Buryat liberation movement

The Buryat liberation movement is the centuries-long social and military confrontation of ethnic Buryats against the Russian Empire, which actually colonized the region. In modern history - rallies and actions against the policy of the Russian Federation (in particular, against discrimination of the Buryat people on national and linguistic grounds).

History of Russia's conquest of Buryatia
The Moscow state began the conquest of the Buryat lands in the early 17th century. Russian conquerors of Eastern Siberia regarded this region as a source of income for the Moscow treasury rich in raw materials and furs. The construction of the Krasnoyarsk ostrog by the Russians opened their way up the Kanna River. The ostrog became one of the bridgeheads for further full-scale invasive actions.

Throughout the first third of the 17th century, the Buryats successfully repelled Russian attacks and prevented the Cossacks from advancing into their lands. The strong military-political alliance of the Ekhirites and Bulagats, whom the Cossacks called "big brothers" in the documentation, had a clear governance structure and an elected military leadership. It is known about the coalition of Buryat and Evenk princes Irkinei, Mukotei and Bolkei, who united to repel the attacks of Russian invaders.

In 1629 Cossacks almost simultaneously made two large campaigns along the Angara from both outposts of Russian colonization - from Yenisei and Krasnoyarsk ostrog. Quoting the chronicles, both detachments "committing robberies and violence on the way, reached the Angara River to the mouth of the Oka River".

After several hard battles with the Buryats, the Cossacks still managed to impose yasak on a number of remote western Buryat uluses. Later Russian historians called these events "the voluntary entry of the Buryats into Russian subjection".

Refusing to pay tribute to Moscow, Buryat leaders organized a series of uprisings. In 1634, the Buryat prince Kogonya and his men slaughtered almost the entire detachment of the Pentecostal Vasily Dunayev, who had come to the Bratsky ostrog to collect yasak. Because of the constant clashes between tsarist detachments sent to "subdue the unruly Buryats" and local uluses, the Bratsk stockaded town was burned to the ground three times, but it was rebuilt each time, as it was a key point for the Russians in the logistics of collecting tribute, the slave trade and the transportation of stolen cattle. Russian chronicles of that period described how Cossacks enslaved Buryat women and children, tortured captured men and took the sons of Buryat warlords as hostages.

By the time Peter the Great came to power, Russian-Buryat relations were extremely strained, and rebellions were constantly breaking out in the region. After the Russian-Chinese border was drawn in 1729, Mongolian-speaking ethnic groups, including the Buryats, found themselves cut off from the bulk of the Mongols. The Buryat people fell under the complete control of the Russian government for many years.

Beginning in the 19th century, there was a strong cultural and linguistic pressure on the Buryats; this was partly due to the increase in the Russian population, which began to move en masse into Buryat ethnic territories (by the beginning of World War I, the Buryats had lost more than half of their lands in favor of colonists). The Russian government decided to abolish the "steppe administration" and replace it with volost administration; Russian administration and courts were also introduced, which abolished the Buryat self-government that had existed for centuries. Together with the Russian expropriation of ancestral lands and traditional nomadic pastures of the Buryats, this caused resentment among the local population, supported by the Buddhist clergy.

At first, the protests were peaceful and manifested themselves in writing petitions to the Tsar, as well as in attempts to gain an audience with him. Nicholas II refused meetings with representatives of Buryatia and rejected all petitions, after which the Buryats began to boycott the volost authorities. Speeches of Buryat activists led to the fact that on February 5, 1904, on the territory of five Buryat alien administrations (in a huge part of modern Buryatia) was introduced a state of increased security, and repressions against the Buryat nobility and clergy began. All this, together with attempts to force the Buryats to convert from Buddhism to Orthodoxy, only intensified the protest mood, and the loss of the Russo-Japanese War to Russia signaled to the Buryats the instability of the tsarist government. Open talks began either about Buryatia's independence or the unification of the Mongol-speaking peoples. During this period, the scholar-philologist and socio-political figure Tsyben Zhamtsaranovich Zhamtsarano wrote a number of scientific works on the national statehood of Mongols and Buryats. In 1905, against the backdrop of the all-imperial anti-Tsar rebellion, a Buryat congress is held in Chita, demanding self-government and linguistic freedom for Buryatia.

Soviet period
From March 1917, Buryat intellectuals organized a series of conferences in Petrograd, Chita, Irkutsk and Verkhneudinsk (present-day Ulan-Ude). Representatives of the Buryat administrative districts of Irkutsk and Transbaikal regions were invited. These conferences culminated in the first All-Buryat Congress on April 23–25, 1917 in Chita, where activists advocated a self-governing Buryat Autonomous Oblast with an elected body of Buryats.

