Selective Favoritism and Confirmed «Sovietiness» among Kalmyk Special Settlers within the Qazaq SSR
Keywords:
Kalmyk special settlers, the special settlement system, the deportation of the Kalmyks, Stalin’s deportations, Soviet ethnic cleansing, the Qazaq SSR in the post war periodAbstract
During World War II, Stalin’s Soviet regime implemented a repressive policy targeting entire nationalities through forced resettlement. As one of these ‘punished peoples,’ the Kalmyks were deported to the eastern parts of the USSR in late 1943, primarily encompassing Siberian oblast and krays, along with one oblast in the Qazaq SSR – Qyzyl-Orda. These regions were designated as their places of exile, subjecting deportees to the special settlement system for the subsequent thirteen years. While other oblasts in the Qazaq SSR were not officially designated for their deportation, Kalmyk special settlers were dispersed across Alma-Ata oblast, constituting the second-largest Kalmyk contingent within the republic, following Qyzyl-Orda. This study delves into Kalmyk special settlers within Alma-Ata oblast of the Qazaq SSR from 1944 to 1953 and posits that it stood out as a self-formed group comprising interconnected individuals. This implies that Kalmyk contingent in the oblast constituted a group of deportees who could choose their preferred location for special settlements and purposefully selected the oblast among places in the USSR. In doing so, they set themselves apart from the usual practice where the system forms contingents forcibly. Moreover, the study argues that the claimed exceptionalism within the regime is supported by the presence of the selective release from the system of certain Kalmyk special settlers, conducted legally. In turn, the existence of the combination of such exclusive treatments from the regime highlights dual standards in the interpretation and execution of officially announced policies toward groups of special settlers categorized as ‘exiled in perpetuity.’ Furthermore, the examination of each case of distinct treatments within this contingent in the oblast aims to illustrate the correlation between attained privileges and facts of confirmed ‘Sovietiness.’
References
Carevskaja-Djakina, T.V. (red.). 2004. Istorija stalinskogo Gulaga. Konec 1920-h — pervaja polovina 1950-h godov: Sobranie dokumentov. Tom. 5. Specpereselency v SSSR [History of Stalin’s Gulag. The end of the 1920s – the first half of the 1950s: Collection of documents. Vol. 5: Special settlers in the USSR]. Moscow: Russian Political Encyclopedia (in Russian).
Anes, G. (ed.). 1998. Deportirovannyye v Kazakhstan narody: vremya i sudby [The deported nations to Qazaqstan: time and fortunes]. Almaty: Arys (in Russian).
Karin, E.T. (ed.). 2022. Materialy Gosudarstvennoy komissii po polnoy reabilitatsii zhertv politicheskikh repressiy 20–50 gody XX veka [Materials of the State Commission for the Complete Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression of the 20–50s of the XX century]. 33 vol. Nur-Sultan; Astana: Dauir; Litera-M (in Russian).
Stalin, I.V. 1997. Sochineniya [Essays], vol. 16. Moscow: Pisatel (in Russian).
Aldajumanov, K.S., Aldajumanov, E.K. 1997. Deportatsiya narodov – prestupleniye totalitarnogo rezhima [Deportation of peoples – a crime of a totalitarian regime]. Almaty: Fond ХХI vek (in Russian).
Alekseyeva, P. 1997. Stanitsa Grabbevskaya (18 vek – dekabr 1943). Istoricheskii ocherk [Stanitsa Grabbevskaya from the 18th century to – December 1943. Historical essay]. Elista: Kalmytskoye knizhnoye izdatel’stvo (in Russian).
Avliev, V.N. 2004. Kalmytskoye narodonaseleniye v kontse XIX–XX vv.: Istoriko-demograficheskoye issledovaniye [Kalmyk population at the end of the 19th–20th centuries: Historical and ethnographic research). Candidate dissertation, Volgograd (in Russian).
Bayev, R.R. 2006. Organizatsionnyye i yuridicheskie osnovy pereseleniya i specialnogo poseleniya narodov Kalmykii, Severnogo Kavkaza i Kryma. 1943–1956 gody [Organizational and legal basis for the resettlement and special settlement of the peoples of Kalmykia, the North Caucasus and Crimea. 1943–1956]. Candidate dissertation, Volgograd (in Russian).
