Alexandr talks about the village of Godzhur and how he learnt to read the Kalmyk script: Before World War II, the village of Godzhur was called Arshan-Godzhur. After the Kalmyks were sent to exile, the Russians began to call it Godzhur. Godzhur, which means ‘running water’ in Kalmyk, takes its name from the springs in that area. The water flows down to the valley into a lake which is surrounded by cane. Except for one spring which has salty water, all other springs have fresh water. In 1957 I learned to read the Kalmyk script after I saw the newspaper Halmg Unn (Kalmyk Truth). A friend of mine who read that newspaper taught me how to read the Kalmyk script. When we moved to Godzhur, I used to take Jangar from the local library. In the past monks were highly educated. I still remember that they read texts written in the Kalmyk script.