History of the district. Don Kalmyk Cossacks

Kalmyk Cossacks of the Salsk District of the Don Army Region in the 1st World War.

As is known, Kalmyks appeared within Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. They migrated from the Dzungar Khanate and formed the Kalmyk Khanate in the lower reaches of the Volga River, which strengthened under Ayuk Khan. Archival documents indicate that Kalmyks were called to the Don by local Cossacks to jointly fight the Crimean Tatars. So, in 1642, the Don Cossacks turned to their new neighbors with a proposal to jointly fight the Crimeans for the capture of Azov. And in 1648, Kalmyks first appeared near the Cherkasy town. A defensive and offensive alliance was concluded between the Kalmyks and the Cossacks, according to which 1000 Kalmyks opposed the Crimeans. From that time on, agreements were concluded between them and oaths were taken about faithful service to Russia.

In 1696, Ayuka Khan sent up to three thousand tents (about ten thousand people) to the Don near Azov to guard the border line and fight the Azov people. These Kalmyks did not return back to the Kalmyk Khanate; they remained on the Don, near Cherkassk. Some of them accepted the Orthodox faith.


In 1710, Ayuka Khan sent an additional ten thousand Kalmyks to the Don, led by the Torgout owner Chimet and the Derbet owner Four, to guard the southern borders from Kuban raids.

Cornet of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment Ochir-Garya Sharapov, 1861

In 1723, Peter I ordered all Kalmyks wandering along the Don to remain in the Cossack class and no more representatives of this nation to be accepted into these lands. Thus, in 1731, the Kalmyks who crossed to the Don became part of the population of the Don Army and were subordinated to the Directorate of Military Cossacks. In 1745, the entire populated Western steppe was given over to the Kalmyks, who were assigned to the Don Army, as nomads. On these lands, three Kalmyk uluses with farms and population were formed: Upper, Middle and Lower.


Cornet Toki Dakuginov. 1912 Stanitsa Platovskaya

In 1856, in the Kalmyk district there were 13 villages, in which 20,635 people lived (10,098 men, 10,537 women). There were 31,455 horses, 63,766 cattle and 62,297 sheep.

Cornet Toki Dakuginov. Stanitsa Platovskaya

In 1862, stanitsa administration was introduced for the Don Kalmyks, subordinate to the Don Army. According to the administrative structure, the Kalmyk nomad community was divided into three uluses, and 13 hundreds were transformed into villages.

In 1891, according to the regulations, the land share per man was 15 dessiatines, the rest of the lands belonged to the village society, which, when a Kalmyk Cossack was called up for military service, provided him with a horse, weapons and clothing. From September 1, 1891, the Don Kalmyks were legally equated with the Don Cossacks and began to build civil relations following the model of the Don Cossacks. At the same time, the previous hundreds were renamed into villages: Batlaevskaya, Burulskaya, Vlasovskaya, Denisovskaya, Grabbevskaya, Kuteynikovskaya, Novo-Alekseevskaya, Potapovskaya, Platovskaya, Erketinskaya, Chonusovskaya and farmsteads: Baldyrsky, Atamansky, Kamensky, Potapovsky and Elmutyansky.


Astrakhan Governor I.N. Sokolovsky with the Kalmyk nobility. 1909

In 1898, the Don Kalmyks had a district school and seven stanitsa elementary schools. According to data for 1913, 30,178 people lived in the territory of the Salsky district, excluding those working in other districts and stud farms. There were 13 villages and 19 Kalmyk farms in the district. After the end of the Civil War in 1920, only 10,750 Kalmyks lived here, i.e. the population decreased three times. Such a sharp reduction in the number of Kalmyks living on the Don for the period from 1897 to 1920 (over 23 years) is explained by the losses of Kalmyk Cossacks on the battlefields of the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905), World War I (1914-1920) gg.) and Civil (1918-1920) wars.




Podesaul Tseren Dzhivinov is a full Knight of St. George. The Cossack hundred under his command captured 800 Austrians during the First World War.

Cossack of the Potapovskaya village of the All-Great Don Army Badma Martushkin



Colonel Bator Mangatov, commander of the 19th Don Cossack Regiment.




Colonel, Prince Danzan Tundutov-Dondukov, ataman of the Astrakhan Cossack army.

Officers of the White Volunteer Army: Colonel Gabriel Tepkin, Ulanov, Prince Tundutov.





Cossacks of the 80th Dzungarian Regiment near Rostov. 1918


Naran Ulanov. Novo-Alekseevskaya village. Don Army Region

Imkenov??



Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky inspects the Kalmyk khurul on the Don, destroyed by the Bolsheviks. 1918

Cossack Mushka Kutinov

Don Kalmyks. 1922



Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky at an audience with the lama of the Don Kalmyks. 1918


Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky, on the threshold of the Kalmyk khurul. 1918






Don Cossacks and Kalmyks go ashore. The beginning of emigration. Lemnos Island. Greece




In Turkey with the British Army. 1921 D. Ulanov


Camp Kabakja. Türkiye. 1921

In exile.

Sanzha Baldanov (left), Sanzha Targirov (right) In exile.

Constantinople. Türkiye. Russian white emigrants.


Don Kalmyks in exile. Türkiye. The photo was presumably taken in 1921-1923.


