Today's Kalmyks are, in general, a small people (189 thousand people) with a huge past. The only Buddhist people in geographical Europe - and perhaps the most nomadic nomads, whose geography is from Lhasa to Paris.
I have written more than once about the Kalmyks in the context of Kazakhstan - only there they were called Dzungars. The common name is Oirats, or simply Western Mongols. They were always separated from the “ordinary” Mongols, even now they are considered a separate people (640 thousand people, a third each in China, Mongolia and Russia), moreover, the Oirat union also included Turkic tribes - the Altaians and Tuvans became their descendants. But maybe that’s why by the end of the 16th century, when only a vague memory remained of the former greatness of the Mongols, the Oirats experienced a classic (according to Gumilyov) “passionary explosion,” which began in 1578 with the war against the Khalkha Mongols and separation from the latter. By the 1640s, the Oirats had created three khanates - the Dzungar khanate (where Turfan and Urumqi are now), the Kukunor or Khosheut khanate (in the foothills of Kunlun) and the Kalmyk khanate - several thousand kilometers to the west, on the Volga.
Here is (click on the link to the original) a map of the Oirat migrations, re-photographed in the Elista museum:
And the homeland of the Oirats looked something like this - this is not itself, but its Kazakhstan threshold: the high gloomy ridge of the Dzhungar Alatau like a large island in the steppe, and a dust storm over the steppe.
The migration of part of the Oirats to the west began somewhere at the end of the 16th century, and it was based on the Torgout and Khosheut tribes. The latter are especially interesting - their noyons traced their ancestry to the commanders of, as they would say now, the elite special forces "Khosheut" ("Wedge") - the vanguard of Genghis Khan's personal guard, where the best of the best were selected. However, most of the Khosheuts, as already mentioned, created their khanate around the high-mountain lake Kukunar, so the Kalmyk exodus was based on the not so famous Torgouts. A significant place is a narrow (about 40 kilometers) passage between the mountain ranges through which the Huns, Genghis Khan, and the Dzungars emerged from the Mongolian steppe to the west.
Then the Kalmyks (and the Muslims nicknamed all the Oirats with this word) went north, perhaps hoping to settle on the ruins of the Siberian Khanate, and for a couple of decades wandered in the Western Siberian forest-steppes, periodically disturbing the Russian forts, primarily Tara (in the north of the present Omsk region) .
In 1608, the Torgout taisha Kho-Urlyuk arrived in the Tara fort for negotiations, and the following year the Russians made peace with the Kalmyks and invited them to occupy the steppes in the lower reaches of the Volga and Yaik. In general, the resettlement of the Kalmyks can hardly be called a campaign - nomadic life was natural for them, it was just that from time to time their nomadic camps shifted one seasonal journey to the west. By 1613, the Kalmyks reached Yaik:
Where, I think, they quickly understood why the cunning Russians invited them to move there: the Caspian steppes had an owner - the decrepit Nogai Horde, a fragment of the Golden Horde, and the possible ancestor of Kazakhstan. The war between the Kalmyks and the Nogais lasted for about 20 years, and by 1630 Kho-Urlyuk captured the Lower Volga region... or rather, not the Volga itself, which remained a Russian possession, but the surrounding steppes.
However, the Kalmyks clearly liked it here, which is no wonder after the disastrous steppes of Dzungaria and frosty Siberia - the relatively mild climate, the proximity of a huge river. If we consider the Great Steppe to be a dry ocean, then the southeast of Europe from the Danube to the Volga has always been something like America for nomads. Kalmyks even found here sacred mountain- Big Bogdo (171m), which is above the lake - on its top, according to Kalmyk belief, lived Tsagan-Aav, or the White Elder - the patron of all living things, and according to one of the legends, the Kalmyks brought this mountain here on their shoulders, but just a little They did not reach the Volga, since one of the caravan succumbed to a sinful thought and was crushed at once by a heavy mountain.
The Dzungars did not waste time, remaining in the same place, where the Taisha of the Choros tribe Khara-Khula united other tribes (), and his son Khoto-Khotsin in 1635 proclaimed the Dzungar Khanate (literally - “Khanate of the Left Hand”, that is, the Western Khanate) . The Kalmyk Khanate was proclaimed even a little earlier (although its first rulers bore the title of taisha), in 1630, and in 1640 Kho-Urlyuk went to Dzungaria for the kurultai of all the Oirat tribes of the three khanates, which essentially formed a confederation. At the kurultai, a common code of laws, the Steppe Code, was adopted, Tibetan Buddhism was approved by the Oirat religion, and the alphabet “todo-bichig” (“clear writing”), developed again by the Tibetan monk Zaya-Pandida, was adopted. The social structure of the Oirat states can be studied in this diagram from the Elista Museum (click on it for a link to the original):
Then the fates of the three states developed differently. I didn’t really find anything about the Khosheut Khanate, but Dzungaria showed itself to be a worthy heir to the Huns and Genghisids - for the next hundred years, neither China, nor Turkestan, nor Russian Siberia could sleep peacefully: the Dzungars took Lhasa and Tashkent and Siberian forts, captive in one of which In 1717, the Swedish engineer Gustav-Johan Renat established the production of firearms for the nomads. The Dzungars held the Kuznetsk Basin, so they had plenty of iron. However, all this was rather to Russia’s advantage: the Dzungar-Kazakh wars, which went on with varying success, pushed the Junior and Middle Kazakh zhuzes towards rapprochement with the White Tsar. A monument of those times is the ruins of the Dzungar datsan in the Karaganda region (and the history of the Dzungar Khanate), another datsan Ablaikit was excavated near Ust-Kamenogorsk, and the “seven chambers” of Semipalatinsk are the ruins of Buddhist temples of the Dzungar city of Dorzhinkit.
The Kalmyks had nowhere to fight. Their nomadic camps extended from the Don to the Yaik, from the Samara Luka to the Terek, they had enough land - the Torgouts lived on the right bank of the Volga, the Khosheuts - on the left. Kho-Urlyuk tried to conquer the Caucasus in 1644 and died there. The Kalmyks did not dare to fight with the Crimean Khanate, unless in an alliance with the Don Cossacks, and in general they began to slowly integrate into Russia; in 1649, Daichin (son of Kho-Urlyuk) concluded the first treaty of alliance with it. In general, contrary to popular belief, coming and stupidly conquering everyone is not our method; most often, new territories became part of Russia through a slow domestication stretched out over a hundred to one and a half years, when each next generation has no critically less independence than the previous one: from an ally - into satellites, from a satellite - into a protectorate, from a protectorate - into direct possession, and then only assimilation. The heyday of the Kalmyk Khanate occurred during the reign of Khan Ayuki (1690-1724), whose headquarters was located opposite Saratov, where the city is now.
At the same time, the dual khanate constantly interacted with each other. In 1701, due to dynastic conflicts, one of Ayuki’s sons fled to Dzungaria, and his descendants became an important political force there (and Dzungaria, it must be said, after the death of each khan, fell apart again for several years, and during this time the Kazakhs battered by raids managed to gather with strength and win back all the Dzungar conquests). In 1731, Noyon Lozon-Tseren, the son-in-law of Khan Galdan-Tseren, left for Kalmykia with his people - this significantly undermined the military power of Dzungaria, in addition, Lozon stood in the important Tashkent direction. In the 1750s, when the Dzungar Khanate finally destroyed China, refugees flocked to the Volga, primarily the Derbets tribe, west of the Torgout nomads.
In 1761, the eighth ruler, Khan Ubashi, came to power, who was challenged by another descendant of Ayuki Tsebek-Dorji. The first was supported by Russian troops, the second fled to Kuban, which was then still held Ottoman Empire. To prevent further unrest, the Russian administration established the "zargo" - a people's council that had almost greater powers than the khan. Outraged by this situation, Ubashi made peace with Tsebek-Dorji, and realizing that the war with Russia was hopeless, he decided to act like his distant ancestors - to leave and found a new khanate. In the winter of 1770-71, a grandiose exodus began - 2/3 of the Kalmyk tents (including most of the left-bank Khosheuts) left and went back to Dzungaria through the Kazakh steppe, sweeping away Cossack villages along the way and taking their inhabitants with them:
However, this was not a migration, but rather an outcome - a rush across the hungry steppes, populated, in addition, by Kazakhs who had not yet forgotten the Dzungarian wars. At least half of those who left died from hunger, cold and skirmishes with the Kazakhs, but by the end of summer Ubashi and the surviving Kalmyks reached the former Dzungaria, which was now called Xinjiang, and accepted Chinese citizenship - but did not achieve anything special: the khan title, as under Russia , remained a formality in China.
