After the fall of the Mongol Empire and the withdrawal of the Mongols from China in 1368, they lived again in the Altai area. From 1400 to 1636 they formed the tribal confederation Dörben Oirat from the four main tribes of the Dürbeten ( Dörböd ), Torguten ( Torghuud ), Choschuten ( Choschuud ) and Chorosen ( Choros ). There are also some smaller Oiraten tribes. The members of this confederation were referred to as Oirats from Mongolian Oirad ( Oirat / Kalmyk Öörd ). Another term " Djungars " from Mongolian: Dschüün Ghar ("left wing") originally referred to all Oirats, but since the 17th century it has only been used in other languages ​​for the sub-tribe of the Chorosen. Another alternative designation "Kalmyks" from Turkic-speaking : chalmach (some authors interpret this term as "rest" because they differ from the other Turkic-speaking and Muslim nomads, but the meaning is controversial and not sufficiently clarified) has been around since the 14th century verifiable. From this the Russian name kalmyk developed , which later established itself as a term for the groups living far in the west.

    After the retreat of the Mongols into the steppe in 1368, a long phase of conflicts between the various tribal associations for supremacy followed, during which the Oirats temporarily became the dominant power under Esen Tayishi (1439 / 40-55). They were later defeated by the Khalkha Mongols under Dayan Khan (approx. 1470–1553) and later again in 1552 and 1577. In the following period from 1600 to 1630 the majority of the Oirats, especially members of the four great tribes, emigrated from their old homeland.

    Most of the choschuts turned to the east and established themselves as nomads in the west of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia , in the province of Gansu and in the Tibetan region of Amdo , which roughly corresponds to the Chinese province of Qinghai . They were the ones who first converted to Gelug Lamaism, established the supremacy of the Dalai Lamas in Tibet, and proselytized the other Oirats to this religion. Their princes referred to themselves as "kings of Tibet". In fact, they only ruled their settlement areas directly and for 100 years formed a second power in the rest of Tibet after the allied Dalai Lamas.

    The Torguten under Khu Urluk († 1643) moved from their original home in Xinjiang , however, furthest westward. They first migrated through southern Siberia in the direction of the Urals , and from 1632 first settled on the left and then on the right of the lower Volga . The most important khan of the Kalmyk or Torgut Khanate was Ayuki (ruled 1670-1724), who attacked individual Russian cities (e.g. Kazan ) until he was entrusted by Tsar Peter I with the Russian border guard.

    In the area between the Choschuten the east and the Torguts in the West nomadisierten Dürbeten and Zungars ( Chorosen ) and smaller tribes that Dürbeten initially to the west, roughly between Central Kazakhstan and the Lake Balkhash and the Dzungars east, and from Lake Balkhash to about Urumqi .

    The large extent of this area should not hide the fact that most of the residents were far more numerous, but subject, Tibetans , Uyghurs , Kyrgyz and Kazakhs . In the history of Kazakhstan , the time of the attacks by the Oirats and the Oiri rule is referred to as the second Mongol period or the "Great Disaster". The Oirats also did not form a unified empire, because the Oirat tribal confederation had disintegrated in the 1630s and each tribal prince acted independently.

    The Torgutenkhanate and inner-Iranian conflicts 17. – 18. century

    The Torguten under Khu Urluk conquered and settled the lower Volga region at the beginning of the 17th century in alliance with the Dürbeten under Dalay-Bagatur. In doing so, they came into conflict with the Muslim nomadic pre-inhabitants of the Nogaier , who initially submitted to a few defeats, but eventually emigrated to the west in 1635. The “Little Horde” of the Nogai people emigrated to the area around Azov and, after Khu Urluk had prepared for war, fled far west in 1636/1637 to the regions of Dobruja , Jedisan and Budschak, which were then still under Ottoman rule . The majority emigrated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century further into the Ottoman Empire. The “Great Horde” of the Nogai people, on the other hand, fled to the steppe foreland of the North Caucasus . Khu Urluk died during a campaign against them in the Caucasus . Since the withdrawal of the Nogaiians, the steppe areas of the Volga-Ural region have been dominated by the steppe kingdom of the Torguten / Kalmucks.

    Expansion of the Djungarian Khanate (green) from western Tibet to the Ural River on a French map in 1720. To the northwest, the "Camp de l'Ajuku Chan" (= "Camp des Ayuki ") is also drawn.

