Javzan
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990218
Name: Javzan
Parent's name: Doyed
Ovog: Martsan
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1930
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: tusgai dund
Notes on education:
Work: retired, trade specialist
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Tögrög sum, Govi-Altai aimag
Lives in: Bayangol 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)
work
industrialization
urban issues
military
education / cultural production
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
factory
leather factory
worker
collective
salary - incentives
informal culture in factories
city life
To read a full interview with Javzan please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090514A with Javzan
I was born in Tögrög sum of Gobi-Altai aimag. During the 1939 war, I followed my uncle to the western border and worked in military logistics and later voluntarily went to work at the factory and had worked there till 1950. Then, having worked in a trade organization, I retired in 1982. After being retired, I worked for additional ten years till 1991.
I had been working at the military handicrafts when some people came from Ulaanbaatar to employ workers and I went to be registered there. The children who came from the countryside were scattered to work in the workshops of the factory. I worked in the leather and hide processing sector. I assisted one worker on all the assembly lines and learned the skills well. I worked there for five years and became a young factory ‘striker’. The children who had been countryside herders used to become factory workers and they were full of desire to study. Initially, the factories had many assembly lines with hand and mechanical operation. Gradually the kombinat expanded with the opening of cloth and wool factories and workers worked both day and night shifts. There was labor shortage, so the factory management went to the countryside to bring young people to work at the factory and they lived in a dormitory. The workers mostly attended evening school in addition to their work and they acquired ten-year education and they even used study at higher education institutions. I also completed the evening school and acquired training in goods (baraa). I did piece-work and I got a lot of money. The women worked on kid leather, chevrette, cattle leather on assembly-lines that were operated by the machinery, and the men did the hard handwork like ironing hard leather and brown hide and so on. If you worked badly, your name would be published in a ‘Woodpecker’ magazine. If you worked well, you’d be praised in ‘Truth” and ‘Labor” newspapers. Having become union and party members we had great responsibilities and commitments. On weekends we organized subbotniks to plant trees and grass. In fact, workers developed gardens in Ulaanbaatar. Our dargas looked after their workers. During our free time the workers went as a group to shows and studied together.
It is unforgettable how I became a state ‘striker’. I became a ‘striker’ at the age of 21, 22 and I was overjoyed. I got the badge of a ‘striker’ which is a multicolored triangle with a certificate. Only within the first two years of work I had learned to manage and operate 5 machines like big and little stretching machines, grinders, backing machines, and measuring machines. My teachers evaluated me for that and awarded me. Unfortunately, in the 1960s my ger was swept away by a flood and the badge disappeared. My father died when I was young, and my mom married another man, so I followed my uncle to the border. There, I tended border military geldings at the age of nine, and served at the military post which made me tolerant.
