Sergei Muchiryaev, about myself

• Main Author: Terbish, Baasanjav
• Other Authors: Churyumova, Elvira, Churyumov, Anton, Korneev, Gennadiy, Bembeev, Aleksandr
• Format: Moving Image (Video)
• Language: Kalmyk
• Published: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Documentation Project, University of Cambridge 2019
• Subjects: Autobiography; Baldwin; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.44197; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/297150

Born in what is today Astrakhan region, Sergei and his family were exiled to Siberia when he was 7. Out of 7 people in his family, including his mother, younger sister, grandmother, grandfather and two aunts, only 2 survived exile. In Siberia, after finishing school, Sergei could not pursue higher education, for the commandant of the settlement where he lived did not let him go. After the end of exile, Sergei, on the advice of his sister, entered an acting school. Later, he spent the rest of his career working at the Kalmyk Drama Theater. In Siberia, Sergei reminisces, people died of cold and hunger in their droves. The first years of exile were particularly difficult. Sergei used to take boiled potatoes from an old Russian man who was a former priest. Thanks to people like him, Sergei managed to survive. Sergei began doing sports when he was a student. One day, he saw other students doing sports near the university. He went out to run and since runs regularly. In Siberia, Sergei and his mother lived in a village in the middle of the taiga where they had no newspapers or books to read. In three years, Sergei read Tolstoy’s book about Cossacks twice. Although he does not like reading books very much, he is interested in the history of the Kalmyks. Sergei likes books by Arltan Baskhaev. Sergei was particularly impressed by the book ‘The Fate of the Kalmyk’ by a Russian who lived among the Kalmyks in Siberia. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin