With the beginning of the current war, Kalmyk society was divided. The head of the Buddhist community of the republic condemned the attack on Ukraine and was declared a foreign agent. Civic activists, who in 2019 went out to mass protests against the appointment of the former First Deputy Prime Minister of the “DNR” Dmitry Trapeznikov as the mayor of Elista, generally do not approve of the invasion of Ukraine.
However, many residents of the republic went to the front. Someone wants to earn money (the remuneration of contractors is many times higher than the average salary in Kalmykia), someone supports Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many dream of returning to the USSR. One such person, local poet Volodymyr Sandzhiev, says that “sooner or later the Ukrainian people will realize that Russia wants the best for them. We don’t need America or NATO, we need the Soviet Union.”
Propaganda promotes the image of the Kalmyks – the brave warriors of the empire, who participated in the war of 1812. But taxi driver Tseren Basangov, one of the leaders of the 2019 protests, is convinced that one of the reasons for the disasters of his people is that the Kalmyks “stopped fighting for themselves and began to fight for Russia.” As a result, they lost, even when the empire won: for example, on May 9, 1945, his fellow tribesmen met him in Siberia.
Valery Badmayev, editor of the opposition newspaper Sovremennaya Kalmykiya, once revived traditional archery. Since last year, he has not participated in competitions – he considers this inappropriate while the war is going on. He takes parcels to the correctional colony to the former official of the Elista mayor’s office, Altan Ochirov, who was sentenced to five years in prison under the “fake” article. A criminal case has been opened against Badmaev himself under the article on “discrediting”, but he continues to express his opinion.
Valery Badmaev
In 1929, the NKVD collected bows and arrows, burned
– I do not participate in competitions [in archery] as a matter of principle, I announced to everyone: since there is a war, I will not participate in anything, in all these shows. One man told me: in 1929, the NKVD drove through all the Kalmyk families, gathered everyone who had bows and arrows, and burned it all. They said that no one else would make bows, no arrows.
Altan Ochirov was sentenced to five years of general regime under an article about fakes. He was first and I was second. My case is hanging, it is not clear how it will end. A whole brigade came to my house, an investigator, two witnesses, three representatives of the police, two from Center “E”. They were hooked on one repost. I got to the same judge who sentenced Altan. But she knows me, I know her father well. She even exclaimed: “Oh, Valery Antonovich, I didn’t expect to see you in handcuffs.” The prosecution asked for house arrest, but she issued a ban on certain actions – this is a little weaker than house arrest, you can move around with a bracelet.
I won’t say that I am a brave person, I never considered myself particularly brave, but from my youth I thought that prison is not the worst place. When we left [exile] from Siberia in 1958, I was 7 years old, but I understood a lot. Then there was a genocide, all the people were gathered, evicted, the war was going on, a lot of people died of starvation. Imagine, on December 28, winter, they didn’t let us gather properly. Many people were lightly dressed, they died along the way. I am amazed at people who still regret the Soviet regime, and some even regret Stalin. I think it’s some kind of dislocation of the brain. Sometimes quite decent people, it would seem, educated. It’s like propaganda from the school bench, from childhood. Apparently, the families did not tell the truth, these issues were not discussed in the families. And my father hated the communists until his death, and he did not hide it. Especially when he drinks he directly shouted: the communists are bastards. I wonder why they didn’t put him in jail, apparently, no one just handed him over. Now the same thing: people watch TV and are convinced that this is true.
When administrative matters arose after the start of the SVO, some of the people, active, smart, enterprising, simply left. And those who remained are afraid, really afraid. I can’t blame anyone for anything, you can’t blame people. I myself can do something and will do it, I know what will happen for it, but I don’t want to give in.
Vladimir Sandzhiev
I, as a Kalmyk poet, write poetry in Russian
– During the period of Soviet power, we lost our native language, especially when we returned from Siberia. As a Kalmyk poet, I write poetry in Russian. How can I write in Kalmyk? When I was at school in Soviet times, Kalmyk was like a foreign language. All subjects, literature, geometry, physics, I studied in Russian. Therefore, I write poetry in Russian and I am very proud of it. I won’t be able to write in Kalmyk, because I don’t know it well, although I can speak it. This is the pain of my soul.
To be honest, I think this war will go on for a long time. On the side of Ukraine there are many allies, NATO, America, huge money, weapons. But Russia cannot be broken. Sooner or later, the Ukrainian people will realize that Russia wants the best for them. I am sure that the Ukrainian soldiers will understand this and lay down their arms. Because Ukraine and Russia are the Soviet Union. We are brothers, we are Slavs, after all. Russians and Ukrainians are one people. We do not need either America or NATO, we need the former Soviet Union, we used to live peacefully. We defeated fascism, and now we must defeat America, which wants to completely lead the whole world. But this will never happen as long as we have such a leader as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. We are proud of him, we support our President of the Russian Federation very much.
– There are a lot of administrative cases, for the word “war” many were fined. Now on Channel One they only call it a war, Putin himself calls it a war, but we can’t call it, we won’t call it, nothing changes from this, everyone sees everything anyway. I still openly state my position, I write that I do not approve. People are afraid to talk about it. Whoever wants, they left [to fight]. There are people like that, I know many of them personally. Some say: we are Kalmyks, so we went, our ancestors always fought, and we are fighting, no matter what. Of course, the majority went because of money, at least some money is offered, people go. I do not support all this, because, looking at the history of a hundred years ago, I see that our people have been battered very badly. I am a taxi driver in Elista, before May 9 they asked me: “Why haven’t you put flags on your car yet?” “But I don’t celebrate.” – “Why?” – “Your parents, your ancestors, where were you on May 9, 1945?” They are silent. They were in Siberia. How can this holiday be celebrated as a victory? We are winners, right? It turns out that we are the losers in this war, our Kalmyk people, because we have all been in Siberia. My attitude now to May 9 is that this is a holiday, but not of victory, but a holiday of the end of the war. I am sure that at that time all the Kalmyks who were in Siberia breathed a sigh of relief, they had a hope that they would be able to return home. But it was not there, we had to wait for Stalin’s death. Any tyrant dies sooner or later, so you just need patience. our people are Kalmyk, because we have all been in Siberia. My attitude now to May 9 is that this is a holiday, but not of victory, but a holiday of the end of the war. I am sure that at that time all the Kalmyks who were in Siberia breathed a sigh of relief, they had a hope that they would be able to return home. But it was not there, we had to wait for Stalin’s death. Any tyrant dies sooner or later, so you just need patience. our people are Kalmyk, because we have all been in Siberia. My attitude now to May 9 is that this is a holiday, but not of victory, but a holiday of the end of the war. I am sure that at that time all the Kalmyks who were in Siberia breathed a sigh of relief, they had a hope that they would be able to return home. But it was not there, we had to wait for Stalin’s death. Any tyrant dies sooner or later, so you just need patience.
There are statistics: several thousand people left Kalmykia. This is also a tragedy. Some gloat, but for our people it is a tragedy that we were in exile, we were expelled, and people [again] have to leave here. Here you need to sympathize, not gloat. I see our people as a single organism, which sometimes gets sick, sometimes feels good. Therefore, even those who disagree with me, I still consider brothers and sisters. They’re just deluded, they’re just sick. Everything will change. Whatever they think, whatever their position, they, like me, live one life. If, with every illness, we simply cut off from ourselves what hurts, cut off our finger, cut off our leg, then nothing will remain of us. The only way for us as a single organism is to be treated.
Vladimir Sevrinovskiy
Кавказ-Реалии
