DOCSLIB.ORG

Kalmyk-Oirat Mongolia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

UUPG Kalmyk-Oirat in Mongolia People Name Kalmyk-Oirat Country Mongolia Status Unengaged Unreached Population 178,000 Language Mongolian, Halh Religion Ethnic Religions Written Scripture Yes Oral Scripture No Jesus Film Yes Gospel Recordings Yes Christ Followers No Map: Mongolian Traditional Costumes Churches No "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest Workers Needed 3 to send out workers into His harvest." Workers Reported 0 Copyright © Asia Harvest INTRODUCTION / HISTORY except for one small area in the back that is low life expectancy, and persistence of The Kalmyk are Mongolian in origin. In the reserved for a ponytail. diseases like tuberculosis. 16th century, the Kalmyk, or Oirat, left their homeland, now known as areas of Oral history in an important part of Kalmyk PRAYER POINTS northwest China, to avoid political and culture. It is traditionally recited by a poet * Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of economic pressures. They had hopes of and accompanied by a two stringed lute the Kalmyk people so that they will be settling in the rich pastures of the northern called a dombr. Favorite past-times include receptive to the love of Jesus. Causasus Mountains. storytelling and singing. * Pray that God will free the Kalmyk from In 1771, the majority of the Oirat decided WHAT ARE THEIR BELIEFS? occultism and their belief in evil spirits. to move back to their homeland in order to In the late 1500s, the Kalmyk adopted escape the Russian dictatorship, but only a Tibetan Buddhism. Many were later forced * Pray that God will grant wisdom and favor few survived the long journey. Those who to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. Kalmyk to the missions agencies that may be stayed behind in Russia became known as Buddhism is a mixture of ethnic beliefs and currently focusing on the Kalmyk. the Kalmyk, which means "to remain." As Shamanism (belief in unseen gods, demons, Kalmyks looked for their identity, they and spirits). The people continue to depend * Pray that God will send Christian medical discovered it in Buddhism. on shamans, or medicine men, despite laws teams to work among these precious forbidding their practices to cure the sick by people. WHAT ARE THEIR LIVES LIKE? magic and communication with the gods. In rural areas, there are herdsmen who * Pray that God will raise up teams of raise cattle, sheep, goats, and a few camels. The obo, a heap of stones thought to be intercessors who will faithfully stand in the They are known for their love of fine horses inhabited by local spirits, often serves as a gap for the Kalmyk. and horse racing. Many have a small garden site for performing various rituals. plot in the yard, growing melons, corn, and Occultism is occurring as Kalmyks have the * Ask the Lord to raise up strong local potatoes for their families. Some are custom of going to a Buddhist temple and churches among the Kalmyk. employed in the trades, earning barely inviting the gods to live inside them. Some sustainable wages. Others continue to live are now being persuaded to join the SOURCES as nomads, their lives characterized by Muslim religion. Bethany Prayer profiles seasonal migrations. Their dwellings are https://goo.gl/WJ7cfG portable tents called yurts. WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS? Medical facilities are inadequate. Limited The traditional Kalmyk dress includes velvet water supply, poor hygiene, deficient diet, hats, loose fitted coats, and heavily padded and alcoholism are common problems. long pants. Men often shave their heads, Kalmyk have a high infant mortality rate, FTT # 2292 www.finishingthetask.com May 2017.
Recommended publications
  • CORE STRENGTH WITHIN MONGOL DIASPORA COMMUNITIES Archaeological Evidence Places Early Stone Age Human Habitation in the Southern

    CORE STRENGTH WITHIN MONGOL DIASPORA COMMUNITIES Archaeological Evidence Places Early Stone Age Human Habitation in the Southern

    CORE STRENGTH WITHIN MONGOL DIASPORA COMMUNITIES Archaeological evidence places early Stone Age human habitation in the southern Gobi between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago 1. While they were nomadic hunter-gatherers it is believed that they migrated to southern Asia, Australia, and America through Beringia 50,000 BP. This prehistoric migration played a major role in fundamental dispersion of world population. As human migration was an essential part of human evolution in prehistoric era the historical mass dispersions in Middle Age and Modern times brought a significant influence on political and socioeconomic progress throughout the world and the latter has been studied under the Theory of Diaspora. This article attempts to analyze Mongol Diaspora and its characteristics. The Middle Age-Mongol Diaspora started by the time of the Great Mongol Empire was expanding from present-day Poland in the west to Korea in the east and from Siberia in the north to the Gulf of Oman and Vietnam in the south. Mongols were scattered throughout the territory of the Great Empire, but the disproportionately small number of Mongol conquerors compared with the masses of subject peoples and the change in Mongol cultural patterns along with influence of foreign religions caused them to fell prey to alien cultures after the decline of the Empire. As a result, modern days Hazara communities in northeastern Afghanistan and a small group of Mohol/Mohgul in India, Daur, Dongxiang (Santa), Monguor or Chagaan Monggol, Yunnan Mongols, Sichuan Mongols, Sogwo Arig, Yugur and Bonan people in China are considered as descendants of Mongol soldiers, who obeyed their Khaan’s order to safeguard the conquered area and waited in exceptional loyalty.
  • N.I.Il`Minskii and the Christianization of the Chuvash

