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With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, a new impetus was given to national regional movements advocating separation from Moscow. Over the past year, six forums of the peoples of post-Russia have already taken place, new associations have been formed, and several militia groups of representatives of the Caucasian peoples are fighting on the side of Kyiv. At the same time, a number of analysts speak of a quite probable scenario for the collapse of Russia in the event of a turning point in the course of the war.

About the national movement in Kalmykia, the theses of the Kremlin propaganda, last year's wave of emigration and why the collapse of the empire is needed by the Russian correspondent Kavkaz.Realii spoke with Professor Maria Ochir-Goryaeva, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute and Honored Scientist of Kalmykia.

> In 1999, she won the competition and became a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and as a guest researcher continued her scientific research within the walls of the Eurasian Branch of the German Archaeological Institute. The first of four scientific monographs was published in German. Every year, the archaeologist returned to her homeland, conducting excavations in her native Kalmykia.

**Today in Russia it is customary to speak negatively about the support that Western non-profit organizations and scientific foundations provided in the 1990s to Russian scientists and the field of education in general. Like, through grants and training programs, they planted their values. Tell us about your experience and what such programs have given to Russian science.**

The rhetoric of Russian propaganda in general, and in this matter in particular, can only be called xenophobic. In the 1990s, when many state employees, including employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences, had not been paid  for months, grants allocated by Western foundations literally saved them. In addition to the material side, they demonstrated the significance of these specialists and their research. Only thanks to that support of Western and, later, Russian foundations, a number of scientists, including myself, remained in science.

As for "planting" one's own values, this is a distorted understanding of the purpose of such structures. Each foundation has its own goals and values; if they are scientific, then they remain so, regarding the fact that the West is imposing its own values. For example, I have been living in Berlin for 24 years and I know that here they don’t “implant” anything on anyone, but give them the opportunity to think and choose for themselves. Reality shows that people like freedom of speech and the opportunity to choose, it works: everyone is eager to live in democratic countries, and not in Iran, Afghanistan or Russia, from where they leave at the first opportunity.
Planting is carried out not by Western funds, but by the imperial approach of Moscow. The same Putin and his supporters who are unable to adapt to the ever-changing world and are trying by brute force to change the whole world to fit themselves, to fit it to their outdated stereotypes.

**Unfortunately, such inertia in thinking is demonstrated not only by the top of the country, but also by many Russians, including those who disagree with Putin.**

Agree. The wave of migrants from Russia, regardless of nationality, is no different from the population that remained there, in Russia. Just like there, only a small percentage of them are active. They organize protests and various events. At the same time, many of them are very afraid for themselves, so they put masks on their faces and hide their names. The rest are either simply indifferent or support Putin. Many have moved simply to maintain their level of well-being and continue to travel around the world. Of course, these are mostly Muscovites with a good income. That is, migrants here fully reflect society in Russia.

Two things disappoint me about migrants from Russia. First, few of them follow the news from the front and worry about the Ukrainians. Feelings of shame and guilt seem to be unfamiliar to them. So it turns out that in their conversations there is no topic of this at all. When I say something about the bombings or the front, they immediately say, we do not follow this and turn the conversation to something else.

![Maria Ochir. Anti-war rally in Berlin](/images/posts/maria_berlin.jpg)
<p class="text-sm">Maria Ochir-Goryaeva (left) at an anti-war rally in Berlin</p>

Secondly, this is xenophobia. Walking through the streets of Berlin, I have already heard more than once from Russian-speaking people who are indignant, and why the Germans tolerate that Muslims walk around in their headscarves, etc. . Another fact, my friends asked me to help them find an apartment in Berlin, but only in the area where they don’t live, as they said “blacks”, meaning the local residents of Arabs and Turks. They said even if it would be several hundred euros more expensive. As an Asian, this shocked me.
 
Therefore, unfortunately, many here do not assimilate the moral values of democracy and tolerance. They are simply transporting Russia with all its stereotypes and ideology to Berlin. Russians, with rare exceptions, are unable to understand the logic and value of democracy. Otherwise, neither Putin, nor these decades of trampling on freedoms in Russia, nor a terrible war would have happened.

**At the same time, Putin and his entourage say that the West is trying to rewrite and distort history.**

Frankly, I think it's too much honor to comment on propaganda. From the school curriculum, everyone knows that in the early Middle Ages there was a state of Kievan Rus, the center of which was the city of Kyiv, that is, the territory of modern Ukraine. Then, three or four centuries later, the Muscovite Principality was formed, gathering land around Moscow. This name was the most accurate and reflects the essence of both the territory and its population. Theoretically, it could be called Muscovite Rus'. After the conquest of the peoples in the north and east, south and west, it would be more correct to call this formation the Muscovite Empire. This state has its own history and traditions, like any other. The cities of the Golden Ring alone are worth something. There is no need to neglect so much, not to value your Moscow-Russian identity, your own statehood. We must study, preserve and be proud of the rich history of Muscovy.

Until a certain time, the Muscovites did not seek to ascribe Kievan Rus to their history. This happened later after Peter I declared himself emperor. Then there was a temptation to occupy not only the territory, but also the past of a foreign state.

Most of the space of modern Russia - lands forcibly attached to the Moscow principality and kingdom: the Volga region, Siberia, the Far East, the North Caucasus, they have nothing to do with Kievan Rus. These are the empire's colonies. So it is the inhabitants of the Kremlin who are engaged in the distortion of history for the sake of political ambitions and propaganda.

**In 2022, representatives of national movements from different republics condemned the war and emphasized that this conflict was not in the interests of the country's small peoples. There were sporadic demonstrations in Kalmykia, but there was no mass protest here. Was this reaction expected?**

Attitudes towards the war in Kalmykia, according to my data, are similar to the average Russian sample. Why should it be otherwise? If the empire has been pursuing a policy of Russification and unification for centuries, leveling national differences? There are critically thinking people in every republic, as well as regions, territories, but they are few. And almost all of them, especially actively in 2022, left the country.

It is clear that if the Oirats in the distant past had reached the shores of the Atlantic and stayed here, they would probably have been part of a democratic Europe. But since our ancestors founded their Khanate of Torgud on the banks of the Idzhil-Idel-Edel-Volga River, they shared the fate of the other peoples of the evil empire.

One can talk for a long time about the pros and cons of the arrival of the Oirats in Europe, the foundation of their khanate, the departure to Dzungaria, the peasant colonization of the lands of the khanate, the civil war ... But history, as you know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. And the Kalmyks have to live in those conditions, and, therefore, to be a cross section of the society in which they live today.

**In general, how realistic are the hopes for the independence of Kalmykia today. What will it depend on? Are the Kalmyks themselves ready for this?**

Independence is not only real, it is long overdue. This is a necessity. Leveling processes are always taking place within the framework of large states, therefore all regions of Russia, not only the republics, but also the territories, regions, must become independent, and then function like the European Union. This means that everyone has their own state, orders and administration, but in common issues - for example, environmental protection, future projects, such as artificial intelligence - to act together. And it's not about the size and number of the population. Montenegro, for example, in terms of territory is 5 times smaller than Kalmykia, a third of the territory is occupied by mountains, the population is 600-odd thousand, and neither Serbs nor Montenegrins make up the majority of the population. Since 2006 they have become a sovereign state, in 2008 they joined the EU.

And this is important for all the peoples in Russia, including Russians. After all, the interests and problems of Russians living in Siberia or the Far East are clearly different from the interests and problems of Muscovites. Moscow is currently ripping off all regions, not just national republics. Therefore, the Kremlin has so much money to wage a large-scale war and seize foreign lands, such as Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, Donbass. And if the money of the regions remained in the regions, then Moscow would not have such huge resources, and people in the Russian outback would live much better. All sectors of society suffer from this centralized system. The same regional governors who are 100% dependent on Moscow, this also humiliates them. They turn out to be puppets in the hands of the Kremlin.

As for the national republics, they are constitutionally considered subjects of the federation, but in reality they are colonies. Moscow not only robs them, just like the regions, but also pursues an openly colonial policy. For example, it redraws the borders, selecting the best lands. For example, the lands of the Buryats were divided into three administrative regions. Two districts were taken away from Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region was created from them. As a result, Kalmykia lost the entire coast of the lower reaches of the Idzhil-Volga River, only one village has access to the river. And industrial facilities are built anywhere, but not in the national republics. Accordingly, the economy of the republics is not developed, there are no jobs, specialists are leaving, the population is overburdened. I will give a few examples from those that I encountered as an archaeologist leading rescue excavations. In 2008, it was planned to build a gas processing plant in the village. Artesian. All research and development work was carried out: ecologists, biologists, signalmen and archaeologists conducted a survey and prepared all the documents. The project was closed. And a couple of years later they built it in the Astrakhan region. The project for the construction of the Iki-Burulsky water conduit from the Levokumsky reservoir was imposed from Moscow in order to increase the republic's dependence from outside and force the Stavropol Territory to pay for water. Although it was easier for the republic to stretch a branch from its village of Tsagan-aman and pump water for free from the river. Idzhil-Volga. For those big ones spent on the Levokumsky water conduit, it was even possible to develop a deep-well extraction of fresh water from a huge underground reservoir in the village of Gojur, located in the very center of the republic. The Tengiz-Novorossiysk oil pipeline is the longest in Kalmykia, but the Krasnodar Territory receives the rent money. And that's millions of dollars a year. People from the government complained that they could not change the terms of the contract, they went, went to Moscow, but they were adamant there. How can it be called? Robbery in broad daylight. The list goes on...

The population of Kalmykia, as well as the entire population of Russia, does not understand that Moscow is robbing them. Therefore, as elsewhere, there are different opinions. Not everyone sees the economic side, but, true, everyone sees that total Russification leads to the loss of language, identity, and traditional culture. Everyone sees this. I have never met a Kalmyk, either in Kalmykia or abroad, who did not want to develop his own Kalmyk.

I remember that in 1991, not all the population of Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other republics were for independence, and now all these peoples have appreciated their sovereignty, and Ukrainians are giving their lives to live without the dictates of Moscow. So it is not necessary that all polls in the republic were of the same opinion.

**In your opinion, why did the population of the republics, not only Kalmykia, but also others, so easily renounce the institutions of sovereignty and even independence obtained in the early 1990s?**

Easily retreated - you said it well! And what about two terrible wars against independent Chechnya? Kalmykia is close to Chechnya, we have not yet forgotten how not only people fled from the war to us, but even wolves and feral dogs. Seeing and hearing this, who would expose their people to such a risk? And how did they twist Tatarstan's arms? President Mintemir Shaimiev Putin and the KGB officer were not allowed out of his office for four days until they signed everything they needed. And here, in Kalmykia, back in Soviet times, what happened to Gorodovikov? (Basan Gorodovikov - Soviet military leader and statesman, in 1961-1978 the first secretary of the Kalmyk Regional Committee of the CPSU, under him Kalmykia achieved significant success - Note Ed.) He, an old general, a hero of the USSR, was taken out of the congress meeting room by the arms of the KGB officers The CPSU was immediately removed from his post, because he dared to hint at the return of the two selected regions. That is why after him, until 1990, only envoys from Moscow were the first person in the republic.

During archaeological expeditions, I traveled all over Kalmykia, the most remote settlements, my heart bleeds to see in what conditions and how ordinary people live in my homeland. The desire for independence among the conscious part of our people has never faded away.

Returning to your question, the curtailment of the independence of the subjects took place against the backdrop of two Chechen wars, all this happened very close. Moscow forcibly and harshly revived the imperial approach, any protest was severely suppressed. Nobody wanted a second deportation, to end up in Siberia again, so the Kalmyks actually had no choice.

