On the question of the attempt of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski to establish Polish-Kalmyk relations in 1683–1686

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the little-known pages in Russian history, namely international relations of the Kalmyk Khanate in the 17th–18th centuries. The purpose of the article is to introduce into scientific circulation new archival information about the international policy of the Kalmyk Khanate during the reign of Khan Ayuki (1672–1724). The source base was the materials of the «Don Affairs» fund of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, where the information of the Don Cossacks about attempts to establish Polish-Kalmyk relations in 1683–1686 was deposited. The repeated efforts of the Polish king Jan Sobieski to attract the Kalmyk army of Ayuki Khan in the wars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Turks and Crimeans ultimately failed, in large part due to the priority of Russian-Kalmyk relations in the international affairs of the Kalmyk Khanate. Nevertheless, despite Moscow’s declared protests to Poland, as well as the admonitions of the Russian administration against the Kalmyk side, separate detachments of Kalmyks and Don Cossacks still took part on the side of Poland and its allies in the military battles of that time.