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Revision as of 14:22, 9 July 2007

Kalmykia
CountryRussia
Federal district[1]
Economic region[2]
Population
 • Estimate 
(2018)[3]
275,413
Time zoneUTC+3 (MSK Edit this on Wikidata[4])
OKTMO ID85000000
Official languagesRussian[5]

The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: Респу́блика Калмы́кия; Kalmyk: Хальмг Таңһч) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). The direct romanization of the republic's Russian name is Respublika Kalmykiya, and that of the Kalmyk name is Xal'mg Tanghch. It is remarkable for being the only area of Europe in which the dominant religion has been Buddhism.

Geography

Time zone

Kalmykia is located in the Moscow Time Zone (MSK/MSD). UTC offset is +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD).

Rivers

Major rivers include:

Lakes

Kalmykia is located on the shores of the Caspian Sea. In general, there are very few lakes on the territory of the republic. The biggest lakes include:

Natural resources

Kalmykia's natural resources include coal, oil, and natural gas.

The republic's wildlife includes the famous saiga antelope, whose habitat is protected in Cherny Zemli Nature Reserve.

Climate

Kalmykia has a continental climate, with very hot and dry summers and cold winters with little snow.

  • Average January temperature: -7°C
  • Average July temperature: +24°C
  • Average annual precipitation: 170 mm (eastern parts) to 400 mm (western parts)

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Kalmykia

Demographics

Ethnic Map of Caucasus.
  • Population: 292,410 (2002)
    • Urban: 129,539 (44.3%)
    • Rural: 162,871 (55.7%)
    • Male: 140,097 (47.9%)
    • Female: 152,313 (52.1%)
  • Females per 1000 males: 1,087
  • Average age: 33.0 years
    • Urban: 32.0 years
    • Rural: 33.8 years
    • Male: 31.2 years
    • Female: 34.7 years
  • Number of households: 90,464 (with 289,816 people)
    • Urban: 40,885 (with 128,564 people)
    • Rural: 49,579 (with 161,252 people)
  • Average life expectancy:
    • Male: 59.6 years (exceeding Russia's average of 59.0 years)
    • Female: 72.4 years (exceeding Russia's average of 72.2 years)
  • Vital statistics (2005)
    • Births: 3,788 (birth rate 13.1)
    • Deaths: 3,350 (death rate 11.6)
  • Ethnic groups

According to the 2002 Census, Kalmyks make up 53.3% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (33.6%), Dargins (7,295, or 2.5%), Chechens (5,979, or 2.0%), Kazakhs (5,011, or 1.7%), Turks (3,124, or 1.1%), Ukrainians (2,505, or 0.9%), Avars (2,305, or 0.8%), ethnic Germans (1,643, or 0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.

census 1926 census 1939 census 1959 census 1970 census 1979 census 1989 census 2002
Kalmyks 107,026 (75.6%) 107,315 (48.6%) 64,882 (35.1%) 110,264 (41.1%) 122,167 (41.5%) 146,316 (45.4%) 155,938 (53.3%)
Russians 15,212 (10.7%) 100,814 (45.7%) 103,349 (55.9%) 122,757 (45.8%) 125,510 (42.6%) 121,531 (37.7%) 98,115 (33.6%)
Others 19,356 (13.7%) 12,555 (5.7%) 16,626 (9.0%) 34,972 (13.0%) 46,850 (15.9%) 54,732 (17.0%) 38,357 (13.1%)

History

Kalmykia map

Kalmyk autonomy

The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, migrated from the steppes of southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga region. Various reasons have been given for the move, but the generally accepted answer is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures for their herds. They reached the lower Volga region in or about 1630. That land, however, was not uncontested pastures, but rather the homeland of the Nogai Horde, a confederation of Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes. The Kalmyks expelled the Nogais who fled to the Caucasian plains and to the Crimean Khanate, areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Some Nogai groups sought the protection of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan. The remaining nomadic Turkic tribes became vassals of Kalmyk Khan.

