Ayuki

Ayuki Khan (name variants including Ayuka , Aiuk ; * 1642 ; † September 20, 1724 , ruled 1669–1724) was a well-known Khan of the Kalmuck Khanate on the Volga, son of Puntsuk , grandson of Daichin .

Seizure of power

Ayuki was denied recognition when his father Puntsuk died (1669). For example, his uncle Dugar (still betrayed by Puntsuk) deserted to the Crimean Tatars or Asov Nogaiians and attacked Ayuki's people west of the Volga. Ablay, the prince of the Choschuten and an old enemy of the family, and his relatives advanced against the camps of Ayuki's grandfather Daichin. Then Ablay wrote to Moscow and wanted to sign a treaty with the Tsarist empire instead of Ayuki . Ayuki lost many people, had to reconcile with the renegade princes and find new allies. The Nogaier groups belonging to the Kalmyks had also deserted, had to be defeated and reconnected. Then he attacked Ablay at a time when the choschutes were arguing over the distribution of the newly acquired camps. He won one meeting, lost a second, and was forced to turn to Moscow for help (1672). With the help of the Kabardines , the Cossacks and the Astrakhan Musketeers, he surrendered again, was able to crush Abay's army and take him prisoner. Then he proceeded again against the Nogaier and finally against his uncle Dugar, whose (valuable) support he no longer needed. Like Ablay before, Dugar was extradited to Russia (1673).

The alliance with the tsarist empire

Ayuki was aware of the power of the tsarist empire and its dependency on it and made greater concessions to the alliance. So the Kalmyks were allowed to z. B. only trade in Moscow and Astrakhan and Kalmuck refugees were only extradited if they did not convert to Christianity, so only rarely. And finally, Ayuki had to restrict its foreign policy activities to several neighbors. Granted him subsidies a . Ä. promised, but practically not paid. The policy of the Tsarist Empire was to turn the Kalmyks into Russian subjects. But Ayuki, like the Russians, did not obey the rules of the game and the related contracts remained paper. Eventually Moscow's patience broke, viewed Ayuki as a traitor, encouraged the Nogaiians to flee and the Cossacks to attack the Kalmyks (which the Cossacks and Bashkirs already did).

Ayuki also saw himself deceived. In response to this, the Khan joined the opposing side (Ottomans and Crimean Tatars) in 1680, attacked the Don Cossacks (1680, 1683) and the provinces around Ufa and Kazan with allegedly 40,000 men , and also broke the connection to Astrakhan (1681-1683) . Since the Kalmyks did not have much room for maneuver with only 3 cannons and 4,000 muskets, it stayed that way and an agreement was reached again halfway (1683).

With the conquest of Azov by Russia ( Peter I , reigned 1682-1725) in 1696, Ayuki realized that he had to change sides again and concluded a new treaty with Russia in July 1697 (Ambassador: B. Golitsyn ). Peter I pursued a different policy than his predecessors: Peace and security at the border were more important to him than the subordinate status of the Kalmyks. In the new treaty, the Kalmyks' grazing land was not restricted and their refugees were turned away. Ayuki reciprocated, and his loyalty to the Alliance remained intact even during the difficult years of the Northern War . However, Moscow still had to regulate its arbitrariness through seven further contracts. In 1722 Ayuki and the Tsar met in Saratov.

Alliances and ventures in the east

The Khan maintained contacts in the old ancestral land, i.e. H. to the Djungars (- on the origin of the Kalmyks see Oirats -). Their ruler Tsewang Rabdan (r. 1697–1727) had a daughter Ayuki as his wife, but started a conflict when he arrested her brother Sandschin and the 10,000 men with whom he was accompanying (1701–1704). As a result of these tensions with Tsewang Rabdan, an embassy from the Qing Empire appeared at Ayuki (1712/4, after a nephew of Ayuki, Arabjur, had to put himself under the protection of China on his return from a pilgrimage to Tibet). China's embassy also negotiated with the governor of Siberia, M. Gagarin . Ayuki sought protection against Tsewang Rabdan and facilitated access to Tibet, especially to Tibetan medicine.

Ayuki's death

As Ayuki grew older, he was supplanted by his energetic and popular son Chakdorjab. In 1722 Khakdorjab died of alcohol poisoning, but there is evidence that he was murdered (through Russian intrigues). Similarly, Moscow had been building fortification lines since 1718 that delimited the Kalmyks' grazing land in the north. When Ayuki died in 1724, the tsarist empire was easily able to intervene in the question of succession and (with the promise of Russian troop aid and bypassing the legitimate heir to the throne) to appoint its own candidate as Khan (with the subordinate rank of viceroy ). Only when the Kalmyks seriously decided to withdraw completely to the east and west and the corresponding unrest threatened to break out on the border, Moscow had to give in. Cheren Donduk (ruled 1724–35) was the new Khan (or viceroy ).

“You say you want to become a noyon (= title of a mong. Military leader) to rule the people. To be a noyon, you have to know when you have to treat your subjects as equals, when you have to rule them, and when you have to care for them like a mother cares for her child. ” Daichin to his grandson Ayuki.

Remarks

1. ↑ Ayuki's wife was the younger sister of the Kabardine prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkasskii , a close ally of Moscow.
2. ↑ Ayuki ruled quite arrogantly. Repeatedly wandered z. B. up to 1699 small groups of his subjects ( Torguten , Dürbeten ) to the Don. And in 1701 almost all the tribal chiefs rebelled against him, so that he fled to the Russians in the Urals.
3. ↑ So the Kalmyks usually plundered the villages of their ally along their way; a behavior that was also evident among the soldiers of the European powers.

literature

• M. Khodarkovsky: Where Two Worlds Met: The Russian State and the Kalmyk Nomads, 1600–1771 . Ithaca 1992.
• M. Khodarkovsky: Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800 . Bloomington / Indianapolis 2002.
• Michael Weiers: History of the Mongols . Stuttgart 2004.
• Peter C. Perdue: China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia . Cambridge, Mass. 2005.