Khorloogiin Choibalsan: mongolian

communist dictator
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.
Khorloogiin Choibalsan


Head of State
Chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Hural
In office
24 January 1929 27 April 1930
General
Secretary
lziin Badrakh
Bat-Ochirin Eldev-Ochir
Peljidiin Genden
Preceded by Jamtsangiin Damdinsren
Succeeded by Losolyn Laagan
Prime Minister of Mongolia
In office
24 March 1939 26 January 1952
General
Secretary
Banzarjavyn Baasanjav
Dashiin Damba
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal
Preceded by Anandyn Amar
Succeeded by Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal
Personal details
Born February 8, 1895
Achit Beysiyn, Qing Dynasty
Died January 26, 1952 (aged 56)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Resting place Altan Ulgii National
Cemetery,Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Nationality Mongolian
Political party Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
Spouse(s) Borotologai (19211935)
B. Gndegmaa (19351952)
Religion None (atheist)
Military service
Allegiance Mongolian People's Republic
Service/branch Mongolian People's Army
Years of service 19211952
Rank Marshal of the Mongolian People's Army (1936
1952)
Commands All (supreme commander)
Battles/wars World War II
Awards





Foreign:




This is a Mongolian name. The given name is Choibalsan, and the name Khorloogiin is
a patronymic, not a family name. The subject should be referred to by the given name.
Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Mongolian: ; February 8, 1895 January
26, 1952) was the Communistleader of the Mongolian People's Republic and Marshal (general
chief commander) of the Mongolian armed forces from the 1930s until his death in 1952. His
rule marked the first and last time in modern Mongolian history that a single individual amassed
complete political power. Often referred to as the Stalin of Mongolia, Choibalsan oversaw
violent Soviet-ordered purges in the late 1930s that resulted in the deaths of an estimated
30,000 to 35,000 Mongolians. Most of the victims were Buddhist clergy, intelligentsia, political
dissidents, ethnic Buryats and Khazaks, and other "enemies of the revolution." His intense
persecution of Mongolia's Buddhistsbrought about their near complete extinction in the country.
Although Choibalsan's devotion to Joseph Stalin helped preserve his country's fledgling
independence during the early years of theMongolian People's Republic (MPR), it also turned
Mongolia into the first satellite state of the Soviet Union. Throughout his rule, Mongolia's
economic, political, and military ties to the USSR deepened, infrastructure and literacy rates
improved, and international recognition of Mongolia's independence expanded, especially
after World War II.
Contents
1 Early life
2 Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921
o 2.1 Formation of the Mongolian People's Party
o 2.2 Contact with Soviets and the first MPP Congress
o 2.3 Defeat of Ungern-Sternberg
3 Rise to power
o 3.1 Purge of Bodoo
o 3.2 Right Opportunism 1925-1928
o 3.3 Leftist Period 1928-1932
o 3.4 Lkhmbe Affair
4 Great Terror
o 4.1 Purge of Genden
o 4.2 Death of Marshal Demid
o 4.3 September 10, 1937
o 4.4 End of the Great Terror
5 World War II, 1939-1945
o 5.1 Battle of Khalkhin Gol
o 5.2 Support for the Soviet Union
o 5.3 Internal developments
o 5.4 Cult of personality
o 5.5 End of the war and pan-Mongolian aspirations
6 Post war
o 6.1 Modernisation efforts
o 6.2 Establishing international recognition
o 6.3 Strengthening Party rule
o 6.4 Fallout with Stalin
7 Death
o 7.1 Doctors Plot
8 Personal life
9 Legacy
10 Notes
11 External links
Early life
Choibalsan was born on February 8, 1895 in Achit Beysiyn, near present
day Choibalsan, Dornod Province.
[1]
He was the youngest of four children born to a poor
unmarried herdswoman named Khorloo (the name Khorloogiin is a matronymic). His father
was likely a Daur Mongol from Inner Mongolia called Jamsu, but Choibalsan claimed to be
unaware of his identity.
[2]
Named Dugar at birth, he assumed the religious name Choibalsan at
age 13 after entering the local Buddhist monastery of San Beysiyn Khree
[3]
where he trained
to be a Lamaist monk. Five years later he fled to Khree (also known as Urga - present
day Ulaanbaatar) with another novice where he worked odd jobs. In part to prevent him from
being returned to the monastery, a sympathetic Buryat teacher named Nikolai Danchinov had
him enrolled in the Russian consulates Russian-Mongolian Translators' School.
[4]
A year later
he was sent on at public expense to study at a gymnasium in Irkutsk, Russia from 1914-1917.
Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921
Formation of the Mongolian People's Party

The Russian Consulate in Khree played a central role in Choibalsan's early development.

