Algaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990208
Name: Algaa
Parent's name: Choinklöö
Ovog: Yest
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1946
Ethnicity: Bayad
Additional Information
Education: tusgai dund
Notes on education:
Work: works for Red Cross
Belief: believes a little in traditional Burhan
Born in: Ulaangom sum, Uvs aimag
Lives in: Bayangol sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: social, political worker
Father's profession: Dotood Yam - Chekist
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
repressions
politics / politicians
cultural campaigns
work
privatization
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
childhood
schoolchildren's life
repression
cultural campaigns
collectivization
work - labor
privatization
To read a full interview with Algaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090605A with Algaa
Ch. Algaa was born in 1946 in Ulaangom city of Uvs aiamg. Having completed the seventh grade in 1963, she attended the secondary law school. She has worked as a secretary at the Uvs aimag court, a specialist in Zavhan sum of Uvs aiamg, a secretary of the Atar state farm of Töv aimag, a communications boss of Erdene sum of Töv aimag and in 1994 she moved to Ulaanbaatar.
At the start of the interview she talked about her childhood, her school years, and how she went to the Black Sea after being selected at an art exhibit. She also talked about student life and how the state managed the issue of education. She feels the state has started to think about the health and education issues since the 1990s. Her father had been working at the Ministry of Internal Security and he was repressed in 1937 and he was imprisoned for three years. Her dad was arrested on July 11th, 1937 for serving Demid and Danzan. Her mom was one of the first students who studied in Russia and she had been working as a manager in the Party and women’s organizations. But the day after her husband was arrested she was fired from the work and all her belongings were confiscated and she was left with only the clothes she was wearing. Therefore, in order to raise her children, she went to Ulaanbaatar and worked as a stoker. The year after her husband was released from the prison she was allowed to go back to work and her party certification was returned back to her. She also mentioned that in 1972 her party certification was confiscated with reasoning that ‘her dad was connected in a political scandal’ and that she shouldn’t be a party member.
She also talked about the cultural campaigns. During the cultural campaigns the people were required to have three changes of underwear and they had to subscribe to the newspapers ‘Party Truth’, ‘Labor’ and ‘Youth Truth’, filing them by the issue numbers. She talked in detail about the numerous norms of requirements that they had to meet. Though the cultural campaigns achieved great results, the names of the people who didn’t meet the requirements were announced thus damaging their reputation. This was her criticism of the cultural campaign.
In the latter part of the interview, she briefly mentioned how religion had changed in Mongolia and she talked about the life and work of people during socialism, using her own life as an example. She also talked about the collectivization movement and privatization. During the privatization process she was working as a public enterprise darga at the Batsümber state farm. All of a sudden she was called to the aimag centre and she was told that her enterprise was to be privatized. Eight days after that, some people from the aimag came and tried to auction it off, but the workers protested, “It was said the enterprise would be given to its workers. But why are people from aimag suddenly sent here? We will take it ourselves.” So she took part in the auction on behalf of the workers and she bid the final price of 420,000 tögrögs. So she collected the pink coupons equal to 420,000 tögrögs from the workers and privatized the public enterprise. They worked there for a year and because she had to take her sick husband to the city to get cured, she had distributed the property to the workers through a lottery.
