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Kalmykia, officially the Republic of Kalmykia, is a republic of Russia, located in the Volga region of European Russia. The republic is part of the Southern Federal District, and borders Dagestan to the south and Stavropol Krai to the southwest; Volgograd Oblast to the northwest and north and Astrakhan Oblast to the north and east; Rostov Oblast to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east. Through the Caspian Depression, the Kuma river forms Kalmykia's natural border with Dagestan. Kalmykia is the only polity within Europe where the Dharmic religion of Buddhism is the predominant religion; the majority of Kalmyk people are Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug and Kagyu lineages.
The Kalmykia republic covers an area of , with a small population of about 275,000 residents. The republic of Kalmykia is home of the Kalmyks, a people of Oirat Mongols origin who are mainly of Tibetan Buddhist faith. The capital of the republic is the city of Elista.
Kalmykia's natural resources include coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
Some of the first recorded peoples to move into this territory were the Scythians and Sarmatians from the central Eurasian steppe, bringing their respective religious systems with them. Later on, all three major Abrahamic religions also took root, with the Khazar conversion to Judaism being a notable (if historically contested) episode in the religion's history. The Alans were a major Muslim people group, who faced the invading Mongolian Empire and their Tengrist practices, with some of the latter settling permanently. The later Nogais were , but were replaced by the contemporaneous Oirats Kalmyks, who practice Mongolian Buddhism. With the annexation of the region by the Russian Empire, there was an influx of the -speaking Russian Orthodox settlers. Many religious institutions were suppressed in the wake of the Russian Revolution.
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 languages-speaking nomadic tribes. The Kalmyks expelled the Nogais, who fled to the Caucasian plains and to the Crimean Khanate, areas (at least theoretically) under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Some Nogai groups sought the protection of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan. The remaining nomadic Mongol Oirat tribes became vassals of the Kalmyk Khanate.
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 had been recently annexed by the Tsardom of Russia, Moscow was in no position to settle the area with Russian colonists. This area under Kalmyk control would eventually be called the Kalmyk Khanate.
Within twenty-five years of settling in the Lower Volga region, the Kalmyks became subjects of the Tsar of Russia. 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 practised 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 (ruled 1672–1724, khan 1690–1724). 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 neighbours. Successful military expeditions were also conducted in the Caucasus. The Khanate experienced economic prosperity from free trade with Russian border towns, with China, with Tibet and with Muslim neighbours. During this era, the Kalmyks also kept close contacts with their Oirat kinsmen in Dzungaria, as well as with the Dalai Lama in Tibet.
The majority of the refugees chose to resettle in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Other, much smaller, groups chose Sofia (Bulgaria), Prague (Czechoslovakia) and Paris and Lyon (France). The Kalmyk refugees in Belgrade built a Buddhist temple there in 1929.
In line with the policy of Korenizatsiya based on the concept of , the government of the Soviet Union adopted a strategy of national delimitation, while at the same time enforcing the Leninism principle of democratic centralism. According to Dorzha Arbakov, decentralized governing bodies were a tool the Bolsheviks used to control the Kalmyk people:
After establishing control, the Soviet authorities did not overtly enforce an anti-religion policy, other than through passive means, because it sought to bring MongoliaBawden, C.R. The Modern History of Mongolia, Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, New York, (1968). and TibetMeyer, Karl E. and Brysac, Shareen Blair. Tournament of Shadows, Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., (1999) into its sphere of influence. The government also was compelled to respond to domestic disturbances resulting from the economic policies of War Communism and the 1921 famine. The passive measures that were taken by Soviet authorities to control the people included the imposition of a harsh tax to close places of worship and religious schools. The Cyrillic script replaced Todo Bichig, the traditional Kalmyk vertical script.
On 22 January 1922, Mongolia proposed to migrate the Kalmyks during the famine in Kalmykia. Russia refused help; 71–72,000 Kalmyks died during the famine. XX зууны 20, 30-аад онд халимагуудын 98 хувь аймшигт өлсгөлөнд автсан (Mongolian) Revolts erupted among the Kalmyks in 1926 and 1930 (on 1942–1943, see the next section). In March 1927, Soviet deported 20,000 Kalmyks to the of Siberia and Karelia.
The Kalmyks of the Don Voisko Oblast were subject to the policies of Decossackization where villages were destroyed, (temples) and monasteries were burned down and executions were indiscriminate. At the same time, grain, livestock and other foodstuffs were seized. In December 1927 the Fifteenth Party Congress of the Soviet Union passed a resolution calling for the "voluntary" collectivization. The change in policy was accompanied by a new campaign of repression, directed initially against the small farming class. The objective of this campaign was to suppress the resistance of farming peasants to the full-scale collectivization of agriculture.
The Kalmyk units were extremely successful in flushing out and killing Soviet partisans. But by December 1942, the Soviet Red Army retook the Kalmyk ASSR, forcing the Kalmyks assigned to those units to flee, in some cases with their wives and children in hand.
