Kalmykia

Republic of Kalmykia
(Russian) (Kalmyk)

Republic

Flag Coat of arms

Anthem: National Anthem of Kalmykia

Coordinates:

4634N 4519ECoordinates:
4634N 4519E

Political status Country Federal district Economic region Established Capital Russia Southern Volga
[2] [1]

January 9, 1957 Elista

Government (as of August 2010) - Head

[3]

Aleksey Orlov

[4] [3]

- Legislature

People's Khural (Parliament) Statistics

Area (as of the 2002 Census) - Total Area rank

[5]

76,100 km (29,382.4 sq mi) 41st

[6]

Population (2010 Census) - Total - Rank - Density - Urban - Rural Population (2002 Census) - Total - Rank - Density - Urban - Rural Time zone(s) ISO 3166-2 License plates Official languages

289,464 78th 3.8 /km (9.8 /sq mi) 44.1% 55.9%

[7] 2

292,410 78th 3.84 /km (9.9 /sq mi) 44.3% 55.7% MSD (UTC+04:00) RU-KL 08 Russian;
[9] [8] 2

Kalmyk

[10]

http://kalm.ru

The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: , Respublika Kalmykiya; Kalmyk: , Hal'mg Tanghch) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). Population: 289,466 (2010 [11] Census preliminary results). It is the only Buddhist region in Europe. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
[12]

Contents
[hide]

1 Geography

o o o o

1.1 Rivers 1.2 Lakes 1.3 Natural resources 1.4 Climate

2 Administrative divisions 3 Demographics 4 History

o o o o o o o

4.1 Kalmyk autonomy 4.2 Imposition of Russian rule 4.3 Civil War and the flight of the Don Kalmyks 4.4 The years of Soviet rule 4.5 World War II 4.6 Kalmyk deportation of 1943 4.7 Post-war Kalmykia

5 Politics 6 Economy 7 Education 8 Religion 9 Miscellaneous 10 See also 11 Further reading 12 References 13 Sources 14 External links

[edit]Geography Area: 76,100 square kilometers (29,400 sq mi) Borders: internal: Volgograd Oblast (NW/N), Astrakhan Oblast (N/NE/E), Republic of Dagestan (S), Stavropol Krai (SW),Rostov Oblast (W)

water: Caspian Sea (SE)

Maximum north-south distance: 448 km (278 mi) Maximum east-west distance: 423 km (263 mi)

Kalmykia is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude. [edit]Rivers Major rivers include: Volga River (flowing through a tiny eastern fraction of Kalmykia) Kuma River Manych River

[edit]Lakes Kalmykia is located on the shores of the Caspian Sea. In general, there are very few lakes on the territory of the republic. The biggest lakes include: Manych-Gudilo Lake Sarpa Lake Sostinskiye Lakes Tsagan-Khak Lake

[edit]Natural

resources

Kalmykia's natural resources include coal, oil, and natural gas. The republic's wildlife includes the famous saiga antelope, whose habitat is protected in Cherny Zemli Nature Reserve. [edit]Climate Kalmykia has a continental climate, with very hot and dry summers and cold winters with little snow. Average January temperature: 5 C (23 F) Average July temperature: 24 C (75 F) Average annual precipitation: 170 millimeters (6.7 in) (eastern parts) to 400 millimeters (16 in) (western parts)

Administrative divisions

Administrative divisions of Kalmykia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Republic of Kalmykia, Russia
Capital: Elista As of 2007:[1]

# of districts () # of cities/towns ()

13 3

Cities and towns under republic's jurisdiction

# of urban-type settlements ( ) # of rural municipal formations ( )

As of 2002:[2]

112

Elista (

) (capital)

Districts:

Chernozemelsky (

# of rural localities ( ) ( )

262 1

with 8 rural municipal formations under the district's # of uninhabited rural localities jurisdiction.

Gorodovikovsky (

Towns under the district's jurisdiction:

Gorodovikovsk (

with 6 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. - )

Iki-Burulsky (

with 13 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Ketchenerovsky (

with 9 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Lagansky (

Towns under the district's jurisdiction:

Lagan ()

with 4 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Maloderbetovsky (

with 6 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Oktyabrsky (

with 7 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Priyutnensky (

with 8 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Sarpinsky (

with 9 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Tselinny (

with 11 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Yashaltinsky (

with 11 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Yashkulsky (

with 13 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction. )

Yustinsky (

with 7 rural municipal formations under the district's jurisdiction.

