Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Institutionalization of the National Statehood of Kalmykia in the Form of Administrative Autonomy
Abstract
Following the analysis of a wide range of sources - both published and newly discovered in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia - the paper examines the final stage of Soviet construction in Kalmyk Steppe. With the use of fresh conceptual approaches, peculiarities of the following issues are considered: constitutional recognition of the national and state entity, the first representative and executive bodies of state power of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast. In the short aftermath of the Russian Civil War (late 1919 - early 1920), the Soviet rule in Kalmyk Steppe was completely restored and a new system of local government was established. Due to activities of Bolshevik supporters and the new authorities, a considerable assistance on behalf of the Government and People’s Commissariat for Nationalities (Narkomnats), the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was institutionalized by the central authorities in 1920 - in accordance with the Soviet nationalities policy and the Constitution of the RSFSR. The Founding Congress of Soviets formed regional bodies of state power and administration as part of the corresponding unified and centralized system of Russia. The administrative division system of the autonomous oblast was determined by the boundaries and features of territories historically inhabited by the Kalmyk people. Kalmykia as a national and state entity obtained the status of a federal subject within the RSFSR on the principles of internal territorial self-determination. The paper concludes that the Bolsheviks’ program statement on granting the peoples of Russia the corresponding right on the principles of internal territorial self-determination was implemented in Kalmykia in 1920 in the form of a national and state entity following the model of a Soviet autonomy within the RSFSR. Due to the fact the Kalmyk people had been considerably allocated throughout separate territories for quite a long time, it took a number of years to determine and establish the precise boundaries between the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast and the neighboring governorates and oblasts (regions) which was generally completed in the late 1920s - early 1930s.
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