ABSTRACT
Turning our attention to the nature of ethnicity, I would like in this conclusion to survey one of the components of this phenomenon, namely the manner in which ethnic identities of Kalmyks are constructed, and how they are altered in a period of radical social changes. In the family of Soviet nations, each people had its own image both at an official level and informally, supported by the administrative and intellectual elite of each ethnic group. This image was developed by representatives of the artistic, creative intelligentsia, was underpinned by the official ideology and was circulated in school programmes and the mass media.