    N.I.Il`Minskii and the Christianization of the Chuvash

    Durham E-Theses Narodnost` and Obshchechelovechnost` in 19th century Russian missionary work: N.I.Il`minskii and the Christianization of the Chuvash KOLOSOVA, ALISON,RUTH How to cite: KOLOSOVA, ALISON,RUTH (2016) Narodnost` and Obshchechelovechnost` in 19th century Russian missionary work: N.I.Il`minskii and the Christianization of the Chuvash, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11403/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 1 Narodnost` and Obshchechelovechnost` in 19th century Russian missionary work: N.I.Il`minskii and the Christianization of the Chuvash PhD Thesis submitted by Alison Ruth Kolosova Material Abstract Nikolai Il`minskii, a specialist in Arabic and the Turkic languages which he taught at the Kazan Theological Academy and Kazan University from the 1840s to 1860s, became in 1872 the Director of the Kazan Teachers‟ Seminary where the first teachers were trained for native- language schools among the Turkic and Finnic peoples of the Volga-Urals and Siberia.
  • Download PDF Datastream

    Download PDF Datastream

    The Labor of Refuge: Kalmyk Displaced Persons, the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, and the Origins of U.S. Refugee Resettlement By Jessica Johnson B.A., University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2003 A.M., Brown University, 2006 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of American Studies at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May, 2013 © Copyright 2013 by Jessica Johnson This dissertation by Jessica Johnson is accepted in its present form by the Department of American Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date_________________ __________________________________ Robert Lee, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date_________________ __________________________________ Ralph Rodriguez, Reader Date_________________ __________________________________ Naoko Shibusawa, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date_________________ __________________________________ Peter Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Jessica Johnson was born in Wichita, Kansas on July 17, 1981. She received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2003 and a Master of Arts in Public Humanities from Brown University in 2006. As a doctoral student at Brown University, she worked on public history projects at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, the John Nicholas Brown Center and the Smithsonian Institution. She also coordinated programs for the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and taught several undergraduate courses. Johnson’s work has been supported by the Joukowsky Family Foundation Presidential Dissertation Fellowship and the Mary L.S. Downes Dissertation Fellowship from Brown University; the Myrna F. Bernath Fellowship from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations; and the Andrew Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
  • Russia's Peacetime Demographic Crisis

    Russia's Peacetime Demographic Crisis

    the national bureau of asian research nbr project report | may 2010 russia’s peacetime demographic crisis: Dimensions, Causes, Implications By Nicholas Eberstadt ++ The NBR Project Report provides access to current research on special topics conducted by the world’s leading experts in Asian affairs. The views expressed in these reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of other NBR research associates or institutions that support NBR. The National Bureau of Asian Research is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution dedicated to informing and strengthening policy. NBR conducts advanced independent research on strategic, political, economic, globalization, health, and energy issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia. Drawing upon an extensive network of the world’s leading specialists and leveraging the latest technology, NBR bridges the academic, business, and policy arenas. The institution disseminates its research through briefings, publications, conferences, Congressional testimony, and email forums, and by collaborating with leading institutions worldwide. NBR also provides exceptional internship opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students for the purpose of attracting and training the next generation of Asia specialists. NBR was started in 1989 with a major grant from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. Funding for NBR’s research and publications comes from foundations, corporations, individuals, the U.S. government, and from NBR itself. NBR does not conduct proprietary or classified research. The organization undertakes contract work for government and private-sector organizations only when NBR can maintain the right to publish findings from such work. To download issues of the NBR publications, please visit the NBR website http://www.nbr.org.
  • The North Caucasus Region As a Blind Spot in the “European Green Deal”: Energy Supply Security and Energy Superpower Russia