**Practically in all socio-economic ratings, Kalmykia occupies the last places among Russian regions. So it was under Ilyumzhinov, and under Orlov, and under Khasikov. In your opinion, why did none of the heads of the republic manage to achieve a breakthrough in its development? Could they do it?**

Because colonial policy has never stopped, it is by definition impossible to make a breakthrough under such conditions. A colony is a colony, and construction, infrastructure, and the social sphere in it will be worse than in the metropolis. On its territory, only resources and specialists are being pumped out, total Russification is being carried out in all areas - from the language to the rewritten history. This is also imperial policy, when peoples are not allowed to study their own past, imposing only that interpretation of it that is beneficial to Moscow.

By the way, the regional elites are also well aware of this. Governors and heads of republics are forced to go to Moscow to bow, begging for money, which they themselves send in the form of taxes to the federal center. So the question of disintegration is ripe not only below, in the minds of the activists of national movements, but also among the local elites. It is also necessary for the Russian outback to understand that Moscow takes advantage of their political naivety and forces them to live in unworthy poverty. The consequences of the war with Ukraine may just be the match that will ignite this inevitable process.

![Maria Ochir. Anti-war rally in Berlin](/images/posts/maria_kalmykia.jpg)
<p class="text-sm">Maria Ochir-Goryaeva (left) at the archaeological site of a Bronze Age settlement with colleagues from the Protection of Monuments Center from Schleswig Holstein (Germany). 2012</p>

**There is an opinion that Russian society massively supports this war. In your opinion, as a person from the outside - is it so? What should and can be done to open the eyes of the supporters of the aggressive policy of the Kremlin?**

Of course, they provide massive support – people need to survive somehow, this is a top priority. Everything is decided by the state system and what values it promotes. During the Third Reich, the Germans massively supported the war. But when the system changed, the same people became democratic and repeat like a mantra "Nazis will never be repeated forever and ever." The same change can happen to Russian society, for this it is necessary that the system change. And the people in the masses easily change their minds and habits. I'll give you an example. For 8 years I have been excavating on the border of Kalmykia and the Rostov region, and dug two fortresses from the era of the Khazar Khaganate. They lived for months in a small village, where the entire population is Russian. Local men were taken to the excavations. And they don't just swear there, they practically talk obscenities. But I forbade them all to swear at the excavation site and make jokes on gender topics, otherwise I will kick them out of the excavation site without a daily salary. And they worked for me for months, all day long and did not swear. I'll say more. In this village, they are all nationalists to one degree or another, in the sense that they do not like Kalmyks. But since I treated them with respect and paid my salary every evening, they treated me and all the employees very cordially, although we were all Kalmyks. That is, the people are everywhere, even Russian, even German, they are masters of survival. So I don't think it's necessary to convince them verbally. The conditions will change, the people themselves will figure out how beneficial it is for them. There is no need to condemn the people, we must love them and create conditions for a decent life, regardless of nationality.





Independence is not only real, it is long overdue. This is a necessity. This is important for all the peoples in Russia, including Russians.

Independence is a necessity: a historian from Kalmykia about the future of the republic

The steppes of our Kalmyk Republic occupy the right bank of the Volga River downstream to the banks of the Manych and Kuma, which separate the Volga’s right bank from the Stavropol uplands. The territory is not insignificant - 75.9 thousand square km.  It is almost twice as much as the territory of Denmark or Holland and a little less than Austria.  On the territory of Kalmykia there are three geographic landscape zones - the Yergenini highlands, the Kumo-Manych depression and the Caspian lowlands. 
 
Lushly blooming steppes are beautiful in spring but incessant dry winds in summer often turn blooming steppe into a standing herbarium - a collection of dried and semi-dried herbs, by the mid-summer. It's as if nature herself takes care of preserving the cattles’ winter fodder, the most natural and beneficial "hay". In spring, all small lakes on the steppe fill up with water, the songs and sounds of birds fill the air, the wind ruffles with green stalks of grassy reeds. But during the long, hot summer the small lakes dry out, the shallows turn shallower and large lakes turn into wet marshes. In autumn, birds migrate with  their young. All that remains are the tall reeds that have grown over the summer, the wind rustling through their tops and there is a lull below. Here you can shelter flocks of sheep in bad weather. Cows graze willingly here, picking out the still green parts of the young reeds. Dry reeds are an excellent fuel during the cold winter, and their bundles can also be used to reinforce and insulate felt yurts - the homes of the "eternal traveler" nomads. 