Skhbaatar (left) with Choibalsan in the early 1920s
Choibalsan and fellow Mongolian students in Russia were called back to Khree by the Bogd
Khaan government following the 1917October Revolution. Exposed to Bolshevism while living
among Irkutsks radicalized student population,
[5]
Choibalsan joined the anti-Chinese Consular
Hill or Konsulyn Denj ( ) resistance group shortly after his return. Original
members of the Bolshevik-influenced group also included Dambyn Chagdarjav and Darizavyn
Losol.
[6]
Dogsomyn Bodoo, the group's leader, was a former teacher and mentor of
Choibalsan's at the Russian-Mongolian School for Translators.
[7]
With his serviceable Russian,
Choibalsan served as the groups translator with contacts at the Russian Consulate. Those
contacts later encouraged Konsulyn Denj to join forces with the more nationalist-oriented
resistance group Zn Khree (East Khree), which counted Soliin Danzan,Dansrabilegiin
Dogsom, and Damdin Skhbaatar among its members. On June 25, 1920,
[8]
the new body
adopted the nameMongolian Peoples Party (MPP). In 1924 the party renamed itself
the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party or MPRP after the death of the Bogd Khaan and
the formal proclamation of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR).
Contact with Soviets and the first MPP Congress[
In late June 1920, Choibalsan and Danzan embarked for Irkutsk (they were later joined by
Losol, Chagdarjav, Dogsom, L. Dendev, and Skhbaatar - the famous First Seven) to
establish contacts with the Soviets and seek assistance in their struggle for independence.
Choibalsan and Skhbaatar remained together in Irkutsk for several months raising awareness
of Mongolias plight and receiving military training. During this period Skhbaatar gradually
became a second mentor to Choibalsan.
[9]

While the group of seven continued their lobbying efforts in Soviet Russia, forces commanded
by the anti-Bolshevik Russian warlordRoman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia from
the east and ejected occupying Chinese garrisons from Khree in October 1920. No longer
faced with directly confronting the Chinese in Mongolia, the Soviets finally threw their backing
behind the Mongolian revolutionaries. Choibalsan and Skhbaatar relocated to Troitskosavsk
(modern day Kyakhta on the Russian-Mongolian border) to coordinate revolutionary activities
and recruit Mongolian fighters. Choibalsan secretly ventured as far as Khree to consult with
MPP supporters, enlist fighters, and spirit members of Skhbaatars family back to
Troitskosavsk.
[10]

At a Soviet-organized MPP conference held secretly in Troitskosavsk from March 1 to 3, 1921
(subsequently regarded as the first congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party),
Choibalsan was elected a member of the provisional revolutionary government. He was also
appointed Political Commissar (Deputy Chief and chief propagandist) of the Mongol Ardyn
Huvsgalt Tsereg (Mongolian: ), or the Mongolian Peoples
Army, commanded by Skhbaatar.
[11]


Ungern-Sternberg
Defeat of Ungern-Sternberg
Within days, Skhbaatar's Mongolian partisan army (now numbering 400 men) defeated the
larger but demoralized Chinese garrison that had fled to Kyakhta Maimaicheng (modern
day Altanbulag). Joint Mongol and Red Army forces directly confronted Ungern's troops in a
series of battles near Troitskosavsk from late May to mid-June. Choibalsan took command of a
Mongolian detachment based in Tariat, in modern day Arkhangai province
[12]
and, together
with the Russian forces commanded by Petr Efimovich Shchetinkin, fought right guard actions
in western Mongolia in support of the main Russian-Mongolia advance through modern
day Selenge and Tv provinces. After small skirmishes with Ungern's remaining guard units
the joint Russian-Mongol force entered Khree unchallenged on July 6, 1921. Choibalsan
pursued remnants of Ungerns army and was likely on hand at Ungerns capture by
Shchetinkin on August 22, 1921.
[13]




Rise to power

Choibalsan in 1925
After the victory of the revolution, Choibalsan remained Deputy Chief of the Mongolian
Peoples Army while also being elected Chairman of the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth
League (MRYL).
[11]
In the decade that followed, however, he failed to advance beyond second
tier government posts despite his credentials as one of the MPPs founding members.
[14]
His
heavy drinking, womanizing, and violent temperament alienated him from party leaders and at
one point in the early 1930s he was temporarily demoted from being Minister of Foreign Affairs
to the role of simple Museum Director. While he often gravitated towards the leftist faction of
the party, he was suspected of being a rightist in what little mention is made of him in Soviet
and Mongolian reports of the era.
[14]
Choibalsan himself did not include many of his own
speeches from this period in his collected works, indicating his role during this period was not a
prominent one. It was not until members of the Soviet security apparatus such as Soviet
Commissar for DefenseKliment Voroshilov took note of Choibalsans political usefulness in the
late 1920s and early 1930s that his career prospects began to improve.
[15]

