Kalmykia’s Residents — Recipients of ‘Orders for Military Commanding Officers’

Introduction: The article analyzes military biographies of Kalmykia’s residents — Kalmykia-born individuals (within the boundaries of 1941), individuals who had arrived from other territories to be conscripted by the Red Army in the republic, and other alien-born citizens to have resided in Kalmykia after 1957 — who had received ‘orders for commanding officers’. The latter include orders awarded to senior and middle-ranking officers for military commanding skills only, namely: Order of Suvorov, Order of Kutuzov, Order of Bogdan Khmeltitsky (the range of recipients being a little wider), and Order of Alexander Nevsky. The orders were established by the Soviet Government in 1942–1943 when it became evident that commanding skills of Red Army officers was far more important and significant than individual bravery or even political fanaticism.
During the Great Patriotic War, 35 residents of Kalmykia (including five ones awarded twice) received such military decorations: four Orders of Suvorov, three Orders of Kutuzov, five Orders of Bogdan Khmeltitsky, and twenty eight Orders of Alexander Nevsky. The paper contains concise military biographies of all the 35 cavaliers.
Goals: The paper aims to examine military biographies of Kalmykia’s cavaliers of ‘orders for red Army commanders’ and reveal their somewhat distinct and common features.
Methods: The study applied both general scientific methods (typological classification, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparison and analogy) and those of special historical research (historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological, and historical-systematic methods).
Results: The statistical analysis revealed a number of distinct features inherent to this group of military commanders. For example, the majority of the investigated individuals (28 of 35) were young enough being aged 16 to 29 (at the outbreak of the war) to have been brought up during the Soviet era in strict adherence to Communist ideals and representations. The six older commanders (aged 31 to 38 respectively) were those to have voluntarily supported the Soviet regime, thus, being eager to defend it even at the expense of their lives. The bulk of the examined cavaliers were infantry officers, and included no representatives of technology-packed troops (fleet, air power, armored force, army signals). When viewed from a perspective of ethnic composition, only one third of the list is represented by ethnic Kalmyks, which evidently disagrees with the all-Union censuses according to which Kalmyks constituted a majority in the region. This had been largely contributed to by the unjust collaborationist accusations against the Kalmyks followed by a deportation of the whole nation to easternmost regions of the country.

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