U469  Mongolia:  Theocracy, Communism, Democracy
    (formerly Mongols of the 20th Century)
    Week 11:  Thursday
     

 

The Choibalsang dictatorship, 1940-1952

  1. The new men
    1. 1939-1940: Choibalsang personally promoted 3,000 young cadres
    2. Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal (b. 1916)
      1. Dörbed Mongol, beginning of Oirad clique, student in Irkutsk
      2. 1931 joined Youth League, 1938 teacher of econ., 1939 joined party
      3. 1947 married Russian wife–Anastasia I. Filatova
    3. Damba (b. 1908), participated in leftist period, joined party in 1930
    4. The new dictatorship: parallel with Stalin
      1. Wartime dictatorship, 1941-5: patriotism, folklore, religion tolerated
      2. Post-war dictatorship: 1945-1951: dictator aged, hidden, spasmodic purges
      3. Final purges
        1. Mopping up, 1940-1941
        2. "Port Arthur case," 1947; "plot to kill Choibalsang"
  2. Cyrillicization
    1. No Cyrillicization agenda until 1940
    2. Designing of Cyrillic script entrusted to Ts. Damdinsüren
      1. Ts. Damdinsüren, B. (or Yü.) Rinchen: Mongolia’s great scholars
      2. Damdinsüren: Khalkha from east Mongolia
      3. Rinchen: Son of Bimbaev, Buriat living in Altanbulag
      4. Damdinsüren unpolitical, cautious, Rinchen more daring
    3. Initial Cyrillicization
      1. Begun in schools, 1944
      2. Used in newspapers, 1945 (Ünen "Truth" Mongolia’s Pravda)
      3. Switched back during war on Japan
      4. October, 1945, brief use of Rinchen’s special Cyrillic
    4. Final Cyrillicization
      1. 1946: Still most officials didn’t know Cyrillic
      2. Compulsory switch in 1946, caused brief chaos
  3. Economic and Social Trends
    1. Stalin’s suggestions in 1940
      1. 200 million head, exports: 30,000 tons wool, camel & goats, 1,000 tons
      2. Choibalsang set 200 million as aim, committed to 40,000 tons
    2. Herd size surge
      1. Hits 26.2 million in 1940 (9.6 million in 1918, maximum till 1990s)
      2. Lamas leave monasteries, become herders
      3. Individual herding system reached apogee
    3. World War II:
      1. Mandatory individual deliveries of livestock, wool: livestock nos. fall
        1. 500,000 horses sold for Soviet front at fixed state prices
      2. Rationing of consumer goods (to 1950)
      3. Gifts of materials, funding of air squadron and tank brigade
        1. 32,000 horses donated by herdsmen
    4. Industry:
      1. 1934: Industrial combine (later called "the Choibalsang")
      2. Nalaikh coal mine: 1922: 869 tons; 1940: 150,000
      3. Rails: Nalaikh to UB, Siberia to Bayantümen (later Choibalsang)
    5. Post-war construction:
      1. Japanese prisoners of war build apartment block, gov’t palace
      2. Soviet prisoners of war build Kiakhta-UB railway
  4. Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Chinese recognition
    1. United Nations Organization idea: victors against Fascism rule the world
      1. Choibalsang tried to participate in war on Germany
    2. Yalta (Feb., 1945): USSR will fight Japan, "status quo" in Mongolia
    3. Sino-Soviet treaty and Mongolian recognition
      1. Stalin to China: if you want a treaty, you must recognize Mongolia
      2. August, 1945: USSR, MPR attack Japan
      3. Choibalsang turns war into holy war of pan-Mongolian unification
      4. China gives in, IM abandoned, plebiscite on independence
      5. China recognizes Mongolia (sort of), USSR-MPR relations official
      6. Border conflicts with China >> Mongolia can’t join UNO
      7. Choibalsang bitter about betrayal of pan-Mongolian idea
  5. New Historical Issues
    1. Sükhebaatur cult
      1. Beginning by execution of Danzin (only good guy in the 1st troika)
      2. Choibalsang : Sükhebaatur : : Stalin : Lenin
      3. 1st movie of revolution finished 1942
      4. 1947, Sükhebaatur square w/ statue, Gov’t palace, then mausoleum
    2. Revolutionary/Nationalist historiography
      1. Biographies of Magsurjab, Sükhebaatur by Choibalsang
      2. Inner Mongolian heroes (written 1945): Togtakhu taiji, Damdinsürüng
      3. Choibalsang’s collected works, Stalin’s collected works
    3. Status of Chinggis Khan
      1. Damdinsüren adapts Secret History, Cyrillic: 1946
      2. 1949: Soviet intervention: first criticism of historical role of Chinggis Khan