Mongolian People's Republic

From 1691 to 1911, Outer Mongolia was ruled by the Manchu Qing dynasty. In the first decade of the 20th century, the Qing government began implementing the so-called New Policies, aimed at a further integration of Outer Mongolia. Upset by the prospect of the colonization akin to the developments in Inner Mongolia during the 19th century, the Mongolian aristocracy turned to the Russian Empire for support. In August 1911, a Mongol delegation went to Saint Petersburg and obtained a pledge of limited support. When they returned, the Xinhai Revolution—which eventually led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty—had begun. In December 1911 the Mongols deposed the Qing Amban in Ulaanbaatar and declared their independence under the leadership of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, who was appointed Bogd Khan of Mongolia, breaking away from the Qing dynasty. Attempts to include Inner Mongolia into the new state failed for various reasons, including the military weakness of the Inner Mongols to achieve their independence, the lack of Russian assistance to them (Russia was bound in Inner Mongolian affairs by secret treaties with Japan), and the lack of support from Inner Mongolian aristocrats and the higher clergy. In the Khiagt agreement of 1915, China, Russia and Mongolia agreed on Mongolia's status as maintaining autonomy under Chinese suzerainty.[7]

History of Mongolia
Timeline States Rulers Nobility Culture Politics Geography Language Religion
Ancient period Prehistory Slab Grave culture 1300–300 BC Xiongnu 209 BC–93 AD Xianbei state 93–234 Rouran Khaganate 330–555 Göktürks (First, Eastern, and Second Turkic Khaganates) 555–630 682–744 Xueyantuo 628–646 Tang protectorate 647–682 Uyghur Khaganate 744–840 Liao dynasty 907–1125
Medieval period Mongol khanates 9th–10th cent. Khamag Mongol 10th cent.–1206 Mongol Empire 1206–1368 Yuan dynasty 1271–1368 Northern Yuan 1368–1635 Four Oirat 1399–1634 Dzungar Khanate 1634–1758 Qing dynasty 1691–1911
Modern period National Revolution 1911 Bogd Khaganate 1911–1919 Chinese occupation 1919–1921 People's Revolution (Soviet intervention in Bogd Khanate) 1921 1921–1924 People's Republic 1924–1992 Democratic Revolution 1990 Modern Mongolia 1990–present

However, the Republic of China was able to use the Russian Revolution and the ensuing civil war as a pretext to deploy troops in Outer Mongolia, and in 1919 the Mongolian government was forced to sign a treaty that abolished Mongolia's autonomy. According to an Associated Press dispatch, some Mongol chieftains signed a petition asking China to retake administration of Mongolia and end Outer Mongolia's autonomy.[8] The Tusiyetu Khan Aimak's Prince Darchin Ch'in Wang was a supporter of Chinese rule while his younger brother Tsewang was a supporter of the Russian warlord Ungern-Sternberg.[9] It was under Chinese occupation that the Mongolian People's Party was founded and once again looked to the north, this time to Soviet Russia, for help. In the meantime, White Russian troops led by Roman von Ungern-Sternberg had occupied Khuree in early March 1921, and a new theocratic government declared independence from China on 13 March. But the Mongolian Revolution of 1921 broke out and Ungern and the remaining Chinese troops were driven out in the following months, and on 6 July 1921, the Mongolian People's Party and Soviet troops took Niislel Khuree. The People's Party founded a new government, but kept the Bogd Khaan as nominal head of state.[10][11] In the following years through some violent power struggles, Soviet influence got ever stronger, and after the Bogd Khaan's death, the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed on 26 November 1924. The government took control of the Bogda Khan's seal after his death according to the 26 November 1924 Constitution of the Mongolian People's Republic.[12]

It was proposed that Zhang Zuolin's domain (the Chinese "Three Eastern Provinces") take Outer Mongolia under its administration by the Bogda Khan and Bodo in 1922 after pro-Soviet Mongolian Communists seized control of Outer Mongolia.[9]

Map of Mongolia in 1925, between Uryankhai Krai and Inner Mongolia.

