Subsequently, when Empress Catherine II, eager to take control of the free and violent Kalmyks, who in essence never fulfilled their obligation to take care of the benefits of Rosai and not to commit robbery, refused to confirm the main owner of the Volga Kalmyks, Ubushi, as the zanti khan, discontent arose among the Kalmyks, as a result of which In 1771, Ubushi with 80 thousand tents, wandering on the meadow sides of the Volga, decided to move to Chinese rule. In this disastrous path, the former Kalmyk greatness was finally buried; passing through the Kyrgyz steppes, the Kalmyks lost almost all their livestock, captured by the Kyrgyz, and found themselves in such a hopeless situation that not even a fifth of them came to China; many died on the roads from exhaustion and hunger, many were killed in the fight against the Kyrgyz and the same in
Kalmyk struggle. internecine conflict over pastures.
Whole clans perished... Kalmycea said they say that there were valleys on which the bones of the Kalmyk lay in mountains people. After Ubushi left, only the Kalmyk uluses remained in Russia, who some roamed on the right side of the Volga and did not bother to leave there with their united tribal members only by chance. That year the lower reaches of the Volga did not freeze; And
Thus, only chance, in the form of an unfrozen river, saved the nomads -
Kalmyks on the right side of the Volga from the death that befell their fellow tribesmen who moved from the left side of the Volga to China.
Kalmyks have their own nobility - noyons; they are followed by zaisangs (something into a family of honorary citizens). TG and others are considered noble, so to speak, privileged classes and are called “white bones”; The clergy also belongs to the privileged classes; Then come the common people, the so-called “black bones”.
Kalmyks are pagans, followers of the Lama. The head of the clergy is the Lama; senior clergy—gelyungs, junior manzhiki. Gelyungs, in addition to their duties as spiritual fathers, are usually engaged in the healing of the people. The Astrakhan Kalmyvi, these descendants of the wild riders of Genghis Khan, are now very meek and submissive people. Their former courage and wild prowess are now manifested only in public games: horse racing, called “baiga,” and wrestling competitions. In a calm state, the Kalmyk is so good-natured that without much difficulty tears well up in his eyes, but when he is greatly irritated by something, he becomes a pure beast, becoming angry to the point of savagery. By nature, a Kalmyk is primarily a cattle breeder, and he gives up cattle breeding only if he is overwhelmed by need, has no money to have livestock, and has to earn food for himself in other ways. Then he goes to earn money, and in this area the Kalmyk is the leading worker in the region, strong, hardy and honest. In the fisheries there is not much love for Tatar and Russian workers who come from the upper reaches and inland provinces, but Kalmyks are taken in hot demand. Yes, it’s understandable: only a Kalmyk will go into the water in March; only a Kalmyk will agree to drag a seine with tens of thousands of roach and herring; Only a Kalmyk with fifteen hours of work will be fed with one piece of bread and count =. yourself at the height of bliss if you receive