Demographics
Population: 292,410 (2002) Urban: 129,539 (44.3%) Rural: 162,871 (55.7%) Male: 140,097 (47.9%) Female: 152,313 (52.1%)

Females per 1000 males: 1,087 Average age: 33.0 years Urban: 32.0 years Rural: 33.8 years Male: 31.2 years Female: 34.7 years

Number of households: 90,464 (with 289,816 people) Urban: 40,885 (with 128,564 people) Rural: 49,579 (with 161,252 people)

Average life expectancy: Male: 59.6 years (exceeding Russia's average of 59.0 years) Female: 72.4 years (exceeding Russia's average of 72.2 years)

Vital statistics Source: Russian Federal State Statistics Service

Births Deaths Birth rate Death rate

1970 4,801

1,661

17.8

6.2

1975 5,923

2,228

20.9

7.9

1980 7,062

2,735

23.6

9.1

1985 7,945

2,832

25.3

9.0

1990 6,828

2,669

20.9

8.2

1991 6,369

2,755

19.5

8.4

1992 5,865

2,806

18.2

8.7

1993 5,027

3,167

15.8

9.9

1994 4,684

3,226

14.8

10.2

1995 4,321

3,359

13.7

10.6

1996 3,929

3,232

12.5

10.3

1997 3,845

3,072

12.3

9.8

1998 3,858

3,279

12.4

10.5

1999 3,598

3,356

11.6

10.8

2000 3,473

3,439

11.3

11.2

2001 3,530

3,357

11.7

11.1

2002 3,729

3,637

12.7

12.3

2003 3,874

3,437

13.3

11.8

2004 3,923

3,184

13.5

11.0

2005 3,788

3,350

13.1

11.6

2006 3,820

3,207

13.3

11.1

2007 4,146

3,141

14.5

11.0

2008 4,354

2,976

15.3

10.5

Ethnic groups

According to the 2002 Census, Kalmyks make up 53.3% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (33.6%), Dargins (7,295, or 2.5%), Chechens (5,979, or 2.0%),Kazakhs (5,011, or 1.7%), Turks (3,124, or 1.1%), Ukrainians (2,505, or 0.9%), Avars (2,305, or 0.8%), ethnic Germans (1,643, or 0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.

census 1926

census 1939

census 1959

census 1970

census 1979

census 1989

census 2002

Kalmyks

107,026 (75.6%)

107,315 (48.6%)

64,882 (35.1%)

110,264 (41.1%)

122,167 (41.5%)

146,316 (45.4%)

155,938 (53.3%)

Russians

15,212 (10.7%)

100,814 (45.7%)

103,349 (55.9%)

122,757 (45.8%)

125,510 (42.6%)

121,531 (37.7%)

98,115 (33.6%)

Others

19,356 (13.7%)

12,555 (5.7%)

16,626 (9.0%)

34,972 (13.0%)

46,850 (15.9%)

54,732 (17.0%)

38,357 (13.1%)

History
Kalmyk autonomy
The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, migrated from the steppes of southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga region. Various reasons have been given for the move, but the generally accepted answer is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures for their herds. Another motivation may have been to escape the growing dominance of the neighboringDzungar Mongol [13] tribe. They reached the lower Volga region in or about 1630. That land, however, was not uncontested pastures, but rather the homeland of the Nogai Horde, a confederation of Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes. The Kalmyks expelled the Nogais who fled to the Caucasian plains and to the Crimean Khanate, areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Some Nogai groups sought the protection of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan. The remaining nomadic Mongol Oirats tribes became vassals of Kalmyk Khan. The Kalmyks settled in the wide open steppes from Saratov in the north to Astrakhan on the Volga delta in the south and to theTerek River in the southwest. They also encamped on both sides of the Volga River, from the Don River in the west to the Ural Riverin the east. Although these territories had been recently annexed by Russia, it was in no position to settle the area with Russian colonists. This area under Kalmyk control would eventually be called the Kalmyk Khanate. Within 25 years of settling in the lower Volga region, the Kalmyks became subjects of the Tsar. In exchange for protecting Russias southern border, the Kalmyks were promised an annual allowance and access to the markets of Russian border settlements. The open access to Russian markets was supposed to discourage mutual raiding on the part of the Kalmyks and of the Russians andBashkirs, a Russian-dominated Turkic people, but this was not often the practice. In addition, Kalmyk allegiance was often nominal, as the Kalmyk Khans practiced self-government, based on a set of laws they called the Great Code of the Nomads (Iki Tsaadzhin Bichig). The Kalmyk Khanate reached its peak of military and political power under Ayuka Khan (16691724). During his era, the Kalmyk Khanate fulfilled its responsibility to protect the southern borders of Russia and conducted many military expeditions against its Turkic-speaking neighbors. Successful military expeditions were also conducted in the Caucasus. The Khanate experienced economic prosperity from free trade with Russian border towns, China, Tibet and with their Muslim neighbors. During this era, the

Kalmyks also kept close contacts with their Oirat kinsmen in Dzungaria, as well as the Dalai Lama in Tibet.

