Tax discrimination against the Buddhist clergy in Kalmykia (1923 - 1931)

This article is the first to analyze Soviet tax policy in relation to the Buddhistclergy in the Kalmyk Autonomous Region (Oblast). The study covers the peri-od of the New Economic Policy and early stages of industrialization and agri-cultural collectivization in the USSR. Unpublished documents in the NationalArchives of the Republic of Kalmykia provide the source base for this research.The author focuses attention on the decision-making and tax-collecting activi-ties of the Kalmyk Regional Financial Department and its Tax Administration.These institutions subjected Buddhist clerics in Kalmykia, whom they consid-ered enemies of socialism, to myriad direct and indirect taxes. Constant tax in-creases strained the clergy’s financial resources to the utmost. According to theauthor, fiscal policy toward the Buddhist clergy amounted to tax discrimination.Through this discrimination, regional Bolshevik Party and government officialsintended first to reduce the number of clergymen and khuruls in Kalmykia, thento eliminate them completely. By the early 1930s, excessive tax pressure led toa sharp deterioration in the financial position of the Buddhist clerics, the depar-ture of many of them from the clergy’s ranks, and the closure of most khuruls.