“Apart from Pushkin's phrase “and a friend of the Kalmyk steppes, ”most of us, in fact, know little about this region,” writes Anatoly Tsirulnikov in an annotation to his book. - Going on a journey, I, like many, knew some vivid facts about the modern Kalmykia from the central television channels .

The first is that the young (now ex) President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov communicates with aliens. The second is that Kalmykia is the only Buddhism country in Europe visited by the 14th  Dalai Lama in exile. The third is that a chess wonder-hail was built in Elista where international tournaments take place, as Comrade Bender envisioned in New Vasyuki, a modest monument to whom stands not far from a dream come true.
The Ministry of Science, Education and Culture of the Republic of Kalmykia, who kindly invited me and became a guide in this region, settled me in this Chess City, at the Chess Academy, and thus made the first move in the game, which is known to have many options ...
All that the academician learned about Kalmykia he wrote in his book "The Country Between Two Shores".
Editors’ note. All that Academician A. Tsirulnikov learned from the press about Kalmykia is inextricably linked to the name of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. And in Elista there is the "Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni", the largest Buddhist temple in Europe, built by Ilyumzhinov on his personal funds and donations of the people of Kalmykia ... You need to visit Kalmykia  to love forever and never forget.