Berdinskikh, V. A. and others. 2015. Sistema spetsposeleniy v Sovetskom Soyuze 1930–1950-kh gg. [The system of special settlements in the Soviet Union in the 1930s–1950s]. Syktyvkar: Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Bolatkhan, A. 2023. Anthropological similarities as a tool for survival strategies: the experience of Kalmyk special settlers in Alma-Ata oblast of the Kazakh SSR’. In: Pages of the military history of Ukraine: a digest of academic papers, 26, 130–158 (in English).
Bugai, N.F. 1992a. Iosif Stalin – Lavrentiyu Berii: ‘Ikh nado deportirovat’...’: Dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii [Josiph Stalin – Lavrenti Beria: They should be deported…]. Moscow: Druzhba narodov (in Russian).
Bugai, N.F. 1992b 1940–50-ye gody: posledstviya deportatsii narodov. Svidetelstvuyut arkhivy NKVD – MVD SSSR [1940–50s: Consequence of the Deportation of Peoples. Data from the archives of NKVD – MVD of the USSR]. In: Istoria SSSR, 122–143 (in Russian).
Dyachenko, N. 2019. Pozitsiya sovetskogo rukovodstva v otnoshenii instruktorov... i spetsialistov v Mongolii v period natsionalnoy demokratii i levatskogo eksperimenta, 1926–1932 gg. [The Position of the Soviet Leaders about Instructors and Specialists in Mongolia in the Period of National Democracy and Left Experiment, 1926–1932]. In: The Bulletin of Altai State University, 3 (107), 62–66 (in Russian).
Eldyshev, E. 2014. K Izdanij bibliographicheskogo slovariya. Pisateli Kalmykii. 1920–2010 [To Editions of the bibliographic dictionary. Writers of Kalmykia. 1920–2010]. In: The Bulletin of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanitarian Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 4, 192–195 (in Russian).
Gasparyan, L. (ed.). 1972. Doktorskiye i kandidatskiye dissertatsii, zashchishchennyye v Yerevanskom Gosudarstvennom universitete s 1938 po 1969 gody [Doctoral and candidate dissertations defended at Yerevan State University from 1938 to 1969]. Yerevan: Yerevan University Publishing House (in Russian).
Gizatullina, L.G. 2005. Deportatsiya narodov v Severo-Zapadnuyu Sibir v 1939–1956 godah [Deportation of peoples to Northwestern Siberia in 1939–1956]. Candidate dissertation, Omsk (in Russian).
Goncharov, G.A. 2006. “Trudovaya armiya” na Urale v gody Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny [“Labor Army” in the Urals during the Great Patriotic War]. Chelyabinsk: Chelyabinsk State University (in Russian).
Grin, François. 2001. Kalmykia, victim of Stalinist genocide: From oblivion to reassertion. In: Journal of Genocide Research, 3 (1), 97–116 (in English).
Guchinova, E. 2007. Deportation of the Kalmyks (1943–1956): Stigmatized Ethnicity. In: Empire, Islam, and Politics in Central Eurasia, ed. U. Tomohiko, vol. 14 of Slavic Eurasian Studies. Sapporo: Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 194–196 (in English).
Guchinova, E. 2005. Pomnit nelzya zabyt: antropologiya deportatsionnoy travmy Kalmykov [Remember cannot be forgotten: anthropology of the deportation trauma of the Kalmyks]. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag (in Russian).
Guchinova, E.M. 2004. Vynuzhdennyye pereseleniya i etnicheskoye samosoznaniye: Na primere etnopoliticheskoy istorii Kalmykov v XX veke [Forced resettlements and ethnic identity: on the example of the ethnopolitical history of Kalmyks in the twentieth century]. Doctoral dissertation, Moscow (in Russian).
Hirsch, Francine. 2005. Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Cornell University Press (in English).
Hirsch, Francine. 2002. Race without the Practice of Racial Politics. In: Slavic Review, 61 (1), 30–43 (in English).