The Kalmyk Khanate was after that abolished and included in the Astrakhan province as a special entity, the Kalmyk steppe, divided into 9 uluses, each of which was led by a tandem of a Kalmyk taisha and a Russian official - this order did not change until 1917. Some of the Kalmyks who lived beyond Manych became part of the Don Cossacks (where both Buddhist Kalmyk villages and buzavs appeared - baptized Kalmyks with Russian names, now very noticeable in the life of the republic), the rest also became something like Cossack army- Kalmyk cavalry took part in many Russian wars, including the campaign against Paris.
In general, Kalmyks are mentioned very often in pre-revolutionary texts, much more often than the Kyrgyz (Kazakhs) or Bashkirs, not to mention any Buryats. Still, the island of the Mongolian steppe, surrounded on all sides by Russian lands with cities, villages and Cossack villages, was difficult not to notice, and the tents of Kalmyk servicemen sometimes surprised passers-by in St. Petersburg. Little of the former Kalmyk flavor remained in the 20th century, but it is well documented in museums. Kibitki (that is, yurts), as in Kazakhstan, here most often serve cafes of national cuisine:
The Kalmyk tent is a yurt of Mongolian design, that is, its dome is formed by straight, and not curved (as in) poles. Otherwise, the yurt culture is the same for the entire Great Steppe - male and female sides, colorful decorations, a hearth under the shanyrak (or I don’t know what the Kalmyks call this window in the ceiling), typical utensils like painted chests, a mortar for whipping kumis or an ingenious moonshine still .
The Kalmyk "trademark" was the ulan-zala - a red tassel that decorated headdresses. I also read that Kalmyks wore an earring in their right ear and a long braid (including men). Here are women's costumes from the same museum. On the left is the robe of the distant heir Ubashi (I forgot her name), donated to the museum, who still remains a respected person in China and several years ago came to the homeland of her ancestors. On the right is a married woman's costume consisting of two dresses - the lower "terlg" and the upper sleeveless "tsegdg", and a halfng hat with red fringe. From top left to bottom there are girls' hats made of Kamchatka, Tamsha and Jatg, as well as all sorts of decorations.
Men's clothing is more Cossack than Mongolian, not counting the same red tassels: beshmet (byushmud), makhla hat, bus belt with a dagger uth. In the middle there is a khajilga hat and all sorts of male attributes from a bowl for milk vodka (hello to the moonshine still in the wagon!) to mustache tweezers.
Decorations from girlish earrings to the top of the banner:
The second Kalmyk “business card” after the red tassel is engraved metal buses (belts). Here is a men's sinc earring, a whip and an amulet with some kind of Buddhist intercessor:
Smoking pipes (obviously taught by the Cossacks!) Gaaz and musical instruments from the steppe dombra to the Russian accordion. The folklore of the Kalmyks was not exactly rich, but interesting, including, for example, the good wishes of the yoryal (often performed at holidays as toasts) and the curses of the kharal (to read which they rubbed the tongue black, so the spell to neutralize them was called the “prayer of the black tongue”). Or gurvn - humorous quatrains consisting of a question and three answers. Perhaps the most exotic genre is kemyalgen, improvised poems with a “visual aid” from the last vertebra of a sheep (it was extremely complex, and each detail had its own name - Gray Mountain, Forehead of the Hero and others).
The Kalmyks also had an epic “Dzhangar”, which tells about the paradise country of Bumba and its defenders (which, by the way, is quite unexpected, given the “offensive” policy of the Oirats). It is believed that the Old Believer legend about Belovodye arose precisely on the periphery of the former Dzungar Khanate, in the foothills of Altai, where many Old Believers fled - and wasn’t Bumba the prototype of Belovodye? Like, "Dzhangar" was performed by a special caste of storytellers - Dzhangarchi, many of whom became living legends, primarily Eelyan Ovla, from whose words the epic was recorded in 1908.
And along with Buddhism, “Geser” spread among the Dzungars, the connection of which with “Dzhangar”, they say, is quite transparent. Geser was also depicted on the Kalmyk banners, including those under which they entered Paris... and it turns out that this was the westernmost city that knew the tread of the steppe people. The armor on the right, however, is a replica of much older ones:
Kalmyk cuisine is also interesting and quite popular. Kainars (pies, although they seem to have become “Kalmyk” only in the 20th century) and borzoki (donuts) are found in many eateries, less often you come across böreks (dumplings), dotur (stewed finely chopped entrails), hürsn (like lagman), and in Restaurants serve kure to order - lamb baked in a lamb stomach (!) in the ground. However, " business card"local cuisine - jombo, Kalmyk tea with milk, butter, salt, and sometimes also bay leaf, nutmeg and fried flour. But, unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me: in the eateries I neglected all this, hoping to seriously taste the national cuisine in a restaurant... however, as it turned out, all such establishments in Elista are open until 18:00, and after that there are only vulgar taverns and pizzerias, and I didn’t have time.
But (except for the kitchen) all this is in the past - Soviet authority It turned out to be merciless towards the Kalmyks like few other people. In principle, the nomadic past began to erode in the mid-19th century, when many Russian villages (including Elista) and a system of forest belts appeared in the steppe. Kalmyks distinguished themselves in the civil war - they mostly fought for the whites along with the Don Cossacks and then went to Yugoslavia, but there were also reds - primarily the military leader Oka Gorodovikov. In 1920, the Kalmyk steppe turned into the Kalmyk Autonomous Region with its center (as before the revolution) in Astrakhan. In 1928 Elista became the center, and in 1935 the autonomous region was raised to the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. For the Kalmyks, this was a time of radical changes - both positive (educational education, the creation of modern medicine) and negative - collectivization (and the nomads experienced it almost worse than the plowmen), the total (and this is not a hyperbole) destruction of Buddhist temples. However, the worst began in 1943:
Deportation... this word sounds very scary here. During the war the Germans occupied most Kalmykia and came within a hundred kilometers of Astrakhan, and established a temporary national administration, headed by Kalmyk white emigrants. And although there were Heroes among the Kalmyks Soviet Union, and military leaders (for example, Basang Gorodovikov, Oka’s nephew), after the war they were included in the list of peoples accused of collaborating with the fascists and were deported during the so-called Operation “Ulus”. They were not deported to Kazakhstan - after all, they were their native elements, and therefore they were scattered throughout the Urals and Siberia - the largest communities (about 20 thousand people each) ended up in the Krayanoyarsk and Altai territories, Omsk and Novosibirsk regions. They were deported in winter, in almost unheated carriages, many were given half an hour to get ready - in the first months of the deportations, about a quarter of the Kalmyks (out of 97 thousand) died. They were not always welcome in the new place either - for example, a girl guide at the museum said that where her grandmother was exiled, a rumor had spread the day before that the Kalmyks were cannibals, and it’s not hard to imagine how they were treated at first. When Khrushchev rehabilitated the deportees in 1956, 77 thousand Kalmyks remained alive, many of whom also did not return to their homeland. But to understand the scale of the disaster, all Kalmyks were deported: first in Kalmykia itself (which was abolished in 1944-57), then in other regions up to the capitals, then in mixed marriages. That is, there is no Kalmyk whose ancestors were not affected by this disaster...
And in general, to put it bluntly, the appearance of modern Kalmyks is sad. Firstly, it is almost impossible to hear live Kalmyk speech - an entire Russian-speaking generation grew up during the deportation, going to Russian schools at their place of residence. Secondly, in the reasoning of intelligent Kalmyks one can feel the same national victimization as the Baltic or Ukrainians, and the fear “we will soon be gone.” Those who are simpler have an awareness of poverty and disorder in their republic: a taxi driver in Elista compared Kalmykia with Kyrgyzstan, was very envious of Kazakhstan, but at the same time believed that without Russia the region would slide into a final and irrevocable mess.. Kalmyks also really don’t like it when They are lumped together with the Caucasus, they are offended by allegations that Russians are oppressed there, and they are very unhappy that in Moscow they are treated as the same guest workers. In general, some kind of feeling of brokenness... although these are all my personal impressions over a couple of days, I in no way pretend to depth.
But enough theory! I traveled from Astrakhan to Elista on an old but spacious bus, which travels along the steppe road for 4.5 hours. The Kalmyk steppe, compared to the Kazakh steppe, is much warmer and more fertile, I would say, in comparison it seems small and domestic. And, moreover, a very rich life - in addition to endless herds, I saw cranes and almost a bustard (according to at least a huge flightless bird was staring at us from the grass), and here and there there were scatterings of red tulips on the bumps along the road.
In some places there are salt lakes:
In some places there are fresh ilmeni:
Here and there there are lonely sandy ridges, and if on the right of the road (where I was sitting) they are mostly quite far away, on the left they come across right next to the highway, so from the bus window the texture of the yellow sand is beautifully visible.