Imposition of Russian rule

After the death of Ayuka Khan, the Tsarist government implemented policies that gradually chipped away at the autonomy of the Kalmyk Khanate. These policies, for instance, encouraged the establishment of Russian and German settlements on pastures the Kalmyks roamed in the lower Volga region. The settlers took over land used by Kalmyks to feed their livestock and, in some cases, forced Kalmyks into servitude. The Russian Orthodox church, by contrast, pressured many Kalmyks to adopt Orthodoxy. The Tsarist government imposed a council on the Kalmyk Khan, diluting his authority, while continuing to expect the Kalmyk Khan to provide cavalry units to fight on behalf of Russia. By the mid-18th century, Kalmyks were increasingly disillusioned with Russian encroachment and interference in its internal affairs. Ubashi Khan, the great-grandson Ayuka Khan and the last Kalmyk Khan, decided to return his people to their ancestral homeland, Dzungaria. Under his leadership, approximately 200,000 Kalmyks migrated directly across the Central Asian desert. Along the way, many Kalmyks were killed in ambushes or captured and enslaved by their Kazakh and Kyrgyz enemies. Many also died of starvation or thirst. After several grueling months of travel, only 96,000 Kalmyks reached the Manchu Empire's western outposts Xinjiang near theBalkhash Lake. After failing to stop the flight, Catherine the Great abolished the Kalmyk Khanate, transferring all governmental powers to the Governor of Astrakhan. The Kalmyks who remained in Russian territory continued to fight in Russian wars, e.g., the Napoleonic Wars (18121815), the Crimean War (1853 1856) and Ottoman wars. They gradually created fixed settlements with houses and temples, instead of their transportable round felt yurts. In 1865, Elista, the future capital of the Kalmykia, was built. This settlement process lasted until well after the Russian Revolution.

Civil War and the flight of the Don Kalmyks

After the October Revolution in 1917, many Don Kalmyks joined the White Russian army and fought under the command of Generals Denikin and Wrangel during the Russian Civil War. Before the Red

Army broke through to the Crimean Peninsula towards the end of 1920, a large group of Kalmyks fled from Russia with the remnants of defeated White Army to the Black Sea ports of Turkey. The majority of the refugees chose to resettle in Belgrade, Serbia. Other, much smaller, groups chose Sofia (Bulgaria), Prague (Czechoslovakia) and Paris and Lyon (France). The Kalmyk refugees in Belgrade built a Buddhist temple there in 1929. [edit]The

years of Soviet rule

[14]

In the summer of 1919, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin issued an appeal to the Kalmyk people, calling for them to revolt and to aid the Red Army. Lenin promised to provide the Kalmyks, among other things, a sufficient quantity of land for their own use. The promise came to fruition on November 4, 1920 when a resolution was passed by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee proclaiming the formation of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast. Fifteeen years later, on October 22, 1935, the Oblast was elevated to republic status,Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Contrary to the proclamations of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and of the Bolshevik propaganda slogan promising the "right of nations to self determination," the Oblast and its successor government were not autonomous governing bodies. Its nominal leaders, radical Communist intellectuals, failed to promote and protect the interests of the Kalmyk people, because real power was concentrated in the hands of the Soviet authorities in Moscow. According to Dorzha Arbakov, a Kalmyk school teacher turned anti-Soviet partisan fighter, these governing bodies were a tool the Bolsheviks used to control the Kalmyk people:

... the Soviet authorities were greatly interested in Sovietizing Kalmykia as quickly as possible and with the least amount of bloodshed. Although the Kalmyks alone were not a significant force, the Soviet authorities wished to win popularity in the Asian and Buddhist worlds by [15] demonstrating their evident concern for the Buddhists in Russia.

