Review of the book «Kalmyk songs about Siberia. – M.: Bumba, 2023. – 216 p.»

One of the unexplored problems in Kalmyk history is the spiritual life of the Kalmyks during Stalin’s exile. There is scant information about Kalmyks conducting calendar rituals, household rituals, and performing folk songs and dances during these years. The internal protest of the Kalmyks was expressed, first of all, in songs dedicated to the sad day of the Kalmyks eviction on December 28, 1943. Kalmyk folklorists started the recording and study of songs of Stalin’s exile only in the nineties of the last century. This collection is notable because it brings together, for the first time in Kalmyk folklore, eighty-three texts of songs from the Siberian deportation cycle, recorded from different performers. Some of them were recorded by the authors of the collection in field research on Kalmykia in 2022-2023.