Entering Kalmykia - for some reason I expected to see a Buddhist arch... By the way, in Kalmykia the parliament is called the People's Khural, the constitution is called the Steppe Code, and the Head of the Republic is not the president, but simply the Head of the Republic. There was also a khan here in the 1990s, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov - but he did not achieve the glory of Nazarbayev and left the people's memory of himself much like Yeltsin - squeamish (although it was he who made Kalmykia interesting to tourists!).
The first actual Kalmyk village of Khulkhuta:
Behind which a military memorial rises above the steppe, and small monuments can be found along the road for a good ten kilometers. The Wehrmacht reached approximately this far, having occupied 5 uluses entirely and 3 partially, in 1942-43. A little closer to Astrakhan, the anti-tank ditches of an unfinished fortified area remained (I didn’t notice, however), the need for which, fortunately, was no longer needed.
A cemetery in the steppe, it seems near the next village of Utta (which has its own Singing Dune - found in Kazakhstan). On the right are Christian crosses, and on the left are brick and forged tombstones - the former are popular among the Kazakhs, the latter among the Kyrgyz, that is, the Kalmyk Buddhists borrowed this from their neighbors in the Steppe.
The southwest of Kalmykia is again occupied by the only desert in Europe, the Black Lands, which seems to have arisen from overgrazing. Mostly it is to the south of the highway, but in some places it “overwhelms” here:
The main livestock along the road are cows, and I saw significantly fewer goats, sheep and even horses. Here and there barely noticeable straight sticks stick out of the ground - apparently hitching posts.
There are also camels in Kalmykia - but rarely, they cannot be compared with Southern Kazakhstan:
34.
In general, the pride of the Kalmyk steppe, along with the tulip, is the saiga, here is the only population of them in Europe. And even that one was almost destroyed by poachers, and now these wonderful antelopes are bred in several saiga nurseries.
35. from the Stavropol Museum.
On the road from Astrakhan to Elista, the landscape slowly changes - the flat Caspian region gives way to the hilly Ergeni, sands and salt lakes disappear, the grass becomes taller, and in some places trees even appear... but the general desolation remains.
Another feature of the Kalmyk steppe, which prevents it from being confused with Kazakhstan, is all sorts of Buddhist attributes:
Something like a grid for tennis- most likely, Buddhist flags hung on it:
And Kalmyk villages are depressingly nondescript, as indeed are the case with all nomads tied to the land in the twentieth century. Inconspicuous houses behind high fences, most often made of vertical boards - such as the Yashkul regional center, where we had a half-hour stop on the highway.
Or the village of Priyutnoye, the former Amtya-Nur (“Sweet Lake”, since it really stands on a lake with limewater), at the exit to Stavropol - here are the normal attributes of a regional center such as a council with a mosaic on the wall or an incomprehensible installation on the square. I regret that I was not able to photograph any of the rural khuruls and stupas, of which quite a few have now been built in Kalmykia. In addition to Elista, there are two cities in Kalmykia - Gorodovikovsk beyond Manych and Lagan near the Caspian Sea, and another strategic place is the village of Tsagan-Aman on the Volga, which flows through Kalmykia for about 20 kilometers, but I heard that it is in this area that the most brazen caviar poaching occurs. However, the most troubled places in Kalmykia are considered to be the south near the border with Dagestan - there are many Chechen and Dargin shepherds there, and they say slavery is practiced... But all this is off my path.
And beyond Priyutny there is Manych-Gudilo, which I passed non-stop in a minibus with tinted windows, so I only took a few photos of terrible quality. Large (about a third of Moscow), long (about 150 km, that is, more like a wide river), salty (17-29%, that is, like the Sea of Azov), shallow (on average less than 1 m), before the construction of reservoirs, the lake dried up by the end of summer - in fact, one of the most interesting places in world geography. The fact is that, together with many (more than 170) salty and fresh lakes of the Kuma-Manych depression, it is a remnant of the ancient Manych Strait, which connected the Sea of Azov with the Caspian Sea: after all, the latter is not a lake, but a “torn off” piece of the World Ocean. The Black and Caspian Seas separated from each other about 10 million years ago, after which the strait gradually narrowed, and finally disappeared within the memory of people, about 12 thousand years ago - by that time it resembled a giant river 500 kilometers long and 2 to 40 wide Moreover, it did not “close” - it’s just that the Caspian Sea, which in those days reached the present-day Saratov and communicated with the Aral, became shallow to its current level, and the water left the strait. All that remains is its neck in the form of the Sea of Azov and the lakes of the Kuma-Manych depression - . However, this, and not the Caucasus Mountains, is the border between Europe and Asia in the south:
As for Manych-Gudila (locals speak with emphasis on the first syllable - M A Nych), now it is more famous for the virgin steppes on the shores and islands. There, there is an abundance of birds, mustangs graze there, and a week after my arrival, the national cultural festival “Hymn to the Tulip” was held. In general, I regret that I did not find a suitable way to see Manych up close.... although its banks themselves are not very impressive.
And finally - just portraits of Kalmyks, taken without permission on the streets of Elista:
I can’t say anything definite about my communication with the Kalmyks - the impression from them remained smooth and neutral. They say the Kalmyks drunk they go berserk, like a light version of the Tuvans, but I didn’t notice and in general I saw few drunk people. They also say that many Kalmyks have an innate ability for mathematics, and cite as an example Sadovnichy’s alleged statement - “if education is left entirely free, soon only Jews and Kalmyks will remain in our universities” (I strongly doubt that this is not a legend). The Kalmyks I have met are friendly, open, modest, but - other.
And in general, I still haven’t figured out what in Kalmykia, except for Elista, deserves a trip in my format - the cities and villages are either nondescript and monotonous, or require a more journalistic than travel approach - say, to make a report on the saiga nursery in Yashkul . However, if not for “militant atheism”, one could have stayed in Kalmykia for several days - after all, a hundred years ago there were dozens of beautiful Buddhist temples here. About which, as well as about the last survivor of them in the Astrakhan region, will be discussed in the next part.
SOUTH RUSSIA-2014
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Astrakhan.
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. Three courtyards, Cossacks and Kalmyks.
. From Germans to Dagestanis.
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Center. .
Center.
. Between the Kremlin and the Volga.
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Mahalla. .
Settlement. .
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Kalmykia.
Kalmyk steppe. Landscapes and villages.
Rechnoye (Astrakhan region) and Kalmyk khuruls.
Elista. Two khuruls and a train station.
Elista. Center.
Elista. City Chess and the Exodus and Return memorial.
Stavropol.
Caucasian Mineral Waters.
E Rdniev U.E. Kalmyks: Historical and ethnographic essays. - 3rd ed., revised. and additional - Elista: Kalm. book publishing house 1985. - 282 p., ill.
Settlements and dwellings
Pre-revolutionary ethnographers, who occasionally visited the Kalmyk steppe, limited themselves to pointing out that the Kalmyks settled in khotons and lived in felt tents; Khotons are characterized by a circular arrangement of wagons; in the center of such a ring there was a free space where cattle were driven at night.
On average, a khoton consisted of four to ten (very, rarely 20-50) tents, which belonged to paternal relatives. Khotons were often called by the name of the eldest in patronymy, the most authoritative person. The principle of administrative-related grouping of tents was gradually replaced by class; Now the dwellings of poor relatives and farm laborers were grouped near the rich cattle breeder's tent. The large economy of kulaks and livestock owners required a lot of workers: most often these were hired workers. The rich Kalmyk had a large tent with a white felt covering; at his winter camp he had a good wooden house, spacious premises and haystacks for his numerous herds. In the Khoton, the rich man's tent was placed on the southern side, which is considered honorable and where the tents of rich people and elders in the family usually stood.
Houghton |
Along with this, the labor principle of grouping tents became widespread. Representatives of different related groups settled and roamed together. They were united by the joint neighbor-community cultivation of land for various agricultural crops, and joint harvesting of hay for livestock. This was a transitional form, difficult to distinguish for an outside observer, between the above-mentioned two principles of grouping wagons; it did not fit into any of the two indicated types of khotons.
In the 60-70s. XIX century In connection with the transition to agriculture, the first permanent settlements arose among the Kalmyks, where pastoralists spent the autumn, winter and a significant part of the spring. In one Khosheutovsky ulus, more than 300 families switched to a sedentary lifestyle, some of them lived in wooden houses and clay huts, but the majority lived in the so-called “turlushki”, built of wattle and daub, coated with clay, equipped with stove heating. Such turlushkas were not found in the steppe uluses. They continued to exist in the Volga uluses until the October Revolution.
In the work of K. Kostenkov, it is reported that in the areas designated for sedentary residence “... a lot of wooden and earthen (clay) brick houses were built... corrals for storing livestock in winter... the Kalmyks prepared food for the winter for livestock and fuel."
