Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
The Cossack Restoration Movement in Kalmykia in the Late 20th - Early 21st Centuries
Abstract
The article deals with the Cossack restoration movement in Kalmykia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a social process termed “Cossack restoration” began to develop in Russia. Emerging Cossack organizations united Cossack descendants and other activists who campaigned for restoration and preservation of the Cossack culture and historical truth about Cossacks. In Kalmykia the movement developed quickly. It has united Kalmyk Cossacks and ensured restoration and preservation of historical memory of that community, its cultural traditions, and helped establish close connections between Cossacks of Kalmykia and Cossack organizations from other regions of Russia. Though the restoration process in Kalmykia shared many common features with those in other regions, it had a number of distinctions. Those were primarily caused by the ethnic and cultural grounds of Kalmyk Cossacks and also by the fact that the cultural traditions of that community had been eroded and suppressed in much larger degree than those of Cossack communities in other regions. Kalmyk Cossacks had been displaced from their historical territory and there are no original Kalmyk Cossack stanitsas (villages) left. One can say that Kalmyk Cossacks were repressed by state authorities twice: first as Cossacks and later as Kalmyks. Nevertheless Kalmyk Cossack descendants were able to retain memory of their Cossack origin. In the 1990s they took an active part in the Cossack restoration movement. The article gives details about formation of the first Cossack organization, its goals, and organizational stages of the Cossack restoration movement in Kalmykia. Also the periods are distinguished when Kalmyk Cossacks were unified as a community organization and then entered the Paramilitary Cossack Community “The Almighty Don Host”. General lines of activity of Kalmyk Cossack organizations followed the restoration process seen as revival of the key elements and factors of the Cossack existence prior to the 1920s. The elements specified by all Cossack organizations in the south of Russia were as follows: special system of Cossack land use, military service, and self-governance. Apart from this, support and promotion of the Cossack culture and participation in patriotic education of the youth proved important spheres of Cossack organizations’ activities. Kalmyk Cossack organizations were engaged in all those activities. In the 1990s Cossacks were active in economic life, whilst in the 2000s they shifted their main efforts to state service and patriotic education, particularly after their organizations had been introduced into the state register. The principal activities of Cossack organizations in Kalmykia included formation of Cossack volunteer squads and pre-service training of young men. The participation of Kalmyk Cossack organizations in social and economic processes in the 1990s and early 2000s contributed to their social importance. Government bodies were created in Kalmykia to supervise and support the Cossack organizations’ activities in the republic. Thus, the Cossacks were recognized an important part of Kalmykia's life.
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