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134-467: There are two versions regarding the origin of the name of the island and both are derived from the language of the Buryats , the indigenous people of Olkhon. The first is that the island's name comes from the word oyhon – “woody”, and the second is that it comes from olhan – “dry”. It is still debated which of the two is the actual origin of the name Olkhon as both words describe the island perfectly. Much of

268-722: A Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language . They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia , the other being the Yakuts . The majority of the Buryats today live in their titular homeland, the Republic of Buryatia , a federal subject of Russia which sprawls along the southern coast and partially straddles Lake Baikal . Smaller groups of Buryats also inhabit Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug ( Irkutsk Oblast ) and

402-478: A camp commander and an important Gulag official. His proposals soon saw widespread adoption in the Gulag system. After having appeared as an instrument and place for isolating counter-revolutionary and criminal elements, the Gulag, because of its principle of "correction by forced labor", quickly became, in fact, an independent branch of the national economy secured on the cheap labor force presented by prisoners. Hence it

536-413: A centre of Kurumchinskay culture of the 6th–10th centuries. The museum at Olkhon, named after Revyakin , has exhibits on the nature and ethnography of the island, including pipe-smoking and a samovar collection. The island has a long history of human habitation. The original Indigenous peoples were the Buryats and the Yakuts . Russian explorers first visited during the 17th century. Khuzhir

670-466: A delicate approach to nature, oriented not towards its conquest but rather towards a harmonious interaction and equal partnership with it. A synthesis of Buddhism and traditional beliefs that formed a system of ecological traditions has thus constituted a major attribute of Buryat eco-culture. Prior to the arrival of the Russians, Buryats lived in semi-nomadic groups scattered across the steppes . Kinship

804-588: A department of NKVD (later MVD) in charge of handling of foreign civilian internees and POWs (prisoners of war) in the Soviet Union during and in the aftermath of World War II (1939–1953). In many ways the GUPVI system was similar to GULAG. Its major function was the organization of foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union . The top management of GUPVI came from the GULAG system. The major memoir noted distinction from GULAG

938-463: A distinctly political purpose. These early camps of the GULAG system were introduced in order to isolate and eliminate class-alien, socially dangerous, disruptive, suspicious, and other disloyal elements, whose deeds and thoughts were not contributing to the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat . Forced labor as a "method of reeducation" was applied in the Solovki prison camp as early as

1072-476: A diverse pool of mitochondrial DNA , with about 83.7% (247/295) belonging to haplogroups of Eastern Eurasian origin or affinity and about 16.3% (48/295) belonging to haplogroups of Western Eurasian origin or affinity. The most common Eastern Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups among present-day Buryats are D4 (approximately 29% of the total Buryat population), C (approximately 16.6%), and G2a (approximately 11%). The most common Western Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups among

1206-416: A husband did not have enough cattle, a period of bride service would be arranged. Polygamy was permitted, however only men of extreme wealth could afford the price of multiple wives. Marriage ceremonies involved rituals such as the bride stoking the fire in the grooms tent with three pieces of fat, and sprinkling fat upon the clothing of the groom's father. The arrival of the Russians saw drastic changes to

1340-399: A man, and the soul. The soul is further divided into three parts: first, second, and third. The first soul is contained within the entirety of the physical skeleton, and that damage to it damages the soul. Rituals involving the sacrifice of animals involve great care not to damage the bones, lest the deity receiving the offering reject it. The second soul is believed to have the power to leave

1474-401: A meeting: "There are cases when a prisoner is given only four or five hours out of twenty-four for rest, which significantly lowers his productivity." In the words of a former Gulag prisoner: "By the spring of 1942, the camp ceased to function. It was difficult to find people who were even able to gather firewood or bury the dead." The scarcity of food stemmed in part from the general strain on

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1608-532: A minimum sentence of seven years and a maximum of twenty five. In 1958, the maximum sentence for any crime was reduced from twenty five to fifteen years. In 1960, the Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del (MVD) ceased to function as the Soviet-wide administration of the camps in favour of individual republic MVD branches. The centralised detention administrations temporarily ceased functioning. Although

1742-463: A population of 100,000 in the 1920s. By the end of 1940, the population of the Gulag camps amounted to 1.5 million. The emergent consensus among scholars is that, of the 14 million prisoners who passed through the Gulag camps and the 4 million prisoners who passed through the Gulag colonies from 1930 to 1953, roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million prisoners perished there or died soon after they were released. Some journalists and writers who question

1876-570: A reputation which was further enhanced by the Soviet GULAG system. The Bolsheviks' own experiences with exile and forced labor provided them with a model which they could base their own system on, including the importance of strict enforcement. From 1920 to 1950, the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet state considered repression a tool that they should use to secure the normal functioning of

2010-467: A significant amount of prisoners, which confined prisoners serving short sentence terms. In the early 1930s, a tightening of the Soviet penal policy caused a significant growth of the prison camp population. During the Great Purge of 1937–38, mass arrests caused another increase in inmate numbers. Hundreds of thousands of persons were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms on the grounds of one of

2144-485: A significant proportion of C3*-M217(xM77, M86, M407), which may be related to Y-DNA subclades that often have been observed among Mongols in Mongolia, while also exhibiting both N-Tat and C-M407 with moderate frequency: 26/84 = 31.0% N1c1-Tat, 19/84 = 22.6% C3d-M407, 16/84 = 19.0% C3*-M217(xM77, M86, M407), 8/84 = 9.5% R1a1a-M17, 7/84 = 8.3% R2a-M124, 4/84 = 4.8% C3c-M77/M86, 4/84 = 4.8% O3a*-M324(xM7, M134). Haplogroup N-M178

2278-644: A substantial distance east of the eastern shore of the southern half of Lake Baikal, versus 6/31 = 19.4% N1c1 in a sample of Buryat from Dzhidinsky District , which is slightly south of the southwestern end of the lake, and 2/23 = 8.7% N1c1 in a sample of Buryat from Kurumkansky District , which is slightly east of the northeastern end of the lake ), and it mostly belongs to a subclade (N-F4205) that reaches its maximal frequency among Buryats, but which also has been found in some other Mongolic peoples as well as in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Poland. N-F4205

2412-469: A vertically oriented marble rock, appearing much like a fang. The Cape of Khargoy is famous for its remains of an ancient Kurykan's stone wall. The wall is probably one of the best preserved ancient structures of the island and is composed of large stones without the use of any binding materials. The wall is about 185 m (607 ft) in length, and in some parts, its height can be as tall as 1.5–2 m (4.9–6.6 ft). The Kurykan Wall at Cape Khorgoy