In the 70s of the XIX century. Kalmyks living in the Don steppes switched to a semi-sedentary life. A member of the statistical committee of the Don Army, A. Krylov, who visited Kalmyk settlements on the Don and in the Bolshederbetovsky ulus, wrote: “In Zimovniki there are buildings for the winter, some of which are very good, for example, houses made of clay... The Kalmyks have 16 wooden khuruls, 126 wooden houses... During winter construction there are excellent sheds, the likes of which I have never seen even among the Cossacks in the villages and among the peasants in the settlements: there is a good orchard and vegetable garden.” Such villages are noted in the Maloderbetovsky ulus,” In the Zetov “clan” there were about 40 of them. In the village of Chervleny near Sarepta, residential buildings are grouped into a regular street and surrounded by vegetable gardens, livestock buildings and places for storing bread and hay... All residential buildings in the village more than 30, most of the houses are wooden, and some are wattle huts, stretched in one line along the pond formed by an artificial dam built by the Kalmyks themselves.”
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They set up a tent |
Approximately the same process took place in the Bolshederbetovsky ulus. In 1891, about 15 houses were built for the baptized Kalmyks of the Knyaze-Mikhailovsky village, their tents were destroyed. Many Kalmyks had houses much earlier than the Prince Mikhailovites. In the Büdermis aimak (Kerdate) there was a beautiful house with several rooms, with painted trim, doors, floors, under an iron roof, with a covered glass gallery.
Wintering huts were built near river deltas, near drying up tributaries, known among the population of the former Maloderbetovsky ulus under the name “salvru” (literally: fork). In these villages, residents and livestock were supplied with water from wells by an artel of 2-3 farms: in winter they used snow, and in early spring - melt water. For winter camps, a place was chosen that was not flooded with melt or rain water. This is how villages of 10-50 households were created. Relatives tried to settle together here too. Often the population of such villages consisted of several related groups - three to five, but no more. In this case, they were named after the geographical names of tracts, rivers, ravines, etc. With all their scattered and chaotic placement, it was possible to identify some semblance of streets, lines of the main roads of the village, heading to neighboring winter huts, hay harvesting sites, water sources, summer pastures, etc.
Kalmyks migrated here in September and spent the winter here, and in the spring, with the onset of warm days, they left their winter quarters.
In the Ergeninsky uluses, individual Kalmyks who were engaged in agriculture completely left their winter huts and built their permanent settlements in the upper reaches of the Ergeninsky rivers and ravines, where it was convenient to engage in arable farming and gardening, there were the necessary water sources and good pastures. They were located, as a rule, at a considerable distance from each other.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The main type of dwelling among the Kalmyks remained the felt-covered lattice tent (ishkya ger) of the common Mongolian type. The wooden frame consisted of 6-8 folding bars (terme), a double-leaf door (uden), round or square in cross-section and pointed at the upper end of poles (unin) from 66 to 146 pieces and an upper circle (harachi). The felt covering of the tent consisted of four hangers (emchi), four felts for the terme (irgevche), four lower square felts (turgo) and two upper felts (dever), covering the upper part of the tent from the harachi to the heads of the terme, the door felt and the felt which The upper circle of the dwelling (ork) was closed. The appearance of the wagon reflected the property status of the owner. Wagons covered with good-quality white felt, as a rule, belonged to the rich, Gelyungs (priests) and newlyweds, and black ones with smoked felt belonged to the poor.
Many poor families were forced to live in hut-like semi-wagons - jolum and degli ger, which were one domed part of the wagon (without wall bars), which was installed directly on the ground. The Degla Ger was distinguished by the fact that it did not have a smoke hole, and the unins were simply tied together at the top into a bundle. The poor replaced felt mats with chakan mats. I. A. Zhitetsky noted that in the coastal uluses of the majority of tents, felt irgevches were replaced by chakans; however, he saw wagons in which not only the irgevche, but also other felt parts (turgo, dever) were replaced with mats. It was very cold in such tents in winter. Therefore, for the winter they were covered with a thick layer of reeds or chakan, and in the coastal uluses - with tall marsh grass.
The area of the tent, which belonged to older, large and wealthy families, was significantly larger than the area of the dwellings of poor, small and young families. All household property was placed in the wagon, religious rituals were performed, guests were received in it, and newborn calves, lambs, and camels were saved from the cold in winter. The number of people living in a tent with an area of 18-22 square meters. meters on average there could be 8-12 people. Folk custom developed a strict order for the placement of all household items, hard and soft objects.
All the internal walls of the wagon among wealthy Kalmyks and Gelyungs were curtained with a solid calico or calico curtain, and the earthen floor was covered with shirdyks (koshma) or carpets. In poor families, the shirdyk was used as a seat for honored guests. In winter, the earthen floor was insulated with lamb, goat, calf, saiga skins and worn felt.
At night, the tent was illuminated by the so-called “shumur” - a lamp filled with lard. A rag served as a wick, sometimes they simply poured dung or ash, mixing it with oil or soaking it in lard. In fishing areas, lard was sometimes replaced fish oil. The kerosene lamp also came into use, especially in the Volga and Caspian uluses. In rich families (Zaisangs) there were candles.
The closest similarity of the Kalmyk tent is found with the felt yurts of the Mongols, Buryats, Southern Altaians, Khakassians, Tuvans - both in construction and design features, and in the interior decoration. This is largely explained by the common historical destinies and close proximity in the past.
But the Kalmyk tent was different from the yurts of the Turkic-speaking peoples Central Asia. The Turks' yurts had slightly curved poles, while the Kalmyk kibitka had straight poles (unins), which determined the conical shape of its roof, and not the round one that is characteristic of the yurts of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
The invention and long-term existence of felt tents among both the Kalmyks and other nomadic peoples was not at all an indicator of the backwardness or conservatism of nomads and semi-nomads. The tent is a prefabricated dwelling most adapted to the conditions of nomadic cattle breeding, very convenient, durable, light and simple in design. This dwelling and its good felt covering withstood sharp changes in climatic conditions well; during the hot summer months it was cool in it, and in winter the tent protected people from cold winds, frosts and precipitation. All the positive aspects of felt tents were noted by ancient medieval authors.
In connection with the first steps in agriculture, the first permanent dwellings appeared in the Maloderbetovsky ulus. In the Arshan-Zelmen tract it was built in the 30s. XIX century the first house of the South Russian type. In the Uldyuchinovsky aimak, 5 houses made of wild stone were built.
In the second half of the 19th century. The number of permanent buildings among the Astrakhan Kalmyks is increasing. A visual representation of this is provided by digital materials (Table 5).
Name of buildings |
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| 1 | Stone houses |
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| 2 | Wooden houses |
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| 3 | Mud houses |
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| 4 | Earth brick house |
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| 5 | ||||
| 6 | Mills |
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| 7 | Shops and barns Total civil buildings |
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| 8 |
Monastic buildings |
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a) stone |
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b) wooden and adobe |
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The process of settlement of the Kalmyks, as we noted above, proceeded unevenly. In the uluses, where agriculture developed, it went faster than in purely pastoral areas. I. A. Zhitetsky reports that “in the summer, Derbetovo Kalmyks live in tents, and in the winter, many of them move to warm rooms different types both in size and in the number of buildings, the Ergen Kalmyks stand out sharply from the environment of the steppe people.” According to official data, in 1864 there were 4,277 buildings in the Kalmyk steppe.
N. Burdukov, who visited the Bolshederbetovsky ulus in 1898, wrote that “... in 1874 there were only 39 houses in the entire ulus for 1,759 caravan owners, which is 2.2%. In 1881, the number of houses increased to 68, and in those clans where there were no houses in 1874... By 1898, the number of tents increased from 1759 in (1874) to 2380, and the number of houses reached not more and no less than 503. round houses made of wooden material with 3 rooms with a vestibule...”
In other uluses there were very few permanent buildings. I.A. Zhitetsky reports that in the steppe part of the Yandyko-Mozhchazhny and Erketenevsky ulus, in the center of the steppe, residential Kalmyk buildings of baptized Kalmyks, there were only 3-4 houses that belonged to wealthy Kalmyks.
Members of the expedition that worked in the Kalmyk steppe in 1907-1908 report that “of all buildings in the steppe there were 3958 wooden and adobe dwellings, 9863 barns, bases and katukhas, 4171 wells and huduks were dug near settled dwellings. This did not include khurul (monastery) buildings, the dwellings of the Gelyungs, who had their own houses, mostly wooden, since the clergy was a very wealthy layer of society.
At the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century. the number of permanent premises characteristic of a settled population continued to increase. In 1912, there were 15,961 total buildings, of which 7,231 were residential. The largest number of buildings were still found in the Maloderbetovsky, Manychsky and Yandyko-Mochazhny uluses, near the fisheries. Of the 15,961 premises, the Kalmyks of the first two uluses owned 11,273 buildings of a permanent type; in Yandyko-Mochazhny there were 1,921 of them.
