The Mongols of Altai are a historical issue that has been completely neglected in modern Mongolia. No one has ever researched and written its true history in the last hundred years. Modern Altai Mongols consider themselves as "мы алтайцы" and if someone says, "You are not Altai. You are Altai Mongol" no one will understand.
This is based on a true story. When the Russians first invaded Altai after the demise of the Near Dzhungar khanate in 1777, they called the Mongols of the Altai region "white Kalmyks". Later, the Russians called the Altai region the "Autonomous district of Oird". The Russians later removed the name Mongol and then removed the name Oirad, and now named the Altai Mongols "Altais".
Mongols have the mountain name "Altais'' there. In the history of the world, there is a Mongol nation. There is no Altai nation other than the Altai Mountains. If Mongols are invaded by a foreign country, there will be no name and no language.
But no matter where you go, the name of the land, mountains, and water in the Russian Altai remains Mongol. A place where no one goes and no one talks about is called "the place Godforsaken". The Mongols of Altai, or the Altai Krai, are such a place now. During the Soviet period, the Altai Mongols endured much suffering as their native language, Mongolian culture, and religion were destroyed, and their land was divided into several parts. Now is the time to reveal the true history of Altai Mongols and commence the research. After all, this land and people are the homeland of Mongols, research and publishing is the time for now.
Let us present to readers the true story of the Altai Mongols. Today, modern historians and researchers have lied and written that the Altai region was a part of the Altai region of Russia from the beginning, or a part of the Turkic world. In particular, Russian Soviet ideologues have for the last hundred years been pursuing a policy of alienating the Altai region and its population from their roots, erasing the Mongol origin, and erasing the Mongolian name, and forcefully implementing that harmful policy. The Altai region has been the native land of Mongols for many centuries. Since 220 BC, this area was the territory of the Huns, the ancestors of the Mongols. People were originally citizens of the Hunnu Empire. Since the 12th century, this area was the territory of the Naiman aimag of Mongols. Since 1206, this area has been the homeland of the Great Mongol Empire led by Chinggis Khaan. When under the jurisdiction of the Great Mongol Empire, the Mongols of this area lived in peace under the protection that no foreign enemy could attack. In the 17th century, this area began to be disturbed when it fell into the hands of the traitorous Dzungar. Between 1666 and 1756, this area was known as the area of Oirad Dzungar. This means that the Altai region was the native land of Mongolia for two thousand years.
When did Mongolia lose this Altai region? In 1688, when Galdan of the Dzungar region attacked Khalkh and killed 20,000 soldiers of Tusheet Khan of Khalkh, this area became the root of the reason for the loss of this region to its northern neighbors. Galdan aggressively occupied Khalkh and oppressed the people, thousands of Khalkh citizens fled to Dolnuur and lived under the protection of the Manchurian king. Neighboring princes repeatedly fought with each other and provoked a war against the Khalkhs, which disturbed the people, so the Manchu king sent his army into the Dzungar region executed the traitors, and destroyed the Dzungar state. Taking advantage of this situation, the soldiers of the Russian Empire occupied the Altai region starting from 1709, built their military fortifications, built Orthodox churches and Russian farmers occupied the Altai lands and planted crops, brought Russian gold and silver miners here, and conquered this beautiful Mongolian land. At that time, no one was able to take back Mongolian territory by arguing over Altai territory with the powerful Russia. Russian invaders first appeared in this area in the first half of the 17th century.
Soon, the Russian military built Bikatun fortifications in 1709 and Beloyarsky fortifications in 1717, on the one hand, to protect them from Dzungar, and on the other hand, to explore all the wealth of the Altai region and to discover gold and silver deposits, they were conducting exploration operations to seize the land from the Oirads. The Altai region of Mongolia is rich in minerals such as gold, silver, salt, lignite, nickel, cobalt, marble, granite, mineral water, and medicinal plants, so it greatly stimulated the greed of the Russian invaders. The wealth of the Altai region was first discovered by the Russian merchant Kostylevs, and this discovery was exploited by Akinfiy Demidov, the owner of a rich merchant factory in the Urals / there is a Russian series called "The Demidovs" / and made a lot of money. In 1730, Demidov built a silver smelting plant in this area, and the village was named "Barnaul". In this way, half a million square kilometers of Altai, the native land of Mongolia, came under the control of Russia.
