Kalmyk

The steppe between the lower Volga and Yaik, later called the Ural, became a major country of the Kalmyks in the seventeenth century. Oirat groups moving west from Inner Asia established their camps and herds there from the 1630s. Their rulers negotiated with Russia while maintaining their own political and religious institutions. Buddhist lamas were influential participants in this mobile society, whose wealth depended heavily on access to pasture.

During the eighteenth century, expanding cultivation and settlement reduced the grazing land available to Kalmyk households. Ubashi Khan complained in 1765 that Russian settlements threatened the future of their livestock economy. Economic pressure, political constraints and religious concerns all contributed to the great departure of 1771, when much of the population set out east toward Dzungaria. Other groups remained in Russia. For the lower Yaik country, this migration marked a profound break in the history of Kalmyk occupation and movement across the Caspian steppe.