Among the winter Kalmyk dwellings, the most typical and absolutely predominant were adobe houses - dugouts. This is the local name for the above-ground premises in which representatives of all social groups of the population lived, which is obviously explained by the difficulty of obtaining timber. In terms of their type and construction technique, adobe dwellings did not differ from the adobe houses of the Russian and Ukrainian population of the Kalmyk steppe. The most expensive material for building a house was timber, which was brought from nearby cities. Sometimes they bought timber brought to fairs in nearby Russian villages. There were few wooden houses, at best one or two in the aimag. They were bought in neighboring Russian villages and transported disassembled. They were installed by specially invited carpenters, often Russians. The Kalmyks themselves built adobe dwellings with the help of relatives and neighbors. The former Kalmyk trustee Kostenkov writes that artisans appeared from among the Kalmyks living in Russian villages. One of them (in the Ikitsohurovsky ulus) turned out to be a jack of all trades: architect, carpenter, stove maker, painter, glazier. Under his leadership, many houses, dugouts and cattle pens were built.
In new dwellings - adobe houses - the traditional order of placing household items for Kalmyk tents was often violated. Only objects of Buddhist cult were invariably placed in the depths of the house above the head of the master's bed. Ukyugi, chests and other valuables were placed along the side walls, dishes were placed around the stove, and all sets of oxen and horse harnesses were kept in the entryway. Chairs and tables were rare among the Kalmyks. In the deep half of the house, there were shirdyks and felt rugs (carpets in wealthy families) on the floor, on which guests and some family members sat during the day and at night, where guests and some family members slept.
On the eve of the October socialist revolution Kalmyks of the Bolshederbetovsky ulus were already settled. This is evidenced not only by field materials, but also by archival documents. In 1905, striving to have their own deputy in the State Duma, the Kalmyks of this ulus put forward as an argument that they “live a sedentary life,” while the Stavropol Muslims and Astrakhan Kalmyk nomads cannot “be imbued with our needs, they hate the interests of the sedentary population." A document dating from 1936 indicates that the Western Ulus (formerly Bolshederbetovsky - U.E.) “switched to settled life until 1909.” The Kalmyks of the Don Army Region led a sedentary lifestyle, led a pastoral and agricultural economy, and the Kalmyks of the Manych, Maloderbetovsky, coastal and Volga aimags of the Khosheutovsky and Yandyko-Mochazhny uluses and the western aimags of the Ikitsohurovsky ulus led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, had permanent winter villages consisting of living quarters , outbuildings, where stocks of harvested hay and reeds were stored, stacked in stacks. According to N. Ochirov, who knew well the way of life of the Kalmyks of that time, the central uluses (Ikitsohurovsky, Bagatsokhurovsky, steppe aimaks of the Erketenevsky and Yandyko-Mochazhny uluses), which were still engaged in cattle breeding, continued their nomadic life, although shelters for livestock were not uncommon.
Traditional means of transportation are reflected specific features cattle breeding of the Kalmyks. One of the main methods of transportation of the Kalmyk population was horseback riding. Previously, it was very difficult to imagine a Kalmyk without a riding horse, on which he could cover more than 100 km a day. Horses were also harnessed to wooden carts. Rich Kalmyks and Buddhist monks traveled in covered tarantasses. To transport goods, they often used a camel, which was harnessed to a cart using a special strap attached to the front hump. Heavy loads ( Construction Materials, grain, goods for the fair) were transported on large carts, known in the south of the USSR as “mazhars”, harnessed by oxen of the Kalmyk breed. In winter they rode on sleighs, harnessing horses, yols, and camels. In the Volga and Primorye uluses, many residents made trips on their boats, since in the summer a significant part of their life was spent near and on the water.
Nowadays modern modes of transport have firmly entered into life. Motor transport and airlines provide transportation of the bulk of cargo and passengers.
Highways connect the capital of the republic, Elista, with all regions of Kalmykia, as well as with Astrakhan, Volgograd, Stavropol and railway station Marvelous. The asphalt highway Divnoye - Elista, approximately 100 km long, has been completed. A concrete highway will connect the capital of Kalmykia with Mineralnye Vody, Georgievsky, Prikumsky and will pass through the territory of Sarpinsky, Priozerny and Tselinny districts. The territory of the eastern regions is crossed by the Kizlyar - Astrakhan railway. Regular flights connect Elista with Rostov, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Stavropol, Mineralnye Vody, Grozny, as well as with all regions of the republic.
All types of communications have received widespread development: radio, telegraph, telephone. Collective farms, state farms, rural and town councils, industrial enterprises and large settlements telephoned. There is almost no point where there is no radio. Radio broadcasts for Kalmykia are conducted from Elista in Kalmyk and Russian.
Settlements and housing
The Kalmyk tent, of the same type as the Mongolian yurt, was the most common type of Kalmyk dwelling back in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Its wooden frame consisted of 6-8, and sometimes 12 folding bars (therm), a door (udn), large quantity(from 66 to 146) round in cross-section and pointed at one end of the poles (unin) and the upper circle (kharach). The unpointed ends of the unin were fastened to the gratings, and the pointed ends were inserted into the holes of the harachi, thus forming the dome of the wagon. Through the round hole of the harachi the tent was illuminated during the day, and through the same hole the smoke from the hearth came out. The frame was covered with 16 felts of different sizes and shapes, which had a specific purpose and their own names. The door was a double door; both of its halves (khasvch) opened inward and were tightly attached to the side jambs.
The appearance of the wagon reflected the property status of its owner. The tents, covered with good-quality white felt, usually belonged to rich Kalmyks and Buddhist monks, and the black tents belonged to the poor.
In a tent with an area of 8-12 m2, 8-12 people often lived. All household property was located here. The tents were placed with the door facing south. The side located to the left of the entrance was considered the male half, and the right side was considered the female half. On the men's side, along the wall grating, starting from the door, there were sets of horse harnesses, processed animal skins and sheepskins, neatly stacked, etc. Nearby there was a wooden bed (orndg), on which the owner's parents or adult daughter usually slept. Behind the bed, in the depths of the wagon, a sheep was folded: felt and carpet bags filled with soft things were placed on a wooden cabinet (uk^g) with a small door. All this was covered with carpets, on top of which small chests with valuable things were placed. Images of Buddhist deities were hung from the heads of the wall gratings. The owner's wooden bed usually stood near the northwestern wall. Next to the bed, against the wall, there was a wooden tub in which fermented milk (chigen) was diluted. Further space against the wall was occupied by kitchen utensils. In the center of the wagon there was a place for a fireplace with a tripod placed on the ground; A cast-iron cauldron was placed on it, and a fire was lit under it. Opposite the entrance, behind the hearth, there was a “place of honor” where guests were seated. They sat on felt, and bowls of food were placed on felt.
Kalmyks lived in khotons, which consisted of four to ten tents, usually related families. The tents were placed in a circle, leaving a free space in the center where cattle were driven at night.
Since the 30s of the XIX century. The Kalmyks developed so-called dugouts - above-ground buildings made of adobe mud bricks. The wooden frame of the roof was covered with reeds (usually chakan) and coated with clay on top. The adobe houses gradually replaced the tents. Villages consisting of adobe houses arose in the Maloderbetovsky, Manychsky, Bolypederbetovsky uluses and among the Don Kalmyks. Near the house, open paddocks were fenced off, covered sheds were erected, and stacks of hay were stacked.
Among these winter adobe buildings in Kalmyk villages stood individual log houses of noyons, zaisangs, kulaks, cattle dealers, as well as groups of khurul (monastery) buildings, in the center of which was a Buddhist temple.
In terms of their internal structure and appearance, Kalmyk adobe houses were similar to the dwellings of neighboring Russian peasants. In the orientation of adobe houses relative to the cardinal points, the custom of arranging the entrance either from the east or from the south was observed. The stove was placed either in one of the corners near the entrance, or in the middle. The floor was earthen; it was covered, as in the tent, with quilted felts (shirdg). The fuel was dung, reeds, weeds, etc.
In adobe or wooden houses, the traditional order for the wagon* of placing things was violated. Only Buddhist-Lamaist religious objects were invariably located in the depths of the room, above the heads of the owners. Beds and sheep were placed along the side walls; Household utensils were placed near the stove.
The process of transition to sedentarism among different groups of Kalmyks proceeded unevenly. In the coastal regions of the Volga and Caspian Sea, it was primarily the poor who did not have livestock and were engaged in fishing who became sedentary. Among the Don Kalmyks, who were equated with the Cossacks, the process of settlement was closely related to the development of agriculture, which provided a more stable income. In Soviet times, fundamental changes in the economy led to a massive transition of Kalmyks to sedentary life.
