Imperial regulation of Buddhist infrastructure in the Kalmyk steppe of the Astrakhan province in the XIX–early XX centuries

The article reconstructs the evolution of the administrative procedure for coordinating the construction of Buddhist religious objects in the Kalmyk steppe in the 19thearly 20th centuries. Based on materials from the Russian State Historical Archive and the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia, including design and estimate documentation, the authors trace the transition from the legal uncertainty of the period before 1847 to a formalized procedure, enshrined in article 205 of the “Regulations on the management of the Kalmyk people”, and the subsequent tightening of control through by-laws. The authors substantiate the thesis that the imperial regulation of Buddhist infrastructure did not develop “from top to bottom” (from law to practice), but “from bottom to top” (from practice to norm), which contradicts the prevailing ideas in historiography about strict legislative dictates. It was established that the main instrument of restriction was not a direct prohibitive measure, but administrative red tape: multistage coordination and preparation of complex documentation significantly increased the transaction costs of construction. The work revealed a set of adaptive strategies of the Buddhist community, including loyal rhetoric, the use of self-government mechanisms, combined financing and an appeal to precedents. In conclusion, it is concluded that the Kalmyk Buddhist community has successfully mastered the bureaucratic toolkit of the empire, using it to protect its interests, which allows us to revise the traditional view of the Buddhist church as a passive object of imperial influence.

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