Purge of Bodoo

Prime Minister Dogsomyn Bodoo

MPP General Secretary Soliin Danzan
In late 1921, Choibalsans MRYL foot soldiers carried out Prime Minister Bodoos
modernization campaign of forcibly cutting off "feudal" ornaments from Mongolian clothing
(large cuffs, womens jewelry, long hair etc.).
[16]
The angry public backlash led to Bodoos purge
and eventual execution in August 1922 while Choibalsan was stripped of both full party
membership and his position of as deputy commander of the Mongolian military. Only
Skhbaatars intervention saved him from Bodoo's fate.
[17]
Choibalsan was sent to a Moscow
Russian Military Academy after Skhbaatars death in 1923
[18]
and when he returned to
Ulaanbaatar a year later was offered his old mentor's former position as Commander in Chief
of the Peoples Revolutionary Troops. He also held positions as a member of the Presidium of
the State Great Huralfrom 1924 to 1928 and as member of the MPRP Central Committee.
Right Opportunism 1925-1928
At the Third Party Congress in 1924, Choibalsan sided with leftist leader Elbegdorj Rinchino as
left and right wing factions of the MPRP called for the arrest and execution of moderate party
leader Danzan. The coalition accused Danzan of representing bourgeois interests and
engaging in business with Chinese firms.
[19]
Following Danzans death, however, Choibalsan
and Rinchino saw their political influence diminish
[20]
as the partys right wing, led by Tseren-
Ochiryn Dambadorj, assumed control and, during a period later referred to as the Right
Opportunism (1925-1928), promoted rightist policies mirroring Lenins New Economic Policy in
the Soviet Union.
Leftist Period 1928-1932

The rise of Josef Stalin and termination of Lenins New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union
influenced political developments in the MPR with the 1928 MPRP Seventh Party Congress
ushering in the Leftist Period. Soviet advisors arranged for Choibalsan to be kicked upstairs
to be Chairman of the Little Hural (i.e. titular head of state)
[17]
from where, in 1929 and 1930, he
supported implementation of Soviet backed leftist policies of more rapid collectivization, land
expropriation, and persecution of the Buddhist Church.
At the Eight Party Congress in 1930 Choibalsan contributed to a ramping up leftist socialist
reforms when, again encouraged by Soviet agents, he introduced personally formulated
decrees that intensified land confiscation and forced collectivization measures.
[21]
His
appointment in 1931 as Minister of Livestock and Agriculture (a position he held until 1935)
gave him even greater authority to enforce the policies. Traditional herders were forced off the
steppe and into badly managed collective farms, destroying one third of Mongolian
livestock.
[22]
Over 800 properties belonging to the nobility and the Buddhist church were
confiscated and over 700 head of mostly noble households were executed.
[23]

The governments aggressive measures ultimately lead to brutal armed
uprisings in Khvsgl, Arkhangai, vrkhangai, and Zavkhan provinces in 1932. In reaction,
Moscow ordered a temporary curtailment of economic centralization efforts. Comintern agents
counted on Choibalsan to be a strong advocate for its New Turn policy to correct the
excesses of the Left Deviation when it was introduced an extraordinary plenum of the
MPRP Central Committee in June 1932. Later MPR histories would credit Choibalsan with
being the first to criticize the leftist period and propose reforms, but these were merely
fabrications meant to build up Choibalsans cult of personality.
[24]

Lkhmbe Affair
In the summer of 1934, Choibalsans name surfaced during interrogations of party members
arrested as part of the "Lkhmbe Affair," a manufactured conspiracy in which MPRP General
Secretary Jambyn Lkhmbe and other MPRP elements, particularly Buryat-Mongols, were
falsely accused of conspiring with Japanese spies. The invasion of neighboring Manchuria by
Japanese forces in 1931 had raised fears in Ulaanbaatar and Moscow alike of possible
Japanese military expansion into Mongolia and the Soviet Far East. Over 1500 people were
implicated in the purge and 56 were executed. Choibalsan was called to Moscow where he
was arrested and interrogated regarding his possible involvement. Within days, however, he
was cooperating with the NKVD in the interrogation and torture of fellow
Mongolians.
[15]
Satisfied with his loyalty, Stalin ordered Mongolias Prime Minister Peljidiin
Genden to appoint Choibalsan as deputy prime minister. Genden vigorously objected, but to no
avail. As relations between Genden and Stalin soured, Choibalsans influence with Moscow
increased. In 1935, as a public sign of his favor, Stalin gifted Choibalsan 20 GAZ automobiles
which he distributed among Mongolian power players to increase his prestige.
[25]

