On the Question of Natural and Climatic Factors and the Transition to Settlement of Nomadic Kalmyks (1920–1930s)

10.54398/1818510Х_2023_2_102

Annotation

The relevance of the stated problems is due to the tasks put forward at the present time of a detailed study of the individual components of the nomadic lifestyle in a modernized society and the resistance of Kalmyk nomads to specific natural and climatic factors. The purpose of the presented scientific article is to study the mechanism of the transition of Kalmyk pastoralists to a settled way of life and their interaction with natural-climatic and socio-economic processes. Comparative and comparative analysis of the facts and data of the presented sources, it seems to us, made it possible to avoid a subjective interpretation of the problem under study in our study and excluded tendentious views on a particular historical episode. We have worked out in detail the collections of the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia, rich in factual material on the entire range of issues of interest to us. In general, the available sources made it possible to give fairly accurate answers to the whole range of tasks. In conclusion, the author comes to the conclusion that in the 1920s. in the Kalmyk Autonomous Region, all the necessary conditions were created for the transition of nomadic pastoralists to a settled way of life. A serious crisis in the traditional livestock sector prompted the nomads to restructure their economic activities and actively integrate into the overall structure of the socio-economic parameters of the Soviet system. The features of these parameters oriented the nomads towards the use of natural sources that could ensure their continued existence. The Soviet state, in order to create a single society, created certain conditions for the unification of the disparate Kalmyk population, with the provision of homogeneous opportunities for economic activity, the development of education, culture, and healthcare. As a result, some economic growth began to be observed in KAO, mortality among nomads significantly decreased, the process of extinction of the entire population of the steppe region, associated with the famine of 1921–1922, was suspended, which led to an increase in the number of autochthonous Kalmyk population.

Keywords

• Soviet state
• nomadic peoples
• Kalmyks
• natural and climatic factors
• sedentarization
• Kalmyk Autonomous Region
• cattle breeding
• agriculture
• land reclamation
• sand-fixing works
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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project № 22-18-00313 “Transformation of nomadic societies of the South of Russia in the context of natural and factors (XIX – mid XX centuries)” (https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00313/).

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