Dashaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990243
Name: Dashaa
Parent's name: Humbaa
Ovog: Borjigon
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1938
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: blank
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: none
Born in: Aldarhaan sum, Zavhan aimag
Lives in: Bayangol sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: [blank]
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
democracy
privatization
education / cultural production
environment
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
work - labor
group
movies
plays
boss - worker relations
industrialization
privatization
nature and environment
To read a full interview with Dashaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090703B with Dashaa
I became literate in a group study. In 1942 there used to be a thin book called ‘Brief Grammar.’ From that book we memorized the 35 letters and we connected the letters and wrote them. Then we were made to write dictation. It was called ‘to teach a new script’. One person had a group of people sitting in a circle on the grass. The bag dargas appointed the literate people, “OK, you will teach the new script.” The progandists would come and say that an illiterate person was same as being blind. If I wasn’t literate, I wouldn’t have worked at the Central Post Office.
The ‘Modnii-2’ where I worked produced paint, ger woods, saddles, boxes and brooms. It was a big factory with very many divisions. Today only the name of it remains. When I worked at the Modnii-2, I was sent to Moscow, Leningrad and Ulyanovsk for doing good work. What a wonderful thing it was. I had tears of joy. Then I got employed at the Central Post Office through an acquaintance. I worked there till I retired. I often used to be late then. There were no buses. Our dargas understood me well, “It’s tough to go from such a far away distance”. I got a salary of 350—400 tögrögs at that time. My wife also did a work so it was sufficient for us. When I worked at the Central Post, I used to send our workers to a recreation place. Today I also send my old people to the Suuj resort.
I don’t know much about privatization. I think only the herders who collectivized their livestock got their share. Though my parents collectivized about one thousand head of livestock, we didn’t get any share of it, since we hadn’t worked in the collective. At that time life was OK, so I never thought of getting anything additional. I don’t know what my son has done with the pink and blue coupons. Maybe he has sold them. I didn’t really understand the essence of privatization. The privatization coupons had been wasted by the upper-level bosses. Those people who had been in charge of the privatization took advantage of the situation.