    In the second half of the 17th century, the Oirats wars for supremacy in the Oiraten Confederation, which fell apart in 1636, were used by the Kazakhs to revolt against the Oirats and by China and Russia to subdue the remaining Kalmyks and Oirats in the 18th century. Initially, the Djungars (choroses) under Khungtaidschi Batur and his successors tried to forcibly renew the unity by submitting the dürbeten. Khu Urluk's successor, Daichin , subjugated the fleeing Dürbeten and ended the expansion of the Djungarian Khanate to the west, around the Ural River. As a result, Oirats who did not belong to the Torguten tribe also streamed into the western Kalmuck khanate in large numbers. In the east, during an invasion of western Tibet, the Djungars came into conflict with the khoshuts who were defending Tibet. The Choschuten ruler Lhabsang Khan died in 1717 while defending the capital Lhasa against the Djungars.

    These Oirat conflicts were first used by the Chinese army of the Manchurian emperors of the Qing dynasty 1715–24 to expand China to the west. First the Choschutenkhanate was abolished and their main settlement areas joined as the Chinese province of Gansu and the dependent area of ​​Qinghai. The southern parts of the highlands of Tibet became the Qing protectorate under the Dalai Lamas. The Djungars, too, suffered a defeat by the Chinese army in 1720 and withdrew from western Tibet, whereupon they sought support from Russia and again subjugated larger parts of Kazakhstan under Galdan Tsereng (1727–45). The relationship to the Torgutenkhanate and the "Kalmyks" in the west remained politically tense. The Djungarian empire was defeated by China in the east in 1745–1757 and at the same time the Kazakhs ended the rule of the Djungarian people in the west. The Oirats from what is now Kazakhstan either fled east to the now Chinese-ruled Dzungary or to the western Kalmyks. Through these events in the middle of the 18th century, the Kalmyks in the west were spatially separated about 2000 kilometers from the other Oirats in the east.

    For a long time the Kalmyks in the west cultivated alliances with Russia , especially against the Nogaiians. Since the end of the 16th century, but increasingly since the beginning of the 18th century, Terek Cossacks and Cuban Cossacks, allied with Russia, expanded into the southern Russian foothills of the North Caucasus . With the help of Kalmuck associations, the Nogai were gradually displaced to the upper Kuban (cf. the Nogai Rajon in Karachay-Cherkessia ) and to the middle Terek (for example, the Nogai Rajon in Dagestan ). From the beginning of the 18th century, the Kalmuck Khanate became a de facto vassal of Russia.

    In the second half of the 18th century, the Kalmyks were confronted with a settlement policy by Cossacks , Volga Germans , which reduced their pasture areas. Dissatisfied with this policy, the Kalmyks under Ubaschi Khan (r. 1761–1771 / 5) decided in early 1771 to a large majority to return to the old settlement area on the Altai. From January 1771 to 1786 they returned to their old homeland with heavy losses due to the resistance of the Kazakhs. Only 66,000 of over 169,000 people survived and arrived at the Ili , where the Qing Emperor assigned them pasture. The groups west of the Volga stayed behind that spring because of the impassability of the river and because Cossacks had blown up the only Volga bridge and thus lived in Russia.

    The Kalmyks in Russia since the 18th century

    A former memorial temple near Astrakhan for Kalmuck units that fought against the French army in 1812.

    The remaining Kalmyks lived as nomads and semi-nomads between the lower Volga and the lower Don until the 20th century . Although the Kalmyks were not required to do military service , Kalmuck units were part of the Russian army in the wars of the 18th and 19th centuries . A minority joined the Cossack associations and was baptized Christian.

    Kalmyk exile temple in Belgrade 1929–44

    After the February Revolution of 1917 , the Kalmyks, like many other minorities in Russia, formed a National Council under Prince Dmitri Tundutov, a former adjutant of Emperor Nicholas II . In the Russian Civil War of 1918-20, many more western "Don Kalmyks" were on the side of the White Army fighting against the Bolsheviks , while the more eastern " Astrakhan kalmucks" were ruled by the Red Army . Some of the Kalmyks emigrated abroad at the end of the war. Due to emigration and victims during the war , the Kalmyk population fell from 190,648 at the 1897 census to 127,651 in 1926.

    In the Soviet Union , the Kalmyks were given an autonomous territory that was later proclaimed the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian SFSR . In the course of forced collectivization , the Kalmyks were forced to settle down. This abrupt forced settlement initially led to famine; between 1.3 and 1.5 million people of the neighboring nomadic people of the Kazakhs died in 1932/1933 . After these experiences in World War II , the Kalmyks partly supported the invading Wehrmacht and accompanied them on their retreat. The Kalmuck ASSR was disbanded in retaliation for the collaboration and the remaining Kalmuck population was forcibly resettled to Siberia . A third of the deportees were killed. Most of the Kalmyks who emigrated to Poland and Germany were repatriated . Punitive deportations to Central Asia and Siberia also hit other Soviet peoples under Stalin , such as the Crimean Tatars , Karachay , Balkars , Ingush and Chechens . In all cases the number of people fighting the Red Army was smaller than the number of people fighting in the Red Army. Under Khrushchev , the deportees were allowed to return to the re-established Kalmyk ASSR from 1958 . At the 1959 census there were only 106,066 Kalmyks.