The Kalmyks settled in the wide open steppes from Saratov in the north to Astrakhan on the Volga delta in the south and to the Terek River in the southwest. They also encamped on both sides of the Volga River, from the Don River in the west to the Ural River in the east. Although these territories were recently annexed by Russia, it was in no position to settle the area with Russian colonists. This area under Kalmyk control would eventually be called the Kalmyk Khanate.

Within 25 years of settling in the lower Volga region, the Kalmyks became subjects of the Tsar. In exchange for protecting Russia’s southern border, the Kalmyks were promised an annual allowance and access to the markets of Russian border settlements. The open access to Russian markets was supposed to discourage mutual raiding on the part of the Kalmyks and of the Russians and Bashkirs, a Russian-dominated Turkic people, but this was not often the practice. In addition, Kalmyk allegiance was often nominal, as the Kalmyk Khans practiced self-government, based on a set of laws they called the Great Code of the Nomads (Iki Tsaadzhin Bichig).

The Kalmyk Khanate reached its peak of military and political power under Ayuka Khan (1669 - 1724). During his era, the Kalmyk Khanate fulfilled its responsibility to protect the southern borders of Russia and conducted many military expeditions against its Turkic-speaking neighbors. Successful military expeditions were also conducted in the Caucasus. The Khanate experienced economic prosperity from free trade with Russian border towns, China, Tibet and with their Muslim neighbors. During this era, the Kalmyks also kept close contacts with their Oirat kinsmen in Dzungaria, as well as the Dalai Lama in Tibet.

Imposition of Russian rule

Towards the end of the Ayuka Khan era, the Tsarist government implemented policies that gradually chipped away at the autonomy of the Kalmyk Khanate. These policies, for instance, encouraged the establishment of Russian and German settlements on pastures the Kalmyks roamed in the lower Volga region. The settlers took over land used by Kalmyks to feed their livestock and, in some cases, forced Kalmyks into servitude. The Russian Orthodox church, by contrast, pressured many Kalmyks to adopt Orthodoxy. The Tsarist government imposed a council on the Kalmyk Khan, diluting his authority, while continuing to expect the Kalmyk Khan to provide cavalry units to fight on behalf of Russia. By the mid-17th century, Kalmyks were increasingly disillusioned with Russian encroachment and interference in its internal affairs.

Ubashi Khan, the great-grandson Ayuka Khan and the last Kalmyk Khan, decided to return his people to their ancestral homeland, Dzungaria. Under his leadership, approximately 200,000 Kalmyks migrated directly across the Central Asian desert. Along the way, many Kalmyks were killed in ambushes or captured and enslaved by their Kazakh and Kyrgyz enemies. Many also died of starvation or thirst. After several grueling months of travel, only 96,000 Kalmyks reached the Manchu Empire's western outposts Xinjiang near the Balkhash Lake.

After failing to stop the flight, Catherine the Great abolished the Kalmyk Khanate, transferring all governmental powers to the Governor of Astrakhan. The Kalmyks who remained in Russian territory continued to fight in Russian wars, e.g., the Napoleonic Wars (1812 - 1815), the Crimean War (1853-1856) and Ottoman wars. They gradually created fixed settlements with houses and temples, instead of their transportable round felt yurts. In 1865, Elista, the future capital of the Kalmykia, was built. This settlement process lasted until well after the Russian Revolution.

Russian Revolution and collectivisation

After the Communist October Revolution in 1917, many Kalmyks joined the White Russian army during the Russian Civil War, especially under Generals Wrangel and Denikin. The Soviet authorities severely punished the Kalmyks who remained, executing 10,000.

On November 4, 1920, Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was created. The Bolshevik regime executed about 10,000 Kalmyks at this time.

In 1931, Stalin ordered the collectivization, closed the Buddhist monasteries, and burned the Kalmyks' religious texts. He deported all monks and all herdsmen owning more than 500 sheep to Siberia. The forced collectivization (as well as the dry, treeless landscape) was unsuited to the Kalmyk temperament and was a social, economic, and cultural disaster. About 60,000 Kalmyks died during the great famine of 1932 to 1933.

On 22 October 1935, the region was elevated to republic status Kalmyk ASSR within the Russian SFSR.