White Army officers in Gallipoli. Türkiye


Evacuated Don Kalmyks and their descendants 35 years later, in DP Dom, New Jersey, USA

After the end of the Civil War, in connection with the formation of the Kalmyk Autonomous Region within the RSFSR, work began on the resettlement of the remaining Kalmyks from the Don Region to the territory of the Kalmyk Autonomous Okrug. It was planned to resettle 13 thousand people to Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus (now Gorodovikovsky district). As of January 1, 1925, 8,451 people resettled from 13 villages of the Don region.
The chairman of the Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus executive committee, Harti Badievich Kanukov, in his report “On the resettlement of the Don Kalmyks as of January 1, 1926,” noted that in three years 15,171 people resettled from all 13 villages of the Salsky district.
On April 29, 1929, the presidium of the North Caucasus Regional Committee adopted a decision “On the creation of an independent Kalmyk region as part of the Salsky district.” According to information as of April 1, 1932, in the Kalmyk region there were 11 village councils and 23 collective farms with a population of 12 thousand people, including 5 thousand Kalmyks. The district administrative center was located in the village of Kuteynikovskaya, which existed from November 6, 1929 until the date of deportation of the Kalmyk people to Siberia.
After returning from exile, natives of the Kalmyk district of the Rostov region in Kuteynikovskaya built a monument to fellow countrymen who died during the Great Patriotic War. The embedded capsule contains the names of more than 800 Kalmyk soldiers, natives of the Rostov region, who died for the honor and independence of our Motherland.

Dating back to 1670. In 1694, the status of Cossacks was extended to the Don Kalmyks, and lands were allocated in the Sal and Manych steppes. The mass arrival of Kalmyks to the Don occurred on a voluntary basis, which was rare for those centuries. The local military sergeant-major always willingly accepted into his service “... good horsemen, excellent in courage, always ready and zealous for service, and so necessary for the owners of shepherds and farriers, very useful to the army.”

In 1806, the Kalmyk Okrug was formed, previously it was called the Nomadic Territory of the Don Kalmyks. There were difficulties in the relations between the Kalmyks and the Don Cossacks, but there was much more connecting element than contradictions. Back in 1682, military ataman Frol Minaev wrote to Moscow, “that the Don Cossacks now live in peace with the Kalmyks and there is no enthusiasm between them.”

The Cossacks realized that “the teachings of the Lamaites are alien to the preaching of enmity and hatred towards followers of other religions, and the Kalmyks themselves are a gentle people, alien to fanaticism and intolerance.” This allowed the Kalmyks to quickly, although not without conflicts and clashes, fit into the Cossack community. Buddhist ethics also contributed, calling for humility and non-resistance to evil, believing that evil in the soul and resentment multiply evil in the world.

Kalmyks and Don Cossacks were united by an innate sense of pride; they valued a worthy opinion of themselves and their family. A contemporary noted: “Kalmyks never beg, even when in extreme poverty.”

Everyday contacts, interest in efficient housekeeping, and the development of everyday and interfamily ties gradually eliminated former confrontations. An example is the adoption of Ivan Timofeevich Kolesov by the ataman of the village of Ilovlinovsky village of Atamanskaya. When a Kalmyk baby from a neighboring farm was left without parents, the ataman took him into his family, raised him, and gave him the name Nikolai Kolesov.

In connection with the transition to a sedentary lifestyle, the Kalmyks gave new names to farmsteads. Evidence of respect for religion was the appearance of the names of the farms - Khurulny (there were three such farms).

On the territory of the modern Dubovsky district of the Rostov region, the Cossack hundreds of Baldrskaya, Erketenevskaya and Chunusovskaya roamed. At first they had Khurul tents.

In Baldra Hundred, a khurul was founded in 1804.

In the yurt of the village of Potapovskaya there were five Kalmyk khuruls; in the village itself there was a Kalmyk temple, which bore the Tibetan name “Banchey-choylin”, and in common parlance was called “Baldir-khurul”.

Khurul st. Potapovskaya
Photo from the book: Bogachev V. Essays on the geography of the Great Don Army. Novocherkassk. 1919

The Erketenevsky temple was approved by the government for construction in 1842, and before this date the Erketenevsky people built a small idol, about two and a half fathoms in size, then a wooden khurul. The organizer of the construction of the new khurul was Baksha Dambo (Dombo-Dashi) Ulyanov. At the age of 13, he arrived in the village of Erketinskaya and entered the theological school at the khurul. Then he served in the khurul of the village of Vlasovskaya. In 1886, he became a full-time military gelyung of the Potapovskaya village, opened a school at the khurul, as well as a small hospital, where he treated using Tibetan medicine. In 1889-1891, in the area between the Don and Volga rivers, a cholera epidemic broke out, claiming the lives of entire settlements. D. Ulyanov healed people and achieved undoubted success. However, according to short-sighted officials, he treated illegally, for which he was tried, but acquitted due to the success of his treatment and according to the testimony of his patients.

The village of Potapovskaya was divided into two villages - Potapovskaya and Erketinskaya. D. Ulyanov made a trip to St. Petersburg, where he presented a new project for the Erketinsky Temple, and the Emperor approved it. The khurul was built of brick, a stove, the walls and floor were lined with white tiles, and there were tiles on the walls with sketches of Buddhist symbols. It was not a separate temple, but a whole complex of buildings, which included a medical building, a school, a canteen, and the dwelling of the bakshi and gelyungs. There were baths in the treatment room, carts were sent on long journeys, and medicinal mud was carried on oxen, which was delivered from the Manychesko-Gruzskaya sanitary station “Wagnerovskaya”. One of the buildings survived, now it is a residential building. And in the 60s of the 20th century, the Erketinovskaya elementary school was located here. The walls of the classrooms were tiled, the ceiling was stucco, and the stove was also covered with tiles.

Khuruly st. Erketinskaya, beginning of the 20th century.
Photo from the book. “Physical and statistical description of the nomads of the Don Kalmyks” / Comp. N. Maslakovets. Novocherkassk, 1872

D. Ulyanov was buried in the village of Erketinskaya. In the 70s, an irrigation canal was built, local residents of the village of Andreevskaya asked the Kalmyk leadership to transfer the ashes to Kalmykia.

The gelung of the khurul of the Erketenevskaya village was Lidzha Sarmadanovich Bakinov. At the end of the 20s, Gelyung hid from the authorities for a long time and came at night to his daughter-in-law, the widow of his younger brother, to buy food. He didn’t stay overnight, took his bag and left. Then he disappeared. Apparently, the servant of the khurul could not survive.

