Dardeling

Near Dardeling, the low shore of the northern Caspian meets the Kalmyk steppe. Shallow water, reeds and channels fringe a coast that has shifted as the level of the sea changed. In the seventeenth century Oirat groups including the Torghuts established the Kalmyk Khanate in the lower Volga country. Many Kalmyks departed eastwards in 1771, after which the Russian government abolished the khanate, while other communities remained on the western side of the Volga.