Great Terror[
Purge of Genden
In 1936 Choibalsan and Gelegdorjiin Demid were appointed Marshals of the Armed Forces
while Choibalsan also became head of the newly elevated Ministry of Internal Affairs, 26
percent of whose staff were NKVD agents.
[26]
Acting under Moscows directive, Choibalsan then
had Genden purged in March 1936 for sabotaging Mongol-Soviet relations by rejecting Stalins
demand that he eliminate the countrys Buddhist clergy.
[27]
Genden was removed from his
offices of the prime minister and the foreign minister, arrested, and sent to Moscow where he
would be executed a year later. Anandyn Amar became Prime Minister in his place.
Over the next three years, Soviet mentors in the Ministry of Internal Affairs guided Choibalsan
in planning and carrying out the Great Terror. Under the direction of his Soviet handler
Chopyak,
[26]
Choibalsan had Internal Affairs Committee rules amended in May 1936 to facilitate
the detention high ranking politicians without first consulting political superiors. Soon thereafter
23 high ranking lamas were arrested for participating in a counter revolutionary center.
Following a yearlong trial they were publicly executed in early October 1937. When Mongolias
Procurator General protested the lamas prosecution, he too was arrested and then
shot.
[28]
Death of Marshal Demid



Deputy NKVD Chief MP Frinovsky
In August 1937, the 36 year old Marshal Demid, whose popularity Choibalsan had always
resented,
[28]
died under suspicious circumstances resulting in Choibalsans promotion to the
dual role of sole Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian military and Minister of Defense. The
following day Choibalsan, as Interior Minister, issued Order 366 which declared that many in
Mongolia had fallen under the influence of Japanese spies and provocateurs. That same
month Stalin, alarmed by Japanese military movements in Manchuria
[29]
ordered the stationing
of 30,000 Red Army troops in Mongolia and had dispatched a large Soviet delegation to
Ulaanbaatar under Soviet Deputy NKVD Commissar Mikhail Frinovsky. Frinovsky was charged
with setting in motion the violent purges that he had so effectively carried out in the Soviet
Union under NKVD Chief Nikolai Yezhov. Working through Soviet advisers already embedded
within the Ministry of Interior and with a willing Choibalsan providing symbolic cover, Frinovsky
built the purge framework from behind the scenes; producing arrest lists and creating an NKVD
style Troika (headed by Choibalsan) to try suspects.

The ruins of Manzushir Khiid, one of several hundred Buddhist monasteries destroyed during the purge.
September 10, 1937
The arrest of 65 high ranking government officials and intelligentsia on the night of Sept 10,
1937 signaled the launch of the purges in earnest. All were accused of spying for Japan as part
of a Genden-Demid plot and most confessed under intense torture.
[30]
The first show trial was
staged at the Central Theater from October 18 to 20, 1937. 13 of the 14 persons accused were
sentenced to death.
In a spasm of violence that lasted nearly 18 months, Choibalsans troika approved and carried
out the execution of over 17,000 counterrevolutionary lamas. Monks that were not executed
were forcibly laicized
[31]
while 746 of the countrys monasteries were liquidated. Thousands
more dissident intellectuals, political and government officials labeled enemies of the
revolution, as well as ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs were also rounded up and killed. 25
persons from top positions in the party and government were executed, 187 from the military
leadership, 36 of the 51 members of the Central Committee.
[32]
Following the Russian model,
Choibalsan opened gulags in the countryside to imprison dissidents.
[33]
While the NKVD
effectively managed the purge by staging show trials and carrying out executions,
[34]
a
frequently intoxicated
[35]
Choibalsan was sometimes present during torture
[35]
and interrogations
of suspected counterrevolutionaries, including old friends and comrades. Choibalsan rubber-
stamped NKVD execution orders and at times personally directed executions.
[32]
He also added
names of political enemies to NKVD arrest lists simply to settle old scores.
[34][35]
Nevertheless,
even when he attempted to spare victims by recommending leniency in certain cases, NKVD
officers often overrode his decision.
[36]

