At the beginning of the XVIII century. for the young Russian Empire, which by that time had widely expanded its borders, the question of strengthening them became urgent. In the east, Russia's strong neighbor was the Qing Empire; in the south, the interests of the Russian Empire collided with the interests of other powerful states of the time - Iran, the Ottoman Empire and its vassal, the Crimean Khanate. Russia had to have powerful military and political resources in order to realize its state interests and win this game of geopolitical forces. However, the young empire often lacked its own military and political resources, which prompted its creators to seek and find allies among the peoples who found themselves in its orbit. One of these peoples was the Kalmyks, or Oirats (Western Mongols), the heirs of the Mongol Empire. There are quite frequent cases in history when the future periphery of one empire - the territory and the people inhabiting it-was in the past the metropolis of the old empire. Such a story happened with the Kalmyks, who as heirs of the Mongol Empire returned to the former vassal territory-the lands of the Golden Horde, but already as subjects of the Russian Empire. Keywords: acculturation, nomads, baptized Kalmyks, cultural norms, fortress. The Kalmyks came to the attention of the Russian state in the early 17th century. During this period, the Russian colonial movement in Siberia collided in the border zone with the interests of the very militant Dzungarian Khanate. A panorama of events related to the Kalmyks appears when referring to the inventory of copy books compiled by the famous Russian historian-archivist G. F. Miller [Aktovye istochniki..., 1993]. The documents of the Siberian archives allow us to understand what motives guided the Kalmyks, in what relations they were with the Russians and with the Siberian peoples. Part of the Oirats, led by the Torgout taisha Ho-Urlyuk, moved from Siberia to the Volga. There are different, often cont ... Читать далее