The Impact of Operational Information on Decision-Making in the Search for Kalmyks Who Left Russia in January — August 1771

The departure of a significant part of the Kalmyks from Russia in 1771 went down in history as the last major migration of nomadic peoples on the Eurasian continent. The article examines the little-studied problem of the influence of operational information on the adoption of power decisions on the use of Russian troops to pursue the Kalmyks who were leaving Russia. The study was based on a set of documents from the Orenburg Provincial Office of the United State Archives of the Orenburg Region. The sources of operational information included testimonies from Kalmyks who had been detained or were returning to Russia, intelligence reports from Cossacks and Bashkirs, and letters addressed to the Orenburg governor and other officials from the ruler of the Junior Kazakh Zhuz, Nurali Khan, and Kazakh sultans. The article analyzes the factors that influenced the quality and reliability of operational information, the effective use of which largely depended on the beliefs of decision-makers. The author concludes that one of the reasons for the failure of the military campaign against the Kalmyks who had left Russia was the lack of sufficient operational and intelligence support, as well as the incorrect interpretation of information obtained from informants.