Misplaced Pages

1929 Buryat Revolt
Part of Collectivization in the Soviet Union
Date 1929 Location Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Result Soviet Victory Buddhist monasteries closed Lamas exiled Anti-Buryat purges in Mongolia Mongolian alphabet replaced with Romanised characters in 1931 10,000 killed in 1937-1938 purges
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Buryats
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Stalin Yakov Epstien	Unknown
Units involved
Red Army	Buryat Rebels and Farmers
Casualties and losses
Unknown	35,000 Buryats killed

The 1929 Buryat Revolt was a poorly organized uprising within the Soviet Union, triggered by oppressive policies and discrimination against the Buryats, a Mongol ethnic group primarily adhering to Buddhism.

The revolt was initiated in response to Joseph Stalin's forced collectivization strategy, which sought to amalgamate individual landholdings into collective farms. However, the Soviet regime quickly quashed the revolt, resulting in approximately 10,000 deaths and prompting some Buryats to escape southward to Mongolia.

The failed uprising highlights the profound ethnic tensions and resistance to Soviet collectivization, leaving a lasting impact on the Buryat community and Soviet ethnic policies.

History

In 1928, the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin implemented a forced policy of collectivization across the Soviet Union. The policy aimed to integrate individual landholdings and labour into collectively-controlled and state-controlled farms. Collectivization angered the largely agricultural Buryats.

Prior to the implementation of the collectivization policies, the Buryats, a Mongol ethnic group, already faced discrimination from Soviet authorities. Buryats mainly adhere to the Buddhist religion, which was persecuted by Soviet authorities from 1925 onwards in the form of closing down monasteries and exiling Lamas.

As a result of Soviet policies, several Buryats openly revolted against Soviet authorities and many fled to Mongolia (many of which were later killed by Communist Mongolian authorities). The uprising was swiftly put down by the Red Army, leading to the deaths of at least 35,000 Buryats.

Between 1927 and 1928, 10,000 people were killed in Buryatia in an attempt by Soviet authorities to eliminate growing Buryat nationalism and Pan-Mongolism.

References

1. "A Brief History of Buryat -- Russian Relations". culturalsurvival.org. 26 March 2010.
2. ^ James Minahan. Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations, Vol. 2: S–Z, p. 345
3. ^ "D.Sukhbaatar: Red Buryat". worldmongol.org. 2 February 2023.
4. ^ "Chronology for Buryat in Russia". refworld.org.
5. "Who are Buryats?". GuruTravelMongolia.
6. Geraci, Robert P.; Khodarkovsky, Michael (2001). Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8703-3. Despite the onset of antireligious persecution, the Soviet government, desiring the support of Muslims and Buddhists, stopped short of launching an all-out war against their religious beliefs and institutions. However, it was predictable that such a situation would be only temporary. As Sovietization advanced further into Buriat and Kalmyk regions, the number of Lamaist clergy and khuruls was reduced.
7. Olson & Pappas 1994, p. 125.

Works cited

• Olson, James; Pappas, Nicholas, eds. (1994). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313274978.

• Rebellions in Russia
• Communism in Russia
• 1929 in Russia
• Conflicts in 1929