Migration to Elista in Earliest Years of Its Construction: 1927–1932

Introduction. The article examines the history of population migrations in the earliest period of Elista city’s construction between 1927 and 1932. An insight into the topic shall further reveal common and specific features in the shaping of settlement populations across Russia. Goals. The paper aims to analyze actual migration trends during the construction of the city to have gained the status of an autonomy’s capital — and show the Government’s impacts on the formation and development of Elista’s population t in 1927–1932. Materials and methods. The study employs the historical-comparative and historical-genetic research methods, analyzes documents from the National Archive of Kalmykia, republican periodicals and published monographs dealing with the history of Elista, a number of archival documents be newly introduced into scientific circulation. Results. The work reveals causes and factors of the creation of Kalmykia’s capital, analyzes population policies of Soviet authorities, reviews social, professional, ethnic, and territorial backgrounds of immigrants. The analysis of documents attests to that it was the Soviet Government that played a key role in the city’s creation and approved major directions of its development, organized the relocation of administrative agencies and funded the bulk of its construction. The migration agenda was being implemented in accordance with the goals of nationalities and administrative policies, as well as with directions of the city’s development chosen by official authorities. The government-organized relocations were administrative by nature. However, the population structure was essentially shaped by unorganized migrations that resulted from the sedentarization of Kalmyks, aspirations of some citizens from neighboring regions and territories to obtain better sources of livelihood — or even to escape political persecution. Conclusions. The emergence of the new settlement was driven by that the Government was seeking to establish a Soviet ethnic center of the Kalmyk people and administer the territory from inside Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast. These presupposed migrations were to be planned and facilitate achieving the objectives set by authorities. There had been no plans to create large industrial facilities in the city, so the government-organized migration did not require involvement of large labor resources. The ‘unorganized’ resettlers were largely those who had some professional skills demanded in the city, nomads seeking a sedentary life, and individuals in pursuit of profitable livelihoods or shelter from the watchful eye of law enforcement agencies.

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