Gelyung of Erkenevsky khurul Lidzha Sarmadanovich Bakinov
Photo from the archive of N.Ts. Khudzhinova

In total, there were 14 khuruls on the Don with a staff of 653 clergy.

For the purpose of economic development, they were supported by the local authorities. The highest clergy (bakshi, gelyungs) were exempted from service, they were allocated land plots. In the village of Chunusovskaya, 200 dessiatines were given to the Khurul clergy. More than 30 persons belonging to the Kalmyk clergy rented out their shares.

The heads of the Don clergy were lamas. In 1896, the institution of lama was abolished, and Baksha-gelyung was considered the deputy supreme lama and the main clergyman. In the Kalmyk hundreds, three candidates were elected, one of them was nominated for this rank by the Nakazny Donskoy Ataman.

When the Kalmyks petitioned the Emperor for permission to receive the title of Lama, Troop Ataman N.I. Svyatopolk-Mirsky summoned all the khurul bakshas to him, placed them in one line and shouted at them: “Do you want to have a religious head!? Your spiritual, religious head is the district commander! Only in 1903 did the Kalmyk people achieve the right to have a supreme spiritual head, the “Lama of all Don Cossacks.”

The Kalmyk Clergy was initially located in Ilyinskaya Sloboda, it was headed by the Bakshi of the Don Kalmyks D.G. Gonjinov, D. Mikulinov, A. Chubanov. In the villages, the Khuruls were headed by: in Erketinskaya Baksha B. Ushanov, Gelyung Bashinov Nurzun Lidzhievich (the Kalmyks more often called him Nurzun-Gelung), in Chunusovskaya N. Tsebekov and the senior Khurul Gelyung E. Khokhlov. Baksha khurul of the village of Chunusovskaya N. Tsebekov died in exile.

Gelyung of Erketenevsky khurul, participant of the reconnaissance expedition to Tibet in 1904. Badma Chubarovich Ushanov
Photo courtesy of A.A. Nazarov

A prominent representative of the clergy was M.B. Bormanzhinov. He was elected baksha of Denisovo khurul, and in 1903 Lama of all Don Kalmyks. Menko Bakerevich was a very educated man and a strong rural owner; he conducted business on a large scale in a separate winter hut; in addition to shared land, he rented a military plot of land and sown about 400 acres. He translated sacred Buddhist texts into Kalmyk language.

After the death of Lama Menko Bormanzhinov in March 1919, the duties of Bagshi Lama of the Don Kalmyks were performed by Shurguchi Nimgirov; he emigrated with units of the White Army to Turkey. Ordinary Gelyung monks were among the emigrants, some of them returned to Russia in the early 20s.

They tried to convert Kalmyks to the Orthodox faith and closed four khuruls, including Erketinsky. But the Kalmyks could not come to terms with this state of affairs and petitioned for the restoration of the temples. The Regional Office considered the issue and in 1897 the abolished khuruls were reopened.

The Buddhist and Orthodox faiths cooperated. In 1875, the Archbishop of Donskoy, Vladyka Platon, visited the settlement of Ilyinskaya. Near the Bolshoi Gashun River he was met by the assessor of the Kalmyk board P.O. Dudkin and the Kalmyk clergy.

However, relations between representatives of Orthodoxy and Buddhism were not so simple. The rivalry of trends in theology forced us to fight. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hieromonk Gury wrote: “Before, the Kalmyk clergy enjoyed enormous importance among the Kalmyks, every word of Gelyung had power. Nowadays there is a decline in reverence and respect for our clergy, thanks to its licentiousness and shameless exploitation of the dark people.”

He was echoed by another contemporary, a teacher at the Voronezh Seminary, Alexander Krylov: “You cannot expect a moral and intellectually civilizing influence on the people from the priests; because the priests constitute the highest caste of the people, so to speak, the aristocracy, which keeps the people at a respectful distance, and serves for them only as an example of idleness, drunkenness, vagrancy, etc., but not at all as an example of any virtues.”
These examples show the level of competition among ideological trends.

The Don Diocesan Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society was created, designed to organize missionary activities among the Kalmyks. Baptized Kalmyks were given benefits from paying taxes. They began to build Orthodox churches in Kalmyk villages. To train missionaries, in 1880, a community-orphanage for Kalmyk children was opened in the bishop's house of the Ilyinka settlement. But there was no real progress; Orthodox churches and the shelter were soon closed.

Khuruls were the center for the education of the defenders of the state. The State Archive of the Rostov Region contains the “Case of placing memorial plaques in Buddhist temples to perpetuate the memory of Kalmyk military officials who died in the war with Japan.” The Department of Spiritual Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs developed a sketch of the memorial plaque, text and language of signatures. The inscription “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland” was written in the Kalmyk language, the names of the killed and deceased were in Russian. The boards were installed in all khuruls of the Kalmyk villages of the Salsky district.

During the Civil War and in the 1920s, all khuruls were destroyed. The Grabbevsky khurul burned down from machine-gun fire, the treasures of the temple were destroyed by fire. Servants - who was killed, who was evacuated abroad.

Upon the arrival of the Reds in the village of Potapovskaya, baksha khurula Sanji (Jimba) Shagashov and the Gelyung brothers Yakov and Namdzhal Burvinov were shot. In the 20s, after the departure of the Kalmyk population, Khurul was scrapped.

Khurul in the village of Vlasovskaya was burned by a local teacher.

The fate of Belyaevsky khurul was also tragic. The Whites killed the family of Abram Davydov, from the out-of-town Troilinsky farmstead. He burned the khurul. According to the recollections of old-timers, the Reds used this fire as a reference point for firing artillery at the village of Belyaevskaya from the Ergeni hill.
In the 20s, the prayer part of the Erketi khurul burned down, but the healing part remained; in the 70s, the walls were still standing. Construction materials were used for the construction of a new school building in the village of Novonikolaevskaya.