Between 1925 and 1928, the new regime became established. At the time, Mongolia was severely underdeveloped. Industry was nonexistent and all wealth was controlled by the nobility and religious establishments. The population numbered less than a million people and was shrinking due to nearly half of all Mongolian males living in monasteries. In 1928, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the Comintern ordered the collectivization of Mongolian agriculture. This led to an economic crisis, which resulted in uprisings in the West and the South.[13][14][15] Led by lamas, rebels took control of four provinces in hopes of an intervention by revered Panchen Lama or support by the Japanese. Although surprised by the uprising's scale, the Soviet government quickly reacted to defend the Mongolian regime and sent goods as well as troops. Encircled by the Communist forces and bombed by the Soviet Air Forces, the rebel zones faced starvation, causing the rebels to resort to cannibalism before being defeated. The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union consequently criticised the Mongolian Communists for implementing the collectivization in a similar way as in the Soviet Union, forcing the Mongolian government to shift to the so-called "New Course" and abandon the noncapitalist path, including collectivization, for the time being. Historian Stephen Kotkin argued that this was a "full reversal Stalin would not countenance at home", although collectivization had resulted in similar economic chaos and a great famine in the Soviet Union.[13]

In 1934, Peljidiin Genden visited Moscow and angrily accused Stalin of "Red imperialism". He subsequently died in the Great Purge after being tricked into taking a holiday on the Black Sea. After 1932, the implementation of a command economy was scaled back. Meanwhile, Japanese incursions in Manchuria were a casus belli for Moscow to station troops in Mongolia. In 1936, Stalin then ordered the Great Purge into Mongolia. Among those killed were Genden, Anandyn Amar, Demid, and Darizavyn Losol. After the removal of Genden from power, Marshal Khorloogiin Choibalsan, a follower of Stalin, took over.[16]

During World War II, because of a growing Japanese threat over the border between Mongolia and Manchuria, the Soviet Union reversed the course of Mongolian socialism in favor of a new policy of economic gradualism and build-up of the national defence. The Soviet and Mongolian armies defeated Japanese forces that had invaded eastern Mongolia in the summer of 1939 at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, and a truce was signed setting up a commission to define the Mongolian-Manchurian border in the autumn of that year.

After 1941, Mongolia's economy was readjusted to support the Soviet Union in every way possible, including providing funding for several Soviet military units. Russian historian V. Suvorov wrote that Mongolian aid during the Soviet–German War was important like the United States assistance because warm clothes often decided victory in battles on the Eastern Front.[17][18][19] Additionally, Mongolian volunteers fought in the Red Army against the Axis Powers in Europe.[20]

In 1944, Mongolia lost one of its neighbors when the Tuvan People's Republic joined the Soviet Union.

In the summer of 1945, the Soviet Union used Mongolia as one base for launching the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, a successful attack against the Japanese. The preceding build-up brought 650,000 Soviet soldiers to Mongolia, along with massive amounts of equipment. The Mongolian People's Army played a limited support role in the conflict, but its involvement gave Stalin the means to force the Chinese side finally to accept Mongolia's independence.

The February 1945 Yalta Conference provided for the Soviet Union's participation in the Pacific War. One of the Soviet conditions for its participation, put forward at Yalta, was that after the war Outer Mongolia would retain its "status quo". The precise meaning of this "status quo" became a bone of contention at Sino-Soviet talks in Moscow in the summer of 1945 between Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek's envoy T. V. Soong.

Stalin insisted on the Republic of China's recognition of Outer Mongolia's independence – something that it already enjoyed de facto even as it remained a part of China de jure. Chiang Kai-shek resisted the idea but eventually gave in. However, Chiang extracted from Stalin a promise to refrain from supporting the Chinese Communist Party, partly as a quid pro quo for giving up Outer Mongolia.

Thus, the Sino-Soviet Treaty guaranteed Outer Mongolia's independence, but it also ended Khorloogiin Choibalsan's hopes for uniting Outer Mongolia with Inner Mongolia, which remained in China's hands. Choibalsan initially hoped that Stalin would support his vision of Great Mongolia but the Soviet leader easily sacrificed Choibalsan's vision for Soviet gains, guaranteed by the Sino-Soviet Treaty and legitimized by the Yalta agreements. In this sense, the Sino-Soviet Treaty marked Mongolia's permanent division into an independent Mongolian People's Republic and a neighboring Inner Mongolia of the Republic of China.[21]

A Soviet-Russian and Mongolian tiled mural at the World War II Zaisan Memorial, Ulan-Bator, date to the era of the People's Republic.

