Introduction by Chingis Azydov, © 2024
Some of the Oirat-Kalmyk folk song recordings in our collection belong to a certain genre known as the Sibrín dun (Siberian song). They were composed during the deportation of the Kalmyk people to various parts of Siberia, the Ural Mountains and Central Asia, and their life in exile in 1944-1957. These songs describe the process of the Kalmyksʹ deportation, which happened on 28 December 1943, the hardships and suffering on the way to Siberia, and the first months and years of exile, when the majority of deaths occurred due to the freezing cold, starvation, hard labour and disease.
The Siberian songs are valuable evidence of the genocide committed by Joseph Stalinʹs regime through the forced deportation of the entire Kalmyk population. These songs are folk chronicles and reflections on that time. Therefore, it is important to make these songs accessible to a wide range of people interested in the history and folklore.
During our field research in Kalmykia between 2010 and 2021, we collected more than ten audio/ video recordings of Siberian songs. One audio recording was received from the Kalmyk community. All audio recordings are provided as video clips containing a photo of the performer, metadata and subtitles with phonetic transcription and English translation (the same as we do for a standard video clip).
Certain versions and/ or variations of Siberian songs, such as "On the twenty-eighth of December", "Bird called goose" and "Rail wagon painted red", have begun to be named after the opening line of the first/ main verse. Here, we have chosen to adhere to this "title line" convention and assign distinct names to these Siberian songs. In some cases, we include the author's name in the song title. This diversity in the titles of Siberian songs may help attract greater interest from those with an interest in folk music and poetry, as well as the history of the Oirat-Kalmyk people and the region in which they reside.
THE KALMYKSʹ DEPORTATION
On 27 December 1943, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chaired by Mikhail Kalinin, issued the decree "On the liquidation of the Kalmyk ASSR and the formation of the Astrakhan region as part of the RSFSR", which stated: "All Kalmyks living in the territory of the Kalmyk ASSR are to be resettled to other regions of the USSR, and the Kalmyk ASSR is to be liquidated."1 This decree was the final step in the long preparation of a special operation committed by the NKVD (Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del, or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) called the Uluses Operation.
On the next day, 28 December 1943, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided: "In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, all Kalmyks living in the Kalmyk ASSR are to be deported to the Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk and Novosibirsk regions. The eviction of the Kalmyks is to be entrusted to the USSRʹs NKVD. The USSRʹs NKVD is obligated to send the deported Kalmyks:
- to the Altai Krai – 25,000 people
- to the Krasnoyarsk Krai – 25,000 people
- to the Omsk Region – 25,000 people
- to the Novosibirsk Region – 20,000 people."2
In his book The Kalmyks: Deportation and Return, 1943-1957, Kalmyk historian Vladimir Ubushaev concludes that the punitive Uluses Operation, which began early in the morning on 28 December 1943 and lasted until 31 December, affected mainly the Kalmyk population living in the territory of the Kalmyk ASSR and was the first stage of the deportation of RSFSR Kalmyks. The second and third stages in March and June 1944 were operations to deport Kalmyks living in the Rostov and Stalingrad regions. Ubushaev continues: "There was also a fourth stage of the vile action against soldiers and officers of Kalmyk origin who were at the war front, the Chief of the Eighth Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, General Smorodinov, published an order on 8 January 1944 for all Kalmyks liable for military service to be demobilised and sent to Astrakhan, and there transferred to the possession of the USSRʹs NKVD. Based on this order, the officer corps began to be collected in Novosibirsk and Biysk, and the rank and file of Kalmyk front-line soldiers were taken to the Polovinka rail station in the Perm (formerly Molotov) region and in May 1944, were brought to the Shirokovskiy corrective labour camp for the construction of a new hydroelectric power station" (1991).
According to the Report of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria to I.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov on measures to resettle people of Kalmyk nationality to the eastern regions of the USSR, "A total of 26,359 families, or 93,139 people, were loaded onto 46 trains and sent to resettlement sites in the Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, and Novosibirsk regions."3
At the same time, at the end of December 1943, 1,014 Kalmyks from Stavropol Krai and around 2,500 Kalmyks from the Astrakhan region were deported. A few months later, on 24 March 1944, 2,628 Kalmyks from the Rostov4 region were deported to the Novosibirsk region. On 2-4 June 1944, 1,169 Kalmyks from the Stalingrad (now Volgograd) region were deported to the Sverdlovsk (now Chelyabinsk) region (Ubushaev, 1991).
