Kalmyk Steppe During the World War I: the Question of the Transition to the Cossack Estate

This article is devoted question of the transition of the population of the Kalmyk steppe to the Cossack estate of the Russian Empire during the World War I. Limited the rights of the Kalmyk people, a permanent loss of their lands, permanent peasant colonization led the Kalmyk society has to come a long way from a complete denial of the transition to the Cossack estate in the XIX century to the only possibility to save his people and culture. Cossack's self-government had a number of advantages over the existing self-government in the Kalmyk steppe, which was legalized in 1847 - the Regulations on the management of the Kalmyk people. And yet, the question of the transition Kalmyks to the Cossack estate during of the World War I, despite the efforts made by both the of intellectuals and clergy was not resolved positively, due to the negative attitude towards this issue by the central and local authorities. And only February revolutions and October revolutions in 1917 opened the way for a positive solution of the transition Kalmyks to the Cossacks, but by the time any other alternatives of autonomization of the Kalmyk people, and idea of the transition the Kalmyks to the Cossack estate of was more irrelevant.