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This book examines the interaction between the Far Eastern Republic, a state under Russian communist control which cultivated the appearance of a pluralist, property-owning democracy in order to win American help to expel the Japanese occupying the Russian Pacific coast, and the Transbaikal Buriats, a Mongol people, who were nomadic livestock herders following the Buddhist faith. Using archival sources and contemporary publications not previously known in the West, the book charts the fascinating and complex story of culture clash, of widely varying visions of the future in a revolutionary situation, of policy formation and implementation, and of the difficulties of reconciling conflicting aims within a revolutionary agenda. The nature of, and the degree of autonomy for, nationalities deemed 'backward' and even counter-revolutionary, has returned to the agenda as an important question in the years of volatility after 1985, and continues to be a significant issue for the Russian Federation.