2546-413: Is easily recognised as three big rocks standing in a row overlooking Lake Baikal. According to an old Buryatian legend, there once lived three brothers on Olkhon Island whose father had supernatural powers. Once, their father turned them into eagles but only on the condition that they would not eat dead meat. The brothers were extremely happy with their newly gained freedom as eagles and decided to fly around

2680-451: Is ecological by origin in that the religious and mythological ideas of the Buryat people have been based on a theology of nature. The environment has traditionally been deeply respected by Buryats due to the nomadic way of life and religious culture. The harsh climatic conditions of the region have in turn created a fragile balance between humans, society and the environment itself. This has led to

2814-408: Is estimated to share a common ancestor with N-B202, which has been found in many present-day inhabitants of Chukotka , approximately 4,600 (95% CI 3,700 <-> 5,500) years before present. Haplogroup C3d (M407) is found mainly among the northern and southwestern Buryats, Barghuts , Hamnigans , Soyots , Kazakh Khongirad , and Dörbet Kalmyks . A large scale genetic study from 2021 shows that

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2948-479: Is followed by one more important reason for the constancy of the repressive policy, namely, the state's interest in unremitting rates of receiving a cheap labor force that was forcibly used, mainly in the extreme conditions of the east and north. The Gulag possessed both punitive and economic functions. The Gulag was an administration body that watched over the camps; eventually its name would be used for these camps retrospectively. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin

3082-409: Is found mainly among the indigenous peoples of northern Eurasia (e.g. Yakuts , Finns ). Among Buryats, haplogroup N-M178 is more common toward the east ( cf. 50/64 = 78.1% N1c1 in a sample of Buryat from Kizhinginsky District , 34/44 = 77.3% N1c1 in a sample of Buryat from Aga Buryatia , and 18/30 = 60.0% N1c1 in a sample of Buryat from Yeravninsky District , every one of which regions is located at

3216-483: Is not necessarily hereditary, and other members of the kinship-group can receive the calling (however, shamans do keep records of their lineage, and a descendant is preferred). Shamans could both control and be controlled by spirits. There are variations in belief between different traditional groups, so there is no consensus on beliefs and practices. For example, Western Buryats along the Kuda river believe in reincarnation of

3350-416: Is still small. Those involved practise either Yellow shamanism , Black shamanism , or a mixture of the two. Similarly, Buddhism has seen a revival among the Buryats. Construction of monasteries, training of monks, and the increasing piety of the Buryats has seen growth. Buryats traditionally practised shamanism , also called Tengrism , with a focus on worship of nature. A core concept of Buryat shamanism

3484-401: Is the "triple division" of the physical and spiritual world. There are three divisions within the spirit world: the tengeri , the bōxoldoy , and lower spirits. These spirits are the supreme rulers of mankind, the spirits of commoners, and the spirits of slaves respectively. In parallel to this is the concept that man is divided into three parts: the body ( beye ), the "breath and life" of

3618-521: Is the main village on Olkhon Island and contains shops, and homestays . The National History Museum of Revyakin N. M in Khuzhir contains collections of historical items linked to the life and culture of the people of Olkhon from Neolithic times to the present day. Here, visitors can see various items such as stone arrowheads, badges of Mongolian soldiers, and materials used in cremation rituals, and can learn about life on this island of political exiles in

3752-518: The Agin-Buryat Okrug ( Zabaykalsky Krai ) which are to the west and east of Buryatia respectively as well as northeastern Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China . They traditionally formed the major northern subgroup of the Mongols . Buryats share many customs with other Mongols, including nomadic herding , and erecting gers for shelter. Today the majority of Buryats live in and around Ulan-Ude ,

3886-685: The Barguzin eastward to the lands between the Greater Khingan and the Argun . Around 1594, most of them fled back to the Aga and Nerchinsk in order to escape subjection by the Daurs . The Russians reached Lake Baikal in 1643 but the Buryats resisted them and their forces. The Buryats were defeated, though they attempted to revolt a few times. These revolts were suppressed. The territory and people were formally annexed to

4020-534: The Bronze Age and Iron Age in several waves. Although Buryats are closer to their Mongolic and Tungusic-speaking neighbors, out of the major East Asian ethnic groups, they are genetically closest to the Koreans , followed by Northern Han , Japanese and Southern Han , in that order, according to FST genetic distance measurements. According to the Buryat creation myth, there were 11 Buryat tribes or clans. According to

4154-558: The Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed and included Baikal province ( Pribaykalskaya guberniya ) with Russian population. The Buryats rebelled against the communist rule and collectivization of their herds in 1929. The rebellion was quickly crushed by the Red Army with loss of 35,000 Buryats. The Buryat refugees fled to Mongolia and resettled, however, only a few of them joined

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4288-676: The Cheka , followed by the GPU (1922–1923), the OGPU (1923–1934), later known as the NKVD (1934–1946), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in the final years. The Solovki prison camp , the first correctional labour camp which was constructed after the revolution, was opened in 1918 and legalized by a decree, "On the creation of the forced-labor camps", on April 15, 1919. The internment system grew rapidly, reaching

4422-666: The Cossacks found only a small core of tribal groups speaking a Mongol dialect called Buryat and paying tribute to the Khalkha . However, they were powerful enough to compel the Ket and Samoyed peoples on the Kan and the Evenks on the lower Angara to pay tribute. According to Bowles, the ancestors of most modern Buryats were speaking a variety of Turkic - Tungusic dialects at that time. However, according to

4556-551: The Great Patriotic War , Gulag populations declined sharply due to a steep rise in mortality in 1942–43. In the winter of 1941, a quarter of the Gulag's population died of starvation . 516,841 prisoners died in prison camps in 1941–43, from a combination of their harsh working conditions and the famine caused by the German invasion. This period accounts for about half of all gulag deaths, according to Russian statistics. In 1943,

4690-542: The Khrushchev Thaw , triggering a mass release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. Six years later, on 25 January 1960, the Gulag system was officially abolished when the remains of its administration were dissolved by Khrushchev. The legal practice of sentencing convicts to penal labor continues to exist in the Russian Federation , but its capacity is greatly reduced. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , winner of

4824-555: The Nobel Prize in Literature , who survived eight years of Gulag incarceration, gave the term its international repute with the publication of The Gulag Archipelago in 1973. The author likened the scattered camps to " a chain of islands ", and as an eyewitness, he described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. In March 1940, there were 53 Gulag camp directorates (simply referred to as "camps") and 423 labor colonies in