Currently, the felt tent has been completely replaced by good-quality houses with two rooms or more. Houses are built on a brick or stone foundation. In Western and central regions In the republics, the walls are made of adobe or shell rock, and in the eastern ones - frame reeds. Often reed walls are lined with baked bricks or coated outside and inside with clay mixed with straw, and then whitewashed. Sometimes reed houses are sheathed with boards. Houses are heated with stoves with a riser. The floor is usually made of wood, but in some areas, due to the lack of wood, adobe floors are also made.
With the transition to settled life, the interior decoration of the home also changed. The decor of the houses is dominated by factory furniture: metal beds, tables, chairs, mirrors, wardrobes, chests of drawers, bookcases, whatnots.
The interior decoration of the Kalmyk dwellings does not differ from the houses of the local Russian population.
The villages are characterized by a clear layout, they are divided into blocks with straight streets, trees (white acacia, poplar) are planted along the houses. In the center of the village there is a collective farm board (or state farm directorate), a post office, a village council, a club, schools, and shops.
The economic and cultural center of the Kalmyk ASSR is the city of Elista. The location of the capital was due to the fact that it was located in the center of the steppe, where the main routes connecting the regions of the republic converge. Republican administrative and research institutions, as well as industrial enterprises, are concentrated in Elista. Here is the highest educational institution Republic - Pedagogical Institute. An experimental demonstration forestry enterprise has been created near Elista. A republican theater building is being built in the city. Elista is a well-greened city with multi-storey buildings of modern architecture.
The Kalmyks themselves call themselves halmg(meaning "remaining") or eyord(from deurn yord, which means “four close ones”, “four allies”). Kalmyks of the People's Republic of China (Oirats) also call themselves Oirat-Mongols, because... in the People's Republic of China, all Mongol-speaking peoples (Oirats, Khalkhas, Buryats, etc.) are called Mongols. The Kalmyk people are divided into four large divisions, or generations, as the Russians called them - Torguts (Torgouts), Derbets (Dervyuds), Khoshouts (Khoshuts) and Olets (Zungars). Some of the Torgouts, Derbets and Olets (Zungars), who lived next to the Don Cossacks and actively interacted with them, adopted the name Buzava.
Settlement area
Kalmyks (Torgouts, Derbets, Khoshouts, Zungars (Olyots), Buzavs) live in the Republic - 173.996 thousand people. (more than 50% of the population) according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2002. Large groups of Kalmyks (Torgouts, Derbets, Khoshouts, Zungars (Olyots)) are also located in Western China (Baingol-Mongolian and Borotala-Mongolian Autonomous Districts of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; Qinghai Province China) - according to various sources, from 170 to 250 thousand people, and Western Mongolia (Khovd and Uvs aimags) - about 150 thousand people. There are small groups of Kalmyks in Central Asia (in Kyrgyzstan - over 10 thousand people) and in the Caucasus, from the countries of the so-called “far abroad” - in (2 thousand people) and (1 thousand people)
Number
The number of Volga Kalmyks at the time of their arrival in their current places of residence at the beginning of the 17th century. estimated at approximately 270 thousand people. Then, in the composition of the country's population, their number changed as follows: 1926 - 131 thousand, 1937 - 127 thousand, 1939 - 134 thousand, 1959 - 106 thousand, 1970 - 137 thousand. , 1979 - 147 thousand people, 1989 - 174 thousand people, of which in the Republic of Kalmykia - 166 thousand people. The Oirats (Kalmyks) who remained there after the conquests of Genghis Khan also live in Afghanistan.
Ethnic and ethnographic groups
Until the 20th century Kalmyks were characterized by the presence of tribal groups - Derbets, Torgouts, Khosheuts and Olets (Zungars). At the present stage, there is an active mixing of clans and the formation of a single Kalmyk nation.
Racial identity, anthropological type
Racially, Kalmyks are Mongoloids, but unlike the classical Mongoloids, as a result of mixing with the Turkic and North Caucasian peoples, they more often have wavy soft hair, a slightly more developed beard, and a higher nose bridge.
Language
Writing
Religion
Kalmyks profess Buddhism (Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism).
Ethnogenesis and ethnic history
The ethnogenesis of the Kalmyks has not been well studied. But Kalmyks are widely mentioned in connection with the rise of the legendary conqueror. According to Timur’s biographers, his youth was spent in the fight against the Kalmyks (Gets) of the Kashgar Khan who occupied his homeland. The matured Timur expels the Kalmyk-Geth conquerors from his country and begins campaigns in the West and South. English researchers of the 18th century (Gibbon and others) identify the Getae-Kalmyks of the time of Timur with the Massagetae of ancient times, who stopped the advance of Alexander the Great in Central Asia. Kalmyks are also mentioned in the work Chingiz Name, which traditionally dates back to the 13th century.
According to one version, the Kalmyks were formed as a result of the arrival to the beginning. 17th century to the Lower Volga from Western Mongolia, part of the Oirat tribes - Derbets, Torguts, etc. It is believed that there they accepted Russian citizenship and from 1667 within Russia there was a relatively autonomous Kalmyk Khanate, which was liquidated in 1771, when part of the Kalmyks, dissatisfied with the oppression from side of the Russian administration, went to their historical homeland.
Opponents, in particular, draw attention to the fact that Kalmyks are mentioned in Russian sources as early as the 16th century, that connections with Kalmyks have always been carried out through the Collegium of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, and the transfer of Kalmyk affairs to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs occurred only in 1825.
Be that as it may, the first mentions of Kalmyks in Russian sources date back to the beginning, the time of the reign. Sebastian Munster, who published his Cosmography in 1544, received information about the Kalmyks from Russian informants.
Farm
The basis of the traditional Kalmyk economy was nomadic cattle breeding. The herd was dominated by sheep, fat-tailed and coarse-haired, and horses of the Kalmyk steppe breed, distinguished by their unpretentiousness; cattle were also bred - red cows raised for meat, as well as goats and camels. Cattle have been kept on pasture all year round since the 19th century. began to stockpile food for the winter. With the transition to sedentism (with the exception of Russian Kalmyks and Kalmyks living in the West, the rest of the Oirat-Kalmyks continue to lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle), pig breeding began to be practiced. In the Volga region and the Caspian Sea, fishing played a significant role. Hunting was of no small importance, mainly saigas, but also wolves, foxes and other game. Some groups of Kalmyks have been engaged in agriculture for a long time, but it did not play a significant role. Only with the transition to settled life did his role begin to grow. Cereals were grown - rye, wheat, millet, etc., industrial crops - flax, tobacco, vegetable gardens, orchards and melons. From the 20th century Kalmyks also begin to engage in flood rice cultivation. Crafts were developed, including leather working, felting, wood carving, etc., including artistic ones - leather stamping, embossing and metal engraving, embroidery.
Traditional settlements and dwellings
Until the beginning of the 20th century. Traditional Kalmyk settlements (khotons) had a family-related character. They were characterized by a circle-shaped layout of portable dwellings; cattle were driven into the center, and public gatherings were held there. Since the 19th century stationary settlements with a linear layout appeared. The main dwelling of nomadic Kalmyks was a Mongolian-type yurt. Its wooden frame consisted of 6-12 folding lattices, a circle in the upper part, which was connected to the lattices by long curved slats. The door was made with double doors. The side to the left of the entrance was considered male; there were horse harnesses, processed skins, a bed for the owners, bedding; to the left of the entrance there was a female half with kitchen utensils. There was a hearth in the center, a cauldron was placed above it on a tripod, and behind the hearth there was a place of honor where guests were seated. The floor was covered with felt. Another portable dwelling of the nomadic Kalmyks was a tent mounted on a cart. At first, permanent dwellings were dugouts and semi-dugouts made of mud bricks or cut from turf, and from the 19th century. Russian-type buildings, log and brick, began to spread.
Traditional clothing
Kalmyk men's clothing was a shirt with long sewn-in sleeves and a round collar, it was white, and blue or striped pants. Over them they wore a beshmet sewn at the waist and another pair of trousers, usually cloth. The beshmet was belted with a leather belt, richly ornamented with silver plaques; it was an indicator of the owner’s wealth; a knife in a sheath was hung from the belt on the left side. The men's headdress was a fur hat like a papakha or a sheepskin cap with earflaps. Ceremonial headdresses had a red silk tassel, which is why neighboring peoples called the Kalmyks “red-tasseled.” Shoes were soft leather boots of black or red with slightly curved toes; they were worn with felt stockings in winter and canvas foot wraps in summer. Women's clothing was more varied. It consisted of a white long shirt with an open collar and a slit in the front to the waist and blue pants. Girls from the age of 12-13 wore a camisole over their shirt and pants, tightly cinching their chest and waist and making their figure flat; they did not take it off even at night. Women's clothing was also biz made of calico or woolen fabric in the form of a long dress, it was tied at the waist with a belt with metal patches; women also wore birz - a wide dress without a belt. A girl's headdress was a cap, a woman's headdress resembled a beret with a wide, hard hoop at the bottom. Married women They braided their hair into two braids and put them in black or velvet braids. Women's shoes there were leather boots. Women's jewelry was numerous - earrings, hairpins, hairpins, etc. made of gold, silver, bone, precious and semi-precious stones; men wore an earring in their left ear, a ring and an amulet bracelet.
Food
The traditional food of Kalmyks was meat and milk. Meat dishes were made from lamb and beef; other types were less common. They cooked meat broth, seasoning it with raw onions, noodles with meat and onions, bereks - large dumplings, dutur was popular - finely chopped entrails stewed in water, they baked meat in a closed container, previously - the whole carcass in the ground. There were a variety of dishes made from milk - cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, curdled milk from cow's milk and kumiss from mare's milk. The everyday drink was jomba - tea with milk, butter, salt, nutmeg and bay leaf; it quenched thirst in hot weather and warmed in cold weather. They prepared flour products - unleavened flatbread in lamb fat, bortsog - ring-shaped flatbread, round in cross-section, tzelvg - thin flatbread fried in boiling oil or fat. Where the Kalmyks lived water sources, fish dishes predominated. Alcoholic drink there was ark (araka) - milk vodka..
Social organization
The traditional Kalmyk society had a developed social structure. It consisted of noyons and zaisangs - hereditary aristocracy, Buddhist clergy - gelungs and lamas. Tribal relations were preserved, and patronymic associations, which occupied separate settlements and consisted of small families, played a significant role in social relations.
Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs
The marriage was concluded by agreement between the parents of the future husband and wife; the consent of the guy and the girl was usually not asked. The girl was married off outside her khoton. There was no kalym, but the values transferred by the groom's family to the bride's family could be significant. Gelyung previously determined whether the marriage would be successful. To do this, they compared the years of birth of the bride and groom according to the Eastern calendar. It was considered good if the bride was born in the year of the hare, and the groom in the year of the dragon, but not vice versa, since “the dragon will devour the hare,” that is, the man will not be the head of the house. A separate tent was set up for the new family, with the groom’s side preparing the home itself, and the bride’s side providing the interior decoration and household items. To reduce wedding expenses, by mutual agreement of the parties, an imaginary abduction of the bride could be arranged. The matchmakers came to the bride's family three times to formalize the agreement; these meetings were accompanied by a festive meal. Whether the marriage would be successful and the “happy” wedding day was determined by a zurkhachi (astrologer) using special fortune telling.
In the Kalmyk religion, along with Lamaism, traditional beliefs and ideas were widespread - shamanism, fetishism, the cult of fire and hearth. They were reflected, in particular, in calendar holidays. One of them was associated with the beginning of spring; it was celebrated in February and was called Tsagan Sar. During it, they put on their best clothes, ate abundantly and visited each other with mutual congratulations and good wishes.
Folklore played a large role in the spiritual culture of the Kalmyks, especially the heroic epic “Dzhangar”, performed by Dzhangarchi storytellers; this work contains several tens of thousands of verses.
see also
Links
- Cartographic Collection of the Library of Congress: "Carte de Tartarie" of Guillaume de L'Isle (1675-1726); The map shows the Kalmyk territories as of 1706.
Kalmyks by their origin belong to the western branch of the Mongols and first appeared within the Volga region in the 17th century. Leaving their homeland - Dzungaria, they, under the leadership of their khan Kho-Yurluk, moved north and in 1630, breaking into European Russia, occupied the vast steppe space on the right side of the lower Volga, subjugating the Tatars, Turkmens, and Nogais who were nomadic here , Edshikuls, Edisans and other peoples and began their predatory raids on Russian settlements. In one of these raids, Kho-Yurluk attacked Astrakhan, dreaming of restoring the Golden Horde, but was killed. The Kalmyks realized that they were not able to fight the Moscow state, and had to recognize the great Moscow sovereign as their supreme ruler and give a shert record, according to which they promised “to be in eternal obedience to the Moscow Tsar.” However, obedience turned out to be fictitious. For almost a century and a half, the Kalmyks continued to attack the Russians, “robbed them, captured them and ruined their uchugs.” The entire Volga region - to Samara and Simbirsk - trembled from the Kalmyk horde. Only since 1771, when the Russian government placed permanent military commands in the nomadic hordes, strictly limited the autocracy of the khans and subordinated them to the control of the Russian administration, organized robberies gradually ceased. But the Kalmyks, dissatisfied with this order of things, under the leadership of their khan Ubashi in the same year, a huge part of their horde left Russia and fled to their homeland, Mongolia; There were no more than 5,000 families or tents left who lived on the right side of the Volga and, due to the river flood, did not have time to join the fugitives.
Their descendants still live in Russia under the name of Volga, Don and Stavropol Kalmyks, mainly in the steppe space between Ergeni, Volga, the Caspian coast and Kuma. Thus, in the region under consideration, they occupy the so-called Kalmyk steppe, that is, the southwestern part of Chernoyarsk and the western parts of Enotaevsky and Astrakhan districts. The social structure of the remaining Kalmyks, in the form of their gradual subordination to Russian legislation, was somewhat changed: the power of the khan was destroyed, and the entire Kalmyk people were divided into seven separate (later an eighth was formed) possessions or uluses. The basis for this division of the Kalmyk horde was the number of senior noyons in the clan, who came from the khan's families and received power hereditarily. All Kalmyks - commoners - were subordinated to them not only economically, but also in judicial and administrative terms, even with the right to collect “alban” from them, that is, taxes in their favor. Each ulus consisted of several clans (otoks), which were divided into aimaks, which did not have a certain number and disintegrated, in turn, into khotons. For the immediate administration of aimags, noyons usually distributed them to their relatives, who received the title of zaisangs. Noyons could not only appoint zaisangs, but also take away the aimag from the offending zaisang; nevertheless, due to the ingrained custom of heredity of the Zaisang title, a special class of Zaisangs was formed from these rulers. From the general ulus system stood out the clergy, free from taxes and having for their maintenance special servants - “shabiners”, made up of people of various clans, transferred by the tribal rulers to the khuruls (monasteries) and lamas.
In 1834, the “Regulations on the management of the Kalmyk people” were published, which meant further regulation of Kalmyk life. The old division of Kalmyks into uluses and their tribal rulers - noyons - were abandoned, but only the eldest son could use the inheritance and the associated rights to own the Kalmyk people. If the noyon was childless, the ulus became a crown ulus and passed under the authority of a special ruler, appointed for a term, at the will of the Russian authorities, and the Kalmyks who were part of the ulus turned into state peasants and paid the alban no longer to the heirs of the deceased noyon, but to the state treasury. In addition, the “Regulations” greatly limited the power of the noyons: they were forbidden to split the uluses between their sons, they were deprived of their previous ownership of the Kalmyks on the basis of serfdom and could neither sell, nor mortgage, nor give away their people; Their previously unlimited exactions were now calculated at 7 rubles. 14 kopecks from every caravan. The title of zaisangs, as aimak rulers, was also recognized as hereditary and should have passed to the eldest in the clan; the rest of the relatives, although they bore the title of zaisangs, had nothing to do with the matter of governance.
In 1892, a law was finally promulgated in the steppes, according to which the Kalmyks were completely freed “from obligatory relation to their privileged class.” All special rights of noyons and zaisangs were abolished, and Kalmyk commoners were given the rights of free rural inhabitants. Monetary fees in favor of noyons and zaisangs were also abolished, and in return, each Kalmyk tent was subject to a tax of 6 rubles. per year for the benefit of the treasury. The management of the Kalmyks is entirely concentrated in the hands of the ulus trustees and their assistants, and the clan communities are allowed to be governed, instead of the zaisangs, through special elected people, with the rights of volost elders. This is, in general terms, the historical past of the Kalmyks.
The character of the Kalmyks is characterized by duality. By nature, they are sincere, friendly, always ready to provide a service, distinguished by strict honesty in fulfilling their obligations, cordiality in mutual relations and social solidarity. But, due to historical reasons, they reveal these best sides of their character only in their relationships with their own; in relations with Russians they are secretive and distrustful...
