According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, more than 183 thousand Kalmyks live in Russia. The main part is on the territory of the national republic, located in the Northern Caspian region. Being the only people in Europe who profess Buddhism, Kalmyks have for centuries preserved the traditional way of life and the original culture of steppe nomads. And some facts from the history of this ethnic group can be truly shocking.
Very militant
Kalmyks are descendants of representatives of the Oirat tribes of the Mongol people who migrated to the south of Russia from Dzungaria (Central Asia) at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. These people have always been considered very warlike, their whole history is almost continuous clashes with neighbors, skirmishes with armed detachments of Turkic-speaking peoples, and predatory raids.
The Kirghiz, Tatars, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, and Nogais were forced to almost constantly confront the Kalmyks, who, not by chance, were among the five most warlike peoples in the world, second only to the New Zealand Maori tribes, the Gurkhas from Nepal and the Dayaks from the island of Kalimantan.
Loyalty to the Russian Tsar
The Kalmyks confirmed their oath to the Russian crown in battles. So, in 1778, they, as part of the army of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, defeated the Crimean Tatars. The following year, representatives of the Mongol-speaking people defended Russian fortresses in the Azov region from Kabardian raids, then participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1791.
In addition, the Kalmyks brutally suppressed all attempts by the Nogais, Bashkirs and Kazakhs to achieve the right to national self-determination.
The only people whose warriors the proud Chechens preferred not to face in battle were the Kalmyks - born cavalrymen, whose light cavalry terrified their enemies with their swift attacks.
Red Army swastika
It is noteworthy that since ancient times, one of the religious symbols revered by Kalmyks is the swastika. She even "decorated" military uniform Red Army soldiers who served in national units. The order approving such an identification mark was signed on November 3, 1919 by the commander of the South-Eastern Front Vasily Ivanovich Shorin.
Soldiers and officers of the Kalmyk division wore sleeve patches in the form of a red diamond, in the center of which was a yellow swastika with the inscription “RSFSR”. At the very top of this unusual sign was a five-pointed star.
Probably, the leadership of the Red Army, when developing the symbols of national units, took into account the fact that in the Buddhist religious tradition the swastika has an exclusively positive meaning.
Kalmyk SS Legion
The civil war divided the Kalmyk people, Soviet power Not all residents of the south of our country supported it. There were many people who remained loyal to the Russian crown and considered it their duty to fight the communists. A small part of the Kalmyks went over to the side of the Nazi invaders, who promised them liberation from the “Red tyranny.”
And although the majority of representatives of this people defended the USSR with arms in hand, performing real military feats, there were also those who joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht. This allowed fascist propagandists to announce the creation of the Kalmyk SS Legion. The Nazis claimed that many peoples of the USSR supported their fight against the communists.
As Doctor of Historical Sciences Utash Borisovich Ochirov writes, during the occupation period about 3 thousand Kalmyks fought on the side of the Wehrmacht, these were cavalry squadrons, rural militia detachments, and local policemen.
As a result, in December 1943, by decision of the Soviet government, the entire people were deported to Siberia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan, which became a real national tragedy.
Treat herpes with fire
Despite their adherence to Buddhism, Kalmyks retain ancient beliefs based on shamanism. These people worship fire. It is considered a universal remedy for liberation from all negativity: damage, the evil eye. It is still customary here to treat herpes and other skin diseases in two ways: cauterization with hot metal; fumigation with smoke.
According to official medicine, these methods cannot affect herpes pathogens and other microorganisms, and burns are in any case harmful to health.
However, Kalmyks worship fire so much that they both “water” and “feed” it. When opening a bottle of any alcoholic drink, these people usually sprinkle a few drops into the fire, thereby appeasing the ancient deity. And during religious holidays, weddings, funerals and other important events, a sacrifice is made when pieces of lamb fat and three types of bones of this animal are thrown into the fire.
Only men “water” and “feed” the fire. And they do this only with their right hand.
Baking meat in manure
Kalmyk shepherds came up with a dish that is prepared in the open air. It is called "kure". The lamb meat is cut into small pieces, spices and salt are added. All this is placed in the animal's stomach, which is then sutured.
The kur is prepared in a pit where manure is first placed and set on fire. The fire heats the ground, and then the shepherds bury the sheep’s stomach with all its contents in the still-uncooled ash. Sometimes they also make a fire on top.
The meat is baked slowly at low temperature, soaked in spices and salt. Depending on the time of year and other circumstances (weather, age of the animal, presence of a fire above), kur is prepared from 10 to 24 hours.