End of the Great Terror

Genden

Amar

Dogsom

Losol
Notable victims of Choibalsan's purges include (from left); prime ministers P. Genden and A. Amar, and two of
the founding members of the MPRP D. Dogsom and D. Losol
Racked with stress, Choibalsan spent six months (August 1938 January 1939) recuperating
and consulting with Voroshilov, Yezhov, and Stalin in Moscow and Sochi
[37]
while NKVD
agents and Interior Ministry officials carried on purge operations from Ulaanbaatar. When he
returned to Mongolia, Choibalsan followed Soviet directives and had the highly popular Prime
Minister Amar purged. Choibalsan claimed he had helped anti-government plotters, opposed
their arrest, and neglected the defense of the borders. He betrayed his own country and was a
traitor to the revolution.
[38]
After a coordinated propaganda campaign, Amar was arrested on
March 7, 1939 and sent to the USSR, where he was later tried by a Soviet Troika and
executed.
With Amars removal, Choibalsan became Mongolias uncontested leader, simultaneously
holding the office Prime Minister, Minister for Internal Affairs, Minister of War, and Commander
in Chief of the Mongolian armed forces. Secured in his position, Choibalsan brought the terror
to an end in April 1939 by declaring that the excesses of the purges had been conducted by
overzealous party officials while he was away in the USSR, but that he had overseen the
arrests of the real criminals. Official blame for the purges fell on the deputy minister of internal
affairs Nasantogtoh, and his former Soviet handler Kichikov. Later, other henchmen of the
purge were arrested and executed, including Luvsansharav, Bayasgalan, Dashtseveg, and
Luvsandorj. Dogsom and Losol, the last two living members (besides Choibalsan himself) of
the original seven founding members of the MPRP, were also arrested.
[39]
Dogsom was
executed in 1941. Losol died in a Soviet prison before his case came to trial.
World War II, 1939-1945
Battle of Khalkhin Gol

George Zhukov and Khorloogiin Choibalsan (right) consult during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol
In the spring of 1939, Japanese Kwantung Army military leaders moved to test the resolve of
the Soviet and Mongolian militaries to protect disputed territory along Mongolias southeast
border with Japanese occupied Manchuria. Over the course of three battles (May September
1939) a heavily armored Soviet military force commanded by Georgy Zhukov decisively
crushed the Japanese advance near the village ofNomonhan. The Mongolian contribution to
the Soviet victory was nominal, with just 237 casualties as compared to nearly 8000 casualties
for both the Soviet and Japanese forces.
[40]
Nevertheless, the victory, which took place close to
his birthplace, helped cement Choibalsans growing cult of personality which portrayed him as
a staunch defender of Mongolian independence against imperialist Japanese aggression.
Support for the Soviet Union
Choibalsan proclaimed his countrys unwavering support for the Soviet Union after Germanys
invasion of the USSR in June 1941, although Mongolia never officially declared war against
Germany and waited until August 1945 to declare war against Japan. As early as 1939, Stalin
had pushed Choibalsan to increase Mongolias livestock population to 200 million as a source
of raw materials for the Soviet Union in the event of war in Europe.
[41]
Throughout the conflict,
the MPRs economy was re-calibrated to provide material support to the Soviet Union in the
form of livestock, raw materials, money, food, military clothing, meat, sheep skin, felt boots, fur
lined coats, and funding for several Soviet military units. Choibalsan and the newly elected
Secretary General of the MPRP Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal traveled to the front near Moscow to
distribute gifts to Red Army troops.
[41]
Stalin awarded Choibalsan the Order of Lenin for his
outstanding effort in organizing Mongolian people for delivery of aid in goods to Red Army in
July 1944.
Internal developments
Despite the privations of wartime, Choibalsan and party leaders pressed on with what limited
social progress they could manage while delivering much of the countrys economic output to
the Soviets. Choibalsan consistently sought Moscows assent before making key policy
decisions, even in minor matters and made efforts to curry Moscows favor whenever
possible.
[42]
At the Tenth Party Congress in March - April 1940, Choibalsan arranged the purge
of MPRP Secretary General Baasanjav and had him replaced with a new favorite of Stalins, 24
year old Minister of Finance Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal. Although he relinquished leadership of the
MPRP, Choibalsan continued to be the predominant force in Mongolian politics and pushed
through reforms of the Mongolian constitution more in line with the 1936 USSR
Constitution
[43]
that effectively ended the influence and power of Bhuddist church.
[41]
Between
1941 and 1946 the country adopted the Cyrilic alphabet in place of the traditional Mongolian
script. On October 5, 1942 Choibalsan University in Ulaanbaatar opened
[44]
financed largely by
the Soviets and with courses taught in Russian.
Cult of personality
Building up Choibalsans cult of personality became an important component of maintaining
MPRP control over the country. Throughout the early 1940s, Choibalsan and party leaders,
with help from the Soviets, launched a campaign to depict him as a national hero and savior of
the nation, the Mongolian Stalin to Skhbaatars Lenin. Several historical films were produced
with Choibalsan as the leading hero or working side by side with Skhbaatar. Official histories
of the Revolution were also rewritten to give Choibalsan a more central and heroic role. The
university and the main industrial combine in Ulaanbaatar named after him, as were the town
and province of his birth.
End of the war and pan-Mongolian aspirations

