Publication details
Kalmyk émigrés in Prague and their cultural activities
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Slovanský přehled |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.hiu.cas.cz/cs/download/sp-1-2020.pdf |
| Keywords | Kalmyks; Czechoslovakia; Prague; emigration; cultural activities; Władysław Kotwicz |
| Description | The members of Prague’s Kalmyk community, which in the interwar period numbered more than one hundred individuals, came to Czechoslovakia in the 1920s as part of the large wave of émigrés from Russia for whom the Czechoslovak state organized the “Russian Aid Operation” in 1921. One of the central figures of the local Kalmyk community was Badma Ulanov, who was a principal organizer of Kalmyk cultural, scholarly, and publishing activities in Czechoslovakia. The Kalmyk community in Czechoslovakia was active in writing and publishing, and in putting out magazines and books whose range included fiction, nonfiction, and works that describe folk customs. Thanks to these diverse activities, Prague’s Kalmyk community was the main cultural and scholarly center for all Kalmyk émigré communities in Europe (the largest of which were located in Yugoslavia, France, and Bulgaria). One researcher in the field of Kalmyk studies who was in contact with the Prague Kalmyk community and who supported them in their academic endeavors was the Polish Mongolist Władysław Kotwicz. |