| Popis: |
The article is devoted to the administrative policy of the Russian Empire, which had a huge impact on the development of the Kalmyk cattle breeding crisis in the first half of the XIX century. The tsarist administration, despite the fact that it had a rich historical experience of relations with the Kalmyk people, by the beginning of this century had minimal knowledge about its life, the essence and driving forces of nomadic cattle breeding, which were “terra incognito” for the authorities for various objective and subjective reasons. The apparent instability and riskiness of nomadic cattle breeding in the Kalmyk steppe from time to time prompted the Astrakhan governors, under whom the Kalmyks who remained on the Volga after 1771 were located, to the idea of bringing them to a sedentary lifestyle and introducing them to agriculture. The authorities did not seem to assume and did not think about the fact that a radical transition from a nomadic lifestyle to sedentarism and a sharp change in economic activity could lead to a painful breakdown of the national mentality of the Kalmyks, most of whom were not ready for the radical changes in their lives proposed by the tsarist administration. By the end of the XIX century, the administrative policy of the Russian Empire carried out in the region caused the departure of the Kalmyks from the traditions of nomadism, led to a deep social stratification in society and the formation of commodity production. |
