The article describes the trends of the development of Kalmyk nomadic economy in the late XIX -early XX centuries. Based on the degree of the scrutiny of the problem, the authors have implemented the following tasks: they described the changes in the development of Kalmyk nomadic economy, revealed their causes and analyzed their consequences. The article is based on the use of a large range of literature and sources, many of them are archival materials. The most important among them are the materials of annual reports of the Administration of the Kalmyk people of the Astrakhan province and the chief police officer of nomadic peoples of the Stavropol province. In some cases, the authors used observations and notes of the researchers, contemporaries of the described events. An analysis of the specific material revealed that in the late XIX -early XX centuries the most significant changes related to the transition to a settled way of life and to market conditions occurred in nomadic Kalmyk economy in the process of integration of the region into all-Russian market. During the period under study the number of animals increased, species content of the herds changed (there was an increase in the number of cattle and fine-wool sheep and stabilization of the number of camels and Kalmyk breed sheep). Kalmyk population was engaged in laying in fodder for the winter, breeding animals, building reservoirs for livestock. In some areas of Kalmykia, an intensive transition to agriculture took place.
The development of the Kalmyk farming in the late 19th-early 20th centuries is analyzed in the present article. Special attention is paid to the problem of effective management in arid climate and marketization of the region. The article considers the indicators of Kalmyk nomadic farming development, estimates stocking level in the period under review and establishes the impact of market conditions on nomadic farming development. The article employs a wide range of sources and literature. The results demonstrate that the Kalmyk cattle-breeders ran their farms efficiently in arid climate taking market fluctuations into account. That was the indication of sufficient economic efficiency and ecological suitability of that type of economic management in the late 19th-early 20th centuries.
Introduction. The article examines the understudied issues of how and to what extent epidemic diseases used to spread across Kalmyk uluses (‘districts’) in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, with special attention be paid to employed control and monitoring methods. The problem was covered in a number of published reports delivered at the First Congress of Astrakhan physicians to have worked in Kalmyk-inhabited lands during the period under study, and the former contain their shared their experiences and valuable findings. Historians hardly ever approached the topic in just a few papers. Goals. So, the work aims at a detailed survey of epidemic diseases in the Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Governorate in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Materials and Methods. The study employs a set of general scientific and specific historical research methods. The observance of the historicism principle made it possible to avoid modern misinterpretations of the century-old events examined, while system-analysis techniques and interdisciplinary approaches resulted in that certain specific events of Kalmyk life were analyzed as parts of an overall picture. The article mainly explores and newly introduces materials of the Medical Department — a healthcare agency within the Kalmyk People’s Administration — currently stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. Results. Despite the remoteness of Kalmyk nomadic settlements (Kalm. khoton) from administrative centers and first-aid stations, healthcare practitioners still were efficient enough to promptly respond in case of epidemic outbreaks. Besides treatment proper, the medical, administrative and police personnel were largely responsible for quarantine and disinfection activities, medical examination and supervision of people living around the periphery of the effective disease area. Conclusions. The analysis of materials dealing with the issue reveals Kalmyk districts were widely affected by epidemic diseases, such as typhus, smallpox, measles, diphtheria and others, while cholera and plague were not that often. It should be admitted that the frequent occurrence of those diseases in medical records across the Kalmyk Steppe was determined by their endemicity to have resulted from a number of reasons.
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