December 28 marked exactly 80 years since the start of the deportation of the Kalmyk people. About a hundred thousand people were exiled to Siberia on Stalin's orders. More than 50 thousand displaced people died during transportation and living in a new place.

Today, memorial prayer services were held throughout Kalmykia. Hundreds of people held a rally. It ended with a funeral procession to the top of the hill, where the monument to Ernst the Unknown “Exodus and Return” stands. Theater actors also performed, and the State Choir of the Republic performed Arkady Mandzhiev’s song “Nyudlya”.

The head of Kalmykia, Batu Khasikov, noted the importance of this event. “Today there are fewer and fewer witnesses to the tragedy. There are just over two thousand people born before December 28, 1943. Our task now is to surround them with attention and care, preserve historical memory, peace and harmony in society, pass on from generation to generation the objective truth about the past and that there is no justification for repression. This is our civic and human duty,” said the head of the republic.