The State of Buryat-Mongolia formed by the decision of the Congress existed until 1920. Its supreme body of state power was the Buryat-Mongol People's Duma. In addition, the theocratic Balagat State emerged in the region. Also in 1919, the so-called Pan-Mongolian movement supported by ataman Grigory Semyonov gained popularity, and some representatives of Inner Mongolia joined it. Pan-Mongolists planned to create a state on the territories of Russia (Buryatia) and on Mongolian lands included in China. In 1919, the 1st Pan-Mongolist conference was held in Chita.

By 1923, however, the Soviet army had seized these territories, partly because some Buryat leaders were attracted by the Bolshevik promises of self-determination and territorial autonomy for Buryatia. In 1923, the Bolsheviks established the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the RSFSR. By the 30th, it was part of the East Siberian Krai, later divided among five administrative units. Around this period, total industrialization began in Buryatia, and with it aggressive Russification. Thus, the official vertical Mongolian script was banned and the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, causing many traditional literary written forms of the Buryat-Mongol language to be excluded from use.

In 1929, an uprising caused by collectivization and Bolshevik oppression of Buddhism was suppressed in Buryatia. In 1937–38, repressions against the Buryat intelligentsia and clergy began. In particular, Elbek-Dorzhii Rinchinovich Rinchino, a prominent Buryat socio-political, state and military figure, one of the ideologists of the national movement of the Buryat people, was arrested in the case of "Buryat anti-Soviet nationalism-panmongolism," which was soon accused of practically the entire leadership of Soviet Buryatia. Most of the repressed were shot or sent to camps.

On July 7, 1958, due to the growing influence of Communist China on Mongolian-speaking peoples, the Buryat-Mongol ASSR was renamed the Buryat ASSR by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. During Brezhnev's time, a policy of creating a "unified Soviet nation" was actively pursued, with most schools in Buryatia switching to exclusively Russian as the language of instruction.

A new wave of national revival in Buryatia occurred during the perestroika period in the 1980s. Organizations emerged with the aim of uniting the Buryat territories and reviving the native language and culture; the issues of autonomy and self-determination of the region were also raised. Such organizations were the Geser political association, the People's Front, the Buryat-Mongolian People's Party, the Nageden National Unity Movement, and others.

Under the control of the Russian Federation
In 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Buryat ASSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Buryat Soviet Socialist Republic. Buryatia renounced the status of autonomy and proclaimed state sovereignty on its territory. The supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the Buryat SSR was proclaimed in the republic. After the democratic reforms of 1991, a number of non-governmental organizations returned to advocating the ideas of pan-Mongolism ("Movement for National Unity Naegedel" and "Buryat-Mongol People's Party"). On March 27, 1992, the Supreme Soviet of Buryatia passes a law renaming the Buryat SSR into the Republic of Buryatia. Buryatia becomes a republic within the Russian Federation. The republic retains considerable autonomy, with a separate legislative body and its own president. However, the autonomy was limited during the first years of Vladimir Putin's rule. First, on April 24, 2002, Law No. 1004-II "On Recognition of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Republic of Buryatia" was adopted. Then the law of 2004, according to which regional governors and presidents should be appointed rather than directly elected.

In 2014, in connection with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, activists and supporters of the Buryat national movement repeatedly condemned the illegality of Russia's actions. They categorically objected to sending soldiers from the territory of Buryatia and Siberia to participate in illegal military actions.

By 2016, many Buryat activists had emigrated and formed the Buryat Democratic Movement outside the Russian Federation. With the outbreak of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, the Buryat Democratic Movement (in exile) was one of the first to issue an official statement in support of Ukraine and condemned the illegality of Russia's actions and military aggression.

Buryat emigration formed a consolidated movement, Buryats Against War, from which emerged the Free Buryatia Foundation, which includes activists in the EU, USA and Mongolia, as well as groups that remained underground in Buryatia.

In 2020, the Buryat Democratic Movement (in exile) officially appealed to the President of the Russian Federation (RF) with a demand to restore the Republic of Buryatia to its 1937 borders and to take the necessary actions to rehabilitate the Buryat nation and the Republic of Buryatia. The demand was based on the current legislation of the federation and the obligations assumed by the RF to comply with international legal norms, as well as archival historical documents. This appeal was ignored.

Together with other peoples oppressed on the territory of the Russian Federation, the Buryats joined the League of Free Nations based in Europe.

In 2022–23, due to mobilization and the mass departure of men of conscription age abroad, many villages were left without vital professions. Due to the war unleashed by Russia, the image of the Buryat for the international community acquired extremely negative associations. After the tragedy in Bucha, the negative image of a Buryat soldier in the uniform of the Russian Armed Forces became entrenched in the world press. A huge number of funerals of soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine were recorded in the republic.

