In late December, Alexey Tsydenov, the governor of Russia’s Republic of Buryatia, created a brand-new agency aimed at preventing “separatism and nationalism” in the region. While the office is the first of its kind in Buryatia’s modern history, it’s not unprecedented: the Soviet authorities took measures to combat potential Buryat separatist movements in the 1930s, referring to these efforts as the “fight against pan-Mongolism.” In reality, there was no “pan-Mongol conspiracy” during the Stalin era, and the regime’s search for one led to mass repressions. Less than a generation earlier, however, there had been three real attempts to secure greater autonomy for the Buryat people. The outlet People of Baikal recently looked back at this rarely-discussed history. Meduza shares an English-language adaption of the article.