4958-611: The Russian Civil War , officials accused of corruption, sabotage and embezzlement, political enemies, dissidents and other people deemed dangerous for the state. In the first decade of Soviet rule, the judicial and penal systems were neither unified nor coordinated, and there was a distinction between criminal prisoners and political or "special" prisoners. The "traditional" judicial and prison system, which dealt with criminal prisoners, were first overseen by The People's Commissariat of Justice until 1922, after which they were overseen by

5092-558: The Russian Empire both used forced exile and forced labour as forms of judicial punishment. Katorga , a category of punishment which was reserved for those who were convicted of the most serious crimes, had many of the features which were associated with labor-camp imprisonment: confinement, simplified facilities (as opposed to the facilities which existed in prisons), and forced labor, usually involving hard, unskilled or semi-skilled work. According to historian Anne Applebaum , katorga

5226-553: The Shambala rebellion there. In 1937, in an effort to disperse Buryats, Stalin's government separated a number of counties ( raions ) from the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and formed Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug and Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug ; at the same time, some raions with Buryat populations were left out. Fearing Buryat nationalism, Joseph Stalin had more than 10,000 Buryats killed. Moreover, Stalinist purge of Buryats spread into Mongolia, known as

5360-519: The Sovnarkom order 22 p. 248 dated April 7, 1930. It was renamed as the GULAG in November of that year. The hypothesis that economic considerations were responsible for mass arrests during the period of Stalinism has been refuted on the grounds of former Soviet archives that have become accessible since the 1990s, although some archival sources also tend to support an economic hypothesis. In any case,

5494-427: The death of Stalin , the Soviet establishment started to dismantle the Gulag system. A mass general amnesty was granted in the immediate aftermath of Stalin's death, but it was only offered to non-political prisoners and political prisoners who had been sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison. Shortly thereafter, Nikita Khrushchev was elected First Secretary , initiating the processes of de-Stalinization and

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5628-569: The incident of L'humbee . In 1958, the name "Mongol" was removed from the name of the republic ( Buryat ASSR ). Also around 1958, the Mongolian script was banned and replaced by Cyrillic . BASSR declared its sovereignty in 1990 and adopted the name Republic of Buryatia in 1992. The constitution of the Republic was adopted by the People's Khural in 1994, and a bilateral treaty with the Russian Federation

5762-417: The taiga . Shamans often are associated with nervous disorders, and in some cases are prone to seizure. Shamans can also be divided into "White" shamans that summon good spirits and "Black" shamans that summon malicious ones. Yellow shamanism refers to shamanistic practices that have been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Shamans exist to heal, especially in regards to psychological illnesses. Buryat shamanism

5896-565: The 1920s, based on Trotsky 's experiments with forced labor camps for Czech war prisoners from 1918 and his proposals to introduce "compulsory labor service" voiced in Terrorism and Communism . These concentration camps were not identical to the Stalinist or Hitler camps, but were introduced to isolate war prisoners given the extreme historical situation following World War 1 . Various categories of prisoners were defined: petty criminals, POWs of

6030-537: The 217 Buryats (6.5%) had STR haplotypes belonging to the "star cluster" in C3*, from which it might be inferred that they most likely belonged to C2a1a3-P369/M504. Karafet et al. (2006) tested a sample of 81 Buryat males and found that they belonged to the following Y-DNA haplogroups: 45/81 = 55.6% C-M217(xM86), 4/81 = 4.9% C-M86, 1/81 = 1.2% G-M201, 1/81 = 1.2% J-12f2, 2/81 = 2.5% N-P43, 23/81 = 28.4% N-M178, 2/81 = 2.5% O-LINE, 3/81 = 3.7% R-M207. Karafet et al. (2018) retested

6164-622: The Baron's army. After the Revolution, most of the lamas were loyal to Soviet power. In 1925, a battle against religion and clergy in Buryatia began. Datsans were gradually closed down and the activity of the clergy was curtailed. Consequently, in the late 1930s the Buddhist clergy ceased to exist and thousands of cultural treasures were destroyed. Attempts to revive Buddhism started during World War II , and it

6298-445: The Buryat samples examined by Malyarchuk et al. (2010) and Karafet et al. (2018), the southwestern and northern Buryat samples of Kharkov et al. (2014) exhibited an extremely high frequency of haplogroup C2-M407: 48/76 = 63.2% C3d-M407, 14/76 = 18.4% N1c1-Tat, 4/76 = 5.3% O3a3c*-M134(xM117), 3/76 = 3.9% C3*-M217(xM77, M86, M407), 2/76 = 2.6% C3c-M77/M86, 2/76 = 2.6% O3a3c1-M117, 2/76 = 2.6% R1a1a-M17, 1/76 = 1.3% N1b-P43. In contrast,

6432-515: The Buryats are H (approximately 6.8%) and U (approximately 5.4%). Another mtDNA study of Buryats shows they have 24% (6/25) of West Eurasian maternal lineages. Lell et al. (2002) tested a sample of thirteen Buryat males collected in Kushun village, Nizhneudinsk District , Irkutsk Region , representing the Buryats of the Sayan-Baikal upland. The Y-chromosomes of these individuals were assigned to

6566-703: The Buryats lived along the Angara River and its tributaries at this time. Meanwhile, their component, Barga , appeared both west of Baikal and in northern Buryatia's Barguzin valley . Linked also to the Bargas were the Khori-Tumed along the Arig River in eastern Khövsgöl Province and the Angara . A Tumad rebellion broke out in 1217, when Genghis Khan allowed his viceroy to seize 30 Tumad maidens. Genghis Khan's commander Dorbei

6700-518: The Buryats, as well as other Mongolic ethnic groups , such as Mongols , have nearly exclusively East-Eurasian (East Asian-related) genetic ancestry (≈95% to 98%), which can be largely traced back to Neolithic millet agriculturalists of Northeast Asia , but also Paleo-Siberians , and "Yellow river farmers" from around the Yellow River region of Northern China . Genetic evidence shows that Northeast Asian like ancestry massively expanded westwards during

6834-730: The Chief Administration of Camps for Highway Construction destroyed ninety-four trucks in just three years. But the greatest problem was simple – forced labor was less efficient than free labor. In fact, prisoners in the Gulag were, on average, half as productive as free laborers in the USSR at the time, which may be partially explained by malnutrition. To make up for this disparity, the NKVD worked prisoners harder than ever. To meet rising demand, prisoners worked longer and longer hours, and on lower food-rations than ever before. A camp administrator said in