Kalmyk diaspora I

Before the Red Army broke through to the Crimean Peninsula towards the end of 1920, a large group of Kalmyks fled from Russia with the remnants of General Denikin's White Army to Turkey. The majority chose to resettle in Belgrade, Serbia. Smaller groups resettled in Sofia, Bulgaria; Prague, Czechoslovakia; and Paris and Lyon, France. The Kalmyk political refugees in Belgrade built a Buddhist temple there in 1929.

World War II

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), Goebbels invited several prominent Kalmyks from Belgrade, Paris, and Prague to Berlin. He wanted them to help with a propaganda campaign. The Nazis wished to win the Kalmyks to the German side against the Russians. No Kalmyks were sent to concentration camps. Goebbels turned this nucleus into a committee to free the Kalmyks from the Communist regime, by helping them print a Kalmyk language newspaper and broadcast radio news in Kalmyk directly toward Kalmykia.[7]

When the Nazi 16th Motorized Infantry Division under General Henrici took Kalmykia early in 1942, three members of this committee were with them. Some of the Belgrade Kalmyks also participated in this invasion. They had joined the German army after the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941. The German army was greeted with butter and milk, the traditional Kalmykian offering to welcome guests. They were seen as liberators from Stalin’s oppressive rule. The Germans offered to dismantle the collectives and divide and privatize the land. They allowed the Kalmyks to practice Buddhism again. In response, the Kalmyks dug up the religious texts they had buried for safekeeping and built a makeshift temporary temple. In November and December 1942, however, the Red Army retook Kalmykia and destroyed everything the people had rebuilt.

Meanwhile, about 5,000 men accepted an offer to join the Nazi military, forming the Kalmykian Voluntary Cavalry Corps. Only a few women and children accompanied them. The Kalmyk troops fought with the Nazi army behind the lines, especially around the Azov Sea.

Although several thousand Kalmyks chose to fight against the Soviets in partisan units organized by the German army, the majority by-and-large remained loyal to their country, fighting the German army in regular Soviet Red army units and in partisan resistance units behind the battlelines throughout the Soviet Union. Before their removal from the Soviet Red Army and from partisan resistance units in December 1943, approximately 8,000 Kalmyks were awarded various orders and medals, including 21 Kalmyk men who were recognized as the Hero of Soviet Union. [8]

Kalmyk diaspora II

See also: Kalmyk deportations of 1944

In December 1943, the Kalmyk SSR was abolished and its territory was divided and transferred to the adjacent regions, viz., the Astrakhan and Stalingrad Oblasts and Stavropol Krai. To completely obliterate any traces of the Kalmyk people, the Soviet authorities changed the names of towns and villages from Kalmyk names to Russian names. For example, Elista became Stepnoi.

In punishment for the disloyalty of part of the Kalmyks, Josef Stalin ordered the deportation of the whole remaining Kalmyk population. The population transfer occurred at night during winter without notice to various locations in Central Asia and in Siberia. Kalmyk Red Army soldiers were recalled. They all were transported in unheated cattle cars. Approximately one-third of the Kalmyks perished during the journey and in the following years of exile. Deprived of their civil rights, the Kalmyk community ceased to exist, thus completing the ethnic cleansing of the Kalmyk people.

Post-war Kalmykia

Due to their widespread dispersal in Siberia their language and culture suffered possibly irreversible decline. Khrushchev finally allowed their return in 1957, when they found their homes, jobs and land occupied by imported Russians and Ukrainians, who remained. On 9 January 1957, Kalmykia again became an autonomous oblast, and on 29 July 1958, an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR.

In the following years bad planning of agricultural and irrigation projects resulted in widespread desertification, and economically unviable industrial plants were constructed. With the collapse of the Soviet regime the economy also disintegrated, causing widespread social hardship and increasing depopulation of rural areas lacking in resources and facilities.

After dissolution of the USSR, Kalmykia kept the status of an autonomous republic within the newly formed Russian Federation (effective March 31, 1992).

