Janchiv
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990488
Name: Janchiv
Parent's name: Namsrai
Ovog: Hetsüü shar
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1939
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: tusgai dund
Notes on education:
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bayantsagaan sum, Bayanhongor aimag
Lives in: Bayanhongor sum (or part of UB), Bayanhongor 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)
repressions
collectivization
cultural campaigns
foreign relations
democracy
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
group
mother - father
repression
consumer goods
relay station
official regulations tax
collectivization
changes in household culture
cultural campaigns
household culture
belief
military service
democracy
private business
To read a full interview with Janchiv please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 091207A with Janchiv
I was born in 1939. In 1948 I went to the elementary school of Bayantsagaan sum. After completing elementary school I tended livestock for about three years and then I studied for a year at the Galuut secondary school. In 1956 I attended a six months training course in Ulaanbaatar and became an accountant. Until the age of twenty I worked as an accountant of a negdel and then I went to serve in the army. After demobilization I worked for 7 or 8 years as an accountant of the “Högjliin zam” cooperative. Then in 1967 I studied at the transportation vocational school and became a driver. I worked as a driver at the 26th auto base in Darhan and the 18th auto base in Bayanhongor. Then I retired.
There are documents saying that about 160 high-ranked ‘Gavj’ Buddhist monks were repressed during the time of repression. My mom used to say that one of them was the eldest brother of my father. He was a gavj. There used to be the big Amarbuyant monastery. The lamas of that monastery started to be arrested from 1936 and by 1937, 1938 all of them were killed. The people who hated each other informed the ‘green hats’ of the Ministry of Public Security and they had each other arrested. At the place called Ölgiteeg of Hüreemaral sum people were brought by trucks and they were shot. “Only few of them returned”, the old people of this land used to say. My dad together with his two older brothers was residing at the Amarbuyant monastery as its disciples and the three of them were arrested. The two older brothers begged, “He was only cooking for us, he doesn’t know any sutra. Please, let my brother go.” Thus my dad was set free. So, my dad was released and in haste he went to the countryside and got married. Thus he survived. When my dad was arrested together with his two older brothers, the five-wall ger, the deels inside the ger, the beds and blankets, the spinning yarn, the livestock – it was all confiscated. I have documentation about it that I’d found in the national historical archives. The two older brothers had been repressed, and one was killed on the way and the other was killed in Zavhan.
Initially, the people joined the collectives freely, and later in 1957 they were almost forced and the collectivization movement was carried out almost by force. In 1956 three collectives were formed in our sum. Then those three collectives were unified into one and it was enlarged. By the end it had a lot of regulations and laws with the indications of the number of the private large and small livestock that were permitted. It was prohibited to have more than that number. The advantage of collective labor was much talked about and propagandized. The propagandists of that time visited the ‘ails’ and passed each word that came from the party and the government. One of the first three collectives was called “Goviin högjil” and it was established by my father. The same year he went to be trained as a collective darga. After completing the course he went to Hüreemaral sum as a collective darga.
In the olden times, the waste from the small intestine of the livestock was put into a bowl and the people washed their clothes in it and then they squeezed them in clean water. The small intestine waste was used as soap. Through the cultural campaign this situation was ended and each ‘ail’ acquired a blanket, bed sheets. The inspection people got them to take off their clothes and examined if they had lice or dirt. They checked the blouses and the pants. For some time during the cultural campaign the livestock gave birth to young animals in the buildings and they had been kept in special fences.