The Kalmyk units retreated westward into unfamiliar territory with the retreating German army and were reorganized into the Kalmuck Legion, although the Kalmyks themselves preferred the name Kalmuck Cavalry Corps. The casualty rate also increased substantially during the retreat, especially among the Kalmyk officers. To replace those killed, the German army imposed forced conscription, taking in teenagers and middle-aged men. As a result, the overall effectiveness of the Kalmyk units declined.
By the end of the war, the remnants of the Kalmuck Cavalry Corps had made their way to Austria where the Kalmyk soldiers and their family members became post-war refugees.
Those who did not want to leave formed militia units that chose to stay behind and harass the oncoming Soviet Red Army.
Although a number of Kalmyks chose to fight against the Soviet Union, the majority by and large did not, 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 after December 1943, approximately 8,000 Kalmyks were awarded various orders and medals, including 21 Kalmyk men who were recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union.
On 27 December 1943, Soviet authorities declared that "many Kalmyks" were guilty of cooperation with the German Army and cited that as a justification to order the deportation of the entire Kalmyk population, including those who had served with the Soviet Army, to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. In conjunction with the deportation, the Kalmyk ASSR was abolished and its territory was split between adjacent Astrakhan Oblast, Rostov Oblast and Volgograd Oblast and Stavropol Krai. To completely obliterate any traces of the Kalmyk people, the Soviet authorities renamed the former republic's towns and villages. (2026). 9785856461434, Mezhdunarodnyi fond "Demokratiia"; Maternik. ISBN 9785856461434
In the following years, bad planning of agricultural and irrigation projects resulted in widespread desertification. On orders from Moscow, sheep production increased beyond levels that the fragile steppe could sustain, resulting in 1.4 million acres (5666 km2) of the artificial desert.National Geographic Society, "Caspian Sea." March 1999. To ramp up output, economically nonviable industrial plants were constructed.
After the dissolution of the USSR, Kalmykia kept the status of an autonomous republic within the newly formed Russian Federation (effective 31 March 1992).
In the late 1990s, the Ilyumzhinov government was alleged to be spending too much government money on chess-related projects. The allegations were published in Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the 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, who worked in the local civil service, were charged with her murder, one of them having been a former presidential bodyguard. After prolonged investigations by the Russian authorities, both men were found guilty and jailed, but no evidence was discovered that Ilyumzhinov himself was in any way responsible. World Press Freedom Review Kalder. Lost Cosmonaut, p70.
On 24 October 2010, Ilyumzhinov was replaced by Alexey Orlov as the new Head of Kalmykia. Since September 2019 the acting President of Kalmykia is Batu Khasikov.
Since 2008, Anatoly Kozachko has been President of the Parliament, the People's Khural. The current Prime Minister of Kalmykia is Lyudmila Ivanovna. All the three top politicians belong to the Kremlin's "United Russia" Party.[3] – See the web site of the Government of Kalmykia with links.
| Average: | 74.8 years | 71.4 years |
| Male: | 69.3 years | 67.3 years |
| Female: | 80.3 years | 75.4 years |
| 1970 | 269 | 4,801 | 1,661 | 3,140 | 17.8 | 6.2 | 11.7 | |
| 1975 | 283 | 5,923 | 2,228 | 3,695 | 20.9 | 7.9 | 13.1 | |
| 1980 | 299 | 7,062 | 2,735 | 4,327 | 23.6 | 9.1 | 14.5 | |
| 1985 | 314 | 7,945 | 2,832 | 5,113 | 25.3 | 9.0 | 16.3 | |
| 1990 | 326 | 6,828 | 2,669 | 4,159 | 20.9 | 8.2 | 12.7 | 2,66 |
| 1991 | 327 | 6,369 | 2,755 | 3,614 | 19.5 | 8.4 | 11.1 | 2,58 |
| 1992 | 323 | 5,865 | 2,806 | 3,059 | 18.2 | 8.7 | 9.5 | 2,57 |
| 1993 | 319 | 5,027 | 3,167 | 1,860 | 15.8 | 9.9 | 5.8 | 2,30 |
| 1994 | 317 | 4,684 | 3,226 | 1,458 | 14.8 | 10.2 | 4.6 | 2,20 |
| 1995 | 316 | 4,321 | 3,359 | 962 | 13.7 | 10.6 | 3.0 | 2,03 |
| 1996 | 314 | 3,929 | 3,232 | 697 | 12.5 | 10.3 | 2.2 | 1,82 |