In spite of the efforts of Soviet authorities to gain popular support, the Kalmyk people remained loyal first and foremost to their traditional leaders, the nobility and the clergy. This loyalty was deeply ingrained over several centuries, even bordering on fanatical. To the Soviet authorities, these traditional leaders were sources of anti-Communism and Kalmyk nationalism. Later on, the authorities would persecute these leaders through executions, deportations to labor camps in Siberia and the confiscation of property. After establishing control, the Soviet authorities did not actively enforce an anti-religion policy, other than [16] [17] through passive means, because it sought to bring Mongolia and Tibet into its sphere of influence. The government also was compelled to respond to domestic disturbances resulting from the economic policies of War Communism and the famine its policies induced in 1921. The passive measures taken by Soviet authorities to control the people included the imposition of a harsh church tax to close churches, monasteries and parish schools. Public education became mandatory to indoctrinate the youth. The Cyrillic script replaced Todo Bichig, the traditional Kalmyk vertical script. In spite of these measures, some of the better known Kalmyk monasteries were able to expand their religious and educational work. The Kalmyks of the Don Host, however, were not so fortunate. They were subject to the policies of decossackization where villages were destroyed, khuruls and monasteries were burned down and

executions were indiscriminate. At the same time, grain, livestock and other food stuffs were seized. By 1925 the Don Host did not have any khuruls, monasteries or practicing clergy. In December 1927 the Fifteenth Party Congress of the Soviet Union passed a resolution calling for the "voluntary" collectivization of agriculture, but a shortage of grain in the following year compelled the Soviet authorities to use force. The change in policy was accompanied by a new campaign of systematic and merciless repression, directed initially against the small farming class. The objective of this campaign was to suppress the resistance of the farming peasants to full-scale collectivization of agriculture. In 1931, Joseph Stalin ordered the collectivization, closed the Buddhist monasteries, and burned the [citation needed] Kalmyks' religious texts . He deported all monks and all herdsmen owning more than 500 [citation needed] sheep to Siberia . The forced collectivization (as well as the dry, treeless landscape) was unsuited to the Kalmyk temperament and was a social, economic, and cultural disaster. About 60,000 [citation needed] Kalmyks died during the great famine of 1932 to 193 .

World War II
On June 22, 1941 the German army invaded the Soviet Union. By August 12, 1942 the German Army Group South captured Elista, the capital of the Kalmyk ASSR. After capturing the Kalmyk territory, German army officials established a propaganda campaign with the assistance of anti-communist Kalmyk nationalists, including white emigre, Kalmyk exiles. The campaign was focused primarily on recruiting and organizing Kalmyk men into anti-Soviet, militia units. German benevolence, however, did not extend to all people living in the Kalmyk ASSR. At least 93 Jewish families, for example, were rounded up and killed. The total Jewish dead numbered approximately [18] 100. Kalmken Verband Dr. Doll (Kalmukian Volunteers) Abwehrtrupp 103 (Kalmukian Volunteers) Kalmcken-Legion or Kalmcken-Kavallerie-Korps (Kalmukian Volunteers)

The Kalmyk units were extremely successful in flushing out and killing Soviet partisans. But by December 1942, the Soviet Red army retook the Kalmyk ASSR, forcing the Kalmyks assigned to those units to flee, in some cases, with their wives and children in hand. The Kalmyk units retreated westward into unfamiliar territory with the retreating German army and were reorganized into the Kalmuck Legion, although the Kalmyks themselves preferred the name Kalmuck Cavalry Corps. The casualty rate also increased substantially during the retreat, especially among the Kalmyk officers. To replace those killed, the German army imposed forced conscription, taking in teenagers and middle-aged men. As a result, the overall effectiveness of the Kalmyk units declined. By the end of the war, the remnants of the Kalmuck Cavalry Corps made its way to Austria where the Kalmyk soldiers and their family members became post-war refugees. Those who did not want to leave formed militia units that chose to stay behind and harass the oncoming Soviet Red Army.

Memorial dedicated to Kalmyk soldiers who fought in the Red Army during World War II

Although a large number of Kalmyks chose to fight against the Soviet Union, the majority by-and-large remained loyal to their country, fighting the German army in regular Soviet Red army units and in partisan resistance units behind the battlelines throughout the Soviet Union. Before their removal from the Soviet Red Army and from partisan resistance units after December 1943, approximately 8,000 Kalmyks were awarded various orders and medals, including 21 Kalmyk men who were recognized as a Hero of the [ Soviet Union.