    The North Caucasus Region As a Blind Spot in the “European Green Deal”: Energy Supply Security and Energy Superpower Russia

    energies Article The North Caucasus Region as a Blind Spot in the “European Green Deal”: Energy Supply Security and Energy Superpower Russia José Antonio Peña-Ramos 1,* , Philipp Bagus 2 and Dmitri Amirov-Belova 3 1 Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Providencia 7500912, Chile 2 Department of Applied Economics I and History of Economic Institutions (and Moral Philosophy), Rey Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] 3 Postgraduate Studies Centre, Pablo de Olavide University, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +34-657219669 Abstract: The “European Green Deal” has ambitious aims, such as net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. While the European Union aims to make its energies greener, Russia pursues power-goals based on its status as a geo-energy superpower. A successful “European Green Deal” would have the up-to-now underestimated geopolitical advantage of making the European Union less dependent on Russian hydrocarbons. In this article, we illustrate Russian power-politics and its geopolitical implications by analyzing the illustrative case of the North Caucasus, which has been traditionally a strategic region for Russia. The present article describes and analyses the impact of Russian intervention in the North Caucasian secessionist conflict since 1991 and its importance in terms of natural resources, especially hydrocarbons. The geopolitical power secured by Russia in the North Caucasian conflict has important implications for European Union’s energy supply security and could be regarded as a strong argument in favor of the “European Green Deal”. Keywords: North Caucasus; post-soviet conflicts; Russia; oil; natural gas; global economics and Citation: Peña-Ramos, J.A.; Bagus, P.; cross-cultural management; energy studies; renewable energies; energy markets; clean energies Amirov-Belova, D.
  • Siberiaâ•Žs First Nations

    Siberiaâ•Žs First Nations

    TITLE: SIBERIA'S FIRST NATIONS AUTHOR: GAIL A. FONDAHL, University of Northern British Columbia THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH TITLE VIII PROGRAM 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 PROJECT INFORMATION:1 CONTRACTOR: Dartmouth College PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Gail A. Fondahl COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER: 808-28 DATE: March 29, 1995 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Individual researchers retain the copyright on work products derived from research funded by Council Contract. The Council and the U.S. Government have the right to duplicate written reports and other materials submitted under Council Contract and to distribute such copies within the Council and U.S. Government for their own use, and to draw upon such reports and materials for their own studies; but the Council and U.S. Government do not have the right to distribute, or make such reports and materials available, outside the Council or U.S. Government without the written consent of the authors, except as may be required under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 5 U.S.C. 552, or other applicable law. 1 The work leading to this report was supported in part by contract funds provided by the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, made available by the U. S. Department of State under Title VIII (the Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983, as amended). The analysis and interpretations contained in the report are those of the author(s). CONTENTS Executive Summary i Siberia's First Nations 1 The Peoples of the
  • World Directory of Minorities

    World Directory of Minorities

    World Directory of Minorities Europe MRG Directory –> Russian Federation –> Buryats Print Page Close Window Buryats Profile According to the 2002 national census, there are 445,175 Buryats in the Russian Federation. Along with the Kalmyks, the Buryats speak a Mongolic language. The Buryats are concentrated in the Buryat Republic (pop. 981,238: Buryats 27.8 per cent, Russians 67.8 per cent, others 4.4 per cent) as well as Irkutsk Oblast, northern Mongolia and north-west China. The Buryat Lamaist church is part of a Buddhist sect which spread from Tibet to Mongolia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some Buryats have adopted Eastern Orthodoxy. Historical context Although Russians penetrated the Buryat homelands as early as the seventeenth century, contacts between the two peoples remained limited until large-scale Russian migration in the eighteenth century. A Buryat nationalist movement developed at the turn of the century in response to the growing Russian presence. In 1921, a Buryat-Mongol AO was established in the Far Eastern Republic; in May 1923 a Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Republic was created. In May 1923 they were merged to form the Buryat- Mongol ASSR. In 1937, the Buryat-Mongol ASSR was divided into three units. Territory west of Lake Baikal (12 per cent of the territory) went to Irkutsk Oblast, establishing a Buryat enclave (the Ust-Orda or Ust-Ordynsk AOk); the eastern steppe (12 per cent) was incorporated into Chita Oblast, where another enclave (the Aga Buryat or Aginsk AOk) was created. This division of the Buryat lands caused resentment. In 1958, in an attempt to eliminate any link with Mongolia, the word Mongol was dropped from the region's title leaving the Buryat ASSR.
  • Gene Pool of Buryats: Clinal Variability and Territorial Subdivision Based on Data of Y�Chromosome Markers V