Everyone who has tried it claims that it is very tasty.
Lost the incorruptible lama
The Kalmyks lost the incorrupt remains of a local lama, who was called Keksh Baksh, although the real name of this Buddhist religious figure, according to legend, was Shivn Davg. He died near the Kalmyk village of Yashkul in the mid-19th century.
According to the stories of local residents, the corpse of Lama Keksh Baksh rested in a special tomb until 1929. His remains were preserved incorrupt, which amazed numerous pilgrims. People talked about unusual healings that occurred at the sarcophagus.
At one point, it was decided to create a special commission that was supposed to examine the lama’s body. And the commission included party leaders and even a doctor, because people believed that the lama did not die, but fell into a special trance and would one day wake up. Not wanting religious hype, local atheists took somewhere the remains of a man who was considered a saint. And now it is unknown what happened to them.
The dead were left in the steppe
A special tradition of burying the dead, widespread among Kalmyks until the beginning of the twentieth century, arose during the times of shamanism. They simply left the corpses in the steppe, a little away from the places of nomadic camps and dwellings.
The fact is that since ancient times the Mongolian tribes did not have time to bury the dead. Especially during military campaigns. The cavalry was constantly moving, now pursuing enemies, now eluding them. What kind of funeral rites are there?
However, the ritual of air burial was adopted by many peoples professing shamanism. This is how representatives of some peoples of Siberia and North America buried their relatives, so that the soul of the deceased would go to heaven without hindrance.
Any nation experiences a time of active wars and expansion. But there are tribes where militancy and cruelty are an integral part of their culture. These are ideal warriors without fear and morality, “Russian Seven” comments on its top 5.
The above “tribes”, along with the Kalmyks, are not compared with each other according to any rating indicators. But the Kalmyks are number 4 on this list (after the Maoris, Gurkhas and Dayaks).
“Among the peoples of Russia, one of the most warlike are the Kalmyks, descendants of the Western Mongols. Their self-name translates as “breakaways,” which means Oirats who did not convert to Islam. Today, most of them live in the Republic of Kalmykia. Nomads are always more aggressive than farmers. The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, who lived in Dzungaria, were freedom-loving and warlike. Even Genghis Khan did not immediately manage to subjugate them, for which he demanded the complete destruction of one of the tribes. Later, the Oirat warriors became part of the army of the great commander, and many of them became related to the Genghisids. Therefore, it is not without reason that some of the modern Kalmyks consider themselves descendants of Genghis Khan. In the 17th century, the Oirats left Dzungaria and, having made a huge transition, reached the Volga steppes. In 1641, Russia recognized the Kalmyk Khanate, and from now on, from the 17th century, Kalmyks became permanent participants in the Russian army. They say that the battle cry “hurray” once came from the Kalmyk “uralan”, which means “forward”. They especially distinguished themselves in the Patriotic War of 1812. 3 Kalmyk regiments, numbering more than three and a half thousand people, took part in it. For the Battle of Borodino alone, more than 260 Kalmyks were awarded the highest orders of Russia,” the site writes.
The publication also provides similar small information about other “tribes,” whose vivid and bloody details should create a fairly stereotypical image of the “most warlike.”
Meanwhile, one of the commentators notes: “Kalmyks are the same Western Mongols - Torguts, Durbuts and Oirats. This is Khan Ayush, after the defeat from Queen Manduhai of Mongolia, they migrated to the west, 15th century (Queen Manduhai was going to unite the Mongols back, and the Torguts and Oirats resisted and killed the queen’s son, and paid cruelly) and to this day the Mongols and Kalmyks can perfectly speaking to each other the language is almost the same - like Russian and Ukrainian.”
It is interesting that the representatives of the Kalmyk people themselves - indeed one of the Mongolian people - are in no hurry to deny the correlation with “tribes in which belligerence and cruelty are an integral part of their culture.”
Moreover, in the comments of the recent publication of the ARD - about the Buryat colonel, submit to the highest military rank requested by veterans of the Chechen war, some readers from Kalmykia considered the ethnic Kalmyk heroes to be ignored.
“In Kalmykia, everyone knows the feat of Sanal Khantyev in the first Chechen war. He was a simple conscript soldier. His platoon of four armored personnel carriers was ambushed. The last two were damaged and could not continue moving. The officers abandoned the soldiers and fled in the two remaining vehicles. The militants surrounded the soldiers, offering to surrender.
