Stalinist repressions in Mongolia
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Great Repression Их Хэлмэгдүүлэлт | |
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Part of | |
Attack type | |
Deaths | 20,000–35,000 |
Perpetrators | Minister of Justice Tserendorj, Internal Affairs Committee head D. Namsrai, deputy minister of internal affairs Nasantogtoh, Bayasgalan, Dashtseveg and others |
Motive | Elimination of political opponents, consolidation of power |
History of Mongolia |
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The Stalinist repressions in Mongolia (
]Background
Prelude: 1921–1934
Following the
In 1933–34, in what is viewed as a dress rehearsal for the repressions of 1937–1939, MPRP General Secretary
The Great Repression
Over the next three years, Soviet mentors in the Ministry of Internal Affairs guided Choibalsan in planning and carrying out the impending purges. Under the direction of his Soviet handler Matvey Petrovich Chopyak,[6] 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 center." 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.[7]
In August 1937, the 36-year-old Marshal Gelegdorjiin Demid, whose popularity Choibalsan had always resented,[7] 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." Alarmed by Japanese military movements in Manchuria[8] Stalin ordered that month 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. Charged with starting the violent purges that he had so effectively carried out in the Soviet Union under NKVD Chief Nikolai Yezhov, Frinovsky delivered a list of 115 counterrevolutionaries and Japanese collaborators to Choibalsan, recommending they be purged.[9] Working through Soviet advisers already embedded within the Ministry of Interior and with a compliant Choibalsan providing symbolic cover, Frinovsky built the purge framework from behind the scenes. He produced arrest lists and assembled an Extraordinary Purge Commission, an NKVD-style troika (headed by Choibalsan, with Minister of Justice Tserendorj and former MPRP Secretary Dorjjavyn Luvsansharav). They presided over arrest cases, investigations and show trials involving “lamas, espionage and counterrevolution.” 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.[10] The first show trial was staged at Ulaanbaatar's Central Theater from 18 to 20 October 1937. Of the 14 persons accused, 13, including former prime minister (1921) and chief abbot of the Manzushir Monastery Sambadondogiin Tserendorj, were sentenced to death.[11]
What followed was a spasm of violence that lasted nearly 18 months. Choibalsan's troika approved and carried out the execution of more than 18,000 counter-revolutionary lamas. Monks that were not executed were conscripted into the Mongolian armed forces or otherwise forcibly laicized[12] while 746 of the country's 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. Some 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.[13] Following the Russian model, Choibalsan opened gulags in the countryside to imprison dissidents, while others were transported to gulags in the USSR.[14] As the NKVD effectively managed the purge by staging show trials and carrying out executions,[15] a frequently intoxicated[16] Choibalsan was sometimes present during torture[16] and interrogations of suspected counterrevolutionaries, including old friends and comrades. Choibalsan rubber-stamped NKVD execution orders and at times personally directed executions.[13] He also added names of political enemies to NKVD arrest lists simply to settle old scores.[15][16] Nevertheless, even when he attempted to spare victims by recommending leniency in certain cases, NKVD officers often overrode his decision.[17]
End of the Great Repression
Racked with stress, Choibalsan spent six months (August 1938 – January 1939) recuperating and consulting with Kliment Voroshilov, Nikolai Yezhov, and Stalin in Moscow and Sochi[18] 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."[19] 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 of 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 Nasantogtoh, the deputy minister of internal affairs, and his former Soviet handler Kichikov. Later, other henchmen of the purge were arrested and executed, including Luvsansharav, Bayasgalan, Dashtseveg, and Luvsandorj. Dansranbilegiin Dogsom and Darizavyn Losol, the last two living members (besides Choibalsan himself) of the original seven founding members of the MPRP, were also arrested.[20] Dogsom was executed in 1941. Losol died in a Soviet prison before his case came to trial.