In those same years, Chunusovsky khurul was dismantled for building materials.

Fate scattered the temple servants to different countries and cities. Baksha of the Grabbevskaya village, baksha of all the Don Kalmyks Zodba Buruldinov was buried in the USA, at the Cossack St. Vladimir cemetery in the town of Keesville, New Jersey. A.I. is buried there. Denikin, Terek Ataman K.K. Agoev, Marching Ataman, Major General P.Kh. Popov. Here is the grave of Colonel of the All-Great Don Army Leonty Konstantinovich Dronov.

Many years later, already at the beginning of the 21st century, A.A. came from Elista to the village of Erketinovskaya. Nazarov, a descendant of the Kalmyk Cossacks Zartynovs and Tsebekovs. In place of the khurul there are only ruins. Only here and there the remains of brickwork and the foundation of a Kalmyk temple are visible... Nearby there is a house that previously housed ministers; ceremonial dinners were held here on holidays.

The descendants of the Kalmyk Cossacks united into a community. We agreed to immortalize the place where the Erketenevsky khurul stood. In June 2013, the opening of a memorial sign took place in the village of Erketinovskaya. According to Kalmyk custom, the remains of the masonry of the ancient khurul building were placed at the base of the slab. Ataman E.N. Manzhikov and Chairman of the Council of Erketi Kalmyk Cossacks A.A. Nazarov unveiled a monument.

Opening ceremony of the Memorial Sign on the site of Erketenevsky Khurul, 2013

A Buddhist prayer sounded. According to Kalmyk custom, the territory of the khurul was walked around under the leadership of the lamas.
On the territory of the Dubovsky district of the Rostov region, there are settlements where Kalmyks previously lived - the village of Erketinovskaya, the farms of Adyanov, Novosalsky, Kholostonur. The gray feather grass sadly bends over the remains of the former villages of Potapovskaya and Chunusovskaya, the farms of Boldyrsky and Khudzhurtinsky. There is no trace left of their buildings

Kalmyks on the Don Land from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century.

The formation of official vassal-service relations with the Russian state and the military service of the Kalmyks is quite clearly recorded in the charters and agreements of the Kalmyk taishas with Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov in 1618, 1623, 1630-1632ᴦ.ᴦ. In the 40s and 50s of the 17th century, tribes of Oirats (Mongols who did not convert to Islam, but professed a type of Buddhism - Lamaism), who were called Kalmyks, migrated from the Mongolian steppes to the Volga region and the left bank of the Trans-Don region. Initially, they often clashed with the Nogais and Don Cossacks over territory and livestock, then they began to establish connections and diplomatic contacts. In 1648, a defensive and offensive alliance was concluded between the Kalmyks and the Cossacks against the Crimean Tatars.
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Already in 1651ᴦ. a detachment of Kalmyks crossed the Don, moving on a raid on the possessions of the Crimean Khan, forestalling the campaign against the Don people being prepared by the Tatars. In February 1661, Ambassador Baatyr Yangildeev arrived in the Don capital of Cherkassk with a diplomatic mission from the Kalmyk leader Daichin-Taishi. After exchanging gifts with military ataman Kornila Yakovlev, the ambassadors held negotiations regarding joint actions against the Crimean Tatars and Nogais. In the spring of the same year, the Don embassy headed by Fyodor Budan and Stepan Razin went on a return visit to the Daichin-Taishi nomads. The agreement they concluded was beneficial not only to the Don Cossacks, but to the Russian state, because from now on the Kalmyks turned from a hostile force into allies of Russia. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1663 approved the alliance of the Donets with the Kalmyks, allowing the latter to roam in the southeastern borders of the Cossack land: along the rivers Manych, Sal, Ilovlya, Buzuluk and Khoper.
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For diplomatic receptions of the Kalmyks, the government, along with the Cossack salaries, began to send two hundred buckets of vodka annually.

In the winter of 1663, a united detachment of Don Cossacks and Kalmyks made a campaign against the Tatars, to the Crimean Isthmus. The Don Cossacks were led by the young Stepan Razin, and the Kalmyks were led by Shogasha Mergen and Sherbet Bakshi. In the battle of Molochnye Vody they defeated a strong Tatar detachment led by Safar Kazy-aga.

Despite the fact that the Kalmyks (unlike the Cossacks) were not Orthodox, but professed Lamaism, a type of Buddhism (this teaching preached tolerance of other religions), they quickly fit into the cultural Don environment, becoming allies of the Don Cossacks in the fight against the Sublime Porte and the Crimean Khanate.

With the coming to power of the authoritative steppe politician Ayuki Khan, the number of Don Kalmyks increased significantly. This ruler pursued a dual policy towards the Don and Russia. “Without dwelling here on the subtle politics of Ayuki Khan,” wrote the pre-revolutionary Don historian I.I. Popov, - one can only note that this khan, ...despite the fact that he was considered a Russian subject, was the most powerful and independent of all the Kalmyk rulers, since in all his affairs he always acted only of your own free will. Through deft intrigues and resourcefulness, Ayuka Khan managed to be kind to the Russian sovereigns, despite the fact that he plundered Russian cities and villages, and to the Crimean Khan, and Constantinople, and all the other rulers around him, even the Bogd Khan of China and the Dalai Lama Tibetan, from whom he, the first of all Kalmyk rulers, received the high title of khan. In all his relations with various sovereigns, Ayuka Khan observed only his own benefits.

The authoritarian method of rule of this khan led to the fact that many Kalmyk tribal leaders left him for the Don, to the Cossacks. Thus, in 1686, 200 Kalmyk families asked for asylum from the Donets and were accepted by them “into the Cossack class.” Four years later, 600 Kalmyk warriors led by Batur Cherkess arrived in Cherkassk, having received permission from the Cossack Circle to roam between the Don and Donets.