Ignatova, N. 2009. Spetspereselentsy v Respublike Komi v 1930–1950-ye gg. [Special settlers in the Komi Republic in the 1930s – 1950s]. Syktyvkar: Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Ivanov, A. 2014. Izyat kak antisovetskiy element…: kalmyki v gosudarstvennoy politike, 1943–1959 [Remove as an anti-Soviet element…: Kalmyks in the State policy, 1943–1959]. Moscow: Scientific Council under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Ivanov, A. 2013. Deportirovannyye kalmyki na territorii Omskoy i Tyumenskoy oblastey, 1943–1959 [Deported Kalmyks in the Omsk and Tyumen oblasts]. Candidate dissertation, Surgut (in Russian).
Kalybekova, M. Ch. 2008. Istoriya deportirovannykh narodov Kazakhstana, 1937–1956 [History of the Deported Peoples of Qazaqstan, 1937–1956]. Almaty: LEM (in Russian).
Kaznacheev, G.A. 2004. Reformy pravookhranitel’noy i administrativnoy politiki Sovetskogo gosudarstva v 1953–1960 gg.: ot amnistii do reabilitatsii: Na primere chechenskogo, ingushskogo i kalmytskogo narodov [Reforms of law enforcement and administrative policy of the Soviet state in 1953-1960: from amnesty to rehabilitation (On the example of the Chechen, Ingush and Kalmyk peoples)]. Candidate dissertation, Pyatigorsk (in Russian).
Klimova, G.Z. 2004. Reabilitatsiya kak pravovoy institut: Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Rehabilitation as a legal institution: Issues of theory and practice]. Candidate dissertation, Sochi (in Russian).
Kokshunova, L.E. (ed.) 2020. Initiative Group for the Restoration of Kalmyk Autonomy. Moscow: De` Libri (in Russian).
Kozybaev, M.K. 1990. Istoriografiya Kazakhstana: uroki istorii [Historiography of Qazaqstan: lessons from history]. Almaty: Rauan (in Russian).
Kukanova, V., Ochirov, U. 2021. Ischezayushhaya istoriya ‘trinadcati let i trinadcati dnej: problemy poiska I soxraneniya arxivnyx materialov o repressirovannyx kalmykax Sibiri [The Vanishing History of ‘Thirteen Years and Thirteen Days’: Problems of Searching and Preserving Archival Materials on Repressed Kalmyks in Siberia]. In: Mongolian Studies, 4, 744–763 (in Russian).
Khodarkovsky, M. 1992. Where Two Worlds Met: The Russian State and the Kalmyk Nomads, 1600–1771. Cornell University Press (in English).
Khunagov, A.S. 1998. Deportatsiya narodov s territorii Krasnodarskogo kraya i Stavropolya, 1920-ye. 50-ye gody [Deportation of peoples from the territory of the Krasnodar kray and Stavropol, 1920s. 50s]. Candidate dissertation, Moscow (in Russian).
Lidzhieva, I.V. 2007. Osnovnyye etapy reabilitatsii repressirovannykh narodov: na materialakh Kalmykii [Stages of rehabilitation of repressed peoples: on materials from Kalmykia]. Candidate dissertation, Astrakhan (in Russian).
Maksimov, K.N. 2013. Kalmykiya v sovetskuyu epokhu: politika i realii [Kalmykia in the Soviet era: politics and realities]. Elista: Gerel (in Russian).
Maksimov, K.N. 2008. Kalmykia in Russia’s Past and Present National Policies and Administrative System. Budapest; New-York: Central European University Press (in English).
Mandzhiev, N.Ch. 2005. Kalmytskaya proza o deportatsii: kontseptsiya cheloveka [Kalmyk prose about the deportation: the concept of human being]. Candidate dissertation, Elista (in Russian).
Mandjieva L.V., et al. 2004. Sanji Kalyaev: Biobibliograficheskiy ukazatel [Sanji Kalyaev. Biobibliographic index]. Elista: The Amur-Sanan National Library of Kalmykiya (in Russian).
Martin, Terry. 1998) Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing. In: Journal of Modern History, 70 (4), 813–861 (in English).
Naimark, Norman M. 2010. Stalin’s genocides. Princeton: Princeton University Press (in English).
Naimark, Norman M. 2001. Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (in English).
