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Buryatia

Buryatia ranked second among Russian regions in terms of the number of those killed in the 2022 war in Ukraine. More were only in Dagestan. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where almost 12% of the Russian population lives, are almost absent in the reports of the dead.

In Russian Buryatia, the wives of servicemen recorded an appeal to the head of the republic Alexei Tsidenov 28 June 2022 with a request to return the men home. The military went on "training" since January and now are in Ukraine, one of participants of the action Vera Partilkhayeva reported to the project of Radio Liberty - Siberia. "Since February 24, they have been taking part in a special operation (as Russia calls the war against Ukraine - ed.). Exhausted morally, physically. All have mild and moderate contusions, ”the wives of the military told the camera. According to them, the Russian military has been in the field for 4 months, many of them are ill. According to her, the wives of servicemen from the fifth Tatsin tank brigade joined the appeal. At least 30 servicemen from the brigade were reportedly killed. In total, according to Siberia.Realia, by mid-June, data on 184 deaths from Buryatia were confirmed. Officially, the Defense Ministry does not comment on these data. Modern Buryat-Mongols are the indigenous Mongol-speaking population of Cis- and Transbaikalia. Within the Russian Federation, they are localized in the Republic of Buryatia, the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug of the Irkutsk Region and the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug of the Chita Region. Buryats, Buryaad (self-designation), Buryats or Buriyads ( English ), Burjaten ( German ), Bouriates ( French ) - the titular nation of the Republic of Buryatia within the Russian Federation, the Ust-Orda Buryat District in the southeast of the Irkutsk Region and the former Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug in the Chita Region, which in 2008 became part of the Trans-Baikal Territory. The traditional occupations of the Western Buryats are cattle breeding and agriculture, while the Eastern Buryats have only cattle breeding (small cattle, horse breeding, camel breeding). Western Buryats profess Orthodoxy and shamanism, while eastern Buryats practice Lamaist Buddhism.

According to the 2010 census, 461.4 thousand Buryats lived in the Russian Federation. (According to the 2002 census - 450 thousand people, of which 272.9 thousand people lived in the Republic of Buryatia, 54 thousand in the Ust-Orda Buryat district and 45 thousand Buryats in the former Aginsky Buryat district. Outside of Russia, the Buryats live in Inner Mongolia in northern China (25,000) and in Mongolia (80,000 in 1998).

The dynamics of the decrease in the number of ethnic Russians in the republic looks like this: in 1959 - 76%, in 1979 - 72%, in 1989 - 69%, in 2002 - 67%, in 2010 - 64%. The share of Buryats increased significantly from 19% in 1959 to 30% in 2010. The ethnonym "Buryat" (Buriyat) is first encountered in the "Secret History of the Mongols" (c. 1240) in the story of the events of 1207, when the eldest son of Genghis Khan Jochi subjugated this tribe. There are at least 7 explanations for the etymology of the ethnonym "Buryats". According to the most common version, the ethnonym "Buryat" is associated with the name of the ancestor of all Mongols, Burte-Chino, who goes back to the veneration of the wolf ("buri" from Turkic Mong.) as a totem animal. The territory of Buryatia was part of the Mongol Empire (1207-1368), and later was dependent on the Mongol khans, who were paid tribute. The Mongols gave the Buryats their decimal military organization.

Russians and Buryats first met in 1629. Asian nomads, who mostly came to this territory a little earlier than the Cossacks, at first did not really want to pay tribute to the Russians, and even tried to resist the expansion of the Russian Kingdom to the east. The Buryats entered into open clashes with the Cossacks - they especially did not like the construction of military fortifications. But soon the locals came to terms with the Russian presence, and some of them were even transferred to the Cossack class. Unlike the Russian Cossacks, the Buryat Cossacks did not live in families near the border, but served on a rotational basis. Cossacks often married Buryats.

In 1731, the armed forces of Russia, located in the Trans-Baikal Territory , consisted of an infantry regiment, a company of dragoons, and 5,000 Buryat and Evenk horsemen. In September 1735, 7 border families of the Selenga and 11 families of the Khori Buryats were given unit banners for service. In 1766, 4 regiments were formed from the Buryats to maintain guards along the Selenga border: the 1st Ashebagat, 2nd Tsongo, 3rd Atagan and 4th Sartol. Cossacks serving in the regiments were exempted from yasak and received a salary of 6 rubles a year. At the head of the Buryat Cossack army were elected chiefs: ataman, four regimental captains, centurions, Pentecostals and foremen. In 1851, during the formationThe 1st, 2nd, 3rd Russian regiments, the 4th Tungus and the 5th and 6th Buryat regiments of the Transbaikal Cossack army were introduced there.

