Jaamaa
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990299
Name: Jaamaa
Parent's name: Dovchin
Ovog: didn't want to say
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1944
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: elementary
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: [blank]
Born in: Jigstiin Gol sum, Zavhan aimag
Lives in: Sühbaatar sum (or part of UB), Selenge 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)
urban issues
cultural campaigns
collectivization
politics / politicians
democracy
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To read a full interview with Jaamaa please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090747A with Jaamaa
The collectives appeared in 1954 and the poor ‘ails’ were given the collective livestock and they were allowed to have the animal products. Jaamaa guai completed the fourth grade and those with a four-year education could study further in the teacher’s school then. Only those children who completed the seventh or the tenth grade with excellent marks were sent to Russia to study.
He was drafted in 1959 and he served in the army for three years and attended the heavy machinery school. The Russians greatly contributed to industrialization and construction work. The city buildings have been built owing to the Soviet Union, said Jaamaa guai.
People of that time were good at time-keeping and had high standards of work responsibility. When being employed, they had to write their family history going back three generations’ and a petition letter.
He used to play setting up gers with white stones in his childhood, and in the city he used to go to volleyball and running. During the cultural campaign the ill-kept ‘ails’ were given 25 tögrög pigs and for each day they didn’t meet the requirements, they had to pay a 25 tögrög fine.
The ‘ails’ who didn’t join the collectives were chased away from the collective territory therefore the herders joined them en masse. Initially the people reacted to the collectives very negatively. He thinks that the repression happened because of the requirements of the political changes and the social reforms, and if the repressed people of that time had changed the society, our nation would have had developed like Japan and Korea, he said. It was most wrong to split up the collectives and state farms during privatization. The many small companies couldn’t cope with carrying out their activities and they went bankrupt. At that time there were no price increases. With the advent of democracy people’s rights have increased and the duties have lessened. The loss of his three grown sons is the biggest tragedy that happened in his life, he recalled.
The state often rewarded and gave incentives to the workers thus encouraging them. The lama’s children were accepted to schools but there were times when they were discriminated against.
