Mikhail talks about his father’s clan, his father, paternal grandfather, and mother.My father was from a small clan called Khazhikhn, which was apparently named after one of its founders. When Derbetovskiy ulus was divided between two descendants into Maloderbetovskiy and Bolshederbetovskiy ulus, the majority of Khazhikhn people stayed in the region of the Sal river. My father Andrei was the second out of three sons in his family. He was born in 1913. He had 8-year education, during World War II fought in the 110th Kalmyk cavalry division, and survived Shiroklag (labour camp for soldiers). In 1946 he was released from the camp and joined his family in Maryanovskiy district of Omsk region. My elder sister died there of diphtheria in 1949. She had been deported there with her family. My brother, sister and I were born in Siberia. My mother – her maiden surname Ilzhirinova – was from a group of baptized Kalmyks. Her parents, who were from the Kevyudi clan, lived in the village of Shpakovskaya, Stavropol province. It is known that some Kalmyks were divided into separate clans and sent to protect the Kizlyar-Stavropol border line. Later it was decided on the order of the Russian Emperor to build a settlement for all baptized Kalmyks from the Stavropol line and other places. That settlement was named Svyatoi Krest (Holy Cross), which is today the village Krasnomikhailovka. That settlement had a church and houses made of clay bricks. The Kalmyks were also given cattle. However, after 2-3 years the bulk of the Kalmyks fled to join the local Kalmyk clans. My mother's family went to join the Khazhikhn clan which lived nearby and came to be called Orud, which means ‘aliens’. There my parents got married. Their clan had its own small temple and a school. They lived there happily until 1929, when collectivization took place and the family was moved to Dvoinoi khutor (the village Krasnyi Partizan). One can still see the traces of old houses in that place. In 1943, the family was sent to Siberia, and the local Russian residents were relocated to the village Matrosovo. My grandfather had three sons: Ignat Buzavinovich (who had seven children), my father, and their younger brother Nikolai (who died in Ukraine in 1943, in the rank of lieutenant). According to my uncle, before the Bolshevik Revolution my grandfather was a well-off person, and he had 200 sheep and 30 cows. The Civil War passed through the territory of the Bolshederbetovskiy ulus. Both Reds and Whites robbed people. In 1920 my grandfather died in poverty. Ignat went as a farm laborer to the well-to-do peasants in the village Solenoe, who worked on our land. It was a difficult period. People were dying of hunger. Before the war, Ignat, who was literate, worked as a clerk. Then the war began, the occupation by the Germans, and exile. My mother was deported along with my father’s mother and elder sister both of whom died in Siberia. My father found my mother in 1946, after his release from the work camp. In Siberia, my father worked as a primary school teacher and my mother as a leader in a vegetable-growing brigade. Back then it was amazing that she, a Kalmyk, could ever work as a brigadier. Kalmyks quickly adapted to the new conditions. In 1957, when we left Siberia for Kalmykia, the local Siberians lived worse than we did. In the early 1950s a massive resettlement began in Western Ukraine. The Voronyuk family from Ukraine came to settle in our village. Their family consisted of an old man, old woman, and their grandchildren, a boy and a girl. Their daughter and son-in-law were shot by the Soviets for aiding Ukrainian nationalists. The old couple could not work, and they lived in a small dug-out on the outskirts. The old man came to our house at 6 am, prepared vegetables for storage, and looked after the cattle. The old woman cooked for us. We had a big Russian oven in the house. We ate well. My mother learnt Ukrainian cuisine: she cooked borsch, pancakes, and cutlets. My father died in 1967. War veterans died early. He relayed a story to me from the war. Once they were locked in the Daryal Canyon, on the way to the military Georgian road. It was the winter of 1943. They laid on the rock, fighting back the Germans. They could not surrender, for behind them were Azerbaijan and the Baku oil fields. The history of my family is typical of the Kalmyks. My parents returned from Siberia and helped restore Kalmykia.