Choibalsan hoped to unite ethnic Mongols in Inner Mongolia with the MPR
Choibalsan was a Mongolian nationalist, and he never gave up a hope of uniting all of the
Mongols under the auspices of the Mongolian People's Republic. Until 1945 he had
encouraged an ethnic insurgency in Eastern Xinjiang (with Stalin's support), looking to
strengthening the MPR's influence in the region and possibly beyond to Gansu and Qinghai.
He saw the impending defeat of Japan as an opportunity to realize his long held dream of a
Great Mongolia, the uniting of Outer and Inner Mongolia, and he fully expected Stalins
backing as reward for Mongolias steadfast support of the Soviets during the war.
[45]
On August
10, 1945, Mongolia declared war on Japan two days after the Soviet Union and both armies
joined forces to attack Japanese strongholds in northern China during the Manchurian
Strategic Offensive Operation. At the same time, Choibalsan unleashed a brief wave of pan-
Mongolist nationalism through the press, calling for unification and encouraging a grassroots
pan-Mongolist movement in Inner Mongolia.
[42]
When Choibalsan ordered Mongolian troops to
move south of theGreat Wall as far as Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Batu-Khaalga, he was
ordered by an angry Stalin to call them back.
[46]
Unbeknownst to Choibalsan, Stalin had already
sacrificed the vision of a united Mongolia at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 in return for
Soviet gains. Both Yalta and later the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1945 forced China to abandon its
claims to Mongolia and finally recognize it as an independent state within its existing borders.
Conversely, it also marked greater Mongolia's permanent division into an independent
Mongolian People's Republic and a neighboring Inner Mongolia.
Post war

Choibalsan after the war
Modernisation efforts
With the end of the war, Mongolia embarked on a policy of construction of the foundations of
socialism." Proclaiming it necessary to exterminate the concept of property,
[47]
Choibalsan
looked to modernize the country based on the Soviet model while expanding the communal
agriculture sector. Funded largely through Soviet aid, the countrys first five year plan (1948-
1952) focused on economic development, infrastructure construction, and doubling the
countrys livestock. Initiatives also were taken to redevelop the agrarian, industrial,
transportation. Under his government the Nalaikh coal mine, the electric grid, Zn Bayan
petroleum factory, other metal and mineral factories, the Naushk-Ulaanbaatar railway and
other transportation systems were developed.
[48]
and communications sectors, to establish
modern mining, and improve education and health services. In addition to establishing the
country's first major university, Choibalsan initiated policies to increase literacy rate and
developed the 10 year elementary, middle and high school system. The 1949 Communist
victory in China eliminated, at least temporarily, the threat on Mongolia's southern border
allowing the MPR to begin reducing its 80,000-troop army. Defense expenditures dropped from
33 percent of the total budget in 1948 to 15 percent in 1952.
[49]

Establishing international recognition
Although Choibalsan maintained a policy of stronger ties with the Soviet Union (in February
1946 he renewed the 1936 Protocol Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance for another
ten years and concluded the first bilateral agreement on economic and cultural cooperation
[50]
),
he nonetheless understood the importance solidifying Mongolias independence through
international recognition. In 1948 the MPR established diplomatic relations with
the DPRK (North Korea) and then with the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 (Mongolia was
the first country to recognize the PRC). In 1950 the Eastern Bloc Communist states of East
Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia all established formal relations with the MPR.