Summing up these numbers, at least 100, 450 Kalmyk civilians were forcibly deported to various regions of Siberia, the Ural Mountains and Central Asia.
The Kalmyksʹ rehabilitation
On 17 March 1956, the regime of special settlers for Kalmyks without the right to return to their homeland was abolished. In February 1957, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 9 January 1957, which has to do with the creation of the Kalmyk Autonomous Region within the RSFSR5 and recognised the Kalmyksʹ right to return to their homeland. In 1958, the status of the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored*.
On 4 November 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognised the deportation of the Kalmyks and other repressed peoples of the USSR as a “barbaric act of the Stalinist regime” and a grave crime.6 The official, legal rehabilitation of the Kalmyks was carried out in 1991 in accordance with the Law of the RSFSR of 26 April 1991 No. 1107-1, "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples", which, in particular, proclaimed that it rehabilitated “all repressed peoples of the RSFSR, recognising the repressive acts against these peoples as illegal and criminal."7
To this day, there are no statistics on how many Kalmyks died during the deportation and 13 years of exile. Some historians, like Vladimir Ubushaev, conclude that Kalmyks lost up to 40-50% of their population (1991). This estimate is based on the numbers of repressed Kalmyks in 1943-1944 and NKVD data about 77,943 Kalmyks who had special settler status (including children) in 1950.
* After the restoration of the Kalmyk ASSR, most of its Privolzhsky and Dolbansky districts were not returned; they still remain part of the Astrakhan region and are the subject of a territorial dispute.
KALMYK SHIROKLAG CAPTIVES
The total number of Kalmyk soldiers subjected to repression is unclear. Vladimir Ubushaev refers to his colleague, historian Mergen Kichikov, who cites a figure of about 15,000 Kalmyk soldiers who were fighting in the Red Army by the end of the war (Ubushaev, 1991). In his book The Great Patriotic War: Kalmykia and the Kalmyks, historian Konstantin Maksimov reports that on 1 January 1944, there were 6,891 Kalmyks in the Red Army (Maksimov, 2010: 345). U.B. Ochirov and Valentina Vorobyova claim that "Most of the Kalmyks from this number, sergeants, privates, and cadets, were sent to the 7th Reserve Rifle Brigade in the city of Kungur, from where they were transferred 'for labour use to the Shirokovskiy corrective labour camp of the NKVD of the USSR'" (2020: 332-333). According to Maksimov, in total, in 1944, 3,443 Kalmyk military personnel were sent to Shiroklag: 352 sergeants and 3,091 privates (2010: 345).
Discussing the total number of Kalmyks who ended up in Shiroklag, and those who died there, historian Elena Bembeeva writes: "We will probably never know the exact numbers of the dead. N.K. Sharapov, who worked in the statistics department of the Shiroklag headquarters, cited the following figures. The total number of Kalmyks was 3,600, of whom 911 died during the year [1944-1945]. The Shiroklag Book of Memory included 3,035 people, of whom 138 died and 469 people were released [due to extreme dystrophy]. The fate of many is unknown, as the records were kept rather carelessly – there are no arrival dates, names are written unclearly, there is no departure or death date, the causes of death are also not always recorded, in addition to where the person left. Many Kalmyk Shiroklag captives were not registered, although these people went through the hell of the camp. It is not possible to establish the exact number of those who arrived, were sent to their families after becoming disabled, fell ill or died prematurely" (Bembeeva, 2008: 20-21).