In such conditions, a young 19-year-old guy took command. He inspired confidence in his colleagues and led the defense until our troops arrived. Two days later, help arrived. In their native part they thought that they had died. The command nominated him for the title of Hero of Russia, but awarded it to a soldier wounded in that battle, a Russian by nationality. Sanal Khantyev was awarded the Order of Courage. He could become the first Hero of Russia for the Chechen company.
Two Kalmyks were awarded the title of Hero for the Chechen campaign Russian Federation! This is Nikolai Bairov (posthumously) and Baatr Gindeev!”, writes an ARD reader from Kalmykia. It is quite right to note that our site is a pan-Mongolian site.
The famous Kalmyk blogger Lari Ilishkin continues to answer popular questions about two related peoples. He is a historian by training and therefore knows how much we have in common between our peoples.
Read previous interviews on our website: part 1, part 2, part 3.
Lari, in early XIX century academician I.I. Lepekhin wrote about the Kalmyks: “they occupy empty steppes, unsuitable for any kind of habitation. In them we have, in addition to other military services, good and numerous guardians of our borders from the attacks of the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks and Kubans.” What did the academician mean?
Lepekhin wrote about the Volga Oirats (Kalmyks). Before the arrival of Kho Orlyuk, only Nogais roamed these steppes. And then only on part of the Stavropol plateau. Vast waterless semi-desert areas. At that time there was neither Volgograd, nor Rostov, nor other modern cities. There weren’t even any villages, and settled life glimmered only in a small district near Astrakhan. The places were truly uninhabitable for many peoples. But not for Kalmyks. It was with the advancement of the Kalmyks to the south that farmers from Russian and then Ukrainian provinces followed them. Under Ayuk Khan, under an agreement with the Russian government, there was a 10-verst neutral zone between the Khanate and Russian lands, where Kalmyks could not roam and peasants had no right to settle. In essence, it was an interstate border. When the Russians violated the treaty, the Kalmyks burned the settlements and took their inhabitants into captivity.
By the way, Lepekhin also wrote that Russia receives the best slaughter and draft cattle from the Kalmyks. Judging by how the Kalmyk breed of cattle spreads further to the east of the huge country through Buryatia, the academician’s conclusions are still relevant today. But everyone knows how the military potential of the Kalmyks ensured the security of the southern borders of the state, and there is probably no point in dwelling on this topic in detail.
- What are the neighboring peoples called in Kalmyk and is it true that the name “Chechen” has a Mongolian root?
Among the Chechens there is a version of the Mongolian origin of their self-name “nokhcho”. But I don't see anything Mongolian in this word. By the way, the Kalmyks called all Caucasians “Circassians”, regardless of their actual belonging to one or another ethnic group. Tatars are still called “mangud”, Kazakhs - “khasyg”. It is very interesting that Jews are called “har guir” in Kalmyk. Literally translated as “black flour”. Where this name came from, history is silent. But of all the Mongols, only the Kalmyks call the Jews that way. This means that the name was born here, on the Volga.
- What is your relationship with the Nogais? Do they really have a Mongoloid appearance?
The Nogais are the closest relatives of the Kazakhs, and naturally they have an Asian appearance. Today relations are smooth. But the Nogais probably still have historical grievances, although they do not voice them when communicating with us. After all, it was the Kalmyks who bled the Nogai Horde dry. However, to be completely fair, it is necessary to remember that the reason for such a radical attitude of the Kalmyks towards the Nogai elite (they suffered the most) was the betrayal of the latter. Initially, Kalmyks and Nogais almost acted as a united front in relations with the Caucasian highlanders. But when Ho Orlyuk decided to conquer Kabarda, the “allies” actually stabbed him in the back. The Kalmyks were ambushed in the mountains, losing many of their people, including their leader. By the way, Ho Orlyuk died in battle when he was 92 years old. The victors beheaded his corpse. The Kalmyks could not forgive such humiliation and in two punitive campaigns they destroyed almost the entire Nogai aristocracy. As we see, we also have reasons to be offended. The only thing that distinguishes Kalmyks from many others is that they are not particularly tormented by grievances.
- What are your relations with the Crimean Tatars?
In the past, the Crimean Tatars were the main competitors for the Kalmyks in the struggle for influence in the territory between the Black and Caspian Seas. Today we do not have the opportunity to come into contact with them and therefore it is impossible to talk about any relationships.
- Your attitude towards the famous Amursane and tell in more detail the history of his burial in Buryatia.