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6968-690: The Fierce of the Dörbeds smashed them in response. The Buryats joined the Oirats challenging the imperial rule of the Eastern Mongols during the Northern Yuan period in the late 14th century. Historically, the territories around Lake Baikal belonged to Mongolia , Buryats were subject to Tüsheet Khan and Setsen Khan of Khalkha Mongolia . When the Russians expanded into Transbaikalia (eastern Siberia) in 1609,

7102-495: The GULAG. According to the estimates, in total, during the whole period of the existence of the GUPVI, there were over 500 POW camps (within the Soviet Union and abroad), which imprisoned over 4,000,000 POW. Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although significant numbers of political prisoners could be found in the camps at any one time. Petty crimes and jokes about the Soviet government and officials were punishable by imprisonment. About half of political prisoners in

7236-466: The Gulag camps were imprisoned " by administrative means ", i.e., without trial at courts; official data suggest that there were over 2.6 million sentences to imprisonment on cases investigated by the secret police throughout 1921–53. Maximum sentences varied depending on the type of crime and changed over time. From 1953, the maximum sentence for petty theft was six months, having previously been one year and seven years. Theft of state property however, had

7370-453: The Gulag in 1928–1953. A further 6–7 million were deported and exiled to remote areas of the USSR , and 4–5 million passed through labor colonies , plus 3.5 million who were already in, or had been sent to, labor settlements . According to some estimates, the total population of the camps varied from 510,307 in 1934 to 1,727,970 in 1953. According to other estimates, at the beginning of 1953

7504-422: The Gulag into 380 special colonies which produced tanks, aircraft, armaments, and ammunition. Despite its low capital costs, the camp economy suffered from serious flaws. For one, actual productivity almost never matched estimates: the estimates proved far too optimistic. In addition, scarcity of machinery and tools plagued the camps and the tools that the camps did have quickly broke. The Eastern Siberian Trust of

7638-431: The Gulag system expanded dramatically to create a Soviet "camp economy". Right before the war, forced labor provided 46.5% of the nation's nickel , 76% of its tin , 40% of its cobalt , 40.5% of its chrome-iron ore, 60% of its gold, and 25.3% of its timber. And in preparation for war, the NKVD put up many more factories and built highways and railroads. The Gulag quickly switched to the production of arms and supplies for

7772-428: The Gulag system founders was Naftaly Frenkel . In 1923, he was arrested for illegally crossing borders and smuggling. He was sentenced to 10 years' hard labor at Solovki , which later came to be known as the "first camp of the Gulag". While serving his sentence he wrote a letter to the camp administration detailing a number of "productivity improvement" proposals including the infamous system of labor exploitation whereby

7906-458: The OGPU started to recruit people within the colony to help stop people who attempted to leave, and set up ambushes around known popular escape routes. The OGPU also attempted to raise the living conditions in these camps that would not encourage people to actively try and escape, and Kulaks were promised that they would regain their rights after five years. Even these revisions ultimately failed to resolve

8040-511: The OGPU. In 1928, there were 30,000 individuals interned; the authorities were opposed to compelled labor. In 1927, the official in charge of prison administration wrote: The exploitation of prison labour, the system of squeezing "golden sweat" from them, the organisation of production in places of confinement, which while profitable from a commercial point of view is fundamentally lacking in corrective significance – these are entirely inadmissible in Soviet places of confinement. The legal base and

8174-508: The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, also known as the NKVD . The Cheka and its successor organizations, the GPU or State Political Directorate and the OGPU , oversaw political prisoners and the "special" camps to which they were sent. In April 1929, the judicial distinctions between criminal and political prisoners were eliminated, and control of the entire Soviet penal system turned over to

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8308-548: The Russian researcher Nanzatov, the Tungusic and Turkic groups then lived on the outskirts of the Buryat area. They were small fragments assimilated by the Buryat population. In addition to genuine Buryat-Mongol tribes ( Bulagad , Khori , Ekhired , Khongoodor ) that merged with the Buryats, the Buryats also assimilated other groups, including some Oirats , the Khalkha , Tungus ( Evenks ) and others. The Khori-Barga had migrated out of

8442-460: The Russian state by treaties in 1689 and 1727, when the territories on both the sides of Lake Baikal were separated from Mongolia . Consolidation of modern Buryat tribes and groups took place under the conditions of the Russian state. From the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the Buryat population increased from 77,000 (27,700 –60,000 ) to 300,000. Another estimate of

8576-463: The Soviet Union. Many mining and industrial towns and cities in northern Russia, eastern Russia and Kazakhstan such as Karaganda , Norilsk , Vorkuta and Magadan , were blocks of camps which were originally built by prisoners and subsequently run by ex-prisoners. GULAG (ГУЛАГ) stands for "Гла́вное управле́ние испави́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й" (Main Directorate of Correctional Labour Camps ). It

8710-470: The Soviet era, as well as the unique flora and fauna that can only be found on Olkhon Island. The Revyakin Museum was originally named after a famous geologist, paleontologist, geographer and writer of science fiction, Obruchev . However, it was later named after its founder, and a teacher of geography, N. M. Revyakin. Peschanaya Village is an abandoned settlement famous for its picturesque sand dunes and

8844-511: The Soviet government issued a comprehensive decree protecting Lake Baikal. Khuzhir is home to about 1,200 residents and boasts a museum of local nature and history. Most residents are fishermen, farmers, or cattle-ranchers. Due to an increasing number of tourists from all over the world, many residents work in this sector as well, and tourism has become an important part of the economy in Olkhon. The indigenous Buryats, adherents of shamanism , believe

8978-483: The Soviet state system and preserve and strengthen their positions within their social base, the working class (when the Bolsheviks took power, peasants represented 80% of the population). In the midst of the Russian Civil War , Lenin and the Bolsheviks established a "special" prison camp system, separate from its traditional prison system and under the control of the Cheka . These camps, as Lenin envisioned them, had

9112-630: The area, Christianity is not perceived as a "Buryat" religion. Traditionally, the Buryats were semi-nomadic pastoralists . Buryat nomads tended herds of cattle , sheep , goats , and camels . Buryats also relied greatly on local resources to supplement their diets. Following colonization by Russia, pastoralism was gradually replaced by agriculture. The Buryat of today are largely agrarian but most in rural areas still focus on raising livestock as their main way of surviving. The Buryats located in Siberia are still largely focused on raising livestock due to

9246-410: The army after fighting began. At first, transportation remained a priority. In 1940, the NKVD focused most of its energy on railroad construction. This would prove extremely important when the German advance into the Soviet Union started in 1941. In addition, factories converted to produce ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies. Moreover, the NKVD gathered skilled workers and specialists from throughout