Cold piercing winds are as relentless in winter as are the hot dry winds in summer.   It is they that steal the heat out of our homes, it is they that turn mild frost into piercing frost, it is they that sweep away and scatter rare and scarce snow, leaving the bare steppe covered with dry grass. Only shepherds rejoice in this harsh wind, grazing their bountiful flocks of sheep on the snowless, wind-blown plains. They know that the most important thing for them is to safeguard their cattle and not let them get weak or die of starvation during the long winter. And for that they need grazing weather like the air they breathe, so that every day the cattle can re-nourish themselves with the very dry grass which nature herself has prepared since summer.
These features of climate and relief have at all times attracted nomads here - the ability to keep cattle on pasture all winter and the abundance of convenient places for winter camps on the shores of the steppe lakes. 
 
It is by no accident that in the early years of their arrival on the Volga River in the 17th century, the Oirat tribes made every effort to occupy the right bank of the river.  And even in the years when this territory was still controlled by the Nogais, despite the danger of bloody confrontation, some Kalmyk Khoton moved to the right bank for wintering. The risk was justified as they had a better chance of preserving their livestock there. The Ryn-Peski tract between the Volga and the Ural rivers was also used by the Oirat as winter pasture. There, the area was not covered by snow in winter, but it was much smaller and less grassy in the spring and autumn. The latter was very important, as the cattle weakened after the winter, needed new pastures which were not used during the winter before the new grass sprouted.  Therefore, the mountain side, or as the Kalmyks called it, the Crimean side of the Volga was of great value for the nomads.

It should be taken into account that winter pastures played a decisive role for nomads.  There were special requirements for winter nomads. Winter is dangerous for nomadic economy because of scarce vegetation, hungry wolf packs, blizzards and freezing temperatures.  No matter how bad the summer pastures are, the cattle do not die of starvation in summer. Unwise choice of winter pasture could lead to total loss of livestock.  Therefore, winter pastures were allocated particularly carefully and their boundaries were strictly observed. Winter pastures were also perceived by the nomads themselves as something stable and more native than summer pastures. The old Kalmyks always wished they would die on a winter pasture: "Uvzgdnyan kurch ukhlya-bolkh (the main thing is to die when you get to the winter pasture)" they used to say. Having survived the winter they greeted each other at the main feast of the year, the spring Tsagan Sar, with a traditional exclamation: "Was the winter well spent! (Uvlyas syayahn mend garuta!)". In ancient times it was not a rhetorical question.  

Nowadays, the inhabitants of modern cities and villages often complain about the peculiarities of our climate and landscape without suspecting that they attracted our ancestors, the nomadic Oirat, to the lower reaches of the Volga.

Lushly blooming steppes are beautiful in spring but incessant dry winds in summer often turn blooming steppe into a standing herbariums

Learn the Steppe through Me and Learn Me through the Steppe (J. Nasunov)

Martin Luther, the initiator of the Reformation in the Catholic religion, once said so. We, too, can say, “We stand here because we cannot do otherwise!”. Many other people would like to stand next to us, shoulder to shoulder, to say No to the Russian Empire. But the empire frightens people and fetters them with fear: for life, for property, for sources of funding.

###  Russia's war to seize Ukraine

The war of Russia against Ukraine is the war of the empire for the transformation of the sovereign Ukrainian state into a Russian colony. For us, the peoples of the national republics: Ichkeria, Ingushetia, Oirat-Kalmykia, Sakha-Yakutia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, all of us still in the internal colonies of the Russian Empire, it is especially clear that the Ukrainians’ heroic resistance is a struggle for freedom from the empire, for the right to live as they themselves want, and not as Moscow orders them to.

