Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
From the Khrushchev Thaw to Political Rehabilitation of the Kalmyk People: Restoration of the Autonomy
Abstract
The article examines one of the topical questions in Kalmykia’s history - the beginnings of the political rehabilitation of the indigenous population groundlessly repressed in December 1943. The USSR’s policy for the rehabilitation of repressed peoples was determined by the Decree of the 20th Congress and a corresponding prescript of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union dated 24 November 1956. The rehabilitation policies, fi rst and foremost the political and territorial aspects, were conducted in accordance with defi nite legislative acts. The documents that laid foundation of the Kalmyk people’s rehabilitation process include as follows: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR ‘On Establishment of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast as Part of the RSFSR’ and Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR ‘On Establishment of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast as Part of Stavropol Krai’ of 9 January 1957. The acts had the legal force of laws of the USSR and RSFSR, and, thus, virtually abolished the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR of 27 December and Enactment of the Council of People’s Commissars of 28 December 1943 according to which the Kalmyks had been deported, restoring their national statehood in the form of an administrative autonomy. In natural sequence, the paper considers the graduated arrangements of the party and state aimed to mitigate the ‘special’ regime within ‘special settlements’, partially reinstate civil rights of separate categories of ‘special settlers’. The measures preceded the subsequent rehabilitation of repressed peoples and proved an important milestone on the way there. The Kalmyk people’s political rehabilitation was meaningful not only in terms of restoration of national statehood but also in terms of justice towards innocent victims of the dictatorship when knowingly false accusations against a whole people were fi nally withdrawn.
Keywords