Kalmyk soldiers had to do the hardest work: dig trenches and large ditches in rocky soil, haul concrete, cut trees, build a railroad, etc. At the same time, their food supply was very meagre and minimal, so much so that after a couple of months, people reached a severe degree of dystrophy. Many died from this, as well as from tuberculosis and pneumonia. One of the captives of the Shiroklag, Sheveldan Nalaev, shared his memories: "I was horrified at how much my friends, young, strong and healthy guys, could lose in just three to four months. Their ribs and chest were visible without an X-ray, their entire backside and tailbone was all blue, as if someone had beaten them with a stick, their eyes were half-asleep, their legs had turned into poles with a thickening at the knees, their arms were sticks without any muscles. Later, I saw similar pictures in films dedicated to fascist concentration camps." According to Nalaev, more than 500 people were released from the second battalion alone due to health reasons. "They were in such a state that they could not get into the rail wagons on their own, and we assembled one brigade of more or less strong guys and loaded them into the wagons on our shoulders. They could sit or lie on the benches in the wagons. We could see that many of them would not reach home, and indeed, many died along the way" (Ochirov, Vorobyova, 2020: 336).
By the end of 1945, all Kalmyks were released from Shiroklag and were allowed to settle in the regions to which the main groups of Kalmyk civilians were deported.
They were punished for composing Siberian songs
Any negative mention of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet authority by Kalmyks during exile was severely suppressed. On 11 September 1946, teenager Vera Popova was arrested for composing her own song about the deportation and later imprisoned for seven years. Her memories of that time were published in the book On the Road of Memory by Arkady Pankin and Viktor Papuev:
"During night interrogations, they demanded that I confess everything and sign some papers. Commandant Dudochkin beat me on the hands and head with a pistol. Other girls, who were arrested and sitting next to me, advised me not to admit to anything and not to sign anything. Four months later, I was convicted under Article 58 and sentenced to seven years in labour camps. In the labour camp, I worked at coal mine No. 13. I fulfilled the productivity norm no worse than adults (250-280%). After Stalin's death, they began to release political prisoners. Five months before the end of my term, I was released.
I remember that once, when a horse died, they threw it into a mine shaft. The unbearable hunger drove us, the youth, to the mine shaft. At night, having tied one of the guys with a rope, we lowered him down, and then pulled him out together with the dead horse. In the morning, when we were cooking this meat on the fires, the assistant of the camp's commandant walked from fire to fire and knocked over the pots with his foot" (Pankin; Papuev, 1994: 71-72).
After performing the Siberian song composed by Boovush Ambekova, Tatiana Dordzhieva told us that Ambekova was arrested for four days for her "political" lyrics.
Dorzha Kharinov also experienced troubles with the authorities. According to Kharinovʹs son, Sergei, someone reported a song composed by his father to the local settlementʹs commandant, and Dorzha Kharinov was taken away for interrogation. However, thanks to the intercession of his boss (Kharinov worked in a military unit where he guarded Japanese prisoners of war), who demanded his release, Kharinov was able to avoid further problems. After the commandant's interrogation, fearing imprisonment, Kharinov stopped singing the song about deportation among his Kalmyk circle. Even after returning to Kalmykia, he performed it very rarely.
After performing the song "A bird called goose" for an audio recording made by Chingis Azydov in 2010, Bognin Azydova said that the author of this song was arrested for composing it and died in prison. She was hesitant to sing this song and expressed her doubt by asking: "Will I be scolded for performing this song? Maybe it is better not to sing it?"
The Siberian songs
IN RED WOODEN FREIGHT WAGONS
Description: Antonina Chudaeva, Zinaida Imkinova, Mariia Matsakova and Mariia Mukhlaeva from the Erdm folk ensemble perform the song about the deportation of Kalmyks. The song describes how the Kalmyks were forcibly sent to Siberia, with many perishing on the way. The author of this song, who remains unknown, curses Joseph Stalin and despairs when mentioning the Kalmyk soldiers who went to war and could not protect their families. The bitterness of separation from one's homeland is expressed in the last verse of the song (not sung by the performers), which mentions swallows arriving in the spring and circling in search of Kalmyks. The full lyrics of this song, in Kalmyk and Russian, are published in the book Kalmyk Songs about Siberia, by Elza-Bair Guchinova and Tsagan Seleeva (2023: 88–89).
Cite as: Ulán modýn vagondýnʹ – In red wooden freight wagons; performers: Antonina Chudaeva, Zinaida Imkinova, Mariia Matsakova, Mariia Mukhlaeva, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant: Nina Burataeva, transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0032a.