Amursana is a contradictory personality. For most in the Mongol world, he is a symbol of the Oirats' struggle for independence. And he was like that for a long time. My father, journalist Naran Ilishkin, was the first (at least in Kalmykia) to recognize the negative role of Amursana in Oirat history. Nevertheless, his personality deserves attention. Amursana was born in the Kalmyk Khanate. Later his family migrated to Dzungaria. Buried in Buryatia. It so happened that Beijing wanted to see firsthand the death of its most dangerous enemy at that time and demanded that the Russian authorities present evidence. Amursana’s body was taken closer to the border, where it was demonstrated to representatives of the Celestial Empire. The Manchus demanded to hand over the body, but were refused. Amursana was reburied in Buryatia. I take this as a sign. Born in the Kalmyk steppes, buried in Buryatia. With his fate he shows us what the cost of division and personal ambitions is. That is why the name of Amursana cannot be consigned to oblivion.
- Where does the version about the Kalmyk roots of the chemist Mendeleev and Lenin come from?
According to Mendeleev, I will say that when I have doubts, I don’t really delve into the topic. And Marietta Shaginyan wrote about the fact that the leader of the world proletariat had a Kalmyk grandmother. Govorukhin also mentioned this on the pages, it seems, of the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
- What is your vision of Ja Lama’s personality?
A very controversial personality. His last name is Sanaev. He is a native of the Maloderbetovsky ulus of Kalmykia. During the revolution in China, he ended up in Western Mongolia, where the Oirats live. He called himself Amursana. The fact is that among the Mongols at that time there was a popular prediction about Amursana’s rebirth in Russia and return to Mongolia, where he was supposed to slaughter all the Chinese. And he returned. And, indeed, he managed to organize resistance and drove the Chinese out of Western Mongolia. At Beijing’s request, he was nevertheless taken to Russian territory. It is known that Ja Lama appeared among the Kalmyk intelligentsia in Astrakhan. But when the revolution broke out in Russia, he disappeared and appeared in Mongolia, where he became a virtual dictator. In my opinion, Ja Lama was an agent of the royal secret service. Some facts speak about this. Before the revolution it was manageable. After the revolution of 1917, he acted on his own and exclusively in his own interests. It was destroyed, by the way, by Kalmyks sent to Mongolia.
It is clear that due to the vast distances and 400 years of living away from the Mongolian world, the Kalmyk language inevitably acquired differences. Although you can understand the main meaning. Do you understand the Buryat language? What are the main differences between our languages?
According to scientists, the Kalmyk language has most preserved the idioms of the ancient language of the Mongols precisely because of its centuries-old isolation. Therefore, it is most likely that the differences did not appear with us. Now the main task is to preserve the language. We have to do this. And so that there are fewer differences, we need to communicate more within the Mongolian world. A person who speaks Buryat well will understand Kalmyk, and vice versa. One Buryat said in 2012 that when he was little, he did not know Russian. Kalmyks came to them with children, and the children somehow understood each other and, as they would say now, did not worry at all.
Your great enlightener Zaya Pandita created the Oirat script, which became known as “todo bichig”, i.e. "clear writing" He defined and established the literary language of the Oirats. Whose dialect is this and why did it form the basis of the literary Kalmyk language?
Zaya Pandita was from the Khoshut tribe. Todo bichig cannot be classified as a dialect. This is its uniqueness. But when in Soviet time switched to the Cyrillic alphabet, the Torgud dialect became the literary dialect. Probably because historically there were an overwhelming majority of traders on the Volga and their dialect predominated. After the departure of most of the Torgods in 1771, their numbers here decreased. Today, probably, there are approximately equal numbers of Torguds and Dervyuds in Kalmykia. But according to tradition, the Torgud dialect became literary. I repeat, today there is a problem of preserving the language and it does not matter at all in what dialect.
In short. Young Dagestani wrestlers descended on peaceful Elista. Can you imagine the “naughty” Dags? They bullied, harassed, mocked Buddhist shrines, etc. The most brave wrestler urinated on the Buddha statue in the city center and kicked the Buddha statue in the nose, out of abundance of intelligence, posting the “feat” on the social network...
The Dagestan children clearly had not seen Kalmyks before and did not understand what a Kalmyk is in rage - in righteous rage. Elista boiled instantly.
