The Vanishing History of ‘Thirteen Years and Thirteen Days’: Problems of Searching and Preserving Archival Materials on Repressed Kalmyks in Siberia. Part 2

Introduction. The article publishes a report delivered at the Thirteenth Congress of Orientalists and deals with problems of searching materials on repressed Kalmyks and their 1944–1957 life in Siberia with additional emphasis be laid on their preservation and duplication for specialists in Kalmyk studies. Materials and methods. The study employs a wide range of
research methods, both common scientific (analysis, synthesis, etc.) and special historical ones (historical genetics, historical systemic methods, etc.). The comparative historical methods proves instrumental in identifying actual storage and access conditions at archives across different regions, agencies, and authorities. Results. The paper covers the Siberian period of the repressed Kalmyk people’s life between 28 December 1943 and 9 January 1957. The thirteen years and thirteen days’ witnessed tremendous hardships and miseries experienced and survived by two thirds of the population only. Part 1 of the article has reviewed Kalmyk
Deportation proper, its geography, living conditions, and demographic losses among exiled settlers. Part 2 evaluates federal and regional Siberian archives as sources on the history of Kalmyk Deportation. The initial analysis shows those contain vastest materials relating to the issue under consideration. However, since Kalmyk exiled settlers were scattered across several regions quite a share of archival documents are essentially sketchy, difficult or even
impossible to access. Specialists have explored materials housed by federal depositories but the regional and municipal ones — as well as key archives of Siberia — still remain a terra incognita, especially those of particular agencies and institutions. Meanwhile, the situation
tends to get aggravated for some categories of archival files to have reached the retention period of 75 years may be considered valueless and disposed of, i.e. lost to any further research. The paper concludes it is urgent to mobilize quite a number of research associates to search for materials dealing with the topic in archival depositories nationwide, primarily regional ones.

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