Welcome to the website of the project «Russians in Mongolia. Comprehensive study of culture in a foreign ethic environment (folklore, ritual traditions, language)»!

The forming of the Russian population in Mongolia began at the beginning of the 20th century after the country gained independence from China and the emigration of Russians at the end of the Civil War from the border areas of Trans-Baikal, Baikalia. The establishment of the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924 and the «construction of socialism» determined the nature of the state contacts between the USSR and the MNR, which significantly influenced the social composition, number, status and attitude to Russians in Mongolia for more than 70 years – from 1920s – until the early 1990s. A special ethno-social group was so called «local Russians», descendants of Russian emigrants of the 1920s,the number of which was several tens of thousands of people by the 1990s. In the history of «local Russians» we can distinguish two periods of Mongolia’s history. During the 1920-1950’s they were in relative cultural and social autonomy, participated in the economic life of the MNR, did not separate themselves from the historical homeland (many of them fought on the Eastern Front of World War II). But after 1957, «local Russians» found themselves in a certain ideological and social isolation: the negative attitude of the official representatives of the USSR has led to the corresponding attitude towards them by visiting specialists from the Soviet Union and the countries of the socialist camp.

Local Russian diaspora of Mongolia is one of many ethno-social groups that appeared in the beginning of the XXth century outside Russia. The nature of its formatting, historical experience, social and spiritual life are of great interest in terms of studying adaptation mechanisms in the sphere of ethnoculture, transformation of folklore and ceremonial traditions in a foreign and foreign-language environment.

The project aims to study the strategy of adaptation of the diaspora in a foreign ethnic environment, which will form a new theoretical approach to the study of diasporas, changes in their ethno-cultural and ethno-linguistic settings.

Contact us via rus-mongol.imli@inbox.ru