Choibalsan refused to attend Stalin's 70 Birthday celebrations in 1949 sending Tsedenbal (far right) in his
place.
Strengthening Party rule
While never reaching the frenzied levels of 1937-1939, arrests and executions of dissidents
persisted until Choibalsans death in 1952. Repressions were initiated in 1940, 1941, and
1942.
[51]
In 1947, a political scandal known as Port-Arthur was fabricated around a fictitious
plot to assassinate Choibalsan; 80 people were arrested, 42 of whom were executed. The
MPRP Central Committee issued proclamations to fight increased anti-revolutionary sentiment
and Interior Ministry secret police cells sprouted throughout the country. Party allegiance was
strengthened by growing membership in the MPRP. Membership doubled from 1940 to 1947,
reaching nearly 28,000.
[52]

Fallout with Stalin
Throughout the remaining years of life, Choibalsan continued to hold out hope of a united
Mongolia especially after the victory of Chinese communists in 1949. When it became clear
that Stalin would never back unification, he grew increasingly disillusioned with his former hero.
Personal relations between the two leaders deteriorated to the point that by 1949 Choibalsan
refused to attend Stalins 70th Birthday celebration in Moscow, sending Tsedenbal in his place.
When in 1950 Tsedenbal and other protgs urged Choibalsan to have Mongolia follow the
example of Tuva and petition Moscow to be permitted to join the Soviet Union, Choibalsan
severely rebuked them.
[42][53]

Death

Choibalsan's remains were interred in Skhbaatar's mausoleum from 1954 until 2005
In late 1951 Choibalsan traveled to Moscow to receive treatment for kidney cancer. He died
there on January 26, 1952 .
Choibalsans body was returned to Mongolia with full military honors and he was buried at the
Altan Ulgii cemetery in Ulaanbaatar. In July 1954 his body was moved to the newly
built Mausoleum for Skhbaatar in front of Government House on north side of Skhbaatar
Squarewhere the two lay until after the 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia. The
Mausoleum was torn down in 2005 and the corpses of both rulers were ritually cremated under
supervision of the Buddhist clergy, and the ashes entombed again at Altan Ulgii cemetery.
Doctors Plot
Hearing of Choibalsans death, the aging Stalin commented, "They die one after
another. Shcherbakov, Zhdanov, Dimitrov, Choibalsan ... die so quickly! We must change the
old doctors for new ones."
[54]
The reference of new doctors involved a supposed plot among
Kremlin doctors to kill off the Soviet leadership, with the inference that Choibalsan was one of
the victims. After Stalins death in March 1953, Nikita Khrushchev revealed that the conspiracy
had been fabricated as justification for a new massive party purge. Popular belief in Mongolia
that their leader had been poisoned by Kremlin doctors later gave way to speculation that
Stalin himself, irritated by Choibalsans obstinate nationalism and advocacy for Mongolias
independence, had ordered his death.
[55]

[56]

Personal life
Choibalsan married a devout Buddhist seamstress named Borotologai in 1921 and the two
remained married until 1935 despite his womanizing. In 1929 he began an affair the actress
Diwa (Dewee) after which Borotologai requested a divorce in 1935. Choibalsan then married a
modern woman named B. Gndegmaa. He had no children with either of his wives. In 1937
Choibalsan adopted the son of one of his Interior Ministry subordinates, although rumors
claimed that the boy was in fact Choibalsan's illegitimate child. Later Gndegmaa adopted a
girl, Suwd.
[17]

Legacy


Choibalsan's statue stands in front of the National University in Ulaanbaatar
Choibalsan's image in modern Mongolia remains mixed. At the time of his death he was widely
mourned as a hero, a patriot, and ultimately a martyr for the cause of Mongolian
independence. Remnants of his strong personality cult, as well as successful efforts by his
successor Tsendenbal to obstruct de-Stalinization efforts that could have shed light on
Choibalsans actions during the purges, helped solidify the positive regard many Mongolians
held of their former leader. Official criticisms of Choibalsan in 1956 and 1969, which blamed
him for crude violations of the revolutionary law [that] led to many people perishing,
[57]
and
even the MPRP Central Committees 1962 decision, in lock-step with Khrushchevs anti-
Stalinization policies, to take decisive measures to insure complete liquidation of the harmful
consequences of Kh. Choibalsans cult of personality in all spheres of life,
[58]
failed to generate
serious public discourse on the matter.
[59]

Some scholars have suggested the inclination of Mongolians to avoid blaming Choibalsan for
the purges is in effect an attempt to exonerate themselves for what happened
[60]
Public anger
over the violence of the purges falls predominantly on the Soviet Union and the NKVD, with
Choibalsan viewed sympathetically (if not pathetically) as a puppet with little choice but to
follow Moscows instructions or else meet the fate of his predecessors Genden and Amar.
With the end of socialist rule in 1990, however, re-examining of Choibalsans rule has
occurred, and there does seem to be an attempt by some Mongolians to come to terms the
countrys socialist past in a more general context. Nevertheless, Choibalsan is still not the
object of strong resentment in Monoglia. That sentiment is reserved for the former Soviet
Union. Stalin's statue, for example, was removed from in front of the National Library in 1990,
shortly after the Democratic revolution. Choibalsan's statue, on the other hand, still stands in
front of the National University in Ulaanbaatar, an institution he helped found and that for a
time bore his name. Moreover, the capital of Dornod aimagcontinues to carry his name.
As for Choibalsans lasting influence, what is clear is that his aggressively pro-Russian stance
and his active role in increasing Mongolias economic, political, and social reliance on the
Soviet Union, turned the country into the Soviets dependency, which has had a lasting impact
on modern Mongolian identity and development.
[61]
His decimation of the Buddhist church and
numerous monasteries also robbed Mongolia of a rich cultural heritage.
Notes