The Russian Emperor became the owner of Altai factories, deposits, forests, and land in this area. In this way, the Altai mining industry met the needs of the Russian Empire by extracting a large amount of gold and silver. In 1915, the Altai Railway was built and Barnaul was connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Bolsheviks took power in a coup d'état and began to destroy Russia. During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks began to destroy the Altai region. At one point, it was established as "Altai Guberni", and soon it was included in Siberia, and then it was included in Western Siberia. After that, the "Oirad Autonomous District" was established and soon it was renamed "Altai Krai". During the Patriotic War, dozens of factories moved to the Altai region. Hundreds of engineers and intellectuals came with the factories. After the Patriotic War, dozens of factories were operating in this area, the fields of the steppe were plowed crops were planted, and industry, agriculture, and agriculture developed.
The Altai region was a sacred land with beautiful nature. There are 17,000 rivers and 13,000 lakes in this area. 26 percent of this area is covered with forests. There are 89 types of reptiles, 320 types of birds, and 33 types of fish in this area. Now, the Altai territory is divided into two parts. One of them is called "Altai Krai". Altai region has an area of 168,000 square kilometers and a population of 2.3 million. 94 percent of the population or 2.2 million are Russians. Mongolians make up 0.1% of the population of Oir, the indigenous people of the Altai region, and about 1,700 Mongolians live there. In 1991, the other part was separated from the Altai Territory as the "Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region". Now it is part of the Russian Federation under the name of the Republic of Altai.
According to history, in 1922 it was named Oirad Autonomous Region, in 1948 it was named "Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region", and in 1991 it was named "The Republic of Altai".
The territory is 92,906 square kilometers, and the population is 218,858. 56 percent of the population are Russians, 34 percent are Mongolians / the Russians write Altaics /, and 6 percent are Kazakhs. The capital is the city of Gorno Altai. There are 20,000 streams in the Gorno Altai region, the length of which is 60,000 km. The biggest rivers are the Hatan River and the Biya River. These rivers flow into the Ob River, the largest river in Siberia. This area has 7000 lakes. The largest lake is Altan hul lake. The volume of this lake is 231 square kilometers. This Altan hul nuur is a very beautiful lake. The total volume of lakes is 600 square kilometers. The highest mountain is the Cold Mountain, 4374 meters high. The mountains on the southern border of Gorno Altai are Tavan Bogd Mountain and Southern Altai. Altai, Mongolia's native land, is an important base for the Eurasian strategy.
The nature, mountains, mineral waters, rivers, lakes, medicinal plants, and forests of the Altai region are amazingly beautiful. Recently, I watched a documentary TV program about the journey of journalists from Odon TV, Southern Mongolia to the Altai region. I also watched the documentary film "Krasoty Gorno-Altai" from the Russian Mir priklyucheniya film. What a beautiful land. Majestic snow-capped mountains, clear rivers with strong currents, tributaries 60-180 meters high, clear lakes and ponds, mountain ranges as pink as Mars, and colorful mountain flowers. It is an indescribably beautiful land. A wonderful land melodious with folk and folk songs. I can't help but feel sad when I think that I have lost such a beautiful native Mongolian land where Mongols used to live. From the beginning, this land was the native land of Mongolia. Then there was the territory of Oirad Dzungar of Mongol. After the disappearance of the Eastern Dzungar state, the Russians and Kazakhs took over the whole area of the Eastern Dzungar region of Mongolia.
The Russians have now managed to convince the younger generation by telling false stories that this area is the native land of Russia. The original Mongolian language, spoken by the Mongols, is now incorrectly called the Altaic language by the natives. In world linguistics, there is a concept of the Altai language component. This Altaic language includes Mongolian, Turkic, Tungus, Manchu, Japanese, and Korean languages. Thus, Altai, the native land of Mongolia, fell into the hands of the Russian-Soviet for four centuries, and the native Mongolian language, culture, and Buddhism were destroyed and are now unrecognizable. Miserable Mongolian land, miserable Mongolian ethnicity.
Publicist: Sukhbaatar Dorj, lawyer, journalist, publicist, historian, and theologian
Translated by Anima Batzorigt