army. Because of alleged collaboration between the ethnic Kalmyks and the Germans, on 27 December 1943 the Kalmyk ASSR was dissolved and its ethnic Kalmyk residents were forcibly exiled to Siberia. Russian people were brought in to repopulate Elista, whose name was changed to Stepnoy ???????. It was called Stepnoy until 1957, when the survivors of the deportations were allowed to return from exile.

Some western tourists started to