Politics

The head of the government in Kalmykia is called "The Head of the Republic". The President of the Russian Federation selects a candidate for the Head of the Republic position and presents it to the Parliament of Kalmyk Republic for approval. If a candidate is not approved, the President of the Russian Federation can dissolve the Parliament and set up new elections.

As of 2006, the Head of the Republic is Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov, who is also the president of the world chess organization FIDE.

In the late 1990s, there were allegations of misappropriations of government funds by Ilyumzhinov's government by Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the only opposition newspaper in Elista. Larisa Yudina, the journalist who investigated these accusations, was kidnapped and murdered in 1998. Two men, Sergei Vaskin and Tyurbi Boskomdzhiv, with connections to Ilyumzhinov, were charged with her murder. [2] [3]

Economy

Kalmykia has a developed agricultural sector. Other developed industries include the food processing and oil and gas industries.

Annual budget: revenues and expenditures: about $100 million. Annual oil production: about 200,000 metric tonnes.

Education

Kalmyk State University is the largest higher education facility in the republic.

Religion

The population of the republic is Tibetan Buddhist and Orthodox Christian, with a significant number of atheists, as is typical of Russia. [citation needed]

Miscellaneous

The Kalmyks of Kyrgyzstan live primarily in the Karakol region of eastern Kyrgyzstan. They are referred to as "Sart Kalmyks." The origin of the this name is unknown. Likewise, it is not known when, why and from where this small group of Kalmyks migrated to eastern Kyrgyzstan. Due to their minority status, the Sart Kalmyks have adopted the Turkic language and culture of the majority Kyrgyz population. As a result, nearly all now belong to the Muslim faith.

Although Sart Kalmyks are Muslims, Kalmyks elsewhere by and large remain faithful to the Gelugpa Order of Tibetan Buddhism. In Kalmykia, for example, the Gelugpa Order with the assistance of the government has constructed numerous Buddhist temples. In addition, the Kalmyk people recognize Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader and Erdne Ombadykow, a Kalmyk American, as the supreme lama of the Kalmyk people.

The Kalmyks have also established communities in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The majority are descended from those Kalmyks who fled from Russia in late 1920 to France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and, later, Germany. Many of those Kalmyks living in Germany at the end of World War II were eventually granted passage to the United States.

As a consequence of their decades-long migration through Europe, many older Kalmyks are fluent in German, French and Serbo-Croatian, in addition to their native Russian and Kalmyk language. There used to be a Kalmyk Buddhist temple in Belgrade, Serbia, and several Kalmyk Buddhist temples in Monmouth County, New Jersey, where the vast majority of American Kalmyks reside, as well as a Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center and monastery in Washington Township, New Jersey.

The word Kalmyk means 'those who remained'— origin is unknown but this name was known centuries before a large part of Kalmyks moved back from Volga River to Dzhungaria in the 18th century.

There are three cultural subgroups within the Kalmyk nation: Turguts, Durbets (Durwets), and Buzavs (Oirats, who joined Russian Cossacks, else we can find some villages of Hoshouts and Zungars. The 'Durbets' subgroup includes the Chonos tribe (literally meaning "a tribe of the Wolf", other names - "Shonos", "Chinos", "A-Shino" or "A-Chino"), which is considered to be one of the most ancient tribes in the world, dating back to 6th to 11th century.

Kalmykia staged the 2006 World Chess Championship between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik.[9]

Not long ago the largest buddhist temple in Europe was constructed in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista.

See also

References

  1. ^ Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", No. 20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
  2. ^ Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
  3. ^ "26. Численность постоянного населения Российской Федерации по муниципальным образованиям на 1 января 2018 года". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  4. ^ "Об исчислении времени". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). 3 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  5. ^ Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia.
  6. ^ "Сведения о наличии и распределении земель в Российской Федерации на 01.01.2019 (в разрезе субъектов Российской Федерации)". Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography. Archived from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  7. ^ Mistaken Foreign Beliefs about Shambhala
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ Rohrer, Finlo (2006) Game of kings takes centre stage, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5377372.stm

Further reading

  • Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-tourist Daniel Kalder

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kalmykia&oldid=143501912"