Purvya Volod'kina, About Nomadic Life in the Past

Abstract

Purvya talks about how nomads lived in the early 20th century. This is her story: In October families stayed on low grounds, since it was warmer this way for their livestock. In spring after Tsagan Sar all families moved up to higher grounds. People stayed in each pastureland for up to 10 days so that their livestock did not finish off the grass. People nomadised by following their animals. I lived in a nomadic tent until 1938 in a place called Lola where there was also a stationary sanatorium housed in white buildings. Those buildings belonged to Duke Gari Balzanov. My parents worked for him. When the Duke was sent to exile, our family moved in to live in a wooden communal house. We milked mares and made kumis for guests. Men wore leather trousers or white cotton trousers. They would clean their greasy hands on their leather trousers and laugh at how shiny their trousers became. As far as I remember, the Kalmyks did not prepare fodder for their animals in winter. The livestock found grass from underneath the snow. Today people prepare fodder. The Kalmyk steppe is wide. People nomadised in tents. When the wealthy people were expropriated and sent to exile, the number of sheep went down. When there are no sheep, there is no felt around. Having no felt to cover their tents, people started to build wigwam-like structures. People lived in dugouts. They put a brick stove in the middle of the room.