Deserted by their fellow tribesmen when they returned eastwards to Dzungaria in 1771, this lonely Kalmuck remnant of some 70,000 found themselves oppressed by the Russian Empire and other central Asian peoples.
當絕大部分的族人遠走之後，這批為數僅七萬、形單勢孤的一群人，就成為俄羅斯帝國及其他中亞民族「弱肉強食」的對象。