Since February 24, 2022, so many innocent Ukrainians have died: civilians and soldiers, so many cities and towns have been destroyed. And all this, only because the Russian Empire wanted to seize and make Ukraine its obedient colony. This Empire must be destroyed! The time for empire is over!

### How did the Russian Empire appear?

Until 1547, Moscow was small in territory and insignificant politically. It was called the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After the forcible annexation of Novgorod Republic in 1478 and the lands in the north, it became known as the Tsardom of Russia. The Tsardom of Russia began to be called an empire in 1721, when Tsar Peter I assumed the title of Emperor of All Russia.
  
In 1552, the troops of Ivan the Terrible took the capital city of the Kazan Khanate  and 4 years later the Astrakhan Khanate was conquered. So the Russian Empire has expanded its territories to the east to Idel River, which they renamed into the Volga, and still call it “the Great Russian River”, although seven different nations live on the banks of the Idel: Chuvashs, Mari El, Tatars, Udmurts, Bashkorts, Oirat-Kalmyks, Kazakhs.
 
In 17th-19th centuries, the territories of Siberia and the Far East, Central Asia and the North Caucasus were captured. Throughout history the empire led the conquest by fire and sword and enslavement of people.  

All nations put up a fierce resistance. For example, the Russian-Buryat wars lasted for 137 years. The Bashkorts raised numerous uprisings for several centuries. The empire waged a war for the conquest of the North Caucasus for more than 100 years. Only 3% of the population of Circassians remained after the war.

### How many non-Russians are in Russia?

For politicians and the world community, Russia continues to be associated only with ethnic Russians, Orthodox Christians, and white Europeans. While about 40 million people live in 21 national republics with the status of subjects of the federation, and in 4 autonomous national districts. Among the peoples there are representatives of all world religions: Buddhists, Muslims, Christians. Their native languages are Turkic, Mongolian Finno-Ugric, and Caucasian. Each of the national republics has a head of the republic, a government consisting of ministries and departments, its own parliament, its own coat of arms, flag and anthem. The borders of the national republics are recognized by law. Thus, the republics have all the signs of statehood. But this is all on paper, de jure, but in fact de facto, all national republics are colonies. Under Article 1 of the UN Charter, colonized peoples have the right to self-determination.
The territories of the republics and autonomous regions make up 75% of the total area of the Russian Empire, where more than 80% of natural resources are extracted. That is why the colonies are beneficial to Moscow, but is Moscow beneficial to the colonies?

### The collapse of the empire does not begin these days, it ends! Why?

The Soviet Union was much larger than today's Russia because it included 15 more unified republics. In addition, today's six Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the GDR were shackled by the chains of the Soviet empire. They were called the countries of the Eastern Bloc. In 1991, 15 union republics: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan became sovereign states. This allowed the countries of the Eastern bloc to get out from under the iron hand of the empire. In 1994, the last Russian troops were withdrawn from East Germany. Thus transpired the beginning of the collapse of the empire.

The completion of the collapse of the empire will happen, perhaps soon, when 21 national republics and a number of regions will exercise their right to sovereignty.

### Why is the collapse of the empire beneficial to the world community?

When, 30 years ago, in 1991, the collapse of the empire began and 15 union republics became sovereign states peacefully, this turned out to be beneficial for the democratic countries of Western Europe and the United States. Finally,  the arms race ended with the Soviet Union, because it was gone. Reducing military spending over the past 30 years has allowed the West to use the savings for peaceful purposes, for the well-being of its citizens. Three countries - Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan voluntarily renounced the deployment of nuclear weapons on their territories in order to make the world safer.

If the national republics and regions of Russia exercise their right to sovereignty, then these new countries will be small in terms of economic potential. They will never be able to pose a military threat to the whole world, which is the aggressor country Russia with its nuclear weapons. Mining in new countries will be limited to their small needs, which will have a positive environmental effect on climate and global warming. Moreover, a number of sovereign countries, such as Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia, will finally be able to get out from under  the shadow of a strong neighbor and reach the second stage of decolonization. Finally, the time will come when these countries in their foreign and domestic policies will proceed from their own interests, and not voluntarily follow the instructions of Moscow. In the meantime, they have to do this under the threat of a military invasion or a hybrid war. The entire Eurasian continent will breathe freely. The number and political weight of democratic countries will noticeably increase throughout the world.