| 1997 | 313 | 3,845 | 3,072 | 773 | 12.3 | 9.8 | 2.5 | 1,77 |
| 1998 | 311 | 3,858 | 3,279 | 579 | 12.4 | 10.5 | 1.9 | 1,76 |
| 1999 | 309 | 3,598 | 3,356 | 242 | 11.6 | 10.8 | 0.8 | 1,62 |
| 2000 | 308 | 3,473 | 3,439 | 34 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 0.1 | 1,55 |
| 2001 | 302 | 3,530 | 3,357 | 173 | 11.7 | 11.1 | 0.6 | 1,57 |
| 2002 | 295 | 3,729 | 3,637 | 92 | 12.7 | 12.3 | 0.3 | 1,70 |
| 2003 | 291 | 3,874 | 3,437 | 437 | 13.3 | 11.8 | 1.5 | 1,77 |
| 2004 | 291 | 3,923 | 3,184 | 739 | 13.5 | 11.0 | 2.5 | 1,77 |
| 2005 | 290 | 3,788 | 3,350 | 438 | 13.1 | 11.5 | 1.5 | 1,69 |
| 2006 | 289 | 3,820 | 3,207 | 613 | 13.2 | 11.1 | 2.1 | 1,69 |
| 2007 | 289 | 4,146 | 3,141 | 1,005 | 14.3 | 10.9 | 3.5 | 1,83 |
| 2008 | 289 | 4,354 | 2,976 | 1,378 | 15.1 | 10.3 | 4.8 | 1,93 |
| 2009 | 289 | 4,270 | 3,115 | 1,155 | 14.8 | 10.8 | 4.0 | 1,81 |
| 2010 | 289 | 4,432 | 3,191 | 1,241 | 15.3 | 11.0 | 4.3 | 1,88 |
| 2011 | 288 | 4,194 | 2,920 | 1,274 | 14,5 | 10,1 | 4.4 | 1,81 |
| 2012 | 286 | 4,268 | 2,870 | 1,398 | 15,0 | 10,1 | 4.9 | 1,89 |
| 2013 | 283 | 4,126 | 2,805 | 1,321 | 14,6 | 9,9 | 4.7 | 1,88 |
| 2014 | 281 | 3,969 | 2,787 | 1,182 | 14,1 | 9,9 | 4.2 | 1,85 |
| 2015 | 280 | 3,823 | 2,743 | 1,080 | 13,6 | 9,8 | 3.8 | 1,83 |
| 2016 | 278 | 3,492 | 2,709 | 783 | 12.5 | 9.7 | 2.8 | 1.72(e) |
| 2017 | 277 | 3,028 | 2,755 | 273 | 10.9 | 9.9 | 1.0 | |
| 2018 | 275 | 3,043 | 2,649 | 394 | 11.0 | 9.6 | 1.4 | |
| 2019 | 2,814 | 2,561 | 253 | 10.3 | 9.4 | 0.9 | ||
| 2020 | 2,758 | 3,013 | 10.2 | 11.1 | ||||
| 2021 | 2,650 | 3,633 | 9.8 | 13.5 | -3.7 | |||
| 2022 | 2,434 | 2,778 | 9.1 | 10.4 | ||||
| 2023 | 2,403 | 2,517 | 9.1 | 9.5 |
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The population of Kalmyks in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Russian Federation:
According to a 2012 survey, "Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia". Sreda, 2012. 47.6% of the population of Kalmykia adhere to Buddhism, 18% to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4.8% to Islam, 3% to Tengrism or Kalmyk shamanism, 1% are unaffiliated Christianity, 1% are either Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to a church or are members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 0.4% adhere to forms of Hinduism, and 9.0% follow other religions or did not give an answer to the survey. In addition, 8.2% of the population declared themselves to be "spiritual but not religious" and another 8% to be atheism.
As most of Kalmykia is arid, irrigation is necessary for agriculture. The Cherney Zemli Irrigation Scheme (Черноземельская оросительная система) in southern Kalmykia receives water from the Caucasus rivers Terek River and Kuma via a chain of canals: water flows from the Terek to the Kuma via the Terek-Kuma Canal, then to the Chogray Reservoir on the Manych River River via the Kuma–Manych Canal, and finally into Kalmykia's steppes over the Cherney Zemli Main Canal, constructed in the 1970s.
The government of Kalmykia spends about $100 million annually. Its annual oil production is about 1,270,000 barrels.
Although many Sart Kalmyks are Sunni Islam, 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 Dalai Lama has visited Elista on a number of occasions.
The Kalmyks have also established Kalmyk American, 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 Russian and their native Kalmyk language. There are 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. At one point during the 20th century, there was a Kalmyk Buddhist temple in Belgrade, Serbia.
The word Kalmyk means 'those who remained'. Its origin is unknown but this name was known centuries before a large part of the Kalmyks moved back from the 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 the Russian ), as well as some villages of Hoshouts and Zungars. The Durbets subgroup includes the Chonos tribe tribe (literally meaning "a tribe of the wolf", also called "Shonos", "Chinos", "A-Shino", or "A-Chino").
Kalmykia staged the 2006 World Chess Championship between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik.Rohrer, Finlo (2006) "Game of kings takes centre stage"
Most of the Republic of Kalmykia lies in the Caspian Depression, a low-lying region down to below sea level.
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