Study of Kalmyks' life in Thirteen Days, Thirteen Years by A. Balakayev

Kalmykia, perhaps a relatively unfamiliar name for manypeople, is the name of a nation. During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, this nation made tremendous sacrifices for thestruggle against German Fascists, and established immortal feats. But such a brave and selfless nation suffered brutal deportationpolicies of the Stalin government. In December 1943, a ream of papers were issued to abolish the Kalmyk Republic and deport thewhole nation to the cold land of Siberia. Thus, they began their 13-years of life in exile. This is the most painful experience in thehistory of the Kalmyk nation. In 1991, a Kalmyk author, A. Barakaev wrote a Nonfictional Novel Thirteen Days, Thirteen Years. Thisnovel brought the writer great literary reputation. It records and reflects the Kalmyk people's thirteen days of migration and thirteenyears of exile in Siberia under the pressure from the national policy of the Stalin government. It also describes the local Russians'sincere sympathy for them and enthusiastic help given to them. The paper aims at studying both the national political issues from theaspect of culture and the artistic reflection of this work, in order to better understand the enormous damage and serious consequencesmade to the exiled nations by Stalin's Ethnic Expulsion Policy, which the Kalmyk suffered. It also studies this Kalmyk national epicwork from the perspective of social cultural study. The paper consists of introduction, body, conclusion and references. It reveals themain national political issues through the analysis of literary works, and shows Kalmyks' national exile and the ups and downs of thegenerations suffering. The first part of the paper describes the 13-day exile and exposes the cruelty of the expulsion. The second partdescribes the 13 years of hard labor and exile life of the Kalmyk people, the broken dreams of those generations, their fate, in order toshow the deep impact and persecution of the Expulsion Policy to nations like Kalmykia. The third part analyzes the author's objectiveand fair attitude towards historical facts in the creative process and humanitarian spirit. The novel, although to demonstrate Kalmyks'national suffering, did not center itself on hatred and complaint; it reflects the valuable qualities of the Kalmyk nation in the face ofdisaster and unfair fate. The conclusion summarizes the analysis of the paper and emphasizes the importance and long-term significanceof concerns about the fate of small nations.

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