The Politics of the Inner Asian Frontier and the 1771 Exodus of the Kalmyks

Abstract

This article offers a new explanatory framework for studies of the return of the tsar’s Kalmyk subjects to their ancestors’ lands in Jungaria in 1771, a unique episode of Russian imperial history that illustrates the complex power dynamics of the Inner Asian frontier. By highlighting structural similarities between Russian and Qing approaches to their nomadic counterparts, the article challenges earlier characterisations of the Russian/Kalmyk relationship as one of domination and subjugation, demonstrating instead that Russian imperial authorities continued to adhere to established steppe political practices in their interactions with the Kalmyks until at least the beginning of the nineteenth century.