Eurasianism in Kalmykia Russia

The ANU Mongolia Institute is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an interdisciplinary series of presentations on Mongolia. Held on alternate Fridays starting at noon mostly, the sessions will typically include a 30 to 45 minute presentation of recent research or fieldwork on a topic related to Mongolia or the Mongolian diaspora, followed by an opportunity to chat and get caught up on what we're all doing.

Most presentations will be fairly informal, and may include work-in-progress overviews or discussions of recent Mongolia-related conference highlights. Feel free to forward session announcements to other people who may be interested.

Eurasianism in Kalmykia, south-west Russia As a doctrine justifying the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union and the "civilizational" unity of its multi-ethnic population, Eurasianism shot into popularity during the perestroika years.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Eurasianism was especially well received in ethnic regions of the Russian Federation. It has its roots in theories proposed by Russian emigres in Bulgaria in the 1920s who had fled Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution.

Rejecting Europe's values, the proponents of Eurasianism saw Russia as a country which is neither European nor Asian but something in between: Eurasian.

The talk will discuss Eurasianism from a Kalmyk perspective, including issues related to identity and environment. Kalmyks are a people of Oirat-Mongol origin who settled on the lower Volga region in the 1630s.

Dr Baasanjav Terbish is a linguist and anthropologist in the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU), at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in comparative Turkish-Mongolian linguistics, Mongolian studies, gender studies, cultural studies, animal studies, religion and visual anthropology. In 2014-19 he was Project Manager for the Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project at the MIASU.