Kalmyk deportation of 1943

Commemorative monument to the Kalmyk victims of the deportation of 1943. Elista, Kalmykia

On December 27, 1943, Soviet authorities declared the Kalmyk people guilty of cooperation with the German Army and ordered the deportation of the entire Kalmyk population to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. In conjunction with the deportation, the Kalmyk ASSR was abolished and its territory was split between adjacent Astrakhan, Rostov and Stalingrad Oblasts and Stavropol Krai. To completely obliterate any traces of the Kalmyk people, the Soviet authorities renamed the former republic's towns [20] and villages. The population transfer occurred immediately in the middle of the evening. No one was given advanced notification or time to assemble their belongings, including warm clothing, in preparation for their forced relocation. They were transported in trucks from their homes to the local railway stations where they were loaded in unheated cattle cars. In many cases, the cars were filled beyond capacity and did not contain bathrooms. Food was not provided, and water fell through the holes and cracks in the cattle car in the

form of snow. As a result of these harsh conditions, many children and elderly men and women died en route.

Post-war Kalmykia
On December 27, 1943, Soviet authorities declared the Kalmyk people guilty of cooperation with the German Army and ordered the deportation of the entire Kalmyk population to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. In conjunction with the deportation, the Kalmyk ASSR was abolished and its territory was split between adjacent Astrakhan, Rostov and Stalingrad Oblasts and Stavropol Krai. To completely obliterate any traces of the Kalmyk people, the Soviet authorities renamed the former republic's towns [20] and villages. The population transfer occurred immediately in the middle of the evening. No one was given advanced notification or time to assemble their belongings, including warm clothing, in preparation for their forced relocation. They were transported in trucks from their homes to the local railway stations where they were loaded in unheated cattle cars. In many cases, the cars were filled beyond capacity and did not contain bathrooms. Food was not provided, and water fell through the holes and cracks in the cattle car in the form of snow. As a result of these harsh conditions, many children and elderly men and women died en route.

Post-war Kalmykia
Due to their widespread dispersal in Siberia their language and culture suffered possibly irreversible decline. Khrushchev finally allowed their return in 1957, when they found their homes, jobs and land occupied by imported Russians and Ukrainians, who remained. On January 9, 1957, Kalmykia again became an autonomous oblast, and on July 29, 1958, an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR. In the following years bad planning of agricultural and irrigation projects resulted in widespread desertification, and economically unviable industrial plants were constructed. After dissolution of the USSR, Kalmykia kept the status of an autonomous republic within the newly formed Russian Federation(effective March 31, 1992).

Politics
The head of the government in Kalmykia is called "The Head of the Republic". The President of the Russian Federation selects a candidate for the Head of the Republic position and presents it to the Parliament of Kalmyk Republic, the People's Khural, for approval. If a candidate is not approved, the President of the Russian Federation can dissolve the Parliament and set up new elections. From 1993 to 2010, the Head of the Republic was Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov. He is also the president of the world chess organization FIDE. Much of his fortune he has been spending in promoting chess in Kalmykia where chess is compulsory in all primary schools and also overseas, with Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, hosting many international tournaments. In the late 1990s, there were allegations that the Ilyumzhinov government was spending much government money on projects to do with chess. These were published in Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the opposition newspaper in Elista. Larisa Yudina, the journalist who investigated these accusations, was kidnapped and murdered in 1998. Two men, Sergei Vaskin and Tyurbi Boskomdzhiv, who worked in the local civil service, were charged with her murder, one of them having been a former presidential

bodyguard. After prolonged investigations by the Russian authorities, both men were found guilty and [21][22][23] jailed, but there was no evidence that Ilyumzhinov was in any way responsible. On October 24, 2010 Ilyumzhinov was replaced by Alexey Maratovich Orlov as new Head of Kalmykia. Since 2008 Anatoly Kozachko is President of the Parliament, the People's Khural". The current Prime Minister of Kalmykia is Lyudmila Ivanovna. All the three top politicians belong to the Kremlin's "United Russia"-Party.

Economy
Kalmykia has a developed agricultural sector. Other developed industries include the food processing and oil and gas industries. As most of Kalmykia is arid, irrigation is necessary for agriculture. The Chernye Zemli Irrigation Scheme ( ) in southern Kalmykia receives water from the Caucasian rivers Terek and Kuma via a chain of canals: water flows from the Terek to the Kuma via the Terek-Kuma Canal, then to the Chogray Reservoir on the East Manych River via the Kuma-Manych Canal, and finally into Kalmykia's steppes over the Chernye Zemli Main Canal, constructed in the [25] 1970s. Annual budget: revenues and expenditures: about $100 million. Annual oil production: about 200,000 metric tonnes.