9380-551: The body, transform into other beings, and is stored in the organs. The third soul is similar to the second, differing only in that its passing marks the end of one's life. The number three and multiples of it are deeply sacred to the Buryat. Examples of this numerology include three major yearly sacrifices, shamans prolonging the lives of the sick by three or nine years, the total number of tengeri being 99, and countless other examples. Shamans are divided into two classes: "great" shamans of Arctic regions and "little" shamans from

9514-488: The camps and another 154,000 exiled. This was only the beginning of the dekulakisation process, however. In 1931 alone, 1,803,392 people were exiled. Although these massive relocation processes were successful in getting a large potential free forced labor work force where they needed to be, that is about all it was successful at doing. The " special settlers ", as the Soviet government referred to them, all lived on starvation level rations, and many people starved to death in

9648-412: The camps, and anyone who was healthy enough to escape tried to do just that. This resulted in the government having to give rations to a group of people they were getting hardly any use out of, and was just costing the Soviet government money. The Unified State Political Administration (OGPU) quickly realised the problem, and began to reform the dekulakisation process. To help prevent the mass escapes

9782-613: The capital of the Buryat Republic , although many still follow a more traditional lifestyle in the countryside. They speak a central Mongolic language called Buryat . UNESCO 's 2010 edition of the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger classifies the Buryat language as " severely endangered ". It is most likely that the ancestors of modern Buryats are Bayyrku and Kurykans who were part of

9916-618: The captured officers and a large number of ordinary soldiers were then murdered (see Katyn massacre ) or sent to Gulag. Of the 10,000–12,000 Poles sent to Kolyma in 1940–41, most prisoners of war , only 583 men survived, released in 1942 to join the Polish Armed Forces in the East . Out of General Anders ' 80,000 evacuees from Soviet Union gathered in Great Britain only 310 volunteered to return to Soviet-controlled Poland in 1947. During

10050-492: The conversion to Tibetan Buddhism, Buryats incorporated Tibetan medical practices to their healing practices. Medical schools were soon established and Buryats studying in these schools learned about medical and prescription techniques. Training in treatment and diagnostics was also given in these schools. Buryats soon contributed to expanding the Tibeto-Mongolian medical literature. Traditional Buryat medicine emphasises

10184-510: The cultural development of Buryatia. Because of their skills in horsemanship and mounted combat, many were enlisted into the Amur Cossacks host. During the Russian Civil War most of the Buryats sided with the White forces of Baron Ungern-Sternberg and Ataman Semenov . They formed a sizable portion of Ungern's forces and often received favorable treatment when compared with other ethnic groups in

10318-554: The development of the camp system followed economic lines. The growth of the camp system coincided with the peak of the Soviet industrialisation campaign. Most of the camps established to accommodate the masses of incoming prisoners were assigned distinct economic tasks. These included the exploitation of natural resources and the colonization of remote areas, as well as the realisation of enormous infrastructural facilities and industrial construction projects. The plan to achieve these goals with " special settlements " instead of labor camps

10452-678: The eastern (Transbaikal) Buryats are closer to the Khalkha, may live in yurts and are mostly Buddhists. In 1741, the Tibetan branch of Buddhism was recognized as one of the official religions in Russia, and the first Buryat datsan (Buddhist monastery) was built. The second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was a time of growth for the Buryat Buddhist religion (48 datsans in Buryatia in 1914). Buddhism became an important factor in

10586-430: The eastern Buryat samples of Kharkov et al. (2014) exhibited an extremely high frequency of haplogroup N-Tat: 102/138 = 73.9% N1c1-Tat, 19/138 = 13.8% C3d-M407, 5/138 = 3.6% C3c-M77/M86, 4/138 = 2.9% E, 3/138 = 2.2% C3*-M217(xM77, M86, M407), 2/138 = 1.4% R1a1a-M17, 1/138 = 0.7% O3a*-M324(xM7, M134), 1/138 = 0.7% O3a3c1-M117, 1/138 = 0.7% R2a-M124. The southern and central Buryat samples of Kharkov et al. (2014) exhibited

10720-503: The entire Soviet Union, but also the lack of central aid to the Gulag during the war. The central government focused all its attention on the military and left the camps to their own devices. In 1942, the Gulag set up the Supply Administration to find their own food and industrial goods. During this time, not only did food become scarce, but the NKVD limited rations in an attempt to motivate the prisoners to work harder for more food,

10854-457: The following Y-DNA haplogroup distribution in a sample of "Mongolians (Buryats)": 16/36 = 44.44% C2-M217, 1/36 = 2.78% D1a1a-M15, 1/36 = 2.78% F-M89(xK-M9), 9/36 = 25.00% N-M231, 1/36 = 2.78% O1b2-SRY465(x47z), 1/36 = 2.78% O2a-M324(xO2a1b-JST002611, O2a2-P201), 6/36 = 16.67% O2a2-P201, 1/36 = 2.78% R-M207. Kharkov et al. (2014) examined blood samples obtained from a total of 297 ethnic Buryats, separated into eight geographical groups according to

10988-712: The following Y-DNA haplogroup distribution: 4/238 = 1.7% P*-92R7(xQ-DYS199/M3, R1-M173), 2/238 = 0.8% R1*-M173(xR1a-SRY1532b), 5/238 = 2.1% R1a1-M17, 3/238 = 1.3% N*-LLY22g(xTat), 45/238 = 18.9% N3-Tat, 152/238 = 63.9% C-RPS4Y/M130, 4/238 = 1.7% F*-M89(xG-M201, H-M52, I-M170, J-12f2, K-M9), 1/238 = 0.4% G-M201, 1/238 = 0.4% I-M170, 21/238 = 8.8% K*-M9(xL-M20, N-LLY22g, P-92R7). Boris Malyarchuk, Miroslava Derenko, Galina Denisova, et al. (2010) retested 217 of these 238 Buryats and found that they were 148/217 (68.2%) haplogroup C-RPS4Y711/M130, including 117/217 (53.9%) C3d-M407, 18/217 (8.3%) C3∗-M217(xC3a-M93, C3b-P39, C3c-M77, C3d-M407, C3e-P53.1, C3f-P62), and 13/217 (6.0%) C3c-M77. Fourteen of

11122-404: The following haplogroups: 6/13 = 46.2% O-M119, 3/13 = 23.1% N-Tat, 2/13 = 15.4% N-DYS7Cdel(xTat), 1/13 = 7.7% C-M48, 1/13 = 7.7% F-M89(xK-M9). This sample entirely lacks C-M407 and instead has a great proportion of O-M119 ; thus, it appears very different from published samples of Y-DNA collected from Buryats east of Lake Baikal. Derenko et al. (2006) tested a sample of 238 Buryat males and found

