Batsüh
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990570
Name: Batsüh
Parent's name: Sonom
Ovog: Jooj
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1931
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education: economist
Work: retired / trade, animal husbandry
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Uulbayan sum, Sühbaatar aimag
Lives in: Herlen sum (or part of UB), Hentii aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
Themes for this interview are:
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Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
privatization
intellegentsia
sum darga
democracy
nature and environment
race horse trainer
To read a full interview with Batsüh please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 100530A with Batsüh
I was born in 1931 in Uul-Bayan sum of Sühbaatar aimag. Having graduated from the Trade Technical School I had worked for ten years in the Dornod aimag trade organization which had just been established. In 1970 I graduated from the Agricultural Institute. Then I was the sum darga of Galshir sum in Hentii, and the economist of the Temtsel cooperative. Later I became an invalid because of a liver ailment.
At the state of the democratic period in 1990, I was an invalid in Bayanhutag sum of Hentii. There was a rumor, “Democracy has come, the laborers’ demonstration has been organized” and so on. Though I had been a MPRP member for 50 years I supported democracy. People like Sodnompil, Ganhüü, Luvsanzundui supported democracy and organized demonstrations. Though democracy hasn’t had any benefit to me individually, it brought freedom to the Mongolian people to speak and express their views freely.
We got much information from the radio on privatization. The sum and cooperatives dargas, the party organization people used to organize meetings to talk about privatization. People talked a lot about the livestock to be given to the herders and said that the state organizations were to be privatized. The livestock were distributed through a meeting of all the collective’s members, like this many head of livestock were to be given to the cooperative members, and this many head of livestock to the non-members or the state organization workers. The brigade supervisors distributed the livestock as it had been agreed. Sometimes it was rumored that the people who had been the cooperative leaders gave their acquaintances more livestock, though I don’t know how truthful it is. In fact, the people who had been working in state organizations in the countryside had received fewer livestock. After privatization the number of herders increased. Some people, starting with the animals they got through privatization, managed to increase their herds. A few shiftless people wasted their livestock by eating or losing them.
After privatization a lot of people were involved in small trade in the countryside. There used to be many people who bought and drank one bottle of alcohol for one young animal. There used to be wells, cattle fences and barns in the cooperative. They had been privatized by the blue coupons as ‘large’ capital. But only few cunning people got them. The state administrative organizations in the countryside hadn’t been privatized initially. They had been privatized later, and some shut done. For example, during the privatization of the trading and provision unit that supplied the sum with trade, the people who had been working there like the darga or the accountant collected their coupons and privatized it as privileged people.
In Bayanhutag sum where I used to live the cooperative darga L. Heeshig, a party member Regzennamjil, a respected driver Choijav, the bag darga Oidav were all included in the privatization commission and they used to distribute the livestock. At that time I said to the cooperative darga, “Isn’t it too much, letting some ignorant old people make the distributions when privatizing!” Was it because of that, I don’t know, but I was given 1 horse, 1 heifer, 3 sheep by privatization. In fact, I had working there as an economist and a cooperative darga for several years and I had expected they would give me more cattle. I gave the blue coupons to the Gobi Company and then I sold it not sure if I would ever see the result of it. For the countryside people like us we didn’t have an understanding that the blue coupons would be useful. I think there were very few people who knew the purpose of it, but most people only knew the colour of the coupons.
I had been interested in training race horses from my childhood. I have 30 letters of congratulation, certificates and also several horse racing medals. I keep and cherish them
