Anonymous
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990259
Name: Anonymous
Parent's name: Anonymous
Ovog: Shambiihan
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1951
Ethnicity: Zahchin
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: teacher
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Altai sum, Hovd aimag
Lives in: Han-Uul sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: driver
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
education / cultural production
democracy
collectivization
family
cultural campaigns
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
parents
cultural campaigns
socialism
education
collectivization
Sino-Mongolian relations
democracy
privatization
To read a full interview with Anonymous please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090801A with Anonymous
The interviewee was born in 1951 in Altai sum, Hovd aimag. He started school in 1959 in Altai sum and finished in Bulgan sum in 1969. After secondary school, he studied mathematics at the Pedagogical Institute in Ulaanbaatar. Between his studies, he served in the army for three years. His first job assignment was in a secondary school in Tsetseg sum of Hovd aimag where he taught mathematics for nine years. He spent another twenty-four years teaching in various schools in Hovd aimag centre. In 2005, he joined his children in Ulaanbaatar where he now works in a secondary school as a maths teacher.
The interviewee spent his childhood in the country-side helping his parents with livestock. He remembers the cultural campaigns well. He says that it lasted until the 1980s. Other topics that he mentions are: his parents, collectivization, education in socialist Mongolia, the worsening of Sino-Mongolian relations, life in the socialist period, democracy, and privatization. He recalls that in his childhood in the western aimags herders were allowed to own up to seventy-six livestock, whereas state workers could have up to sixteen. At one point his parents had to give away ten horses to the collective farm, for they had exceeded the allowed quota. The interviewee describes the socialist period as a good time. During privatization, he gave all his vouchers to the Jewelery Company. He thinks that ordinary people, including him, did not benefit from the privatization.
He argues that democracy brought freedom. Hence, now people can choose their job, place where to live, and even can travel abroad, which were impossible in the socialist past. But democracy in Mongolia, he worries, is developing in the wrong direction, because people came to enjoy too much freedom, forgetting about things like responsibility and accountability. In spite of his initial support, he became increasingly disappointed in democracy in Mongolia.