    Gene Pool of Buryats: Clinal Variability and Territorial Subdivision Based on Data of YChromosome Markers V

    ISSN 10227954, Russian Journal of Genetics, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 180–190. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2014. Original Russian Text © V.N. Kharkov, K.V. Khamina, O.F. Medvedeva, K.V. Simonova, E.R. Eremina, V.A. Stepanov, 2014, published in Genetika, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 203–213. HUMAN GENETICS Gene Pool of Buryats: Clinal Variability and Territorial Subdivision Based on Data of YChromosome Markers V. N. Kharkova, K. V. Khaminaa, O. F. Medvedevaa, K. V. Simonovaa, E. R. Ereminab, and V. A. Stepanova a Institute of Medical Genetics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, nab. Ushaiki 10, Tomsk, 634050 Russia email: [email protected], vladimir.kharkov@medgenetics b Department of Therapy, Buryat State University, ul. Smolin 24a, UlanUde, 670000 Russia Received April 23, 2013 Abstract—The structure of the Buryat gene pool has been studied based on the composition and frequency of Ychromosome haplogroups in eight geographically distant populations. Eleven haplogroups have been found in the Buryat gene pool, two of which are the most frequent (N1c1 and C3d). The greatest difference in haplogroup frequencies was fixed between western and eastern Buryat samples. The evaluation of genetic diversity based on haplogroup frequencies revealed that it has low values in most of the samples. The evalua tion of the genetic differentiation of the examined samples using an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) shows that the Buryat gene pool is highly differentiated by haplotype frequencies. Phylogenetic analysis within haplogroups N1c1 and C3d revealed a strong founder effect, i.e., reduced diversity and starlike phy logeny of the median network of haplotypes that form specific subclusters.
  • Y-Chromosomal Analysis of Clan Structure of Kalmyks, the Only European Mongol People, and Their Relationship to Oirat-Mongols of Inner Asia

    Y-Chromosomal Analysis of Clan Structure of Kalmyks, the Only European Mongol People, and Their Relationship to Oirat-Mongols of Inner Asia

    European Journal of Human Genetics (2019) 27:1466–1474 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-019-0399-0 ARTICLE Y-chromosomal analysis of clan structure of Kalmyks, the only European Mongol people, and their relationship to Oirat-Mongols of Inner Asia 1 2,3 2 2 2 Natalia Balinova ● Helen Post ● Alena Kushniarevich ● Rodrigo Flores ● Monika Karmin ● 2,4 2 2 5 6 Hovhannes Sahakyan ● Maere Reidla ● Ene Metspalu ● Sergey Litvinov ● Murat Dzhaubermezov ● 5 5,6 2,7 5 8 9 Vita Akhmetova ● Rita Khusainova ● Phillip Endicott ● Elza Khusnutdinova ● Keemya Orlova ● Elza Bakaeva ● 10 11 1 2,3 2 Irina Khomyakova ● Nailya Spitsina ● Rena Zinchenko ● Richard Villems ● Siiri Rootsi Received: 2 October 2018 / Revised: 8 March 2019 / Accepted: 26 March 2019 / Published online: 11 April 2019 © The Author(s) 2019. This article is published with open access Abstract Kalmyks, the only Mongolic-speaking population in Europe, live in the southeast of the European Plain, in Russia. They adhere to Buddhism and speak a dialect of the Mongolian language. Historical and linguistic evidence, as well a shared clan names, suggests a common origin with Oirats of western Mongolia; yet, only a limited number of genetic studies have focused on this 1234567890();,: 1234567890();,: topic. Here we compare the paternal genetic relationship of Kalmyk clans with ethnographically related groups from Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and China, within the context of their neighbouring populations. A phylogeny of 37 high-coverage Y-chromosome sequences, together with further genotyping of larger sample sets, reveals that all the Oirat-speaking populations studied here, including Kalmyks, share, as a dominant paternal lineage, Y-chromosomal haplogroup C3c1-M77, which is also present in several geographically distant native Siberian populations.
  • ULYANOVSK OBLAST: Tatiana Ivshina

