The Mongolian Revolution of 1921 (
Outer Mongolia
Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto' ...
n Revolution of 1921, or People's Revolution of 1921) was a military and political event by which
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
n revolutionaries, with the assistance of the Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
, expelled Russian
White Guards from the country, and founded the
Mongolian People's Republic
The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
in 1924. Although nominally independent, the Mongolian People's Republic was a
satellite state
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting ...
of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
until a
third Mongolian revolution in
January 1990. The revolution also ended the Chinese
Beiyang government
The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking (Beijing) between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally r ...
's
occupation of Mongolia, which had begun in 1919. The official Mongolian name of the revolution is "People's Revolution of 1921" or simply "People's Revolution" ( mn, Ардын хувьсгал, Ardyn khuvisgal).
Prelude
Mongolian Revolution of 1911
For about three centuries, the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
had enforced—albeit with mixed success—a policy of segregating the non-Han peoples on the frontier from the
Han people
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive ...
. By the end of the 19th century, however, China faced the prospect of being parcelled out among the
Western powers
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. and Japan, each competing for its own
sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal al ...
in the country. On the northern frontier, the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
was viewed by the Qing court as posing the greatest threat to its territorial integrity. In response, the Qing government adopted a different policy, the "New Administration" or "
New Policies
Late Qing reforms (), commonly known as New Policies of the late Qing dynasty (), or New Deal of the late Qing dynasty, simply referred to as New Policies, were a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, and political reforms implemen ...
" (''Xin zheng''), which called for the
sinification
Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cul ...
of Mongolia through Han colonisation, the exploitation of Mongolia's natural resources (mining, timber, fishing), military training, and education.
Many Mongols regarded the "New Policies" as a major threat to their traditional way of life, as was agreed to be preserved when they recognised authority of the Qing emperors, and began to seek independence. In July 1911 a group of
Khalkha
The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...
nobles persuaded the
Jebtsundamba Khutuktu
The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, , ; zh, c=哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖, p=Zhébùzūn Dānbā Hūtúkètú; bo, རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཐུ་, Jetsün Dampa Hutuktu; "Venerable Excellent incarnate lama" ar ...
, the head of
Mongolian Buddhism
Buddhism is the largest and official religion of Mongolia practiced by 53% of Mongolia's population, according to the 2010 Mongolia census. Buddhism in Mongolia derives much of its recent characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug and ...
, that Mongolia must declare its independence from the Qing dynasty. They agreed to send a small delegation to Russia to obtain its assistance in this undertaking.
In October 1911, the
Xinhai Revolution
The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...
broke out, with one province after another declaring its independence from the Qing government. On 1 December 1911 Outer Mongolia
declared independence, and established a
theocracy
Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.
Etymology
The word theocracy origina ...
under the Khutuktu. On 29 December he was installed as the ''
Bogd Khan
Bogd Khan, , ; ( – 20 May 1924) was the khan of the Bogd Khaganate from 1911 to 1924, following the state's ''de facto'' independence from the Qing dynasty of China after the Xinhai Revolution. Born in Tibet, he was the third most importa ...
'' (Great Khan, or Emperor) of Mongolia. This ushered in the
Bogd Khan era, which lasted from 1911 to 1919.
Bogd Khan
![Sharav bogd khan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Sharav_bogd_khan.jpg)
The new Mongolian government was a fusion of Buddhist theocracy, Qing imperial usages, and 20th century Western political practices. The Bogd Khan assumed the same powers—symbolic and real—of Qing emperors in the past. He adopted a reign title, "Elevated by the Many"; the Mongolian nobility now owed their
tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
to him instead of to the Qing emperor; and the Bogd Khan assumed the right of conferring upon the lay nobles their ranks and seals of office. This new state also reflected the Mongols' desire to reshape their country into a modern state—they formed a national parliament composed of two chambers, a government with five ministries, and a national army.
The Buddhist religious establishment discovered new opportunities for political gain and financial profit. Despite the presence of a state government, real power lay in the Bogd Khan's court. The religious establishment appropriated revenues for its own purposes. For example, it enlarged its financial holdings by transferring to the religious estate (''Ikh shav) wealthy herdsmen who traditionally had owed their services and taxes to lay princes. There is a commonly held misconception that, over time, the greed of the Buddhist religious establishment so disaffected the lay nobility that it came to reject the very principles of theocracy upon which the new country had been founded. According to Mongolian and Russian sources, the Mongolian society was generally satisfied with the theocracy but there were different views on future development of the country.
On the diplomatic front, the Mongols worked tirelessly between 1912 and 1915 to win international recognition of a new
pan-Mongolian state that would include
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
,
Western Mongolia
Oirats ( mn, Ойрад, ''Oirad'', or , Oird; xal-RU, Өөрд; zh, 瓦剌; in the past, also Eleuths) are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.
Histor ...
,
Upper Mongolia,
Barga Barga may refer to:
People
* Barga Mongols in the early 20th century
Places
* Barga (department), Burkina Faso
* Barga, Tuscany
Barga is a medieval town and ''comune'' of the province of Lucca in Tuscany, central Italy. It is home to around 10, ...
