Republic of Kalmykia

The Great Steppe Side Law was adopted for the first time in 1640 at a congress between Jungar and the Khalkhass khans. Those were troubled times, years of general discord. The tribes were scattered and weakened both by wars against external enemies as well as themselves.

Twenty-eight khans and three Buddhist activists grouped together to adopt the great steppe side law which aimed at eradicating internecine battles and conflicts between the khans which had torn the land apart for centuries. They gathered together to establish order and a durable peace on the territory of the Mongol Khanates. The wisdom of a nation is based on the experience of the past.

The Kalmyks say: “The hand has five fingers, all of them different, but each one hurts if you cut it, since each finger is but a part of the hand and all the fingers complement one another”. All the clauses of the great steppe side law begin with the same exclamation: “May there be wellbeing!”

The great words of our ancestors. The well-being of an individual, the well-being of a family, the republic, of Russia. A man must be well off. With money he will quickly learn the fundamentals of economics and know where to invest his funds, how to return his money with interest, how to create a company and entrust his earnings to the state. This money will work for the republic and create the foundation of its wealth. This is why in my program “the interests of the citizens are more important than those of the state. Private property is sacred and inviolable”. This path is a long one, involving hard work without respite or holidays. But when you work for yourself and not for the state you will not feel as though you are breaking your back.

With the rise in the standard of living here people will consciously strengthen their public morality, and a tightening of the sublime, universal and spiritual spheres will also follow. This is why I reunited the church with the state, and am embarked on a program of building churches, mosques, khuruls and 100 catholic and protestant cathedrals. Out of my personal means I have allotted over three hundred million rubles for the consolidation of religion, thereby creating the foundation for the spiritual rebirth of Kalmykia’s population. However, restoration comes about gradually rather than immediately. It requires time, money, patience and a lot of painstaking effort.

I told many of my opponents that I had turned down my salary and my travel allowances. I do not take a single kopeck from the republic’s budget for my personal needs. I have invested hundreds of millions of my own money into Kalmykia’s economy. I work eighteen hours a day without breaks or holidays. My program is practicable. I have tested it on my former companies which employed 600,000 workers. When I left the business world many cried because ironically I had begun to create communism for them. Personally I need nothing. I have long since solved my own problems. I only want prosperity for Kalmykia.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of Kalmykia