Sources in the History of Kalmykia: Problems and Solution Approaches

Abstract

Introduction. The article examines issues of accumulation, formation, preservation, usage arrangements, and peculiarities of historical sources in accordance with the adopted periodization of Kalmykia’s history by geographic and chronological parameters (the Central Asian and European periods, respectively) from earliest to modern times. Historical sources from the mentioned periods differ in degrees of preservation, volume and availability. Goals. So, the paper aims at surveying actual circumstances to have influenced the shaping of Kalmykia’s historical scientific sources and arrangements undertaken to have facilitated the use of multiple documents in exploring events of the past. For that purpose, the work shall attempt to identify certain unbiased factors of sociopolitical development at different stages of history (in a temporal perspective), determine roles and impacts of respective government agencies (depositories) of Russia in the shaping and accumulation of sources in Kalmykia’s history and development of archival affairs nationwide. Materials and methods. The study primarily employs diverse reference apparatuses of public and departmental depositories, collected documents, and data from scientific publications. The research principles are those of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness. Results. The Kalmyk people’s history is characterized by an extensive documentary base that includes different types of sources currently housed by federal and regional archives all across Russia. However, the problems of the former’s further growth and usage arrangements can be successfully solved under certain circumstances.

Keywords

• history
• sources
• russia
• kalmykia
• kalmyks
• periodization
• archive
• collection
• accumulation
• preservation
• reference apparatus
• study
• publication