The Kalmyks (Oirats) are a western Mongol people who settled in the Volga region in the early 17th century. They are mostly Buddhists by religion. According to the 2010 census in the Russian Federation they number almost two hundred thousand. Another four hundred thousand reside outside the RF mainly in Mongolia and China. The republic of Kalmykia located in the farthest south eastern part of Eastern Europe is in name an autonomous republic within the RF. The last independent state of the Kalmyks was liquidated by decree of the Russian Catherine II on October 19, 1771.
On July 2–9, 1920, the First All-Kalmyk Congress of Soviets of the Working Kalmyk People took place, proclaiming the formation of statehood in the form of an autonomous region within the RSFSR. It was attended by delegates representing all the Kalmyk uluses of the Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces, Kalmyks living in the Don and Terek regions, in Kyrgyzstan, in the Ural region and the Orenburg province.
The Kalmyk Autonomous Region was transformed on October 20, 1935 into the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, but then abolished on December 27, 1943, and the Oirat-Kalmyk people were subjected to deportation.
On January 9, 1957, the Kalmyk region was integrated into the Stavropol Territory, and on July 29, 1958 it was formed into the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic once again.
On October 18, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Kalmyk ASSR adopted a Declaration “On the State Sovereignty of the Kalmyk Soviet Socialist Republic”. The Declaration proclaimed the state sovereignty of the Kalmyk SSR and declared its determination to create a democratic constitutional state. This was motivated by the right of the Kalmyk people to self-determination and the desire of the people of Kalmykia for socio-economic progress, cultural revival and a radical increase in living standards.
However, under pressure from Moscow the subsequent years proved to be a time of regression in sovereignty. In 1994, by a unilateral decision of President Ilyumzhinov and his supporters the pseudo Constitution of the Republic of Kalmykia, the so-called Steppe Code, was approved, in which the Republic of Kalmykia was recognised as a limited subject, not a state, as defined in the Constitution of the RF.
The authorities of Kalmykia were subservient executors of the will of Moscow and helpless in defending the national interests of the people and the Republic. Under Putin, Kalmykia as all of the RF experienced centralization and militarization, attacks on the cultures and languages of the non-Russian peoples. Chauvinism, racism, xenophobia, ethnic discrimination, rampant great-power hysteria, even admiration for Stalin and other monsters of the past flourished in the RF. The territory that was illegally torn from the Republic of Kalmykia during the period of deportation of the Oirat-Kalmyk people was not restored. Illegal annexation of territories of the Republic of Kalmykia continued in favor of neighboring regions of the RF. Moscow pursued a colonial financial and economic policy that directly impeded the economic development of Kalmykia, as a result of which there was a massive decrease in the Oirat-Kalmyk population. During the years following the return of the people from deportation Kalmykia occupied the last place in the USSR and now within the RF in terms of providing the population with such basic necessities as drinking water. Activities of national organizations were and are suppressed, the terror of the federal authorities against civil and national activists continues.
Based on the foregoing, on October 26, 2022 a newly formed entity, the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people, declared the need for the complete liberation of the Oirat-Kalmyk people from colonial dependence on Russia, its determination to seek secession of the Republic of Kalmykia from the Russian Federation and the proclamation and creation of a sovereign independent state.
The Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People has appealed to all states of the world, governments and parliaments to recognize the need to liberate the Oirat-Kalmyk people from the colonial oppression of the Russian Empire and recognize their legitimate right to self-determination and the creation of an independent state.
This is only the beginning. In Europe, a new structure of joint efforts by enslaved peoples within the framework of the RF was formed called the League of Free Nations. This structure includes the following nations: Bashkir, Buryat, Cossack, Kalmyk, Moksha, Tatar, Chechen, Erzya, Yakut. On November 26, 2022, a similar expanded structure called Americans Against Russian Imperialism took shape in the United States. Currently, it includes: Tatars, Kalmyks, Kazakhs, Armenians and Ukrainians. Many other nations have expressed interest in the dismemberment of the Russian Federation
December 5, 2022 Askold S. Lozynskyj