After the death of Ayuki Khan in 1722, a struggle for power began among the Kalmyk leaders, at the top of which Tseren-Donduk and then Donduk-Ombo alternated. Military ataman Danila Efremov conducted successful diplomatic negotiations with the latter. This was the time when the Russian Empire was preparing for decisive battles with Turkey and Crimea, when Field Marshal Minich concentrated an army on the Don for a campaign near Azov, and then to Crimea.

The Russian government needed to know whose side the Kalmyk ruler Donduk-Ombo would take in the upcoming war, whose several tens of thousands of cavalry were a formidable force at that time. Showing extraordinary diplomatic skills, Danila Efremov managed to persuade the Kalmyk ruler to an alliance with Russia. For a successfully completed mission, Danila Efremov was appointed Don Troop Ataman by decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna on March 17, 1738. And in subsequent times, the far-sighted Efremov maintained good relations with the Kalmyks, receiving their Taish leaders in his Cherkassy town and in a country dacha on the Krasny farm.

After the death of Donduk-Ombo, his grandson, Tsebek-Dorji, “migrated from 33,000 smoke holes (yurt-wagons) of the people from Russia to China.” . The Kalmyks who remained in Russia, due to their small numbers and weakness, who were subject to attacks by warlike neighbors (Kyrgyz, mountain and other peoples), turned to the imperial government and the Don Cossacks with a request to be included in the Cossack class. In 1794, the highest permission was received for this, and the Kalmyks settled between the Don, Donets and near Cherkassk. Having all the Cossack rights, they had the right to freely practice Buddhism - the traditional religion of their ancestors. Hundreds of strong Kalmyks, fit for military service, were formed and included in the Don regiments. Kalmyks received grain and cash salaries for their service. Kalmyks, who were physically fit for military service, but who wanted to work as cattle breeders and herdsmen, could pay off their military service by contributing a certain amount to the Military Board to equip Cossacks for service instead of them.

Kalmyks physically incapable of military service formed teams of rammers - workers at military fish hatcheries, where large quantities of ram fish were processed.

Representatives of the Don Kalmyks (as well as the Tatars) served as orderlies for the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, the future Emperor Paul the First. So, at the end of April 1777, “according to His Grace Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, to be in the “ordinary position” under His Highness Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, send with Colonel Pyotr Yanov... two Tatars and two Kalmyks , each with a pair of horses; Kalmyks of the Tatars with sagaidaks and darts, and the foreman Ivan Platov, who was in Moscow, was ordered by letter to send to the military kosht a Kalmyk blue and a labashka and two pairs of boots each.

In 1798, the Kalmyks were subordinated to the Military Civil Government, and since 1803 they were controlled by special “bailiffs over the Kalmyks,” who necessarily had officer ranks. For greater control over the restless Kalmyk army, at the beginning of the reign of Ataman M. Platov, they were resettled on the left bank of the Don, ordered to “migrate in the spring from the Kagalnik River to Sal, in the summer along both Kuberla and Gashun, in the fall in the vicinity of the Manych salt lakes, and in the winter along Manychi itself.” .

Finally, in 1806, all Kalmyk nomadic camps were finally divided into three basic uluses: Upper, Middle and Lower, ruled by the chief - zaisang , often combining secular and spiritual power. The Kalmyks of the Upper Ulus roamed along the Sal River and its left tributaries, the borders of the Middle Ulus lay on both sides of the Manych, and the Lower Ulus along the Elbuzd (Elbuzd), Eya, and Kugei Eya rivers. The Don Kalmyks themselves defined the rights and obligations of the Cossacks and the conditions of service with the name - “buzaav”, in the sense of handing over a gun (weapon)”

The uluses, in turn, were divided into 13 hundred-aimags: Kharkov, Belyaevskaya, Baldyrskaya, Erketinskaya, Chunusovskaya, Bembekinskaya, Gelingyakinskaya, Kyuvyutskaya, Burulskaya, Baksha, Bultukovskaya, Batlayevskaya and Namvrovskaya. Hundreds were divided into khotons .

At the beginning of the 19th century, most of the Derbent Kalmyks migrated to the Astrakhan steppes. Only the Kalmyks of the Lower Ulus remained in the Don Army. In 1801 there were 2,262 male souls. In 1803, they were joined by about 400 Chuguev and Dolomanovo Kalmyks, who moved to the region of the Don Army.

In 1806, the Kalmyk Okrug was formed from Kalmyks roaming the Trans-Don steppes. The land area designated for their villages was surrounded from the north and west by Cossack and peasant lands of the 1st and 2nd Don districts; from the south - land allocated for private horse breeding; from the east - the lands of the Kalmyks of the Astrakhan province. In the same year they were granted all the rights and privileges of the Cossack military class. The Kalmyks themselves defined these acts as the acquisition of a new honorary status of the Cossacks - ʼʼbuzaavʼʼ (handed a gun, assigned to state military service)

Don Kalmyks-Buzaavs took an active part in the hundreds of aimaks and Cossack regiments in the War of 1812. In the vanguard of the Cossack regiments under the command of M.I. Platov in March 1814, they entered Paris, striking the French with their exotic appearance.

While serving a difficult service outside the Don region along with the Cossacks, the Don Kalmyks composed a cycle of folk songs about this. Here is one of them, recorded by the Don pre-revolutionary historian I. I. Popov:

ʼʼHow do you cross Gashun?

One remembers one’s own land and its waters.

As we ride on horseback in rows,

The wooden camp ahead is blackening,

Three camps lined up in rows

They turn black in a bluish haze.

How will we move to Kuberle,

Let's give ourselves and the horses a rest.

When we cross the Manych,

Sweat will stream from your forehead.

The fathers and mothers who gave birth to us!

Live happily according to the laws of faith.

City of Novocherkassk

Although beautiful, it is very difficult.

Speaking from Novocherkassk,

We sit on the fire machine.

On the shores of the Black Sea

I stood on guard;

On the shore of the White Sea.

I stood guard.

The winter night lasts long

And the gray tire is cool.