, and
Tannu Uriankhai
Tannu Uriankhai ( tyv, Таңды Урянхай, ; mn, Тагна Урианхай, Tagna Urianhai, ; ) is a historical region of the Mongol Empire (and its principal successor, the Yuan dynasty) and, later, the Qing dynasty. The territory of ...
. The Republic of China, for its part, did all it could to re-establish Chinese sovereignty over the country. Russia refused to support full independence for Mongolia; nor would it agree to the restoration of Chinese sovereignty. The matter was settled in 1915 by the tripartite
Treaty of Kyakhta (1915)
The Treaty of Kyakhta () was a tri-party treaty signed on 25 May 1915 among Russia, Mongolia, and China.
Russia and China recognized Outer Mongolia's autonomy (as part of Chinese territory); Mongolia recognized China's suzerainty; Mongolia c ...
, which provided for Mongolian autonomy within the Chinese state and forbade China from sending troops to Mongolia. Both the Chinese and Mongols found the treaty equally dissatisfying, although for different reasons.
Abolition of autonomy
The outbreak of the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
in 1917 and the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
a year later changed the Mongolian-Chinese dynamic. In response to rumors of an imminent Bolshevik invasion, the Mongolians, very reluctantly and only after much encouragement by the Chinese High Commissioner Chen Yi at Urga (modern
Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
), requested in the summer of 1918 military assistance from China (approximately 200 to 250 troops arrived in September). The invasion in fact did not occur, and so the Bogd Khan's government requested that the troops be recalled. The Beijing government refused, seeing this violation of the Kyakhta Treaty as the first step in restoring Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia.
Early in 1919,
Grigori Semyonov, a White Guard general, had assembled a group of
Buryats
The Buryats ( bua, Буряад, Buryaad; mn, Буриад, Buriad) are a Mongolic peoples, Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the oth ...
and Inner Mongols in Siberia for the formation of a pan-Mongolian state. The
Khalkha
The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...
s were invited to join, but they refused. Semyonov threatened an invasion to force them to participate. This threat galvanized the lay princes, who now saw a larger opportunity: the end of theocratic rule. In August, the Mongolian Foreign Minister approached Chen Yi with a message from the "representatives of the four
aimag
An aimag (, ; xal, әәмг, ), originally a Mongolian word meaning 'tribe', is an administrative subdivision in Mongolia, Russia, and in the Inner Mongolia region of China.
Mongolia
In Mongolia, an aimag is the first-level administrative ...
s" (''i.e.'', the Khalkhas) with a request for military assistance against Semyonov. More importantly, perhaps, it contained a declaration that the Khalkhas were unanimous in their desire to abolish autonomy and restore the previous Qing system.
![Xu Shuzheng](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Xu_Shuzheng.jpg)
Negotiations, with participation of the Bogd Khan's representatives, began immediately. By October, Chen Yi and the Mongolian princes had agreed upon a set of conditions, the "Sixty-four Points", effectively recreating the political and administrative system. The "Points" were submitted to the Parliament. The upper house consented to it; the lower house did not. However, in this as in all other matters submitted to the Parliament in the past, the upper house prevailed. Chen Yi sent the draft Articles to Beijing. The Bogd Khan dispatched a delegation of
lama
Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term ''guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hi ...
s to Beijing with a letter stating that the people of Mongolia did not want to abolish autonomy. He wrote that this was all a contrivance of Chen Yi, and he asked that Chen be recalled. However, the Chinese government was not interested in esoteric arguments whether or not a consensus existed in Mongolia for the abolition of autonomy. The "Points" were submitted to the Chinese National Assembly, which approved them on October 28.
Political events then unfolding in China were to fundamentally alter Mongolian history. The Beijing government was controlled by a group of warlords nicknamed the "
Anhui clique
The Anhui clique () was a military and political organization, one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique in the Republic of China's Warlord Era. It was named after Anhui province because several of its ...
" headed by
Duan Qirui
Duan Qirui (; ) (March 6, 1865 – November 2, 1936) was a Chinese warlord and politician, a commander of the Beiyang Army and the acting Chief Executive of the Republic of China (in Beijing) from 1924 to 1926. He was also the Premier of the R ...
. The government had come under severe public criticism for its failure at the
Paris Peace Conference to obtain a just settlement of the
Shandong Problem
__NOTOC__
The Shandong Problem or Shandong Question (, Japanese: , ''Santō mondai'') was a dispute over Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the concession of the Shandong Peninsula. It was resolved in China's favor i ...
. There was criticism also of Duan's "War-participation army", which ostensibly had been formed for service in Europe in the First World War but in fact was used to maintain Duan's internal control. To divert criticism, he simply rechristened his office the "Bureau of Frontier Defense" and his army the "Frontier Defense Army". In June 1919,
Xu Shuzheng
Hsu Seu-Cheng or Xu Shuzheng (; ) (11 November 1880 – 29 December 1925) was a Chinese warlord in Republican China. A subordinate and right-hand man of Duan Qirui, he was a prominent member of the Anhui clique.
Early life
Xu was born in ...