Ochirova, N. 2016. Istoki i razvitiye kalmytskoy poezii 1920–1930-kh gg. [The Origins and Development of Kalmyk Poetry of the 1920s–1930s]. In: The Bulletin of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanitarian Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 5, 40–48 (in Russian).
Pohl, J. Otto. 2000. Stalin’s genocide against the ‘Repressed Peoples.’ In: Journal of Genocide Research, 2. 267–293 (in English).
Polian, P. 2001. Ne po svoei vole: Istoriia i geografiia prinuditel’nykh migratsii v SSSR [Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR]. Moscow: Memorial (in Russian).
Reckel, Johannes and Schatz, Merle (ed.). 2020. Oirat and Kalmyk Identity in the 20th and 21st Century. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen (in English).
Richardson, Curtis. 2002. Stalinist terror and the Kalmyks’ national revival: A cultural and historical perspective. In: Journal of Genocide Research, 4 (3), 441–451 (in English).
Sarnova, V. 2005. Prinuditel’nyye migratsii naseleniya SSSR v Zapadnuyu Sibir’ v period vtoroy mirovoy voyny [Forced migrations of the population of the USSR to Western Siberia during the Second World War]. Candidate dissertation, Novosibirsk (in Russian).
Stepanov, M.G. 2005. Repressivnaya politika sovetskogo gosudarstva v 1939–1953 gg.: Na materialakh Khakasii [Repressive policy of the Soviet state, on materials from Khakassia]. Candidate dissertation, Abakan (in Russian).
Suleymenova, M.Zh. 2001. Istoricheskaya rol’ deportirovannykh narodov i repressirovannykh sotsial’nykh grupp v razvitii narodnogo khozyaystva Tsentral’nogo Kazakhstana v 1930–1940-ye gody [The historical role of deported peoples and repressed social groups in the development of the national economy of Central Qazaqstan in the 1930s.]. Candidate dissertation, Karaganda (in Russian).
Topalova, D.Y. 2014. Russkoyazychnaya poeziya Kalmykii: problemy natsional’noy identichnosti [Russian-language poetry of Kalmykia: problems of national identity]. Candidate dissertation, Elista (in Russian).
Ubushaev, V. 2019. Rossiyskaya istoriografiya deportatsii repressirovannykh narodov SSSR [The way Russian historiography handles the rehabilitation of repressed peoples of the USSR]. In: Kalmyk State University Bulletin, 41 (1), 69–75 (in Russian).
Ubushaev, V., Ubushaev, K. 2007. Kalmyki: Vyseleniye, vozvrashcheniye, vozrozhdeniye, 1943–1959 gody [Kalmyks: Eviction, return, revival. 1943–1959]. Elista: Publishing house of Kalmyk University (in Russian).
Ubushaev, K. 2003. Deportatsiya i pravovaya reabilitatsiya kalmytskogo naroda: istoriko-pravovyye aspekty, 1943–1991 [Deportation and rehabilitation of the Kalmyk people: historical and legal aspects]. Candidate dissertation, Stavropol (in Russian).
Weitz, Eric D. 2003. A Century of Genocide. Utopias of Race and Nation. Princeton: Princeton University Press (in English).
Westren, Michael 2012. Nations in exile: ‘The punished peoples’ in Soviet Kazakhstan, 1941–1961. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago (in English).
Zaparivannyy, R.I. 2006. Vosstanovleniye natsionalnoy avtonomii kalmytskogo naroda 1953–1958 gody [Restoration of national autonomy of the Kalmyk people 1953–1958]. Candidate dissertation, Elista (in Russian).
Zberovskaya, E.L. 2006. Spetsposelentsy v Krasnoyarskom kraye, 1940–1950 [Special settlers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 1940–1950]. Candidate dissertation, Krasnoyarsk (in Russian).
Zemskov, V.N. 2005a. Spetsposelentsy v SSSR. 1930–1960 [Special settlers in the USSR, 1930–1960]. Doctoral dissertation, Moscow (in Russian).
Zemskov, V.N. 2005b. Spetsposelentsy v SSSR. 1930–1960 [Special settlers in the USSR, 1930–1960]. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Aliya Bolatkhan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