ON THE TWENTY-EIGHTH OF DECEMBER
Description: Taisiia Tiaginova performs her own song about the Kalmyks' deportation to Siberia, in which she describes the process of their eviction on 28 December 1943 and the hardships that befell the Kalmyks during their transport to Siberia. Five Kalmyks died because one of the vehicles bringing them to the railway station overturned. Many people starved and froze to death in the freight wagons during the transport, which lasted several weeks. The song expresses the idea of the injustice and cruelty of the deportation by highlighting the fact that while Kalmyk men were fighting in the Red Army at the front, risking their lives, their families were being deported to Siberia.
Cite as: Dekábyrʹ sarín hörɪ́n näämɪndé – On the twenty-eighth of December; performer: Taisiia Tiaginova, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant/ transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0035a.
SIBERIAN SONG BY BOOVUSH AMBEKOVA
Description: Tatiana Dordzhieva performs a Siberian song composed by her elderly friend Boovush Ambekova, a well-known bearer of Kalmyk folklore and traditions. The song describes how the Kalmyks were deported in freight wagons and brought, exhausted, to a dark forest area in the Shipunov district of the Altai Krai. The epithet ulán zalatá (with a red tassel) is used by Kalmyks as a self-designation. Traditionally, the top of Oirat-Kalmyk hats was decorated with a red pompom or tassel, called an ulán zalá. This is why "the red zalá Kalmyks" are mentioned in the song.
Cite as: Sibrín dun – Siberian song by Boovush Ambekova; performer: Tatiana Dordzhieva, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant/ transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0033a.
SIBERIAN SONG
Description: Dorzha Kharinov performs his own song about the deportation of Don Kalmyks from Bogshurgakin Aimag/ Novonikolayevskaya Stanitsa, which he composed while living in the Bogotol district of Krasnoyarsk Krai. At that time, he was fourteen years old. In his song, Kharinov expresses the general bewilderment and indignation of the Kalmyks. People could not understand what was happening. Why were they being evicted from their homes? Why did Stalin, who was considered the "good father of nations", reject the Kalmyks and consider them bad? Why did the government forcibly bring them to Siberia?
Kharinov was exiled with his mother, younger sister, and grandmother. His grandmother died in Siberia, and he allegorically mentions this in the song.
The audio recording was made in 1992 by Tamara Kuleshova at the request of American Kalmyk woman Zema Djugninov, who heard Dorzha Kharinov singing in Kalmyk and left her voice recorder to record his songs. We are publishing this song with the permission of Dorzha Kharinovʹs son, Sergei, who preserved this audio recording.
Cite as: Sibrín dun – Siberian song; performer: Dorzha Kharinov, interview: Tamara Kuleshova, transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUA0001a.
A BIRD CALLED GOOSE
Description: Kermen Menkenova performs a short fragment of a song about the Kalmyks' deportation and recalls the day when it happened. Early in the morning, a few armed soldiers came to Menkenova's house, woke them up and gathered them to bring them to Abganerovo rail station, where they loaded the Kalmyks in a train and sent them to Siberia. Menkenova recounts that they had almost no clothes but managed to kill a cow and cook its meat, so they could eat it on their way. At the end of interview, Menkenova sadly states that many Kalmyks did not survive their first winter in Siberia.
Cite as: Ɣalún gidɪ́g šovún – A bird called goose; performer: Kermen Menkenova, camera/ interview: Thede Kahl, Ioana Aminian, interview assistants: Olga Erendzhenova, Gol Seriatyrov, transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0038a.
Wagons departed, pulling each other
Description: Vera Popova recalls how, during the Kalmyks' deportation, she ended up in the city of Chernogorsk, in the Khakass Autonomous Region. From there, she and other young Kalmyks were sent to work at a quarry. Together, they lived in a single barrack, where Vera composed a song about the deportation of the Kalmyks, for which she was arrested on 11 September 1946 and sentenced to seven years of hard labour. Popova performs her song, in which she describes how Kalmyks, mostly old people and children, were sent to Siberia in overcrowded rail wagons. After arriving in Khakassia, they were forced to work in a stone quarry, where "they lost their health and lives".
