Sergei talks about traditional upbringing and the importance of growing up with one’s grandparents: What was considered to be good in the past? If grandfathers and grandmothers were alive, it was considered good. Today we live far from our elders. I used to know a man called Ochir Mandzhiev, a war veteran. He told me that once his son came home drunk before his wedding. In the morning Ochir looked at his son who was still sleeping. He pulled his son off the bed by his legs and whipped him well. This is how a real Kalmyk upbringing used to be. If everybody was brought up like this, the young people would have been different to how they are now. Today children swear, and get spoilt. The young people do not speak their language, they speak Russian only. I say this. If they had grown up according to old laws, they would be tidy, cover their hair and never show their bare foot to elders. Without grandmothers and grandfathers around, it is impossible to upbring children according to old traditions.