11256-409: The full official name of the agency changed several times . The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union . The camps housed both ordinary criminals and political prisoners , a large number of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas or other instruments of extrajudicial punishment . In 1918–1922, the agency was administered by

11390-461: The guidance for the creation of the system of "corrective labor camps" ( исправи́тельно-трудовые лагеря , Ispravitel'no-trudovye lagerya ), the backbone of what is commonly referred to as the "Gulag", was a secret decree from the Sovnarkom of July 11, 1929, about the use of penal labor that duplicated the corresponding appendix to the minutes of the Politburo meeting of June 27, 1929. One of

11524-399: The inmates' food rations were to be linked to their rate of production, a proposal known as nourishment scale (шкала питания). This notorious you-eat-as-you-work system would often kill weaker prisoners in weeks and caused countless casualties. The letter caught the attention of a number of high communist officials including Genrikh Yagoda and Frenkel soon went from being an inmate to becoming

11658-419: The intelligentsia derive from the extrapolations of Viktor Zemskov from a collection of prison camp population movements data. On the eve of World War II, Soviet archives indicate a combined camp and colony population upwards of 1.6 million in 1939, according to V. P. Kozlov. Anne Applebaum and Steven Rosefielde estimate that 1.2 to 1.5 million people were in Gulag system's prison camps and colonies when

11792-453: The island after promising not to eat dead meat. However, when they were flying around the island, they became hungry and found a dead animal. Despite their promises to their father, they ate this dead animal. When their father learned about it, he was furious and turned them into the three rocks that we see today. Khoboy Cape is the most northern point of Olkhon island. The name comes from an old Buryat word meaning "fang" because of its shape,

11926-411: The island is still covered by forests and the amount of precipitation is extremely low – about 240 mm (9.4 in) per year. Olkhon has a dramatic combination of terrain and is rich in archaeological landmarks. Steep mountains line its eastern shore, and at 1,276 m (4,186 ft) above sea level, Mount Zhima is the highest point on the island, peaking at 818 m (2,684 ft) above

12060-446: The island is the illegal felling of timber by local inhabitants. A complicated net of forestry roads in the areas adjacent to Khuzhir leads to woodland areas on the mountain slopes. Timber is brought out of the forest at night time, and the deforestation is taking its toll on the area. 53°09′24″N 107°23′01″E  /  53.15667°N 107.38361°E  / 53.15667; 107.38361 Buryats The Buryats are

12194-558: The island to be a spiritual place; one of the groups of deities revered in Buryati yellow shamanism is called the oikony noyod , the "thirteen lords of Olkhon". On the western coast, close to Khuzhir, is Baikal's most famous landmark, the Shamanka, or Shaman's Rock. Natives believe that Burkhan , a modern religious cult figure of the Altai peoples, lives in the cave in this rock. Olkhon is considered

12328-472: The island. The steep slopes of the mountains show the vertical heave of the earth. The population of the island is around 1,744 and consists mostly of Buryats , the island's aboriginal people. There are several settlements and five villages on the island: Yalga, Malomorets, Khuzhir , Kharantsy , and Ulan-Khushin. The village of Khuzhir is the administrative capital of Olkhon, designated as such in April 1987 when

12462-399: The livestock. However, the Buryats located in Buryatia are more focused on the agriculture aspect of farming and not the livestock raising aspect. Buryat healing practices incorporates folk shamanic traditions and Tibeto-Mongolian medicine. Before the adoption of Buddhism, the Buryats relied on shamanic rituals to stop or cure pain and illness which was said to be caused by evil spirits. With

12596-712: The location of sample collection: Okinsky district (N = 53) (southwest of the Republic of Buryatia, ethnoterritorial group of Oka Buryats); Dzhida (N = 31) and Kyakhta (N = 27) (south, ethnoterritorial group of Selenga Buryats); the Kizhinga (N = 64) and Eravninsky (N = 30) regions (east, ethnoterritorial group of Khorin Buryats); Kurumkan village (N = 23) (north, ethnoterritorial group of Barguzin Buryats); Ulan-Ude and Khuramsha (30 km west of Ulan-Ude) (N = 26) (ethnoterritorial group of Kudarinsk Buryats); and Aginskoe village (N = 44) (Agin–Buryat Autonomous Region of Chita, Agin Buryats). For

12730-457: The modern age, some practices derived from Buryat folk medicine have been incorporated into contemporary settings. Buryat cuisine is very similar to Mongolian cuisine and share many dishes like buuz and khuushuur . Dairy products are an important part of the cuisine, and traditional dishes are often hearty and simple. Most main courses are usually meat based, but fish like omul is common especially around Lake Baikal . The Buryats have

12864-531: The multiple passages of the notorious Article 58 of the Criminal Codes of the Union republics, which defined punishment for various forms of "counterrevolutionary activities". Under NKVD Order No. 00447 , tens of thousands of Gulag inmates were executed in 1937–38 for "continuing counterrevolutionary activities". Between 1934 and 1941, the number of prisoners with higher education increased more than eight times, and

12998-468: The myth, all 11 tribes are descendants of a man and a mysterious but beautiful creature that turns into a swan during the day and a woman during the night. After the two married, the man asked her to give him her wings so that she would not turn into a swan anymore. However, it is said that after some time the woman asked for her wings back and flew away never to return. Today there are a number of different Buryat tribes, or clans. Gulag The Gulag

13132-530: The nineteenth century, the members of the failed Decembrist revolt and Polish nobles who resisted Russian rule were sent into exile. Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to die for reading banned literature in 1849, but the sentence was commuted to banishment to Siberia. Members of various socialist revolutionary groups, including Bolsheviks such as Sergo Ordzhonikidze , Vladimir Lenin , Leon Trotsky , and Joseph Stalin were also sent into exile. Convicts who were serving labor sentences and exiles were sent to

13266-437: The number of prisoners with high education increased five times. It resulted in their increased share in the overall composition of the camp prisoners. Among the camp prisoners, the number and share of the intelligentsia was growing at the quickest pace. Distrust, hostility, and even hatred for the intelligentsia was a common characteristic of the Soviet leaders. Information regarding the imprisonment trends and consequences for

13400-407: The other annexed lands, regardless of their ethnic origin, were arrested and sent to the Gulag camps. However, according to the official data, the total number of sentences for political and anti-state (espionage, terrorism) crimes in the USSR in 1939–41 was 211,106. Approximately 300,000 Polish prisoners of war were captured by the USSR during and after the "Polish Defensive War" . Almost all of