Cite as: Čirɪldä́d ɣarsýn vagonmúd – Wagons departed, pulling each other; performer: Vera Popova, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant: Nina Burataeva, transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0023b.
In a freight wagon painted yellow
Description: Kseniia Konchieva performs a fragment of a song about the Kalmyks' deportation, the full lyrics of which she could not remember. After singing, Konchieva recalls that a commandant at the settlement where they were brought forbade the Kalmyks from singing this song. She also mentions the part of the Altai Krai where she and her family lived and how she and her sister worked looking after collective farm cows. Following this, Kseniia worked as the main assistant on a combine and as a milkmaid.
Cite as: Šar širtä́ vagón deerɪ́nʹ – In a freight wagon painted yellow; performer: Kseniia Konchieva, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant/transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0037a.
In the nineteen forty-three
Description: Bognin Azydova performs a song about the deportation of Kalmyks to Siberia. The song recounts how, early in the morning of 28 December 1943, a group of soldiers arrived at each Kalmyk household and informed them about Stalin's decree about the deportation of the Kalmyks. Using American Studebaker trucks, the Kalmyks were brought to the Abganerovo railway station, loaded into freight wagons and transported to Siberia via Stalingrad, Saratov and Kazakhstan. This song was likely composed on the train to Siberia, as the lyrics indicate that the Kalmyks did not know where they were being taken. The epithet ulán zalatá (with a red tassel) is used by Kalmyks as a self-designation. Traditionally, the top of Oirat-Kalmyk hats was decorated with a red pompom or tassel, called ulán zalá. This is why "Kalmyks with red zalá" are mentioned in the song.
Cite as: Döčɪ́n ɣuryvdygčɪ́ ǧildɪ́nʹ – In nineteen forty-three; performer: Bognin Azydova, camera/ interview/ transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0031a.
Train that runs on coal
Description: Tatiana Dordzhieva performs a song about the deportation, originally composed by either Andrei Khurtinov or his father. Tatiana explains that she added her own lyrics to this song, describing how she and other Kalmyks worked cutting trees and how they got frostbite on their feet. Kalmyks had to work to survive. In the last verse, Dordzhieva expresses her regret and compassion for the elderly people whose legs became sore and swollen due to hard labour. Although the original song has many verses, Dordzhieva sang only four of them.
Cite as: Nüürsä́r güüdɪ́g pójezd – Train that runs on coal; performer: Tatiana Dordzhieva, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant/ transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0036a.
Song about Ubush Mandzhiev
Description: Kseniia Konchieva performs a song about her fellow countryman, Ubush Mandzhiev, who joined the army in 1940 and subsequently fought on the frontlines of World War II. The song was apparently composed by his wife, Bulgun, who waited for him in Kalmykia and later in Siberia, following the deportation of the Kalmyks. After performing the song, Konchieva recounts that Ubush Mandzhiev starved to death in Shiroklag (Shirokovsky forced labour camp).
On 8 January 1944, the Red Army Command issued an order to demobilise all Kalmyks eligible for military service and send them to Astrakhan. From there, they were to be transferred to the custody of the USSR NKVD. In 1991, Kalmyk historian Vladimir Ubushaev wrote that "Based upon this order, the officer corps began to be assembled in Novosibirsk and Biysk, while the rank and file of Kalmyk frontline soldiers were taken to the Polovinka railway station in the Perm (formerly Molotov) region. In May 1944, they were brought to the Shirokovsky corrective labour camp for the construction of a new hydroelectric power station". The conditions of detention for Kalmyk soldiers were dire. They were subjected to the hardest labour, yet their food supply was grossly inadequate. Consequently, many Kalmyk soldiers died due to extreme malnutrition and disease.
Cite as: Manǧín Uvýš – Song about Ubush Mandzhiev; performer: Kseniia Konchieva, camera/ interview: Ioana Aminian, interview assistant/ transcription/ translation/ editor: Chingis Azydov, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID-number: kalm1244RUV0034a.
Special thanks
This publication is dedicated to the generation of Oirat-Kalmyks who were subjected to forced deportation in 1943-1944. We express our gratitude and admiration to all the authors and performers of Siberian songs we met and interviewed in the Republic of Kalmykia.
