Local government of the Kalmyk steppe in the Provisional Government activities

The subject of this article is the transformation of the Kalmyk steppe local self-government institution in the context of the reforms of the Provisional Government. The reforming activities of the Provisional Government in the government of the state granted the right to local self-government to the population of the Kalmyk steppe. The I and II Congresses of representatives of the Kalmyk people of Astrakhan and Stavropol Provinces and Terskaya Oblast in the Kalmyk steppe abolished the institute of the trustee power and established local self-government on the basis of the general, equal, secret and direct suffrage. Capable citizens aged 20 and older living within constituencies could participate in elections. Representatives of clergy, persons with mental diseases, convicts under sentence of court and after three years on punishment departure were not allowed to elections. Archival materials show the activity of the population in the electoral process on forming of executive committees, and also in the solution of questions of local value. During elections Ulus and Aimak Executive Committees, which were bodies of managerial control and territorial self-government, were established. The resolution of the II Congress of the Kalmyk people representatives contained a decision on the issuing of the Oyratskiye Izvestiya newspaper in the Kalmyk language, funded by the territorial authorities, published until the Civil War, and also the decision on the introduction of Buddhist dogma teaching in Kalmyk ulus schools. The Central Committee was to develop a project of urgent actions in the field of self-government, land, economy and common culture for the constituent assembly and legislative institutions. The financial side of the organized local self-government was one of the key problems in the suspense of the questions of land use. Protest movements of peasants influenced the condition of the Kalmyk social capital in connection with their refusal to pay rent amounts for quitrent items. Meanwhile, the lack of a social and economic basis and political legal guarantees of legislative provisions and reforms implementation, the inconsistency of the government in achieving effective objectives as well as objective circumstances predetermined the incompleteness of transformations and the loss of people's trust both by the Provisional Government and its local government bodies.

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