### So far, most Western politicians are still guided by the opinion of the Russian opposition elite, under the leadership of Khodorkovsky and Kasparov, as well as Navalny.

It is better to call this opposition elite the Moscow one, since it represents the interests of an exclusively privileged layer of the capital, prospering at the expense of the national republics and regions. The Moscow opposition elite is trying to promote its vision of a United, Indivisible Russia with Nuclear Weapons at the political and public levels. This position is 100% consistent with the desire of Putin and the Kremlin. Another common point, the Moscow opposition "sees no flaws in the Kremlin's national policy". This means that both Putin and Khodorkovsky want to preserve the Empire and continue to steal the resources of the colonies in order to obtain fabulous profits.

### Just like Putin, the Moscow opposition elite in the person of Khodorkovsky and the Navalny Foundation frighten the whole world saying that the collapse of Russia will lead to bloodshed and violence.

But at the same time they do not realize, in fact, the worst has already happened. What could happen worse than a war in Ukraine? What could be worse than what happened in Bucha, Irpen and Kramatorsk? What could be worse than the torture and burning of soldiers in Olenivka? What could be worse than a nuclear threat to the whole world coming from a single indivisible Russia?

No Russian Empire! Glory to Ukraine!

***Alga, Uralan***, free peoples of Adygea, Altai Republic, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Oirat-Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Karelia, Komi Republic, Mari El, Mordovia, Sakha (Yakutia), North Ossetia - Alania, Tatarstan, Tuva, Udmurtia, Khakassia, Ichkeria, Chuvashia - Bulgaria.

Many other people would like to stand next to us, shoulder to shoulder, to say No to the Russian Empire. But the empire frightens and fetters people with fear

Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise

Among the nomadic Oirat-Kalmyks, who practice Buddhism, a woman's social status was  linked to her age, from times of yore. Three cycles stand out clearly in a woman's life: the first is as a young girl in her immediate family; the second is as a married woman in her husband's family; and the third is as the matriarch of the entire bloodline.

Transitioning from one cycle to another would be signified by a change of her traditional clothing and headwear.  There are three types of traditional female outfits still known to play a symbolic role amongst the Oirat-Kalmyks: that of an unmarried girl’s, a married woman’s and an elderly grandmother’s.

![Kalmyk Girl](/images/posts/kalmyk_girl_2.png)

According to the Oirats’ traditional beliefs: a girl was considered a pure being, a temporary guest in her parents' house. Girls were typically given away in marriage early - at the age of twelve to fourteen. Therefore, they were considered a guest in their parents' house who would soon depart their immediate relatives forever. This premise determines the whole attitude towards the daughter. Girls were not burdened with heavy work and were more engaged in sewing and embroidery, etc. If possible, parents would pamper and dress them in more ornate and luxurious clothing.  The girls had to braid their hair into one braid and wear it slung onto their backs and wear one earring in their right ear. The color of the fabric for girls' dresses was chosen in light shades of blue or green, where possible. If the fabric was patterned, it would be simple and not too bright. The girl, as a heavenly pure being, is not to excite the senses with various shapes and colors. That is, spirituality and purity were emphasized in every possible way.

![Kalmyk Woman](/images/posts/kalmyk_woman_2.jpg)

When a girl got married, according to Kalmyk tradition, there would be a radical change of status. She essentially stops being a member of her immediate family and becomes a member of the husband’s family. So, when a bride is taken out of her parents’ home, they are obliged to perform the ritual "daalkh avlhon (taking the life force)", which similarly occurs when a deceased member is carried out of the home so that "happiness, the life force of the family" does not evaporate with the newly departed girl. Then, arriving at her in-laws home, she is given a new name, redressed as a married woman and her maiden jewelry is replaced with two earrings.  At the wedding, a special ritual also takes place which involves splitting the single braid into two.

