Mongolian life stories database launched online | University of Cambridge
An online database launched today, 5 March, provides an oral history of Mongolia, as told by 600 Mongolian citizens who look back over their lives during the nation’s turbulent recent history. The ‘Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia’ project includes the life histories of 600 Mongolian citizens, who describe their memories and experiences during a turbulent century, as the country moved from being a part of the Qing Empire, to an aristocratic government, to Soviet-style socialism and, finally, to democracy. Some of the contributors recount their personal experiences of the brutal Stalinist repressions of the 1920s and 1930s, in which at least 35,000 people (about 4% of Mongolia’s population at the time) are believed to have been killed. Others speak of the effects of collectivised farming, life in Mongolia during World War II, and the impact of post-Soviet privatisation reforms on ordinary people.