The Buryat population in the Russian Empire has always been viewed either as "unfit" for military service (in the case of the "yasak" Buryats, who belonged to the class of "foreigners", ie, non-Russian "natives") or as potentially "disloyal" (in the case of the Buryats belonging to the Cossack class). The number of Buryats included in the Cossack estate and performing military service at the beginning of the 20th century was only 24 thousand people (including women and children), that is, less than 10% of all Buryats of the Irkutsk province and the Trans-Baikal region. In relation to the Buryat-Cossacks, the military ministry limited their mass conscription for military service, as this could lead to "their numerical predominance in the Transbaikal Cossack army and the latter losing the character of a Russian outpost on the Chinese border."

The question : “On which side did the Buryats fight in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920?” was one of the most uncomfortable questions for historians of Buryatia throughout the Soviet period. Since one of the main ideological tasks of the official history of Buryatia at that time was to show the Buryats “in the same ranks” with the Russian peasants and workers first participated in the Revolution, and then defended (preferably heroically) the “conquests of October” with weapons in their hands. The complexity of this task was due to several objective historical circumstances - the lion's share of the Buryats who took part in the hostilities fought on the side of the Whites.

During 1917, a significant majority of the Buryats, including the aristocratic elite and the Cossacks, thanks to the active propaganda on the part of the Buryat national democrats (mostly members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party), really sympathized with the February (anti-monarchist) revolution. More than 80% of the 300,000-strong Buryat population of Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk province, Transbaikal region) historically did not carry military service in the Russian Empire, did not have military skills, and military service, military science for the majority of Buryats was an undeveloped field of activity.

Servicemen from the Buryatia Russian republic became one of the symbols of Russian intervention in the Ukrainian conflict in 2015. This included participation in the battles near Debaltseve of servicemen of the 37th separate motorized rifle brigade (SMBR) from the city of Kyakhta in the Republic of Buryatia and the 5th tank brigade from the capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude. Military camps set up by the Russian army in the Rostov region along the Ukrainian border were used as springboards from where military equipment and manpower are transferred to the conflict zone. The command has an order according to which there should not be any "official" insignia on military equipment or on the uniform of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

Vice journalist Simon Ostrovsky made the film "Selfie Soldiers", in which he traced the path from Buryatia to Debaltseve tanker Bato Dambaev, who posted photos of himself on the territory of Ukraine in social networks. The official version was that there are no active Russian military in Donbas. The same Buryats who are fighting in Ukraine are people who go on their own, who "decide to spend their holidays helping the fraternal people".

"Combat Buryats" is what Ukrainian Internet users called the military, who, according to media reports, were sent to fight from military units in Buryatia on the territory of Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian authorities denied that they provide any military support to the armed supporters of the DNR and LNR. The expression "fighting Buryats" probably came into wide use after it first appeared in the headlines. A screenshot of the top Yandex news, which users in Ukraine saw on 29 March 2015, was widely circulated, with the heading "600 combat Buryats arrived in Ilovaisk - the headquarters of the ATO." A number of media outlets have previously provided evidence that servicemen from military units in Buryatia are being sent to fight in Ukraine. The Russian authorities denied this.

Judging by data from open sources, most of the Russian soldiers who died during the military operation in Ukraine came from Buryatia. As of April 5, Russian official sources published the names of at least 1,083 Russian servicemen who died in Ukraine. By 06 April 2022, the greatest losses were suffered by two formations stationed in Buryatia. These are the 11th Guards Separate Air Assault Brigade (military unit No. 32364, at least 18 dead) and the 5th Separate Guards Tank Brigade (military unit No. 46108, at least 14 dead). Also, the Kostroma 331st Airborne Regiment (military unit No. 71211, 17 people) suffered heavy losses.

In early March 2022, when the first coffins went to Buryatia, the head of the republic Alexey Tsydenov came to the funeral several times. He was accompanied by TV cameras and journalists. Obituaries were published on the main pages of the regional media. Then the funerals began to take place almost every day, and Tsydenov stopped coming to them. On April 26, there are 102 dead soldiers from Buryatia in the LB list. The point is not that it is the Buryats who are sent to Ukraine. Of the 102 dead, 55 are ethnic Russians. Buryats generally make up only 30% of the population of the republic.

In 2020, Buryatia ranked 81st in terms of quality of life out of 85 subjects of Russia. The neighboring Irkutsk region was in 55th place. According to the Republican Statistics Service, 20% of residents in 2020 had incomes below the subsistence level. In 2013, there were 17.5% of such people. In 2019, Ulan-Ude ranked last in terms of quality of life among 78 cities with a population of 250,000 or more.