The Kalmyks also preserved several songs about the epoch-making events of the fight against Napoleon.

ʼʼOn three Manych mounds

General Matvey was gathering an army,

And those collected by General Matvey

Inspected by Andrey Mitrich,

Centurion Alya sent him to work.

How the centurion Alya sent us to serve,

We rode, sad about our family.

We crossed the water of the Old Don with the help of our faithful horses,

And we crossed the water of the Young Don

we are by the power of prayer.

Can the water of the deepest river

Run out of steam entering quicksand?

The glow of the rising sun

Is it possible to eclipse the palm of your hands?

In the same way, having heard that wonderful order (about the campaign),

Our hearts were filled with satisfaction .

According to the “Regulations on the Administration of the Don Army” of 1835, it was officially confirmed that Kalmyks, along with the Cossacks, were now subject to military service. In 1859, there were already 21,090 Kalmyks of both sexes.

In 1882, the total number of Kalmyks, according to the report of the internal affairs bodies of the Department of Internal Affairs, reached 28,659 people. Kalmyks, after the creation of the Salsky district in 1884ᴦ. and the transition to a sedentary way of farming and living, they lived compactly in 13 villages on the territory of the Salsky district, 1st and 2nd Donskoy. They served well as part of Cossack regiments throughout the 19th century and until the beginning of the 20th century. The Don Kalmyks also distinguished themselves in other wars waged by the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries (until 1917).

Before the revolution of 1917, 30,200 Kalmyks lived on the territory of the Don Army Region. Kalmyk Cossacks took an active part in the events of the revolution and civil war of 1917 -1920ᴦ.ᴦ. Basically, Kalmyk hundreds served as part of the counter-revolutionary Don Army and in separate punitive units; therefore, most of them emigrated from Crimea along with the Cossacks in 1920.

Kalmyks on the Don Land from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Kalmyks on the Don Land from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century." 2017, 2018.

Don Kalmyk Cossacks Cossack Kalmyks of the Salsky District of the Don Army Region in the 1st World War. As is known, Kalmyks appeared within Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. They migrated from the Dzungar Khanate and formed the Kalmyk Khanate in the lower reaches of the Volga River, which strengthened under Ayuk Khan. Archival documents indicate that Kalmyks were called to the Don by local Cossacks to jointly fight the Crimean Tatars. So, in 1642, the Don Cossacks turned to their new neighbors with a proposal to jointly fight the Crimeans for the capture of Azov. And in 1648, Kalmyks first appeared near the Cherkasy town. A defensive and offensive alliance was concluded between the Kalmyks and the Cossacks, according to which 1000 Kalmyks opposed the Crimeans. From that time on, agreements were concluded between them and oaths were taken about faithful service to Russia. In 1696, Ayuka Khan sent up to three thousand tents (about ten thousand people) to the Don near Azov to guard the border line and fight the Azov people. These Kalmyks did not return back to the Kalmyk Khanate; they remained on the Don, near Cherkassk. Some of them accepted the Orthodox faith. In 1710, Ayuka Khan sent an additional ten thousand Kalmyks to the Don, led by the Torgout owner Chimet and the Derbet owner Four, to guard the southern borders from Kuban raids. Cornet of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment Ochir-Garya Sharapov, 1861. In 1723, Peter I ordered all Kalmyks wandering along the Don to remain in the Cossack class and no more representatives of this nation to be accepted into these lands. Thus, in 1731, the Kalmyks who crossed to the Don became part of the population of the Don Army and were subordinated to the Directorate of Military Cossacks. In 1745, the entire populated Western steppe was given over to the Kalmyks, who were assigned to the Don Army, as nomads. On these lands, three Kalmyk uluses with farms and population were formed: Upper, Middle and Lower. Cornet Toki Dakuginov. 1912 Platovskaya village In 1856, there were 13 villages in the Kalmyk district, in which 20,635 people lived (10,098 men, 10,537 women). There were 31,455 horses, 63,766 cattle and 62,297 sheep. Cornet Toki Dakuginov. Platovskaya village In 1862, stanitsa administration was introduced for the Don Kalmyks, subordinate to the Don Army. According to the administrative structure, the Kalmyk nomad community was divided into three uluses, and 13 hundreds were transformed into villages. In 1891, according to the regulations, the land share per man was 15 dessiatines, the rest of the lands belonged to the village society, which, when a Kalmyk Cossack was called up for military service, provided him with a horse, weapons and clothing. From September 1, 1891, the Don Kalmyks were legally equated with the Don Cossacks and began to build civil relations following the model of the Don Cossacks. At the same time, the previous hundreds were renamed into villages: Batlaevskaya, Burulskaya, Vlasovskaya, Denisovskaya, Grabbevskaya, Kuteynikovskaya, Novo-Alekseevskaya, Potapovskaya, Platovskaya, Erketinskaya, Chonusovskaya and farmsteads: Baldyrsky, Atamansky, Kamensky, Potapovsky and Elmutyansky. Astrakhan Governor I.N. Sokolovsky with the Kalmyk nobility. 1909 In 1898, the Don Kalmyks had a district school and seven stanitsa elementary schools. According to data for 1913, 30,178 people lived in the territory of the Salsky district, excluding those working in other districts and stud farms. There were 13 villages and 19 Kalmyk farms in the district. After the end of the Civil War in 1920, only 10,750 Kalmyks lived here, i.e. the population decreased three times. Such a sharp reduction in the number of Kalmyks living on the Don for the period from 1897 to 1920 (over 23 years) is explained by the losses of Kalmyk Cossacks on the battlefields of the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905), World War I (1914-1920) gg.) and Civil (1918-1920) wars. Podesaul Tseren Dzhivinov is a full Knight of St. George. The Cossack hundred under his command captured 800 Austrians during the First World War. Cossack of the Potapovskaya village of the All-Great Don Army Badma Martushkin Colonel Bator Mangatov, commander of the 19th Don Cossack Regiment. Colonel, Prince Danzan Tundutov-Dondukov, ataman of the Astrakhan Cossack army. Officers of the White Volunteer Army: Colonel Gabriel Tepkin, Ulanov, Prince Tundutov. Cossacks of the 80th Dzungarian Regiment near Rostov. 1918 Naran Ulanov. Novo-Alekseevskaya village. Region of the Don Army Imkens?? Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky inspects the Kalmyk khurul on the Don, destroyed by the Bolsheviks. 1918 Cossack Mushka Kutinov Don Kalmyks. 1922 Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky at an audience with the Lama of the Don Kalmyks. 1918 Ataman of the Don Cossacks, General Bagaevsky, on the threshold of the Kalmyk khurul. 1918 Don Cossacks and Kalmyks go ashore. The beginning of emigration. Lemnos Island. Greece In Turkey with the British Army. 1921 D. Ulanov Camp Kabakja. Türkiye. 1921 In exile. Sanzha Baldanov (left), Sanzha Targirov (right) In exile. Constantinople. Türkiye. Russian white emigrants. Don Kalmyks in exile. Türkiye. The photo was presumably taken in 1921-1923. White Army officers in Gallipoli. Turkey Evacuated Don Kalmyks and their descendants 35 years later, in DP Dom, New Jersey, USA After the end of the Civil War, in connection with the formation of the Kalmyk Autonomous Region within the RSFSR, work began on the resettlement of the remaining Kalmyks from the Don Region to the territory of the Kalmyk Autonomous Okrug. It was planned to resettle 13 thousand people to Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus (now Gorodovikovsky district). As of January 1, 1925, 8,451 people resettled from 13 villages of the Don region. The chairman of the Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus executive committee, Harti Badievich Kanukov, in his report “On the resettlement of the Don Kalmyks as of January 1, 1926,” noted that in three years 15,171 people resettled from all 13 villages of the Salsky district. On April 29, 1929, the presidium of the North Caucasus Regional Committee adopted a decision “On the creation of an independent Kalmyk region as part of the Salsky district.” According to information as of April 1, 1932, in the Kalmyk region there were 11 village councils and 23 collective farms with a population of 12 thousand people, including 5 thousand Kalmyks. The district administrative center was located in the village of Kuteynikovskaya, which existed from November 6, 1929 until the date of deportation of the Kalmyk people to Siberia. After returning from exile, natives of the Kalmyk district of the Rostov region in Kuteynikovskaya built a monument to fellow countrymen who died during the Great Patriotic War. The embedded capsule contains the names of more than 800 Kalmyk soldiers, natives of the Rostov region, who died for the honor and independence of our Motherland.

