Anatoliy talks about his childhood, his grandfather, his service in the Soviet Army, and his work as a correspondent for a Kalmyk newspaper. Anatoliy was born in 1952 in the Krasnoyarsk krai. When he was 2 months old, his mother died. He was brought up by his grandfather and his paternal aunt. Anatoliy relays a story that he heard from his father about how one of his ancestors was killed by bandits during the Russian Civil War: During the Civil War, there were many bandits around. My great-grandfather had three sons who served in different opposing armies, including the Red Army, the White Army and a band called the Greens. One day the Greens entered the village and bayoneted my great-grandfather because his sons were serving on different sides. My aunt, who was making tea nearby, run back to the house only to find my great-grandfather lying in a pool of blood. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘Wait, do not talk too much. Bring me a weapon that is wrapped in a cloth’, he ordered. It was an English machine gun. ‘Now open the curtains and place down the weapon, and put in the cartridges’, came another order from my great-grandfather. Then he crawled to the machine gun and fired at the retreating soldiers, several of whom immediately fell. ‘Well, now I can die’ were the last words he said before closing his eyes. When the Soviets came to power, they started collectivization. In our village the rich had already left and people had no more than 100 sheep and several cows in each household, which was seen as a great wealth by Kalmyk standards. However, most of the villagers were branded as kulaks (wealthy) and their livestock was confiscated. After that, those who could flee – they fled. My family fled in the direction of Elista, and from there to Ulan Erge. David Kugultinov’s father was also among the refugees. Anatoliy’s grandfather taught him the Clear Script (Todo Bichig). As he was little, he did not understand it and often ran away from his grandfather. When Anatoliy was 7 and about to start school, his grandfather did not let him go. Besides Kalmyk, his grandfather knew Mongolian, Tibetan, German and Sanskrit. He wanted his grandson to inherit all his knowledge. When Anatoliy was serving in the army, he knew a Tajik soldier who secretly studied Arabic script. Instead of making fun of him, Anatoliy showed him the Kalmyk traditional script. Later Anatoliy also noticed that many national minorities in the USSR secretly tried to save their writings and culture. He says that had the Soviet government supported these aspirations, it might have prevented its collapse. After the army, Anatoliy entered Kalmyk State University. In the third year, his teacher, Dordzhi Antonovich Pavlov, said to him that he would be a good Kalmyk teacher and recommended that he become a journalist instead. Although he sent Anatoliy to study journalism in Leningrad, Anatoliy went to Sverdlovsk. He liked studying there and in his free time he did kayaking and mountaineering. After graduating from Sverdlovsk, Anatoliy worked at the newspaper Khalmg Unn in Kalmykia. He was sent to the Yashaltinskiy and Gorodovikovskiy rayons of Kalmykia to write about livestock breeding and agriculture. Having quickly learned the basics of agriculture from his brother’s textbooks who was at that time studying at the Bashanta Agricultural Technical College, Anatoliy could have a professional dialogue with the local farmers. Anatoliy also recounts a story about how he went to a Kalmyk wedding in Bashanta. He was seated next to a Kalmyk woman who smoked from a pipe. She was a Tersk Kalmyk who sang lezginka by drumming a copper basin. She told Anatoliy a story about how her great-grandfather was killed in a Caucasian village. During perestroika Anatoliy was transferred to the newspaper’s editorial office in Elista. Always interested in history and Kalmyk language, Anatoliy re-introduced several words into Kalmyk, including ‘geshyun’ (a member) and ‘soyl’ (culture).