Special thanks to Sergei Kharinov for providing us with information and media materials for publication of Siberian song by Dorzha Kharinov.
Links
DOCUMENTARY "A DROP OF KALMYK BLOOD" by M. Ivanova, 1988, (in Russian)
DOCUMENTARY "BETRAYED KALMYK SOLDIERS OF SHIROKLAG" by Arslang Sandzhiev, 2013 (in Russian)
ARTICLE "DEPORTATION OF THE KALMYKS (1943-1956): STIGMATIZED ETHNICITY" by Elsa-Bair Guchinova, 2007
ARTICLE "DIE DEPORTATION DER KALMÜCKEN UNTER STALIN" by Elsa-Bair Guchinova, 2007 (in German)
References
- Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the liquidation of the Kalmyk ASSR and the formation of the Astrakhan region as part of the RSFSR". URL: <Указ ПВС СССР «О ликвидации Калмыцкой АССР и образовании Астраханской области в составе РСФСР» (alexanderyakovlev.org)>
- Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars No. 1432/425ss on the eviction of Kalmyks living in the Kalmyk ASSR. URL: <Постановление СНК № 1432/425сс о выселении калмыков, проживающих в Калмыцкой АССР (alexanderyakovlev.org)>
- Report of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria to I.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov on measures to resettle people of Kalmyk nationality to the eastern regions of the USSR. URL: <Докладная записка наркома внутренних дел Л.П. Берии И.В. Сталину и В.М. Молотову о мероприятиях по переселению лиц калмыцкой национальности в восточные районы СССР (alexanderyakovlev.org)>
- Order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 00276 "On the eviction of Kalmyks from the Rostov region to the Omsk region", URL: <Приказ народного комиссара внутренних дел СССР № 00276 «О выселении калмыков из Ростовской области в Омскую область» (alexanderyakovlev.org)>
- Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the formation of the Kalmyk Autonomous Region within the RSFSR", URL: <https://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/ussr_5160.htm>
- Declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 11/14/1989 "On the recognition of illegal and criminal repressive acts against peoples subject to forced relocation and ensuring their rights", URL:<https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/165903-deklaratsiya-verhovnogo-soveta-soyuza-sovetskih-sotsialisticheskih-respublik-o-priznanii-nezakonnymi-i-prestupnymi-repressivnyh-aktov-protiv-narodov-podvergshihsya-nasilstvennomu-pereseleniyu-i-obespechenii-ih-prav-moskva-kreml-14-noyabrya-1989-g>
- Law of the RSFSR of April 26, 1991 No. 1107-1 "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples", URL:<https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/fond/issues-doc/68244>
Bembeeva, Elena (2008): Voennosluzhashchie-kalmychki na stroitel'stve Shirokovskoj GES v 1944–1945 gg. [Kalmyk female soldiers at the construction of the Shirokovskaya hydroelectric power station in 1944-1945] In: Izvestija Altajskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, No. 4-3, ISSN 1561-9451. URL: <Научный журнал "Известия АГУ". 2008 №4-3(60). Раздел История. (asu.ru)>
Maksimov, Konstantin N. (2010): Velikaya Otechestvennaya Vojna: Kalmykiya i kalmyki [Great Patriotic War: Kalmykia and the Kalmyks], 2nd edition, supplemented, Moscow: Nauka.
Ochirov, Utash B.; Vorobyova, Valentina N. (2020): Kalmyki-voennosluzhashchie Krasnoj armii v Shiroklage: statisticheskoe issledovanie [Kalmyk Red Army Soldiers in Shirokovsky Forced Labor Camp: a Statistical Survey] In: Oriental Studies; Vol. 13 (2): 330–357. DOI: <https://doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2020-48-2-330-357>
Pankin, Arkady B.; Papuev, Viktor B. (1994): Dorogoj pamyati [On the Road of Memory]. Elista: Dzhangar.
Ubushaev, Vladimir B. (1991): Kalmyki: vyselenie i vozvrashchenie (1943-1957 gg.) [The Kalmyks: Eviction and Return (1943-1957)], Elista: Sanan. URL: <Владимир Убушаев. Калмыки: выселение и возвращение (1943-1957 гг.) (krsk.ru)>