Fifty years ago, or rather 52 years ago - on January 27, 1884, the Salsky district was formed on the territory of the Don Army, in the region of the Trans-Don steppes, previously occupied by Kalmyk nomads.

More than two centuries have passed since the Kalmyks voluntarily became part of the Don Cossacks, and since then the Kalmyks and Cossacks, united by a common love for their freedom, for the vastness of the Don steppe, united by one idea - the defense of the Native Land, have lived one fraternal life; over time, the Kalmyks adopted the name of the Don Cossack of the Salsky district.

Here I will allow you to at least briefly introduce them to their historical past.

Kalmyks are one of the main branches of the Mongolian tribe. Their homeland is Asia, from where they came to the Volga and Caspian steppes in 1632, in the form of an independent people, with their own national power in the person of their khan Kho-Orlek.

The name Kalmyk comes from the Turkish word “Kalmak”, which means “remaining” and changed into Russian - “Kalmyk”.

Their religion is Buddhism. More precisely, Buddhism was reformed by the reformer Zonkava, which in Russian is usually defined by the word “Lamaism.”

Their main holidays are: “Tsagan-Sar” (white month) - in February. “Uryus” - on the first day of the first spring month - is a spring holiday and “Zul” - in November.

The main part of the Kalmyks are the “Oirats”; in the past they were very powerful, repeatedly defeating the strong Chinese. “Oirats” is a collective name, it is better known as the name of the Union of Mongolian tribes: Oirats, Olets, Khoshuts, Torguts, Derbets, Zungars. This union played a decisive military-political role in the east for a long time. And then, due to the constant civil strife that arose, it weakened, fell into decline, and in 1755, in the fight against China, these tribes were defeated and lost their independence.

The first mention of the establishment of relations between the Don Cossacks and Kalmyks dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, and since then the history of the Don has constantly mentioned friendly military treaties, joint campaigns and raids of Kalmyks and Cossacks against the Crimean, Kuban Tatars, Nogais and other warlike tribes and nationalities . Many of the Kalmyks were then enrolled in the Cossacks.

In 1710, in anticipation of a war with Turkey, the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka sent 10 thousand soldiers to the Don, who, remaining on the Don, became entirely part of the Don Cossacks. In 1729, yurt Kalmyks were also included in the army.

Constant raids of the Kyrgyz, Nogais and Trans-Kuban Tatars on the Kalmyk nomads prompt the Kalmyks to ask Emperor Paul I to include them in the Don Army and serve on an equal basis with the Cossacks. Some of them are included, the rest go to the Astrakhan steppes.

Under Ataman M.I. Platov, the Kalmyks, who roamed throughout the entire territory of the Don, were given the Trans-Don steppes, on the left (Nogai) side of the Don. The territory of the Don Army now consists of 7 districts and the Kalmyk nomads in the Trans-Don steppe; they are included in the Army under the name Don Kalmyks. The poorest part of the Kalmyks are classified as belonging to the nearest villages of the 2nd Don District.

Having allocated lands to the Kalmyks, the Don Army does not interfere in their internal life and governance. Don Kalmyks continue to live by their customs. Their nomadic camp is divided into 3 uluses, uluses into hundreds and hundreds into khotons. Each hundred is governed by centurions chosen from among them and two chosen judges, who in their legal proceedings are guided by their ancient customary law.