All this has activated a new wave of protests in the Russian Federation (mainly anti-war and anti-mobilization) and in other countries. The protests are actively suppressed by the Russian authorities, the number of protests is carefully concealed by the censored media.

Language
With the formation of the Buryats' own republic in 1923, the Buryat-Mongolian language was declared the official language. The Buryats officially used their own vertical Mongolian script, which ignored dialectal differences of the Buryats due to the fact that the written Mongolian classical language was used in writing. But in 1933 this font was banned and replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet.

Buryat was listed by UNESCO in the Red Book of Endangered Languages with the label "severely endangered". In Buryatia there are no records and TV channels in Buryat, and the capital of the region has only two schools with instruction in Buryat. According to the 2010 All-Russian Census, only 13.7% of the population in the Republic of Buryatia speaks Buryat (23.6% in 2002). Among ethnic Buryats, over the past ten years the number of native language speakers has fallen from 81.4% to 43.6%. Defending the right to their own language is one of the important elements of the Buryat national liberation struggle.

Buddhism
Researchers note the consolidating role of Buddhism for the national identity, linguistic and religious revival of the Buryats. The Buryat traditional sangha openly declares its goals of preserving and developing national culture.

Activist
In the modern Russian Federation and abroad, there are a significant number of activists working to revitalize the Buryat language, culture and independence. Many activists have been forced to leave Russia due to political persecution. For example, Vladimir Khamutayev, Buryat dissident, professor, doctor of Historical Sciences, who emigrated to the United States in 2015, called it the persecution of the authorities as the main reason for changing the country. The reason is the book he wrote, "Buryatia's Accession to Russia: History, Law, Politics," which refutes the myth of Buryatia's voluntary accession to Russia. Vladimir Khamutayev is known as a scholar-historian who has been advocating for the self-determination of the Buryats since the 1980s. Vladimir began his historical work at the Buryat Research Center in 2004. He has always been interested in the national question, the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. He has written about 100 works on these topics. In the summer of 2013, he was forced to leave Russia to escape persecution by the authorities. The scientist's departure was preceded by his dismissal from the Institute of Mongolology, Buddhology and Tibetology of the Buryat Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the wording "for being absent". Many believe that the real reason for Khamutayev's expulsion from the institute was the book "Buryatia's Accession to Russia: History, Law, Politics", published by the scientist in 2011. Khamutayev wrote the book about how Buryatia's accession to Russia in the 17th century really went, in response to celebrations from the authorities about «voluntary» incorporation. The book refuted the concept of "voluntariness" with numerous historical facts of permanent military actions for a whole century, emphasizing the violent nature of the accession of the Buryats by Tsarist Russia. The disagreement with the official interpretation of history caused a negative reaction from the republican authorities. After the book was published, the director of the institute, Boris Bazarov, demanded that Khamutayev write a resignation letter, to which the latter refused. This was followed by persecution of Khamutayev in his home country, which forced him to leave Buryatia with his family and receive political asylum in the United States. Vladimir is currently working at Indiana University.

Another political emigrant was Bulat Shagzhin, who published books on Buryat culture and organized Buryat language schools for adults. His textbook "History of the Buryats" was banned from publication, and Bulat himself was accused of allegedly collaborating with U.S. representatives to plan a color revolution.

Marina Khanhalaeva, a former opera singer, one of the founders of the national movement "Tusgaar Buryaad-Mongolia", representative of the Buryat independence movement in the League of Free Nations. More than 10 years ago, she left Buryatia after receiving a grant to study in the United States, where she got married. Previously, she had no interest in politics, but after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, she became a civil activist and began looking for contacts of oppositionists in exile, thus getting acquainted with Vladimir Khamutayev. In 2023, as the leader of the movement "Tusgaar Buryad-Mongolia" ("Independence of Buryat-Mongolia", the pre-revolutionary name of Buryatia), she spoke at the European Parliament in the framework of the Forum of Free Peoples of Russia: she spoke about the forced Christianization of the Buryats, the suppression of national resistance, collectivization, repressions of the 30s, destruction of Buddhist temples, religious objects and religious books. Marina Khanhalaeva also mentioned the disbanding of the Buryat autonomous districts, which are now part of Irkutsk Oblast and Trans-Baikal Territory. She also spoke about the current plight of the Buryat language and the racism that Buryats suffer outside their republic. In her speeches she emphasizes the problem of colonization of Buryatia by Russia, and speaks of the long tradition of using Buryat men as soldiers in wars for Russia's imperial interests from Tsarist times to the present day.