Legacy
By the time the purges ended in early 1939, an entire stratum of Mongolian society[21] had effectively been exterminated while much of Mongolia's cultural heritage lay in ruins.[22] Approximately 18,000 lamas were condemned to death while thousands more were forcibly laicized and conscripted into the Mongolian army. More than 700 Buddhist monasteries were destroyed. The old guard revolutionary class, viewed as heavily nationalist, was eliminated; twenty five persons from top positions in the party and government were executed (including former prime ministers Peljidiin Genden and Anandyn Amar), 187 from the military leadership, and 36 of the 51 members of the Central Committee. Choibalsan became Mongolia's unquestioned leader backed by Soviet advisors, a growing Red Army presence in the country, and by younger apparatchiks who were more closely aligned with the Soviet Union, such as future leader Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.[23]
In the 50 years following the repressions, any public discourse on the matter was discouraged or condemned.[24] At the time of his death in 1952, Choibalsan 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 the purges, helped solidify the positive regard many Mongolians held of their former leader. 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.[25] 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
Notable victims
- Peljidiin Genden, Mongolian head of state from 1924 to 1927 and prime minister of Mongolia from 1932 to 1936
- Anandyn Amar, prime minister of Mongolia from 1928 to 1930 and 1936 to 1939, Mongolian head of state from 1932 to 1936
- Darizavyn Losol
- Gelegdorjiin Demid
- Dansranbilegiin Dogsom, Mongolian head of state from 1936 to 1939
- Sambadondogiin Tserendorj, prime minister of Mongolia, 1921, chief abbot of Manjusri Monastery
- Shirnengiin Ayuush
- Ölziitiin Badrakh
- Jamtsangiin Damdinsüren, Mongolian head of state from 1927 to 1929
- Khas-Ochiryn Luvsandorj
- Losolyn Laagan, Mongolian head of state from 1930 to 1932
- Dorjjavyn Luvsansharav
- Tserendondovyn Navaanneren, 20th and last Setsen Khan
- Genepil, last Queen
- Zolbingiin Shijee
- Banzarjavyn Baasanjav MPRP leader from 1936 to 1940
Buryats
A number of prominent Buryats connected to Mongolia were imprisoned and killed during the purges in the Soviet Union, among them:
- Jamsrangiin Tseveen
- Rinchingiin Elbegdorj
- Dash Sampilon
- Erdene Batkhaan
See also
- Katyn Massacre
- Khorloogiin Choibalsan
- Mongolian People's Republic
- Great Purge
- 1932 armed uprising (Mongolia)
- Cultural Revolution
- Mass killings under communist regimes
- Stalinist repressions in Azerbaijan
References
- ISSN 1464-8172.
- S2CID 154720143.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-7452-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8160-4671-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7103-0800-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-874267-40-9.
- ^ a b Baabar 1999, p. 355
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 359
- ISBN 978-0-924171-90-1.
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 361: quoting N. Erdene-Ochir, "Extra-Special Commission", Ardyn Erh, No. 153, 1991
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 361
- ISBN 978-0-571-23023-5.
- ^ a b Baabar 1999, p. 362
- ISBN 978-0-8133-3710-4.
- ^ a b Baabar 1999, p. 358
- ^ a b c Becker 1992, p. 95
- ^ BBC Films. "Secrets of the Steppe". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021.
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 365
- ISBN 978-0-8047-1835-6.
- ^ Baabar 1999, p. 370
- ISBN 9781135789688.
- ISBN 9780813337104.
- ISSN 1464-8172.
- ^ Kenneth Christie, Robert Cribb, Robert B. Cribb 2002, pg 161
- ^ Kenneth Christie, Robert Cribb, Robert B. Cribb 2002, pg 162
- ^ Mass Buddhist Grave Reported in Mongolia The New York Times, October 1991
- ^ a b Mass grave uncovered in Mongolia RTÉ News, Thursday, 12 June 2003
External links
- Prelude to Violence: Show trials and state power in 1930s Mongolia by Christopher Kaplonski
- A Forgotten Purge by Timothy May, Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- The Day of Commemoration, 2011, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia