The Neighboring Cultures of the Kalmyks

        The majority of the Kalmyk culture's population resides in the Republic of Kalmykia located in the southeast corner of Russia near the Volga River.  Kalmykia is surrounded by Russia and Kazakhstan, and it lines the coast of the Caspian Sea.  Although the Kalmyks are a peaceful and rural people, there is some tension between them and their neighboring cultures.  This is particularly true of the culture's relationship with Eastern Europeans of the North Caucasus (Walker 1).

Reference: http://www.maps.com/ref_map.aspx?pid=12322

        In an article from The Buddhist Channel, "Peace and Harmony in Kalmykia," written by Shaun Walker in 2007, there is mention of the problems that the Kalmyk people have encountered with the the North Caucasus, particularly with Chechnya.  In the article, the Kalmyk Center for Human Rights director, Semyon Ateyev, indicates that there was a cultural problem between Kalmyks and the Chechens, Avars, and Dargins in Kalmykia in the 1990s.  Ateyev names an incident when a fight broke out between the two cultures because a group of Chechens danced the Lezginka on the grave of a Kalmyk soldier who died in Chechnya.  The article indicates that a larger fight between the Kalmyks and the Chechens occurred in the Astrakhan Region in 2005.  However, the article also points out that most of the time, these cultural disputes are settled peacefully.  According to Valery Badmayev, the editor of an opposition paper called the Sovietskaya Kalmykia, this tension between some of the countries of the North Caucasus and Kalmykia strengthens the Kalmyks relationship with their other neighbor, Russia.  (Walker 1).

Reference: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/lgcolor/chechnya.htm

        The Kalmyk's Russian neighbors have influenced their way of life for hundreds of years.  For much of this time, the Kalmyks had pledged an allegiance to Russia in exchange for Russia's protection (Minahan 359).  However, during the 1920s into World War II, this relationship suffered greatly resulting in a significant amount of death and destruction for the Kalmyk people.   The Soviet Union nationalized the Kalmyk's herds, destroyed their Buddhist temples, and forbid Kalmyks to have any contacts with other Mongol peoples.  Eventually, due to the alliance between the Kalmyks and Germany, Joseph Stalin ordered a deportation of the whole Kalmyk population.  Many Kalmyk's died due to hunger, disease, and malnutrition (Minahan 360).

Works Cited:
Minahan, James. One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. Print.

"Peace and Harmony in Kalmykia." Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.