Sangadzhi-Garya Dzhekiev, About Myself

Sangadzhi-Garya, 85, is from the clan of Tyumnya Khoshud (i.e. Khoshuds of Prince Tyumen). He describes himself as a Torghut-Khoshud. He was born in 1928 in the village of Bergin in Yustinskiy rayon. After finishing 4 classes, he worked with his parents in the local sovkhoz. His father died before the war. With the beginning of the war, Sangadzhi-Garya was mobilized to work in a kolkhoz from where he was sent to work on the construction of the Kizlyar-Astrakhan railway. From his kolkhoz 4 men and 4 women were sent there along with a camel. The railway was finished in the autumn of 1943. Not long after, all Kalmyks were rounded up and sent to Astrakhan from where they were sent to exile to Siberia. At the end of January 1943, Sangadzhi-Garya, along with his mother and three siblings arrived at Krasnoyarsk where he, aged 15, worked at a brick factory. The family returned to Kalmykia in 1959. Since their native village was destroyed, they went to live in Kharba where they stayed for 30 years. Afterwards they moved to Yashkul and from there to Elista. Today Sangadzhi-Garya lives in Elista.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi