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Abstract

This paper investigates the historical evolution and significance of "Mongolian consciousness" within the development of Buryat nationalism, structuring its trajectory into two primary phases. The first phase (early 20th century to the late 1930s) was characterized by a robust Mongolian identity and active engagement in the Pan-Mongolism movement. Amidst the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Buryat elites sought to establish a Greater Mongolia and played a crucial role in assisting the independence and modernization of Outer Mongolia in the 1920s, aiming to secure maximum autonomy within the nascent Soviet system. However, to suppress Pan-Mongolist sentiments, the Soviet regime subsequently initiated severe political purges. This culminated in the territorial partition of Buryatia in 1937 and the removal of the ethnonym "Mongol" from the Autonomous Republic's title in 1958—deliberate policies that severed Buryatia's historical ties with Mongolia and accelerated Russification and cultural assimilation.

The second phase (late 1980s to the present) marks the resurgence of Buryat nationalism, catalyzed by Gorbachev’s reforms and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union. This era witnessed a concerted effort to revitalize traditional culture, Buddhism, and Shamanism, alongside political demands for territorial restoration and the reinstatement of the "Mongol" designation. Nevertheless, constrained by contemporary political and economic realities, these political aspirations remained largely unfulfilled, and linguistic revitalization yielded limited results, with Russian persisting as the dominant language. The paper concludes that contemporary Buryat national identity has stabilized, comfortably coexisting with Russian civic identity. The once-prominent "Mongolian factor" has substantially diminished; political Pan-Mongolism has subsided, transitioning entirely into historical, religious, and cultural exchanges.

Keywords

Buryat Nationalism, The Mongolian Factor, Pan-Mongolism, National Identity, Cultural Revitalization