On Legal Aspects Of Status Determining Of Kalmyks Before Joining Russia

Russia is a multinational and multi-confessional country that unites peoples who used to be at different levels of cultural development. The relations with many of them were difficult and often dramatic. It is not only of historical interest, but also of modern interest to comprehend on what state-legal basis the Russian system of state administration was introduced in the region inhabited by Kalmyks. After entering Russia on a voluntary basis at the beginning of the 17 th century, the Kalmyks occupied the territory within the Astrakhan and partly Stavropol Governorate. This territory became known as the Kalmyk Steppe or Kalmykia. The process of development of the Kalmyk statehood, which, on the one hand, had been developing based on the state structures of the Kalmyk Khanate, and, on the other hand, had been under significant influence of Russia is of considerable interest. The institutions of social organization of Kalmyks in the conditions of political dependence on the Russian state had been gradually changing. The Russian government had been trying to limit the powers and independence of the Khan. For this purpose, the institution of governorship was introduced. The development of the system of public administration in Kalmykia took place in the conditions of the use of general imperial principles based on the flexible application of national approaches and political and legal institutions combined with the national characteristics of the Kalmyks, taking into account the existing systems of traditional government and traditional law of the Kalmyk people.