As part of the Russian Science Foundation project "Identity of Mongolian Peoples in a Polycentric World," researchers from the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from the Institute for Comprehensive Research of Arid Territories, conducted a large-scale sociological survey in the Republic of Kalmykia in 2025 to examine perceptions of the identity of Mongolian peoples among the republic's population.

The project aims to study the transformation of Mongolian peoples' identities in a polycentric world. The empirical part of the sociological study consists of a quantitative survey of Kalmyk residents.

The sociological analysis shows that the identity of the Kalmyk ethnic group is defined by its internal and external contours. While the internal contour is characterized by a seamless blend of ethnocultural and civic levels of identity, and the high level of inclusion of the national-regional community in the pan-Russian context ("I am Russian, and a Kalmyk at that"), which is fundamentally important for the consolidation of Russian society as a whole, the external contour is associated with the fact that the Kalmyk ethnic group, while undoubtedly possessing a pan-Russian identity, also has cultural and religious centers of attraction outside the Russian state (Mongolia, China), representing fragments of other local civilizations (Buddhist, Mongolian) integrated into Russia. The Kalmyk people's religious, civilizational, and ethnocultural identity extends beyond the Russian sociocultural space. Therefore, the Kalmyk ethnic group (like the Buryat and Tuvan communities) serves as a unique connecting link, a civilizational and cultural bridge between Russia and the East, Russia and Asia.

Despite territorial and national localization (disunity) (Mongolia, China, Russia), global processes of de-ethnicization and cultural integration leveling, the world's Mongols continue to preserve their unified cultural and historical-genetic identity, representing a unique example of supranational and transborder unity. Globalization processes have posed new challenges for the Mongolian peoples of the world related to their awareness of national identity and the level of cohesion among the numerous civilizational groups of the Mongolian world, sharing similarities in language, religion, history, culture, and value systems, in the context of an emerging polycentric world.

ethnic identity, Kalmyk ethnicity, Republic of Kalmykia, Mongolian peoples, Mongolian world, Buddhist world

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