Secure in its relations with Moscow, the Mongolian government shifted to postwar development, focusing on civilian enterprise. Mongolia was at this time one of the world's most isolated countries, having almost no contact with any nation outside of the Soviet Union. After the war, international ties were expanded and Mongolia established relations with North Korea and the new Communist states in Eastern Europe. Mongolia and the People's Republic of China (PRC) recognized each other in 1949, and the PRC relinquished all claims to Outer Mongolia. However, Mao Zedong privately hoped for Mongolia's reintegration with China. He raised this question before the Soviet leadership as early as 1949 (in meeting with Anastas Mikoyan at Xibaipo), and then, after having been firmly rebuffed by Stalin, again in 1954, a year after Stalin's death. In 1956, following Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin, the Chinese leaders attempted to present Mongolia's independence as one of Stalin's mistakes in meetings with Mikoyan. The Soviet response was that the Mongols were free to decide their own fate.[22]

Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal led Mongolia for over 44 years

In 1952, Choibalsan died in Moscow where he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal. Unlike his predecessor, Tsedenbal was enthusiastic about incorporating Mongolia as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. The idea met with strenuous opposition from other MPRP members and was subsequently abandoned.

In the 1950s relations between the MPR and the PRC improved considerably. China provided much needed economic aid, building up entire industries in Ulaanbaatar, as well as apartment blocks. Thousands of Chinese laborers were involved in these projects until China withdrew them after 1962 in a bid to pressure Mongolia to break with Moscow at the time of worsening Sino-Soviet relations.

After the beginning of the Sino-Soviet split, Mongolia briefly vacillated, but soon took a sharply pro-Soviet stand, being one of the first socialist countries to endorse the Soviet position in the quarrel with China. Military build-up on the Sino-Mongolian border began as early as 1963; in December 1965 the Mongolian Politburo requested the Soviet Union to station its military forces in Mongolia. In January 1966, with Leonid Brezhnev's visit to Mongolia, the two countries signed a mutual assistance treaty, paving the way to Soviet military presence in the MPR. In February 1967, following weeks of worsening Sino-Soviet tensions, Moscow officially approved the stationing of the reorganised 39th Soviet Army in Mongolia.

With Soviet encouragement, Mongolia increased its participation in communist-sponsored conferences and international organizations. In 1955, Mongolia attempted to join the United Nations, but the request was vetoed by the Republic of China (now based in Taiwan) which maintained its renewed claim over Mongolia. Mongolia became a member of the UN in 1961 after the Soviet Union threatened to veto the admission of all of the newly decolonized states of Africa if the Republic of China again used its veto. Diplomatic relations with the United States were not established until near the end of the Cold War. Mongolia became a bone of contention between the Soviet Union and China following the Sino-Soviet split because of the presence of Soviet nuclear arms.

By the beginning of the 1980s, Tsedenbal became increasingly authoritarian and erratic. Following a series of party purges, he was expelled from office in August 1984 on the pretext of "old age and mental incapacity". The removal of Tsedenbal had full Soviet backing, and he retired to Moscow where he lived until his death from cancer in 1991. Jambyn Batmönkh took over as General Secretary and enthusiastically plunged into the reforms implemented in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev.

After Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, he implemented the policies of perestroika and glasnost. The atmosphere of reform in the Soviet Union prompted similar reforms in Mongolia. Following mass demonstrations in the winter of 1990, the MPRP began to loosen its controls of the political system. The Politburo of the MPRP resigned in March, and in May the constitution was amended, deleting reference to the MPRP's role as the guiding force in the country, legalizing opposition parties, creating a standing legislative body, and establishing the office of president. On 29 July 1990, the first multiparty elections in Mongolia were held.[23] The election results returned a majority for the MPRP, which won with 85% of the vote. It was not until 1996 that the reformed MPRP was voted out of office.

The Soviet Union withdrew its troops stationed in Mongolia, and its technical and financial assistance, between 1987 and 1992.[24] Subsequently, the foreign and defense policy of Mongolia profoundly changed: "Maintaining friendly relations with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China shall be a priority of Mongolia's foreign policy activity. It shall not adopt the line of either country but shall maintain in principle a balanced relationship with both of them and shall promote all-round good neighborly co-operation."[25]

First Ulsyn Ikh Khural (State Great Assembly) which discussed and approved the first constitution, November 1924.

• Kotkin, Stephen (2017). Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59420-380-0.