![Kalmyk Woman](/images/posts/kalmyk_woman_3.jpg)

A married woman's costume was very ornate, often embroidered with gold and silver. The color for the dress (terlik) and the cape (tsegdg) would have bright colors, the most popular being various shades of red. Red represents the color of blood, love and life and is meant to emphasize the main function of a married woman - the giving of new life. The status of a married woman was associated with many restrictions on her behavior with her husband's relatives as well as with strangers and/or guests. For example, she would not be allowed to approach the Buddhist altar in her own yurt or sit on the male side of the room where that was considered a place for honored guests and elder relatives to sit. These restrictions reflect the protracted process of inclusion of "strangers" into the circle of blood relatives, as well as measures to prevent extramarital relationships.

![Kalmyk Woman](/images/posts/kalmyk_family_02.jpg)

A third transformation takes place when a Kalmyk woman completes her childbearing years and becomes a grandmother. Elderly women were obliged to wear an outfit, that essentially resembles a man's outfit. The headwear was made of black or gray karakul with a red tassel. The dress-berz, devoid of embroidered ornaments, was the same as a man's beshmet, only worn long down to the ankles and sewn from dark blue or dark brown single-tone fabric. Earrings would be made of silver, but without a gemstone . The elderly woman would be held in high regard and with a privileged status. Like elderly men, she is seated in a place of honor during visits by others, she smokes her pipe and her advice is listened to.  There are also cases when an elderly mother becomes the ruler of an entire clan. I believe that this acknowledges the woman's merits as the founder of the family and because her blood runs in the veins of all her children and grandchildren, she is finally accepted into the circle of the relatives.

![Kalmyk Woman](/images/posts/kalmyk_family_01.png)


Among the nomadic Oirat-Kalmyks, who practice Buddhism, a woman's social status was  linked to her age, from times of yore.

Three Lives of a Woman in Traditional Kalmyk Culture

There have been a number of nomadic peoples in the recent past in the vast expanses of Eurasia - Kazakhs, Buryats, Tuvans, Altaians and some Bashkirs. The Kalmyks are one of them. However, Kalmyks are the only nomads that in historically documented times have made two trans-continental migrations: in the beginning of XVII century from Central Asia (Western Mongolia) to Eastern Europe (the shores of river Volga), where they founded their khanate, and at the end of XVIII century from the banks of the Volga back to their historic homeland of Western Mongolia. The Kalmyks thus repeated the traditional migration route for nomads (Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns and Tatar-Mongols) of previous eras (Early Iron Age and Middle Ages).

The change of the ethnic name from Oirats to Kalmyks in the course of migration is repeated by facts known from ancient history. For example, Yuezhi having left Central Asia for the Eastern European steppes were known as Alans, Kimaks, and having settled in the lower reaches of the Volga became known as Polovetses. This makes it possible to consider the history of Kalmyks in the context of world history as the last nomadic wave from the depths of Asia to Europe.

The reason for the expansion of nomads from the East to the West should be sought in the specifics of their nomadic economy.  At certain historical intervals, as a result of favorable climatic conditions, the nomads of the Central Asian steppes accumulated large numbers of livestock. Even with slight climatic fluctuations towards aridity, there was a sharp shortage of pastures, and some of the nomads were pushed out of the region in search of new pastures.  At the same time, the most powerful tribal unions, confident in their ability to conquer, set out in search of better pastures and new markets for their livestock. That is, in brief, the mechanism of all nomadic migrations.

For example, historians point to a whole complex of political and socio-economic problems as a reason for the departure of the Oirat from Central Asia to the Volga River. However, another manifestation of the global historical-ecological pattern can be seen in the compounding of this complex of problems.  The migration of Kalmyks to the West can be compared in one sentence with the movements of ancient and medieval nomads, thus determining their place of destiny in the global historical process.

There have been a number of nomadic peoples in the recent past in the vast expanses of Eurasia - Kazakhs, Buryats, Tuvans, Altaians and some Bashkirs.

Maria Ochir

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