A Full-Text Kalmyk Exatriate Community Database

Abstract

. Goals. The article describes a full-text Kalmyk expatriate database containing publications by first- (1920-1930s) and second-wave (1940s) Kalmyk emigres. Materials. The database on the Kalmyk expatriate community was compiled from journal collections of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS included into the Rarity Fonds of the Alekseeva Scientific Library and Archive, as well as from other digitized works contained both in domestic and foreign libraries. Results. The paper provides a scholarly description of the database’s structure, characterizes its materials both quantitatively and qualitatively. Still, the developed database remains incomplete, some of the to-be-included published and archival sources being unavailable for a score of reasons that are essentially objective (e. g., whereabouts of the famous Eurasianist and author of ‘Genghis Khan and His Heritage’ E. Khara-Davan’s archives are actually unknown) and subjective (lack of funding and related opportunities to investigate archives and libraries of cities where first- and second-wave Kalmyk emigres used to live and work).

Keywords

• kalmyks
• russian civil war
• kalmyk expatriate community
• digital libraries
• database architecture