Пограничные Идентичности: Буряты Между Монголией и Россией

SUMMARY:

Tatiana Skrynnikova’s article explores identity formation among the Buryats. Skrynnikova begins with an historical survey of the Buryats’ construction of the image of Russia (the monarchy and the state), tracing the history of Buryats contacts and coexistence with the Russian empire. Basing her conclusions on the analysis of chronicles and folkloristic sources, the author traces the terms in which Buryats depicted the “White Tsar” and accepted his rule. The author argues that identity formation among the Buryats was influenced by their historic position on the empire’s Far Eastern borderland. On the one hand, there existed a cultural affinity with the Mongols living outside the territory of the Russian empire; yet, on the other hand, there existed a political identification with Russia not least because the empire’s protection of Buddhism from the Chinese was seen as beneficial to the religious community. Having surveyed the historical background of Buryat identity formation through the early Soviet period, Skrynnikova investigates cultural politics and the construction of the image of Byryatia and Russia in the discourse of the contemporary Buryat intelligentsia.