...In the center of Elista there was a conflict between local residents and Dagestanis. The reason for it was the behavior of one of the guests who arrived at the freestyle wrestling tournament named after Gorodovikov. The incident occurred on the night of Saturday, April 2. An eyewitness to the incident told a Rossiyskaya Gazeta correspondent that a young man, while walking around the city, committed an act of vandalism.The 22-year-old athlete, in his free time from competition, went into a Buddhist temple with his teammates, relieved himself there and kicked a Buddha statue in the nose. He shared his action on social networks. The athlete's behavior provoked riots.Residents of Elista who saw this video came to the hotel where the athlete was staying, and he had to apologize.The wrestler's behavior caused real indignation among local residents, who forced him to kneel.Further development The conflict was stopped by the police who arrived at the scene.Because of this incident, the freestyle wrestling tournament had to be cancelled. The instigator of the conflict was detained and taken to the police station.(Lenta.ru)
...committed an act of vandalism against a Buddha statue. Moreover, the wrestler posted a video of the incident on the Internet. Residents of Elista who saw this video came to the hotel where the athlete was staying, dragged him outside, forced him to his knees and forced him to publicly apologize. The athlete uttered words of apology, but immediately made an indecent gesture. The further development of the conflict was stopped by the police who arrived at the scene.Now the Dagestan athlete has been detained, and the competition has been canceled due to the incident. By the way, an interesting detail: the team in which the detained athlete was a member was not officially entered into the wrestling tournament and arrived in Kalmykia on its own initiative. The investigation into the incident continues. The Minister of Sports and the Prime Minister of Dagestan have already left for Kalmykia.(Kalmykia-online.ru)
...the cause of the conflict between Dagestanis and Kalmyks was a video broadcast in the famous social network Periscope, which was conducted by guests during a tour of the steppe capital. At this time, the video has been removed from public use. Judging by discussions on the Internet, athletes spoke unflatteringly about architectural monuments with religious significance.(Riakalm.ru)
...The Dagestan athlete was detained, his scandalous video was removed from the Internet. The remaining Dagestan and Chechen athletes from five teams, accompanied by police officers, urgently left the region.(Nazaccent.ru)
"They didn’t let me break up) I’m from Elista, here everything has usually been relatively calm for 5-10 years, so this incident is on everyone’s lips now. I wanted to clarify that he urinated on the monument not in the temple, where the guards would have immediately tied him up and the scandal would have been louder, but on the street, not far from the Pagoda in the very center of the city. Our youth are very organized, and the reaction was not long in coming. We don’t have many hotels, and when we learned about this impudence, we gathered and went to punish the insolent person. According to the stories, there were about 100-200 people together with the police, the FSB, our boys and the Dags. For a metropolis, such gatherings of people do not go unnoticed, but for our little Elista in one place - this is too many people) they say that the coach put him on his knees and forced him to apologize, and this idiot still snapped something. In general, if it weren’t for the police, there would have been an epic Mega Makhach, and I’m sure that our boys for such a thing would have discouraged the Dagestanis from coming to Kalmykia for a very long time. And by the way, I want to note that I’m writing guys, and not specifically “Kalmyks” because, I’m sure, not only Kalmyks (we have a multinational republic) wanted to give this cretin a piece of shit (we have a multinational republic), and the point here would not even be about religion, but simply in disrespect for your home. And disrespect, whether you are a Kalmyk, Russian or Chechen, will in any case cause a response. And this dag chose not the best place to show his “coolness”) the descendants of Genghis Khan - not the best option, at the expense of whom one could assert oneself). ZY: I’m Russian myself, I treat everyone with respect, but I expressed my attitude to this situation above.
"
"I hope he gets punished. But the road to Dagestan is closed to him, because in Dagestan he will be punished a hundred times more, after the second person in the republic had to personally apologize because of him.
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Form of the question “Why don’t Kalmyks like Russians?” leaves no room for doubt about its content and forces one to immediately look for the necessarily existing reasons for the Kalmyks’ dislike of Russians.
Why specifically to the Russians, and not to the Chechens, say, or the French? Who else can you dislike and how can Russians be treated differently in light of the latest events related to Ukraine? Crimea, Syria, the thirty-first Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games?..
It is simply impossible not to fall into the trap of such a categorical formulation proposed by the media, and therefore it is impossible not to turn to the past in search of reasons.
The history of the emergence of Kalmyks as a people and nation dates back to the 17th century. It was then that part of the Oirats, as the Western Mongols were called, left Dzungaria, that is, the Oirat Khanate, located in Western China, and crossed the southern borders of Rus'.
What are the reasons for this outcome?
