Khorloogiin Choibalsan
Khorloogiin Choibalsan | |
---|---|
ᠬᠣᠷᠯᠤᠠ ᠶᠢᠨᠴᠣᠢᠢᠪᠠᠯᠰᠠᠩ Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан | |
Preceded by | Jamtsangiin Damdinsüren |
Succeeded by | Losolyn Laagan |
Personal details | |
Born | Khorloogiin Dugar 8 February 1895 Achit Beysiyn, Outer Mongolia, Qing China |
Died | 26 January 1952 Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union | (aged 56)
Resting place | Altan-Ölgii National Cemetery |
Nationality | Mongolian |
Political party | Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party |
Spouse(s) | Borotologai (1921–1935) B. Gündegmaa (1935–1952) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Mongolian People's Republic |
Branch/service | Mongolian People's Army |
Years of service | 1921–1952 |
Rank | Marshal |
Commands | All (supreme commander) |
Battles/wars | Mongolian Revolution of 1921 World War II |
Awards | Foreign:
|
Khorloogiin Choibalsan[a] (8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was a Mongolian politician who served as the leader of the Mongolian People's Republic as chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1939 until his death in 1952. He was also commander-in-chief of the Mongolian People's Army from 1937, and chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural (head of state) from 1929 to 1930. His rise to power in the 1930s was personally orchestrated by Joseph Stalin, and his rule was maintained by a repressive state and cult of personality. Choibalsan led a dictatorship and organized Stalinist purges in Mongolia between 1937 and 1939 as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Choibalsan was one of the 1921 Mongolian revolutionaries, and held several political and military roles in the 1920s. Mongolia's economic, political, and military ties to the Soviet Union deepened, though after World War II, Choibalsan supported pan-Mongolian unification with Inner Mongolia. He died of cancer in Moscow in 1952, and was succeeded as leader by his protégé, Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.
Early life
Choibalsan was born on 8 February 1895 in Achit Beysiyn, near present-day
Mongolian Revolution of 1921
Formation of the Mongolian People's Party
Choibalsan and fellow Mongolian students in Russia were called back to Khüree by the
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 Sükhbaatar—the famous "First Seven") to establish contacts with the Soviets and seek assistance in their struggle for independence. Choibalsan and Sükhbaatar remained together in Irkutsk for several months raising awareness of Mongolia's plight and receiving military training. During this period Sükhbaatar 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 warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia from the east and ejected occupying Chinese garrisons from Khüree in February 1921. No longer faced with directly confronting the Chinese in Mongolia, the Soviets finally threw their backing behind the Mongolian revolutionaries. Choibalsan and Sükhbaatar 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 Khüree to consult with MPP supporters, enlist fighters, and spirit members of Sükhbaatar's family back to Troitskosavsk.[10]
At a Soviet-organized MPP conference held secretly in Troitskosavsk from 1 to 3 March 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 Huv'sgalt Tsereg (Mongolian: Монгол Ардын Хувьсгалт Цэрэг), or the Mongolian People's Army, commanded by Sükhbaatar.[11]
Defeat of Ungern-Sternberg
Within days, Sükhbaatar's Mongolian partisan army (now numbering 400 men) defeated the larger but demoralized Chinese garrison that had fled to Kyakhta Maimaicheng (modern-day
Rise to power
After the revolution, Choibalsan remained Deputy Chief of the Mongolian People's Army while also being elected Chairman of the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League (MRYL).[11] Despite his credentials as one of the MPP's founding members, he failed to advance beyond second-tier government posts throughout the 1920s.[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 Defense Kliment Voroshilov took note of Choibalsan's political usefulness in the late 1920s and early 1930s that his career prospects began to improve.[15]
Purge of Bodoo
In late 1921, Choibalsan's MRYL foot soldiers carried out Prime Minister Bodoo's modernization campaign of forcibly cutting off "feudal" ornaments from Mongolian clothing (large cuffs, women's jewelry, long hair etc.).
Right Opportunism (1925–28)
At the Third Party Congress in 1924, Choibalsan sided with the leftist leader Rinchingiin Elbegdorj as left and right-wing factions of the MPRP called for the arrest and execution of moderate party leader Danzan, who was accused of protecting bourgeois interests and engaging in business with Chinese firms.[19] Following Danzan's death, Choibalsan and Rinchino's political influence diminished[20] as the party's 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 Lenin's New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union.
Leftist Period 1928–1932
At the Eighth 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.