    With more than 180,000 people in 2010, the population of the Kalmyks was below the level of 1890. The Government of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia has a policy of resettlement of about 150,000 Kalmyks from western China , whose ancestors migrated from 1771 to 1786, and the governments of Russia and China advocate these plans. If this policy is successful, the number of Kalmyks in Russia will increase.

    Well-known Kalmyks

    Yevgenia Manchieva

    See also

    literature

    • Benjamin Fürchtegott Balthasar von Bergmann: Nomadic raids among the Kalmyks in 1802 and 1803. Riga 1804/5 ( limited preview in the Google book search), photomechanical reprint with an introduction by Siegbert Hummel, Oosterhout / Netherlands 1969.
    • Elza-Bair Guchinova (Author), David C. Lewis (Translator): The Kalmyks: A Handbook (Caucasus World) . Routledge Curzan, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-7007-0657-0 .
    • Konstantin Nikolaevich Maksimov: Kalmykia in Russia's past and present: National policies and administrative system. Budapest / New York 2008 (translation of the original Russian edition 2002).
    • Emanuel Sarkisyanz : History of the Oriental Peoples of Russia until 1917 . R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1961, p. 252-261 .
    • Michael Weiers (Ed.): The Mongols. Contributions to their history and culture . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-534-03579-8 .

    Web links

    Commons : Kalmyks  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

    Video from the series 360 ° GeoReportage on arte (February 14, 2017): Kalmykia, the return of the monks

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Russian Census 2002 . Line “Калмыки”. In: Demoscopic Department of the Russian Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology (Ed.): Demoskop Weekly (Online) . 481-482, 10-23 October, 2011, ISSN  1726-2887 ( demoscope.ru [accessed October 19, 2011] Original title: Демоскоп Weekly .).
    2. ↑ Official results of the census, Excel table 5, line 81 .
    3. ↑ Results of the 2010 Census of Russia. Excel table 7, line 341.
    4. ↑ Oxana Dordzhieva: Preventing desertification and achieving sustainability in the Black Lands, Republic of Kalmykia, Russia. A system analysis approach . (PDF) Lund 2005
    5. ↑ According to surveys, the proportion of Buddhists among the Kalmyks is estimated at almost 60%, see SB Filatow, RN Lunkin: Russian Religious Statistics : Magic of Data and Non-Correlating Reality. (PDF; Russian) In: Religionssoziologie 2005 , p. 38. The composition of the population of Kalmykia (see also 2010 census: gks.ru lines 339–352) results in a relative religious majority of Buddhism, because also the religious portion of other ethnic groups is estimated at 60%, with the exception of the Muslim Dargins, Chechens and Avars with 81–95% (see Filatow; Lunkin). The proportion of people without religion is - depending on whether the Russian Orthodox of the Russian minority corresponds to the national average of 59% estimated by Filatow and Lunkin in 2005, or whether there are more in this rural region - slightly above or slightly below that of Buddhists. The Buddhists on the lower Volga are traditionally the Kalmyks, no other Lamaist group existed there. In the present, there are a few non-Kalmuck Buddhists as well as the Kalmyk Buddhists.
    6. ↑ compare Dietmar Schorkowitz: The Orthodox Church, Lamaism, and Shamanism among the Buriats and Kalmyks 1825-1925. In: Robert P. Geraci, Michael Khodarkovsky: Of religion and empire: missions, conversion, and tolerance in Tsarist Russia . Ithaca / New York 2001, p. 201 ff.
    7. ↑ a b Michael Weiers (ed.): The Mongols. Contributions to their history and culture . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-534-03579-8 , pp. 185 u. 210 .
    8. ^ A b Andreas Kappeler: Russia as a multi-ethnic empire: emergence - history - decay . 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-406-57739-3 , p. 46 f .
    9. ↑ Michael Khodarkovsky: Where two worlds met: The Russian State and the Kalmyk nomads 1600-1771 . Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1992, ISBN 978-0-8014-2555-4 , pp. 207-235 .
    10. ↑ 1897 census
    11. ↑ 1926 census
    12. ↑ Article from "Der Freitag" ( memento of November 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), it should be noted that only a minority of around 10,000 people collaborated with the Wehrmacht after the experience under Stalin.
    13. ↑ 1959 census
    14. ^ Report from Neues Deutschland 2006 on the website of the Peace Research Group
    15. ↑ Profile "Eugenia Mandzhieva" at Fashion Model Directory