“Sevenfold not Russian”. Interview about life in Siberia with G.Ts. Pyurbeev

Abstract

The publication is dedicated to the memory of the deportation of the Kalmyk people to Siberia (1943–1957). This is a part of the project “Everyone has their own Siberia.” It consists of a preface, the text of a biographical interview with the outstanding Kalmyk philologist G.Ts. Pyurbeev and the author’s commentary. The interview was recorded in December 2021; it was free-flowing, the text was transcribed without changes and authorized. The purpose of the publication is to show the memory of the Siberian childhood and the socialization of the Kalmyk boy in the 40s-50s in the USSR. It is important for the author to identify what plots, images and assessments are characteristic of the “generation 1.5” (Rumbaut) narrative about Siberia, to show the possibilities of a spontaneous story about a traumatic event in which trauma and its manifestations are “spoken out”. The text of the interview was analyzed using the method of hermeneutic analysis. The discursive strategies of the narrative testify to its positive nature of memory (according to J. Alexander). The texts of the interviews and comments will be of interest to all researchers of the deportation of the Kalmyks and the memory of this period.