The government's aggressive measures ultimately lead to brutal
Lkhümbe Affair
In the summer of 1934, Choibalsan's name surfaced during interrogations of party members arrested as part of the "
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.[27] Acting under Moscow's directive, Choibalsan then had Genden purged in March 1936 for sabotaging Mongol-Soviet relations by rejecting Stalin's demand that he eliminate the country's Buddhist clergy.[28] Genden was removed from his offices of the prime minister and foreign minister, arrested, and sent to Moscow, where he was 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". Possibly advised by a Soviet Official, Chopyak,[27] Choibalsan had Internal Affairs Committee rules amended in May 1936 to facilitate the detention of high ranking politicians without first consulting political superiors. Soon thereafter 23 high ranking lamas were arrested for participating in a "counter revolutionary centre." Following a yearlong trial, they were publicly executed in early October 1937. When Mongolia's Procurator General protested the lamas' prosecution, he too was arrested and then shot.[29]
Death of Marshal Demid
In August 1937, the 36-year-old Marshal Demid, whose popularity Choibalsan had always resented,[29] died under suspicious circumstances resulting in Choibalsan's 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[30] 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.
10 September 1937
The arrest of 65 high ranking government officials and intelligentsia on the night of 10 September 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.[31] The first show trial was staged at the Central Theatre from 18 to 20 October 1937. Thirteen of the 14 persons accused were sentenced to death.
In a spasm of violence that lasted nearly 18 months, Choibalsan's troika approved and carried out the execution of over 17,000 counterrevolutionary lamas. Monks that were not executed were forcibly laicized[32] while 746 of the country's monasteries were liquidated. Thousands more dissident intellectuals, political and government officials labelled "enemies of the revolution," as well as ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs were also rounded up and killed. Twenty-five 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.[33] Following the Russian model, Choibalsan opened gulags in the countryside to imprison dissidents.[34] While the NKVD effectively managed the purge by staging show trials and carrying out executions,[35] a frequently intoxicated[36] Choibalsan was sometimes present during torture[36] and interrogations of suspected counterrevolutionaries, including old friends and comrades. Choibalsan rubber-stamped NKVD execution orders and at times personally directed executions.[33] He also added names of political enemies to NKVD arrest lists simply to settle old scores.[35][36]
End of the Great Terror
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 7 March 1939 and sent to the USSR, where he was later tried by a Soviet Troika and executed.
With Amar's removal, Choibalsan became Mongolia's 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 (1939–45)
Battles 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 Mongolia's southeast border with Japanese occupied Manchuria. Over the course of three battles (May – September 1939) a heavily armoured Soviet military force commanded by Georgy Zhukov decisively defeated the Japanese advance near the village of Nomonhan. There were nearly 8,000 casualties for both the Soviet and Japanese forces.[40] Nevertheless, the victory, which took place close to his birthplace, helped cement Choibalsan's 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 country's unwavering support for the Soviet Union after Germany's 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 Mongolia's 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 MPR's economy was re-calibrated to provide material support to the Soviet Union in the form of livestock, raw materials, money, food, military clothing, meat, sheepskin, 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 the 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 country's economic output to the Soviets. Choibalsan consistently sought Moscow's assent before making key policy decisions, even in minor matters and made efforts to curry Moscow's favour whenever possible.[42] At the Tenth Party Congress in March to April 1940, Choibalsan arranged the purge of MPRP Secretary-General Baasanjav and had him replaced with a new favorite of Stalin's, 24-year-old Minister of Finance Yumjaagiin 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 Buddhist church.[41] Between 1941 and 1946 the country adopted Cyrillic script in place of the traditional Mongolian script. On 5 October 1942 Choibalsan University in Ulaanbaatar opened[44] financed largely by the Soviets and with courses taught in Russian.
End of the war and pan-Mongolian aspirations
An ardent Mongolian nationalist, Choibalsan 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
Post 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,"
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
Strengthening Party rule
While never reaching the frenzied levels of 1937–1939, arrests and executions of dissidents persisted until Choibalsan's 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; eighty 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]
Falling out with Stalin
Throughout his 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 Stalin's 70th-birthday celebration in Moscow, sending Tsedenbal in his place. When in 1950 Tsedenbal and other protégés 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]
Illness, death, and burial
In late 1951 Choibalsan traveled to Moscow to receive treatment for
Choibalsan's body was returned by a special train to Mongolia with full
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 with the actress Diwa (Dewee), after which Borotologai requested a divorce in 1935. Choibalsan then married a woman named B. Gündegmaa. 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 Gündegmaa adopted a girl, Suwd.[17]
Legacy
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 Choibalsan's 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,"[58] and even the MPRP Central Committee's 1962 decision, in lock-step with Khrushchev's anti-Stalinization policies, to take "decisive measures to ensure complete liquidation of the harmful consequences of Kh. Choibalsan's cult of personality in all spheres of life,"[59] failed to generate serious public discourse on the matter.[60]
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.[61] 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 Moscow's instructions or else meet the fate of his predecessors Genden and Amar.
With the end of socialist rule in 1990, however, re-examining of Choibalsan's rule has occurred, and there does seem to be an attempt by some Mongolians to come to terms with the country's socialist past in a more general context. Nevertheless, Choibalsan is still not the object of strong resentment in Mongolia. That sentiment is reserved for the Soviet Union. Stalin's statue, for example, was removed from in front of the
As for Choibalsan's lasting influence, what is clear is that his aggressively pro-Russian stance and his active role in increasing Mongolia's economic, political, and social reliance on the Soviet Union turned the country into a Soviet dependency, which has had a lasting impact on modern Mongolian identity and development.[62] His decimation of the Buddhist clergy and numerous monasteries also robbed Mongolia of a rich cultural heritage.
In 2017, the Mongolian Bank unveiled a Khorloogiin Choibalsan coin.[63]
Awards
- Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (twice)
- Order of Sukhbaatar (four times)
- Order of the Red Banner (five times)
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Order of the Polar Star
- Medal "For Victory over Japan"
- Medal for Victory over Japan ("We won")
- Medal "25 Years of the People's Revolution"
Foreign
- Orders of Lenin(twice)
- Order of Suvorov, 1st degree
- Orders of the Red Banner(twice)
- Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
- Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
- Medal "For the Victory over Japan"
- Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
- Honorary Weapon
- Honored Worker of the NKVD of the USSR
Notes
- ^ /xɔːrˌloʊɡ ˈtʃɔɪbəlsən/ khor-LOHG CHOI-bəl-sən; Mongolian: Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, pronounced [χɔrˈɮɔɟiŋ ˈt͡ɕɞe̯pɐɬsɐɴ]
References
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- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 198
- ^ Kh. Choibalsan, D. Losol, D. Demid, Mongolyn ardyn ündesnii khuv'sgal ankh üüseg baiguulagdsan tovch tüükh [A short history of the Mongolian revolution] (Ulaanbaatar, 1934), v. 1, p. 56.
- ^ Bawden 1989, p. 215
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- ^ a b c Atwood 2004, p.104.
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- ^ Thomas, Natalie (4 June 2018). "Young monks lead revival of Buddhism in Mongolia after years of repression". Reuters. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
- ^ Bawden 1989, p. 292-293
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 352
- ^ a b Baabar 1999, p. 353
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 348
- ^ a b Baabar 1999, p. 355
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 359
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 361: quoting N. Erdene-Ochir, "Extra-Special Commission", Ardyn Erh, No. 153, 1991
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- ^ a b c Becker 1992, p. 95
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- ^ a b c Robert L. Worden; Andrea Matles Savada (eds.). "Economic Gradualism and National Defense, 1932–45". Mongolia: A Country Study. GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
- ^ a b c Atwood 2004, p.105.
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- ^ Bagaryn Shirendyb et al 1976, p. 826
- ^ Radchenko, Sergey. "Carving up the Steppes: Borders, Territory and Nationalism in Mongolia, 1943–1949" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
- ^ Becker 1992, p. 96
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- ^ Morozova 2009, p. 126
- ^ "Mongolia-Postwar Developments". Retrieved 26 November 2012.
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- ^ Morozova 2009, p. 105
- ^ Morozova 2009, p. 120
- ^ Becker 1992, p. 97
- ^ a b c d e f "Баабар: Чойбалсан таалал төгсөв | Sonin.MN". Archived from the original on 12 March 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- ^ "Olloo.mn – Єдєр бvр дэлхий даяар – Д.Сvхбаатар, Х.Чойбалсан, Ж.Самбуу нарт зориулсан бунхан барина". archive.olloo.mn. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- ^ "Прогулка по мавзолеям". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 1 June 1999. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- ^ "1960–2014 оны Улаанбаатар хот". mass.mn. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- ^ Bagaryn Shirendyb et al 1976, p. 345
- ^ Lattimore 1962, p 148
- ^ Kenneth Christie, Robert Cribb, Robert B. Cribb 2002, pg 161
- ^ Kenneth Christie, Robert Cribb, Robert B. Cribb 2002, pg 162
- ^ Atwood 2004, p. 60
- ^ "Bank of Mongolia Coins". Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
External links
- A Forgotten Purge by Timothy May, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Mass grave uncovered in Mongolia RTÉ News, Thursday, 12 June 2003
- Choibalsan delivering an address