Education
Kalmyk State University is the largest higher education facility in the republic.

Religion
The Buddhism in Kalmykia is Tibetan in origin.

Miscellaneous
The Kalmyks of Kyrgyzstan live primarily in the Karakol region of eastern Kyrgyzstan. They are referred to as Sart Kalmyks. The origin of this name is unknown. Likewise, it is not known when, why and from where this small group of Kalmyks migrated to eastern Kyrgyzstan. Due to their minority status, the Sart Kalmyks have adopted the Kyrgyz languageand culture of the majority Kyrgyz population. As a result, nearly all now are Muslims.

Although Sart Kalmyks are Muslims, Kalmyks elsewhere by and large remain faithful to the Gelugpa Order of Tibetan Buddhism. In Kalmykia, for example, the Gelugpa Order with the assistance of the government has constructed numerous Buddhist temples. In addition, the Kalmyk people recognize Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader and Erdne Ombadykow, a Kalmyk American, as the supreme lama of the Kalmyk people. The Dalai Lama has visited Elista on a number of occasions. The Kalmyks have also established communities in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The majority are descended from those Kalmyks who fled from Russia in late 1920 to France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and, later, Germany. Many of those Kalmyks living in Germany at the end of World War II were eventually granted passage to the United States. As a consequence of their decades-long migration through Europe, many older Kalmyks are fluent in German, French and Serbo-Croatian, in addition to Russian and their nativeKalmyk language. There are several Kalmyk Buddhist temples in Monmouth County, New Jersey, where the vast majority of American Kalmyks reside, as well as a Tibetan BuddhistLearning Center and monastery in Washington Township, New Jersey. At one point, there was a Kalmyk Buddhist Temple in Belgrade, Serbia. The word Kalmyk means 'those who remained' origin is unknown but this name was known centuries before a large part of Kalmyks moved back from Volga River to Dzhungaria in the 18th century. There are three cultural subgroups within the Kalmyk nation: Turguts, Durbets (Durwets), and Buzavs (Oirats, who joined Russian Cossacks, else we can find some villages of Hoshouts and Zungars. The 'Durbets' subgroup includes the Chonos tribe (literally meaning "a tribe of the Wolf", other names - "Shonos", "Chinos", "A-Shino" or "A-Chino"), which is considered to be one of the most ancient tribes in the world, dating back to 6th to 11th century. Kalmykia staged the 2006 World Chess Championship between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik.

Music of Kalmykia
Kalmykia is a national republic within the Russian Federation. The music of Kalmykia has its roots in the musical culture of Oirats, slightly influenced by Turkic, Caucasian and Russian music and instrumentation. Traditional instruments include the dombra, which is used to accompany dance music. The state folk ensemble Tulpan was formed in 1937 to promote traditional Kalmyk music. Epic bard and throat singer Okna Tsagaan Zam is a Kalmyk that performs the ancient Oirat epic Jangar. He usually accompanies himself on the dombra, but has been known to have the accompaniment of the Mongolian morin huur while singing the epic.

The Kalmyks are the only nation of Europe of Mongol origin, and the only one whose national religion is Buddhism. They live in theRepublic of Kalmykia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. It has borders with the Republic of Dagestan in the south; theStavropol Krai in the southwest; the Rostov Oblast and the Volgograd Oblast in the west and the northwest, respectively. Its eastern border is the Astrakhan Oblast. The Kalmyks are the descendants of several Oirat tribes that migrated to Europe during the early part of [1] the 17th century. As Tibetan Buddhists, the Kalmyks regard His Holiness the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader. The ajin Lama (Supreme Lama) of the Kalmyks is Erdne Ombadykow, a Philadelphiaborn man of Kalmykian origin who was brought up as a Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery in India from the age of seven and who was recognized by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Buddhist saint Telo Rinpoche. Ombdaykow divides his time between living in Colorado and living in Kalmykia. Kalmyk political refugees opened their first Buddhist temple in Central Europe, located in Belgrade, Serbia. Their offspring relocated to the United States in late 1951 and early 1952, where they established several Kalmyk Buddhist temples in Monmouth County,New Jersey. Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmyk Buddhist monk, established the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center and monastery inWashington, NJ.