Not being picky about food, Kalmyk...prefers goat and lamb meat to everything. The latter is even considered healing - it is the strong brew from it, called “shulum”, that Kalmyks use as medicine. Everyone loves bread, but they don’t know how to bake it. Instead of bread, they prepare “crumpets”, baked in hot ashes from steeply kneaded dough made from rye or wheat flour, without salt; These cookies are not tasty and are inedible when dry. In addition to crumpets, “budan” is prepared from flour - milk mixed with flour and boiled in a cauldron; Poor people prepare budan simply with water alone. The rich also enjoy “bormontsix”, that is, balls of wheat dough fried in lamb fat. The most common, constant and irreplaceable food is “Kalmyk tea”. It is prepared from tea rubbish pressed into slabs, which is crushed with a knife, crushed into powder and thrown into boiling water in a cauldron. After sufficient boiling, salt, flour, lamb fat or butter are added to the tea broth, and the tea is ready. They drink it from small wooden cups with bread and crumpets. The rich flavor the smell of “tea” with nutmeg powder. “Tea” for Kalmyks is an organic need, and they cannot do without it, consuming it in incredible quantities; Therefore, when hiring someone to work somewhere, they make it an indispensable condition that they be given tea. From dairy products, Kalmyks prepare Aryan - fermented milk, from which alcoholic drink, known as araki, or Kalmyk vodka. When it is cured, a type of cottage cheese remains - bozo, from which Kalmyk cheese is made. In winter it is boiled in water with flour, in summer it is eaten raw with butter. Sweetish cheese is made from sheep's milk, and kumys is made from mare's milk.
Housing Kalmyks depends on their way of life. Until very recently, the Kalmyks remained the same nomadic pastoralists as they were in their homeland - Mongolia. “Where a fire is lit, there is a dwelling; where a horse is tied, there is pasture,” says the Kalmyk proverb. When wandering with his herds from place to place, a Kalmyk must also have a portable dwelling, which is a wagon, or a yurt, which is a felt hut on a wooden frame. The tent is illuminated only through the harachi, or upper opening of the yurt, which also serves as a smokehouse. The decoration of the yurt consists of a low bed with several felts. To the left of the bed there is a box in which “burkhans”, or idols, and other objects are stored, as well as all the jewelry of the Kalmyks. In front of the burkhans, a small wooden table is placed, decorated with carvings, paints and gilding, with silver or copper cups in which sacrifices are placed: water, oil, wheat and delicacies. A necessary accessory to a family tent consists of a tagan and a cauldron, which occupy the middle of the tent; this hearth on which food is cooked is revered sacred place. That's all the decoration of a simple Kalmyk home.
The Russian government took a number of measures to accustom the Kalmyks to settle down, but these measures did not have sufficient success. In 1846, in order to settle the roads running through the Kalmyk steppe, 44 villages were founded along the road running from Astrakhan to Stavropol, each with 50 households of Russian peasants and 50 households of Kalmyks, with the allotment of 30 dessiatines of land to the settlers. per capita; Kalmyk settlers, in addition, retained the right to participate in grazing livestock on common lands; finally, each Kalmyk was given 15 rubles upon settlement. Despite such benefits, the Kalmyks did not settle on any of the plots allocated to them, and the houses built for them remained unoccupied; only Russian peasants quickly occupied the best of the allotted places, and thus a significant number of Russian settlements appeared among the Kalmyks. In 1862, it was proposed to found new, small Kalmyk villages stretching across the entire steppe, from east to west, along the line of the so-called Crimean tract. This colonization was again unsuccessful: Kalmyks did not settle at all. From that time on, a general survey of Kalmyk lands began and allotment of them to Kalmyks for settled settlement: noyons were allocated 1,500 dessiatinas, aimak zaisangs - 400 dessiatinas, non-aimak zaisangs - 200 dessiatines each, and commoners - from 20 to 60 dessiatines, depending according to the quality of the chosen land. Only this last measure contributed to some extent to the transition of the Kalmyks from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle, although it entailed a reduction in Kalmyk cattle breeding.
Since the time of land allocation between individual Kalmyk clans and with the limitation of their quantity, the nomadic area inevitably had to narrow and fall within precisely defined boundaries. Necessity forced us to select certain places for winter camps and set up bases there, that is, protection for livestock from winter blizzards and snowstorms.
The need for mutual assistance forced the Kalmyks to settle not alone, but in “hotons,” that is, groups of tents, mainly in winter camps. These winter khotons with bases, vegetable gardens and here and there protruding dugouts are the embryos of future Kalmyk settled settlements in the Russian style.
The buildings are still being made by inept hands - squat, slanted, crooked, with dim windows, with low and narrow doors, and in their arrangement there is a complete lack of symmetry and plan. The material for buildings, due to the lack of forest, is “adobe,” that is, adobe brick (clay with manure and straw), then simply dirt mixed with straw, and kurai (steppe weeds), which grows in abundance in plowed fields.
Main occupation Kalmyks, as we have already said, serve cattle breeding. However, since the beginning of the seventies of the 19th century, due to many unfavorable conditions, such as: frequent plague epizootics, destruction of reeds, which served as a natural protection for livestock from winter storms, restrictions on freedom of migration, harsh winters, icy conditions, etc., cattle breeding and sheep breeding began to fall quickly.
Kalmyk households are run almost exclusively by women; they milk cows, mend leather, sew clothes and shoes, cook clothes, collect argal (livestock dung) for fuel, repair and put in place wagons, carry water, cook food, etc. The Kalmyks themselves, in addition to watching over livestock and mowing in the summer Herbs and bread, with rare exceptions, are absolutely not involved in anything. However, recently, due to the reduction in cattle breeding, many have to look for income on the side and hire out for various types of work, mainly in fishing and salt fields, where the owners of the fisheries even give them preference over other workers for their extraordinary endurance and unpretentiousness.
Kalmyks profess the Buddhist religion, but regarding the understanding of its spirit they are at a low level and are superstitious; The teachings of the Buddha are not understood not only by the common people, but also by their gelyuns, that is, the clergy. They base their beliefs on the Ten Commandments of positive and negative character- good and evil (black) deeds. Black deeds include: deprivation of life, robbery, adultery, lies, threats, harsh words, idle talk, envy, malice in the heart; good deeds: to show mercy from death, to give alms, to maintain moral purity, to speak kindly, to always speak the truth, to be a peacemaker, to act according to the teachings of the holy books, to be satisfied with one’s condition, to help one’s neighbor and to believe in predestination. Kalmyks treat the spiritual local head of their religion “bakshe” (teacher) with deep respect. Outward signs of respect extend to kissing his footprint and drinking the water with which he washes his hands and face during the service; the latter is done with confidence in the holiness and healing properties of such water. As for the Gelyuns and Gotsuls (priests and deacons), thanks to their intemperate life, especially drunkenness, which is strictly prohibited by Buddhism, the people have lost respect and sometimes even treat them ironically.
Kalmyks marry at a very early age: from the age of 16, and girls from 14. The bride is chosen by the parents or relatives of the groom. Matchmaking takes a very long time, and the wedding does not take place before the groom pays the bride's relatives everything that follows custom and agreement - for the purchase of vodka, clothes, gifts for the bride and supplies for the wedding feast; All this is not cheap - sometimes 100 or more rubles. Before the wedding, there are feasts in the house of the bride and groom, the number of which corresponds to the wealth of the couple; but one feast is certainly held for everyone, since wedding gifts are delivered at these celebrations. Before the wedding, both families move closer to each other. The wedding itself takes place in the bride’s camp, but in the groom’s yurt; At the end of the marriage celebrations, the newlyweds migrate to the newlywed’s nomad. Religious wedding ceremonies represent a mixture of shamanic and Buddhist beliefs. When performing marriages, the clergy is involved only in rich families, while among the poor, marriage is a purely civil act, based on a verbal agreement between the parents of the spouses. Kalmyk women are distinguished by a purity of morals rare among other Volga foreigners: among them there is almost no violation of marital fidelity; The behavior of girls is also impeccable: cases of having children before marriage are extremely rare, and it is almost impossible for a disgraced girl to find a husband.
Religion and common law among the Kalmyks allow polygamy, but it is not in the custom of the people, and only rich people enjoy it as a luxury, and even then extremely rarely and for some valid reasons, for example, in case of infertility of the wife, etc. In weddings In customs, remnants of bride kidnapping have been preserved: for example, the groom must forcefully take his wife away from her parents’ tent, and the bride’s relatives and neighbors strongly oppose him; Until the very end of the wedding feast, the groom's young relatives ride on horseback around the wagon, in the form of a guard, as if watching to see if there is a chase for the bride or attempts to take her away from the groom by cunning. Divorce, according to the customary law of the Kalmyks, is accomplished very easily, since the husband is always free to return his wife to her parents, and this does not cause any displeasure if only the husband honestly returns the dowry. Justice, however, requires noting that, despite such ease of divorce, Kalmyks rarely resort to it.
* Based on the book: Russia. A complete geographical description of our fatherland. A reference and travel book for Russian people/Ed. P.P. Semenov and under the general leadership of V.P. Semenov and acad. IN AND. Lamansky. Volume six. Middle and Lower Volga and Trans-Volga regions. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house. A.F. Devriena, 1901. Published with slight abbreviations, especially those related to the least “politically correct” places of presentation.
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