According to Mosnews, tensions are rising between Chechens and Kalmyks in the Russian republic of Kalmykia. A number of large fights (mostly fist-fights, as far as I can tell, rather than fire-fights) have erupted, and at least one person has been killed:
On Friday, the Astrakhan region settlement of Yandyki, the site of massive unrest on Thursday, was surrounded by the military and special forces. Roads into the area have been blocked off by military servicemen and interior troops. An group of investigators is working in the area trying to determine what caused the massive street fight between Kalmyks and Chechens. Also on Friday, deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel arrived on site to take matters under his personal control.
The conflict between the Chechens and the Kalmyks began in Yandyki in February. The town is a small settlement of about 3,500 people. Among those, 237 are ethnic Chechens, and 288 are ethnic Kalmyks. On February 22, three drunk Chechens — Isa Magomedov, Yusup Abubakarov, and Adlan Khaladov desecrated a local cemetery. Since then, the town has suffered from periodic clashes between the Kalmyks residing in the town and the Chechens from the outskirts. One of those clashes — on the night of August 15 — ended in the death of a local resident.
According to law enforcement authorities, on that day about a hundred Chechens arrived in the town and incited a massive street fight with local residents. At a local bar, about 25 Chechens attacked 24-year-old Nikolai Boldyryov. Boldyryov ended up getting shot in the head. Afterwards, riot police detained 14 people who had been involved in the fight. Local prosecutors launched a criminal case. Meanwhile, Boldyryov’s funeral on August 18 was attended by about 100 friends and relatives from a nearby town in Kalmykia, the predominantly Buddhist republic north of Chechnya.
After the funeral, the Kalmyks grew even more aggressive, and were joined by local residents, forming a 300-strong crowd that went through the town beating Chechens and setting fire to their homes.
Kalmykia, about which I know virtually nothing, is a republic in the North Caucasus with a Buddhist majority, and a tiny (around 2%) Chechen minority. It doesn’t border Chechnya, and my first impression is that I don’t think we can really link this in too closely with the Chechen conflict at this stage, although that could change if opportunists manage to get into the region.
All of the above info, by the way, I gleaned from this Wikipedia page. (In fact, I’ve just noticed, it’s the only Buddhist territory in Europe).
I’m off for the weekend, so I’ve got no time right now to investigate more deeply. Feel free to pass on any information you have in the comments, and I’ll take a deeper look at the subject next week if there is any substance to the story.
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venichka 08.19.05 at 5:08 pm
Kalmykiya isn’t only the sole Buddhist territory in Europe, it has the only desert in Europe (which is expanding fast, according to some reports at least)
It also has an extremely dubious president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. His quite incomparable website is here: http://kirsan.kalmykia.ru/
Bit surprised/alarmed ot hear of inter-ethnic tensions there though, I presumed it was one area of Southern Russia that had remained relatively free from them.
Mind you, if I am reading that article correctly, the violence hasn’t been in Kalmykiya, but in Astrakhan Oblast, a bit further north-east and predominately ethnically Russian.
J. Otto Pohl 08.21.05 at 5:05 pm
The Kalmyks are indeed Buddhists. They practice Tibetan Buddhism and they revere the Dalai Lama as a holy figure. They are also a Mongol people related to the Buriats. After WWII the US Congress had to pass special legislation to classify them as European to allow some refugees to settle in NJ and PA.They have some big Buddhist temples there. They also had a presence in Yugoslavia after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Interestingly enough Stalin deported both the Chechens and Kalmyks to special settlements during WWII. The Kalmyks to western Siberia and the Chechens to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. So they would not have had any contact. Historically I can not think of any reason for the conflict. I may do a blog entry on the Kalmyks later.
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D. 08.23.05 at 9:33 am
I have a short history of the Kalmyks in the USSR up at my blog now. I will be adding a post on the diaspora in the US soon.
Olesya Manzhikova 02.14.06 at 7:59 pm
I am currently in the middle of writting a research paper on the Kalmyk deportation during WWII. Being of Kalmyk origin myself, and a recent immigrant to the U.S. from Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, I have been greatly interested in learning more about the noble history of my people and the unfair treatment forced upon them during Stalin’s regime. I am currently a college freshmen studying pharmacy at Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, and the resources that are available to me at the campus libraries are limited since the Kalmyk history is quite obscure in the Western world. I would greatly appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction so that I can gather accurate information regarding this painful, yet fascinating topic. Thank you.
P.S. Otto Pohn I have come across your work, and it has been very enlightening. If you could share some of your sources with me, I would appreciate it immensly.
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