    ULYANOVSK OBLAST: Tatiana Ivshina

    STEERING COMMITTEE FOR CULTURE, HERITAGE AND LANDSCAPE (CDCPP) CDCPP (2013) 24 Strasbourg, 22 May 2013 2nd meeting Strasbourg, 27-29 May 2013 PRESENTATION OF THE CULTURAL POLICY REVIEW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION DOCUMENT FOR INFORMATION AND DECISION Item 3.2 of the draft agenda Draft decision The Committee: – welcomed the conclusion of the Cultural Policy Review of the Russian Federation and congratulated the Russian Authorities and the joint team of Russian and independent experts on the achievement; – expressed its interest in learning about the follow-up given to the report at national level and invited the Russian Authorities to report back in this respect at the CDCPP’s 2015 Plenary Session. Directorate of Democratic Governance, DG II 2 3 MINISTRY OF CULTURE RUSSIAN INSTITUTE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION FOR CULTURAL RESEARCH CULTURAL POLICY IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION REVIEW 2013 4 The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the editors of the report and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe. 5 EXPERT PANEL: MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Kirill Razlogov Nina Kochelyaeva Tatiana Fedorova MINISTRY OF CULTURE, PRINT, AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS OF THE MARI EL REPUBLIC: Galina Skalina MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF OMSK OBLAST: Tatiana Smirnova GOVERNMENT OF ULYANOVSK OBLAST: Tatiana Ivshina COUNCIL OF EUROPE: Terry Sandell Philippe Kern COUNCIL OF EUROPE COORDINATOR Kathrin Merkle EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS Editors: Kirill Razlogov (Russian Federation) Terry Sandell (United Kingdom) Contributors: Tatiana Fedorova (Russian Federation) Tatiana Ivshina (Russian Federation) Philippe Kern (Belgium) Nina Kochelyaeva (Russian Federation) Kirill Razlogov (Russian Federation) Terry Sandell (United Kingdom) Tatiana Smirnova (Russian Federation) 6 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10 CULTURE POTENTIAL INTRODUCTION 14 CHAPTER 1.
  • The New Russian Law on Religion: a View from the Regions

    The New Russian Law on Religion: a View from the Regions

    DePaul Law Review Volume 49 Issue 1 Fall 1999 Article 4 The New Russian Law on Religion: A View from the Regions Michael Bourdeaux Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Michael Bourdeaux, The New Russian Law on Religion: A View from the Regions, 49 DePaul L. Rev. 139 (1999) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol49/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW RUSSIAN LAW ON RELIGION: A VIEW FROM THE REGIONS* Michael Bourdeaux** I. INTRODUCTION The catastrophic experiment to forcibly impose "state atheism" (go- sateizm) in the Soviet Union lasted just seventy years. Until Lenin's first decree on the Separation of Church and State in January 1918,1 no government in history had sought to impose a system which re- jected all forms of religion. The Roman Empire debased the gods of mythology by decreeing that the ruler should be worshipped, but they never abolished the pantheon. The French Revolution was strongly anti-clerical, but Christian worship continued. "State atheism" had its ups and downs for seventy years in Russia, but continued as the domi- nant policy in one form or other until 1988. The advent of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party put an end to anti-religious notions three years into his rule.
  • Land, Community, and the State in the North Caucasus: Kabardino-Balkaria, 1763-1991

    Land, Community, and the State in the North Caucasus: Kabardino-Balkaria, 1763-1991

    Land, Community, and the State in the North Caucasus: Kabardino-Balkaria, 1763-1991 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Ian Thomas Lanzillotti Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Professor Nicholas Breyfogle, Advisor Professor Theodora Dragostinova Professor David Hoffmann Professor Scott Levi Copyright by Ian Thomas Lanzillotti 2014 Abstract The Caucasus mountain region in southern Russia has witnessed many of post- Soviet Eurasia’s most violent inter-communal conflicts. From Abkhazia to Chechnya, the region fractured ferociously and neighboring communities took up arms against each other in the name of ethnicity and religion. In the midst of some of the worst conflict in Europe since 1945, the semiautonomous, multiethnic Kabardino-Balkar Republic in the North Caucasus remained a relative oasis of peace. This is not to say there were no tensions—there is no love lost between Kabardians, Balkars, and Russians, Kabardino- Balkaria’s principal communities. But, why did these communities, despite the agitation of ethno-political entrepreneurs, not resort to force to solve their grievances, while many neighboring ones did? What institutions and practices have facilitated this peace? What role have state officials and state structures played in, on the one hand, producing inter- communal conflict, and, on the other hand, mediating and defusing such conflict? And why has land played such a crucial rule in inter-communal relations in the region over the longue durée? More than enhancing our knowledge of a poorly-understood yet strategically important region, the questions I ask of Kabardino-Balkaria are windows on larger issues of enduring global relevance.