Repressed Vainakhs in the Social Memory of Deported Kalmyks

Abstract

The article is devoted to problems regarding the perception of representatives of repressed Chechens in the social memory of repressed Kalmyks and its pragmatics, which have not been posed earlier in Russian anthropology. The sources used are field materials collected by the author, as well as published memories of the deportation of the Kalmyks and materials posted on Facebook by the Chechen group “We Remember. Deportation and return”. Results: Both exiled peoples had the status of “punished peoples”. But in the social memory of the Kalmyks, there remained exactly what the Chechens differed by - the practices of Islam, adherence to Sharia law and adat, gender traditions (polygamy, etc.) — those practices that reflected the identity of the ethnic group and worked to unite it. The Kalmyks remembered what seemed unusual, and single examples were carried over to the whole group. This essentialization of ethnicity in memory reflected a traumatic past and attempts for reconciliation with it.