In 1884, the Don Kalmyks were finally equated with the Cossacks, and instead of a nomadic settlement, the Salsky district was established, with the district administrative center in the village of Velikokyazheskaya. The newly formed district includes the following villages: Batlaevskaya, Belyaevskaya, Nurulskaya, Novo-Alekseevskaya, Chunusovskaya, Erketinskaya and renamed in honor of the Military Atamans, which took the new name of the villages: Vlasovskaya, Denisovskaya, Grabbevskaya, Kuteynikovskaya, Platovskaya and Potapovskaya.

Having settled in the villages, the Don Kalmyks began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, taking up horse breeding, cattle breeding and agriculture. According to statistics from 1897, there are 28,112 souls of both sexes in the Salsk district and 2 thousand in the 2nd Don district.

With their hard work, the Don Kalmyks achieved good results. Large farms are appearing. Kalmyks cultivate an excellent and hardy breed of Kalmyk combat horse.

In addition to the excellent varieties of combat horses, a special breed of red Kalmyk cattle is famous.

In the process of cultural and economic development, the Kalmyk clergy played a huge role; it was the main conductor of their religious, cultural and social life. In the villages of the Salsky district, public schools appeared, and in the Grand Duke's: a higher primary school (city), a four-year women's school, and a real school. In Novocherkassk one could often see Kalmyk and Kalmyk children in the uniform of high school students, realists, and Kalmyk youth as students and cadets of the Novocherkassk Cossack School, after which they joined the Don regiments.

In Vel. war and in the Cossack Liberation War they showed themselves to be excellent military officers: Colonel Magatov, commander of the 21st Don Kaz. regiment in the Great War, centurion Mangatov, Troops. senior Batyrev, pulled up Dakuginov, pulled up. Seldinov, centurion Bakbushov, came up. Tenkin et al.

Many died a heroic death on the battlefields, defending their homeland. Regiment. Mangatov, hundreds. Mangatov, Troops. Art. Batyrev, Col. Deshin, come up. Seldinov, centurion Bakbushov, came up. Dakuginov, choir. Safonov, centurion Abushinov (until the last minute, commanding the 3rd Don Kalmyk Regiment, defending Novorossiysk and left to be killed by the Bolsheviks), choir. Bormanzhinov, hundreds. Burinov, choir. Zodbinov, come up. Sharmanzhinov, Podes Kurkusov, chorus. Balinov, choir. Purtilov and others.

At the beginning of the Cossack Liberation Struggle (beginning of 1918), the Salsky district was an area of ​​struggle for freedom. Here in the steppes the partisans of the Marching Ataman, Gen. P. X. Popova carried out their wonderful “Steppe March”. The entire Kalmyk people came to the defense of their villages and joined the detachment of the general. P. X. Popova. After the cleansing of the Salsk district under Ataman Krasnov, the Kalmyks formed two regiments: Zungar and 3 Kalmyk (1st Don Division) - a standing army and fifty cavalry in the Don Ataman's convoy. The Kalmyks, as part of the Don Army, fought the Bolsheviks until the very end. When leaving their native land, they, as a whole people, with their families, left their villages and retreated with the army to Novorossiysk. Left by the High Command on the shore of the Novorossiysk pier, most of them died, suffering martyrdom from the Bolsheviks.

In the emigration of Don Kalmyks now there are a little more than a thousand souls scattered across different countries, but a characteristic phenomenon for them is that they settled abroad without dispersing, but retained large groups, forming their own Kalmyk farms and villages, and individuals entered into general Cossack organizations.

When the Don Cadet Corps was opened in Yugoslavia (1922), a significant part of Kalmyk children were enrolled in the corps, in gymnasiums in Prague, as well as in higher educational institutions in Prague, Belgrade and other capitals. Now many of them, having graduated from their schools, work in their specialty. Cultural centers and circles were created among the young Kalmyk intelligentsia in Prague, Belgrade, and Sofia. Many collaborate in Cossack magazines. Thanks to the energy and sacrifice in emigration, periodical magazines were published: “Oirat” (1924), “Ulan Zalat” (1927-30), “Mana-Sanan” and “Feather Waves”, which are published to this day.

The Kalmyk Commission of Cultural Workers, which existed in Prague, successfully collected works of Kalmyk oral literature and published several books “Khonkho” in the Kalmyk language.

The leaders of the Kalmyk national organization “Halmmak Tangachin Tuk” - Sh.I. - show noticeable activity. Balinov and S.B. Balykov. The first, in addition to numerous articles of a historical and journalistic nature, published in Cossack magazines, published three brochures in a separate edition: “What the Cossacks were”, “What the Cossacks became” and “Our response to the “defencists” and “Cossack affairs”. S.B. Balykov published more than fifty stories from Kalmyk and Cossack life in various Cossack and Kalmyk magazines and published a separate story “The Turbulent Steppe” and prepared for publication a historical and everyday novel “Maiden’s Honor” from Kalmyk life.

Dr. Dinara Bayanova transcribed about 50 Kalmyk new and ancient songs.

But the most remarkable event in the life of the Kalmyk emigration was the construction of the first Buddhist temple in Europe in Belgrade. The Don Kalmyks, despite their small numbers, through sacrifice and energy, at the initiative of the regiment. A. A. Alekseev and Bakshi Umaldinov, with the close assistance of the clergy and all emigration, with the participation and help of the owner of a brick factory in Belgrade, Milos Yashimovic, built not only a beautiful temple, but also a room for the clergy, a library and a school with it. The temple was built on the outskirts of Belgrade, where the Kalmyk farm Mokry Lug was created and on December 12, 1929 it was solemnly consecrated in front of a large number of people gathered. This celebration was attended by representatives of the Serbian and Cossack public.

This case shows the sacrifice and cohesion that the Don Kalmyks adhere to, despite the difficult conditions of our life abroad.

By this they once again proved to everyone that in Unity there is strength.