13534-518: The prison system that was still under the purview of the NKVD . The purpose of these new camps was to colonise the remote and inhospitable environments throughout the Soviet Union. These changes took place around the same time that Stalin started to institute collectivisation and rapid industrial development. Collectivisation resulted in a large scale purge of peasants and so-called Kulaks . The Kulaks were supposedly wealthy, comparatively to other Soviet peasants, and were considered to be capitalists by

13668-432: The problem, and the dekulakisation process was a failure in providing the government with a steady forced labor force. These prisoners were also lucky to be in the gulag in the early 1930s. Prisoners were relatively well off compared to what the prisoners would have to go through in the final years of the gulag. The Gulag was officially established on April 25, 1930, as the GULAG by the OGPU order 130/63 in accordance with

13802-403: The promise their employer would aid them in gaining a wife. Later on, the kalym system fell out of favour, and was replaced by marriages arrangements based upon courtship and romantic feelings. Religion today in the Republic of Buryatia is primarily divided between Russian Orthodoxy, Buddhism, and irreligious. Shamanism has undergone a revival in rural areas since Soviet repression, however it

13936-658: The rapid growth in people referring to themselves as Buryat is based on the clan list names paying tribute in the form of a sable -skin tax. This indicates a population of about 77,000 in 1640 rising to 157,000 in 1823 and more than a million by 1950. The historical roots of the Buryat culture are related to the Mongolic peoples. After Buryatia was incorporated into Russia, it was exposed to two traditions – Buddhism and Orthodox Christianity . Buryats west of Lake Baikal and Olkhon ( Irkut Buryats ), are more " Russified ", and they soon abandoned nomadism for agriculture, whereas

14070-501: The reliability of such data heavily rely on memoir sources that come to higher estimations. Archival researchers have found "no plan of destruction" of the gulag population and no statement of official intent to kill them, and prisoner releases vastly exceeded the number of deaths in the Gulag. This policy can partially be attributed to the common practice of releasing prisoners who were suffering from incurable diseases as well as prisoners who were near death. Almost immediately after

14204-491: The same sample of Buryat males (minus the G-M201 singleton) and found that they belonged to the following haplogroups: 4/80 = 5.0% C2a1a2a-M86, 5/80 = 6.3% C2a1a3-P369, 40/80 = 50.0% C2b1a1a1a-M407, 1/80 = 1.3% J2a1-P354(xJ2a1a-L27), 2/80 = 2.5% N1a2b1-P63(xP362), 23/80 = 28.8% N1a1a1a1a3a-P89, 2/80 = 2.5% O2a1b-JST002611, 1/80 = 1.3% R2a-M124, 1/80 = 1.3% R1a1a1b1a-Z282, 1/80 = 1.3% R1b1a1b1a1a2-P312(xL21). Kim et al. (2011) reported

14338-463: The shore, giving the trees the appearance of a standing person, thus earning them the name "walking trees". Furthermore, there used to be a gulag fish factory here where prisoners worked during Soviet times. However, after Stalin's death, these prisoners were released, and the factory has been abandoned since the 1950s. Three Brothers Rock , or Sagaan-Khushun Cape , is one of Baikal's natural monuments and another popular tourist sightseeing spot. It

14472-577: The shortness of the growing season. They focus on the raising of dairy cattle and the growing of berries to sustain most of their diet. There are also some communities that farm various types of trees and cash crops such as wheat and rye. On the slopes of the Sayan and Altai Mountains, there are communities whose way of life is breeding reindeer . Mongolian Buryats are farmers as well but are typically semi-settled. They build sheds and fences to keep livestock contained and use hay as their main source of food for

14606-410: The state, and by extension enemies of socialism. The term would also become associated with anyone who opposed or even seemed unsatisfied with the Soviet government. By late 1929, Stalin began a program known as dekulakization . Stalin demanded that the kulak class be completely wiped out, resulting in the imprisonment and execution of Soviet peasants. In a mere four months, 60,000 people were sent to

14740-582: The statistical treatment, samples from Ulan-Ude and Khuramsha village were united into one group designated as "Ulan-Ude". The authors found significant differences among eastern Buryats (Khorin Buryats from Kizhinga and Eravninsky districts of Buryatia plus Agin Buryats from Agin-Buryat Okrug of Zabaykalsky Krai), southern and central Buryats (Selenga Buryats from Dzhida and Kyakhta plus Kudarinsk Buryats from Ulan-Ude and Khuramsha), and southwestern and northern Buryats (Oka Buryats from Okinsky district of Buryatia plus Barguzin Buryats from Kurumkan village). Similar to

14874-426: The term katorga works ( каторжные работы ) was reintroduced. They were initially intended for Nazi collaborators , but then other categories of political prisoners (for example, members of deported peoples who fled from exile) were also sentenced to "katorga works". Prisoners sentenced to "katorga works" were sent to Gulag prison camps with the most harsh regime and many of them perished. Up until World War II,

15008-463: The term Gulag was originally used in reference to a government agency, in English and many other languages, the acronym acquired the qualities of a common noun, denoting the Soviet system of prison -based, unfree labor . Even more broadly, "Gulag" has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself, the set of procedures that prisoners once called the "meat-grinder": the arrests, the interrogations,

15142-569: The third soul, likely a result of their exposure to Buddhism. A majority of the Buryats are followers of Buddhism . The Buryats converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the early eighteenth century under the influence of Tibetan and Mongolian missionaries . A small minority of Buryats are converts to Christianity . The earliest Orthodox mission was established in Irkutsk in 1731. Some Buryats converted to Christianity for material incentives while others were forcefully converted. Despite its presence in

15276-704: The total number of prisoners in prison camps was more than 2.4 million of which more than 465,000 were political prisoners. Between the years 1934 to 1953, 20% to 40% of the Gulag population in each given year were released. The institutional analysis of the Soviet concentration system is complicated by the formal distinction between GULAG and GUPVI. GUPVI (ГУПВИ) was the Main Administration for Affairs of Prisoners of War and Internees ( Главное управление по делам военнопленных и интернированных , [Glavnoye upravleniye po delam voyennoplennyh i internirovannyh] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |label= ( help ) ),

15410-434: The transport in unheated cattle cars, the forced labor, the destruction of families, the years spent in exile, the early and unnecessary deaths. Western authors use the term Gulag to denote all the prisons and internment camps in the Soviet Union. The term's contemporary usage is at times notably not directly related to the USSR, such as in the expression " North Korea's Gulag " for camps operational today. The word Gulag

15544-604: The tribal union of the Tiele . The Tiele, in turn, came from the Dingling . The first information about Dingling appeared in sources from the 2nd century BC. The name "Buriyad" is mentioned as one of the forest people for the first time in The Secret History of the Mongols (possibly 1240). It says Jochi , the eldest son of Genghis Khan , marched north to subjugate the Buryats in 1207.