They are typical for this time: internecine struggle, the problem of lack of pastures, which probably became decisive - the Oirats were primarily pastoralists. But there is another version of their exodus from the Oirat Khanate - the reluctance of some of the Oirats to accept Islam; they wanted to remain Buddhists.
Thus, they appeared on the territory of Rus' without permission, and for now they had nothing to hate the Russians for. The first decades of the Oirats’ stay on the territory of the Russians were not pleasant in all respects: between the Don and the Volga, Kazakhs, Nogais, and Bashkirs were allowed to live and graze cattle.
It was they who resisted the invasion of the Oirats. It was them that the future Kalmyks should have begun to hate! The Khalmgs, as the Kalmyks sometimes call themselves, turned to the Russian Tsar for help.
Considering the difficult situation in Rus': riots, claims from the Crimean Tatars, Turks, difficult relations with Ukraine, the Russian Tsar allows the Kalmyks to roam between the Don and the Volga, and at the same time, appreciating the fact that the Kalmyks have always been excellent horsemen and brave warriors, entrusts They are responsible for protecting the southern borders of the Fatherland from external enemies. Kalmyks voluntarily undertake to serve the Russian Tsar.
And during this period of history there was no reason for hatred. But the Russian Tsar should have been wary.
Despite the agreement “on eternal obedience” and the ban on raiding Russian cities with all the ensuing consequences, the Kalmyks, fighting the now common enemy, allowed themselves to capture Russians and plunder them during their nomadic migrations.
And now the Kalmyks, who created their Kalmyk Khanate in the south of Russia, could not have a reason for hatred. The prosperous life of the Kalmyks in their khanate was tested in the thirties of the 18th century.
Internecine wars began among the representatives of the elite of the former Oirats. The Russian government could not help but intervene in these events. In addition, Russian landowners and peasants began colonizing the lands where the Kalmyks roamed.
As a result, Kalmyk pastures decreased. On top of that, cold weather came to the south. The loss of livestock and famine began. Some of the influential Kalmyks, it should be noted, without any pressure from the Russians, decided to return to Dzungaria, which by that time had been conquered by the Qing dynasty.
This decision became the cause of the tragedy that befell the Kalmyks. During the campaign against their historical homeland, about one hundred thousand Kalmyks died, and almost all the livestock died.
What did Catherine the Second, who ruled during this period, do? She liquidated the Kalmyk Khanate. The remaining Kalmyks were assigned to the Cossack troops of the Urals and Don.
Yes, you can probably hate the Russians for the troubles that befell the Kalmyks. But this hatred is somehow humiliating, stupid, the hatred of those who have forgotten about goodness, turning a blind eye to their own guilt...
In modern history, in the history of the 20th century, there is a fact that, perhaps, could cause hatred towards Russians. In 1943-1944, Kalmyks, mostly old people, women and children, because Almost the entire capable male population, about thirty thousand, fought against the Nazis and was deported from the territory of their compact residence.
The reason is the cooperation of the Kalmyks with Nazi Germany: the occupiers created the Kalmyk cavalry regiment. It consisted of about three and a half thousand Kalmyks.
And yet, why not love Russians? The decision on deportation was made by the government (I wonder what percentage of Russians were in its composition?) and concerned not only non-Russian peoples: Volga Germans, Chechens, Crimean Tatars, but also Russians.
Let's remember the history of our country
The 30s of the 20th century, the period of collectivization, mass dispossession and eviction of wealthy peasants with entire families to the uninhabited regions of the North and Siberia. Can one people hate another people because they suffered the same tragedy?
One could probably turn to physiology, psychology, ethics, and aesthetics in search of the reasons for the Kalmyks’ dislike of Russians. But the results would also be “zero”.
It is unlikely that any of the seekers would be able to discover not only the reasons, but also the facts of manifestations of hatred of one people towards another, because it is not clear what these manifestations “look” like.
As one people (by definition, a historically established community of people that arose on the basis common language, territory, economy, psyche, culture) can not love another people? How come every single Kalmyk doesn’t like every single Russian?!
Dislike, hatred is a feeling. And feeling is an individual phenomenon. It can occur in a specific person in relation to a specific person. Yes, among the Kalmyks, as well as among the Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, and Americans, there are nationalists.
Individual facts of manifestation of national hatred of Kalmyks towards Russians are known. But nationalism is a political phenomenon, rational at its core, associated with beliefs. It can become quite widespread under certain conditions, but it will never be universal.