1. Jump up^ Sanders, Alan J. K. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Mongolia. Lanham:
Scarecrow Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-8108-3077-9.
2. Jump up^ Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol
Empire. New York: Facts on File inc. p. 103. ISBN 0-8160-4671-9.
3. Jump up^ Atwood 2004, p. 103.
4. Jump up^ Baabar (1999). History of Mongolia. Cambridge: Monsudar Publishing.
p. 198.ISBN 99929-0-038-5.
5. Jump up^ Znamenski, Andrei A (2011). Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and
Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books. p. 131. ISBN 0-8356-0891-3.
6. Jump up^ Bawden, C.R. (1989). The Modern History of Mongolia. London: Kegan Paul
International Ltd. p. 206. ISBN 0-7103-0326-2.
7. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 198
8. Jump up^ Kh. Choibalsan, D. Losol, D. Demid, Mongolyn ardyn ndesnii khuv'sgal ankh
seg baiguulagdsan tovch tkh [A short history of the Mongolian revolution]
(Ulaanbaatar, 1934), v. 1, p. 56.
9. Jump up^ Bawden 1989, p. 215
10. Jump up^ Bagaryn Shirendyb et al (1976). History of the Mongolian Peoples Republic.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 99. ISBN 0-674-39862-9.
11. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Sanders 1996, p. 42.
12. Jump up^ Bagaryn Shirendyb et al 1976, p. 137
13. Jump up^ Palmer, James (2008). The Bloody White Baron. London: Faber and Faber.
p. 226.ISBN 0-571-23023-7.
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a

b
Bawden 1989, p. 292
15. ^ Jump up to:
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b
Baabar 1999, p. 351
16. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 231
17. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Atwood 2004, p.104.
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Institution Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-8179-7122-X.
19. Jump up^ Sanders 1996, p. 52.
20. Jump up^ Lattimore, Owen (1962). Nomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited. Oxford
University Press. p. 119. ISBN 1-258-08610-7.
21. Jump up^ Bawden 1989, p. 293
22. Jump up^ Palmer, James (2008). The Bloody White Baron. London: Faber and Faber.
p. 235.ISBN 0-571-23023-7.
23. Jump up^ Becker, Jasper (1992). Lost Country, Mongolia Revealed. London: Hodder and
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24. Jump up^ Bawden 1989, p. 292-293
25. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 352
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b
Baabar 1999, p. 353
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b
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29. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 359
30. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 361: quoting N. Erdene-Ochir, "Extra-Special Commission",
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33. Jump up^ Sandag, Shagdariin (2000). Poisoned arrows: The Stalin-Choibalsan Mongolian
massacres, 1921-1941. University of Michigan. p. 70. ISBN 0-8133-3710-0.
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Baabar 1999, p. 358
35. ^ Jump up to:
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Becker 1992, p. 95
36. Jump up^ BBC Films. "Secrets of the Steppe".
37. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 365
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Stanford University Press. p. 170. ISBN 0-8047-1835-0.
39. Jump up^ Baabar 1999, p. 370
40. Jump up^ Krivosheeva, G. F. (1993). Grif sekretnosti sniat': poteri Vooruzhennykh Sil
SSSR v voynakh, boevykh deystviyakh i voennykh konfliktakh. Moscow: Voennoe izd-vo.
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41. ^ Jump up to:
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Robert L. Worden and Andrea Matles Savada, editors. "Economic
Gradualism and National Defense, 1932-45". Mongolia: A Country Study. GPO for the
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c
Atwood 2004, p.105.
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46. Jump up^ Becker 1992, p. 96
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48. Jump up^ Morozova 2009, p. 126
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51. Jump up^ Morozova 2009, p. 105
52. Jump up^ Morozova 2009, p. 120
53. Jump up^ Becker 1992, p. 97
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55. Jump up^ Kenneth Christie, Robert Cribb, Robert B. Cribb (2002). , Historical Injustice
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