15678-460: The underpopulated areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East – regions that lacked towns or food sources as well as organized transportation systems. Despite the isolated conditions, some prisoners successfully escaped to populated areas. Stalin himself escaped three of the four times after he was sent into exile. Since these times, Siberia gained its fearful connotation as a place of punishment,

15812-416: The unique appearance of the trees found here – stilted trees with their roots exposed above the sand. The constant winds that blow from the sea towards land move the sand away from the shore and form high sand hills, which are called "moving sands", as these sand dunes constantly change location depending on the direction of the wind. This strong wind has also resulted in the exposure of roots of trees near

15946-406: The use of mineral and thermal springs for healing. A balanced diet (of meat, offal , plants and herbs) and proper nutrition were recommended to cure illness. The use of herbs for medical purposes was minimal because of the lack of vegetation in the semi-deserts and dry steppes . However, Buryat healers were considered skilled in healing wounds, treating head trauma, midwifery and bone-setting . In

16080-627: The war started. After the German invasion of Poland that marked the start of World War II in Europe, the Soviet Union invaded and annexed eastern parts of the Second Polish Republic . In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Bessarabia (now the Republic of Moldova) and Bukovina . According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens and inhabitants of

16214-424: The water level of Lake Baikal. The island is large enough to have its own lakes, and features a combination of taiga , steppe and even a small desert . A deep strait separates the island from the land. The island's appearance is a result of millions of years of tectonic movement resulting in the hollowing of the channel between the land ( Maloe More Sound and Olkhon Gate Strait) and the block of stone forming

16348-443: The way kalym system worked. Money became a significant part of the exchange. Over time, the price of a bride significantly increased to the point where "in the 1890s, bride price involved '400 to 600 rubles' in addition to 86–107 head of livestock, when 70 years earlier only the wealthiest Western Buryats gave 100 heads (of cattle)." As the situation worsened, many men engaged in multi-year work contracts with wealthy herd-owners under

16482-589: Was a system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union . The word Gulag originally referred only to the division of the Soviet secret police that was in charge of running the forced labor camps from the 1930s to the early 1950s during Joseph Stalin 's rule, but in English literature the term is popularly used for the system of forced labor throughout the Soviet era . The abbreviation GULAG (ГУЛАГ) stands for " Г ла́вное У правле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х ЛАГ ере́й" (Main Directorate of Correctional Labour Camps ), but

16616-409: Was able to take control of the government, and began to form the gulag system. On June 27, 1929, the Politburo created a system of self-supporting camps that would eventually replace the existing prisons around the country. These prisons were meant to receive inmates that received a prison sentence that exceeded three years. Prisoners who had a shorter prison sentence than three years were to remain in

16750-405: Was arranged by the family, at times occurring as early as one to two years old. A unique aspect of traditional Buryat marriage was the kalym , an exchange that combined both bride wealth and a dowry . Kalym involved a husband exchanging an agreed number of head of cattle for his bride, while the bride's family would provide dowry in the form of a yurt and other essential household goods. If

16884-459: Was dropped after the revealing of the Nazino affair in 1933. The 1931–32 archives indicate the Gulag had approximately 200,000 prisoners in the camps; while in 1935, approximately 800,000 were in camps and 300,000 in colonies. Gulag population reached a peak value (1.5 million) in 1941, gradually decreased during the war and then started to grow again, achieving a maximum by 1953. Besides Gulag camps,

17018-479: Was first discovered and described in 1879 by geologist Jan Czerski . One of the most important ecological problems of Olkhon Island is the disposal of household waste . At present, the waste is disposed of in large piles in woods near the village of Khuzhir . The dump is unenclosed, and the tipping process is uncontrolled. Moreover, with recent increases in tourism on the island, new sources of hard rubbish have begun to appear. Another ecological concern affecting

17152-545: Was immensely important in Buryat society, both in spiritual and social terms. All Buryats traced their lineage to a single mythical individual, with the particular ancestor varying based upon geographical region. Kinship also determined proximity, as neighbours were nearly always related. Groups of relatives that inhabited the same grazing land organized themselves into clans based on genealogy. While coalitions between clans did occur, they were infrequent and often relied on looser interpretations of kinship and relations. Marriage

17286-514: Was not a common sentence; approximately 6,000 katorga convicts were serving sentences in 1906 and 28,600 in 1916. Under the Imperial Russian penal system, those who were convicted of less serious crimes were sent to corrective prisons and they were also made to work. Forced exile to Siberia had been in use for a wide range of offenses since the seventeenth century and it was a common punishment for political dissidents and revolutionaries. In

17420-480: Was not often used in Russian, either officially or colloquially; the predominant terms were the camps (лагеря, lagerya ) and the zone (зона, zona ), usually singular, for the labor camp system and for the individual camps. The official term, " correctional labour camp ", was suggested for official use by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the session of July 27, 1929. The Tsar and

17554-466: Was officially re-established in 1946. A revival of Buddhism has taken place since the late 1980s as an important factor in the national consolidation. In the 1930s, Buryat-Mongolia was one of the sites of Soviet studies aimed to disprove Nazi race theories . Among other things, Soviet physicians studied the "endurance and fatigue levels" of Russian, Buryat-Mongol, and Russian-Buryat-Mongol workers to prove that all three groups were equally able. In 1923,

17688-513: Was renamed several times, e.g., to Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies ( Главное управление исправительно-трудовых колоний (ГУИТК) ), which names can be seen in the documents describing the subordination of various camps. Some historians estimate that 14 million people were imprisoned in the Gulag labor camps from 1929 to 1953 (the estimates for the period from 1918 to 1929 are more difficult to calculate). Other calculations, by historian Orlando Figes , refer to 25 million prisoners of

17822-404: Was signed in 1995. In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022, the Buryats have been reported as one of Russia's ethnic minority groups suffering from a disproportionally large casualty rate among Russian forces, reinforcing the processes of assimilation and Russification. Ethnic Buryats often enlist in the army because of financial reasons. The Buryat national tradition

17956-417: Was the absence of convicted criminals in the GUPVI camps. Otherwise the conditions in both camp systems were similar: hard labor, poor nutrition and living conditions, and high mortality rate. For the Soviet political prisoners, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , all foreign civilian detainees and foreign POWs were imprisoned in the GULAG; the surviving foreign civilians and POWs considered themselves prisoners in

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