Davaajav
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990158
Name: Davaajav
Parent's name: Pagam
Ovog: not sure
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1946
Ethnicity: Zahchin
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: construction company engineer
Belief: Buddhist / not really religious
Born in: Altai sum, Hovd aimag
Lives in: Songinohairhan sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
life in wartime
childhood
herding / livestock
environment
collectivization
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
Zahchin
herder's life before collectivization
childhood
schoolchildren's life
collectivization
herder
party member
agricultural industry
cultural campaigns
repression
belief
To read a full interview with Davaajav please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090121A with Davaajav
P. Davaajav was born in Altai sum of Hovd aimag. He doesn’t know the date of his birth. He heard from his mother that he was born in the year of the fire dog [1946]. He thinks that the MPRP policy not only led the country along the path of development but it also had a deep impact on an individual’s life. In the beginning of the interview he mentioned the poor life he led with his mother and his younger brother. The brigade darga required him to go school and it changed his life. Before going to the elementary school he was taught by the neighboring older girl to count to 1000. He was also taught add and extract numbers up to 500 by heart and also learned by heart the national anthem and the 5 or 6 songs. He was given a gift from Santa Claus [literally: Old Man Winter] for studying well in a short time. He talked in detail about studying in elementary school and dormitory life.
Collectivization began when he was in the fourth grade and his mother was left with 75 head of livestock. The rest of the livestock were collectivized and she tended 500 goats. He talked about the death of his grandmother and how he grieved and he even stayed overnight in the field feeling lonely. He also talked about tending the collective cattle. He tended livestock for a year and then he escaped from home to go to the sum school. The people of his nutag didn’t support the collectivization movement and much propaganda work had to be done in order to get people to join the collective. The press and the newspapers of that time propagandized about the herders who achieved success and the collectives that had acquired a lot of capital and strengthened their capacity. In the later days the collectives expanded and along with raising livestock they developed an auxiliary enterprise raising pigs. He summed up collectivization by saying that it was the preliminary condition of the cultural campaigns. He mentioned that the Soviet specialists worked in all the sectors of the national economy of Mongolia as advisors. The physicians, teachers, and the intelligentsia of the party, revolutionary youth league and the trade union played a great role in the Cultural Revolution.
At the end of the interview he talked about repression and belief. He thinks that at the beginning of the repressions the Mongolians themselves did the repressing, and starting during the middle of it, they accepted the Soviet instructions. The people who didn’t approve of the MPRP policy were repressed. There had been bad and good people among them. Even the state leaders and the ordinary people were among the repressed.