, a prominent member of Duan's clique, was named "Northwest Frontier Commissioner", making him the senior Chinese military and civilian officer of Outer Mongolia.
Earlier, in April, Xu had submitted a plan to the Beijing government for the total social and
economic reconstruction
Economic reconstruction is a process for creating a proactive vision of economic change. The most basic idea is that problems in the economy, such as deindustrialization, environmental decay, outsourcing, industrial incompetence, poverty and ...
of Mongolia, proposing, among other things, that Chinese colonisation and intermarriage between Chinese and Mongolians be encouraged in order to "transform the customs of the Mongols". In short, Xu appeared to want nothing less than the total sinification of Mongolia under his authority.
Chen Yi's Sixty-four Points, which guaranteed Mongolia a kind of autonomy, would have compelled Xu to abandon his plans. This may explain the timing of his personal intervention. Xu arrived in Urga in October accompanied by a military contingent. He informed Chen that the Sixty-four Points would have to be renegotiated based upon a new set of proposals, his "Eight Articles", which called for an increase in population (presumably through Chinese colonisation) and economic development. Xu presented the Articles to the Bogd Khan with a threat that refusal to ratify them would result in his deportation. The Bogd Khan submitted the Articles to the Mongolian Parliament. As before, the upper house accepted them, while the lower house did not; some members of the lower house even threatened to expel Xu by force. Lamas resisted Xu's plans most of all. But again, the upper house prevailed. On 17 November 1919, Xu accepted a petition—signed by the ministers and deputy ministers but not by the Bogd Khan himself—for the abolition of autonomy.
Xu returned to Beijing, where he received a hero's welcome arranged by the Anhui clique. By December, he was back in Urga to organise a formal ceremony for the transfer of authority: soldiers were lined up on either side of the road to the Bogd Khan's palace; the portrait of the President of China was borne on a palanquin; the flag of the Chinese republic followed, and after it a marching band. Mongols were required to prostrate themselves repeatedly before these symbols of Chinese sovereignty. That night, some Mongolian herdsmen and lamas gathered outside the palace and tore down the flags of the Chinese Republic hanging from the gate.
Resistance
![Consulate of the Russian Empire in Urgoo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Consulate_of_the_Russian_Empire_in_Urgoo.jpg)
Between 1919 and early 1920 a few Mongolians came to form what were known later as the "Consular Hill" (''Konsulyn denj'') and East Urga (''Züün khüree'') groups. This was the beginning of resistance to Xu and the abolition of autonomy.
The first group owed its existence principally to
Dogsomyn Bodoo
Dogsomyn Bodoo, (1885–1922) was a prominent early 20th century Mongolian politician who was one of the founding members of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He was elected leader of the provisional revolutionary government and fol ...
(1885–1922), a highly educated, 35-year-old lama who worked in the Russian Consulate at Urga during the Bogd Khan era. Sharing a
yurt
A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. ...
with Bodoo was
Khorloogiin Choibalsan
Khorloogiin Choibalsan ( mn, Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, spelled ''Koroloogiin Çoibalsan'' before 1941; 8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was the leader of Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) and Marshal (general chief com ...
(1895–1953), later to be known as the "
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
of Mongolia". A certain Mikhail Kucherenko, a typesetter in the Russo-Mongolian printing office and a member of the Bolshevik underground in Urga, occasionally visited Bodoo and Choibalsan; conversations, no doubt, turned on the Russian revolution and the political situation in Mongolia. In time, other Mongolians joined Bodoo and Choibalsan in discussions over the abolition of autonomy and the failure of Mongolian princes and senior lamas to put up an effective resistance to the Chinese.
The leaders of the East Urga group were
Soliin Danzan
Soliin Danzan ( mn, Солийн Данзан; 1885–1924)Batbayar, Ts. (1996). ''Modern Mongolia: A Concise History.'' Offset Printing, Mongolian Center for Scientific and Technological Information was a central figure in Mongolia's early revo ...
(1885–1924), an official in the Ministry of Finance, and
Dansranbilegiin Dogsom
Dansranbilegiin Dogsom ( mn, Дансранбилэгийн Догсом; 1884 – July 27, 1941) was a prominent Mongolian revolutionary leader and post-Revolution political figure in Mongolian People's Republic. He served as Chairman of the P ...
(1884–1939), an official in the Ministry of the Army. Another, albeit less prominent at the time, member was
Damdin Sükhbaatar
Damdin Sükhbaatar ( mn, Дамдины Сүхбаатар, Damdinii Sühbaatar, ; February 2, 1893 – February 20, 1923) was a Mongolian communist revolutionary, founding member of the Mongolian People's Party, and leader of the Mongolia ...
(1893–1923), a soldier in the Mongolian army who, after his death, was canonised by Communist historians as the "
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
of Mongolia". The beginning of the East Urga group may be traced to mid-November 1919, when several of the more militant members of the lower house of the Mongolian Parliament, including Danzan and Dogson, met secretly on the first night following its dissolution by Xu Shuzheng, and resolved to resist the Chinese. Twice they approached the Bogd Khan to obtain his support for armed resistance; twice the Khan counselled patience. The group plotted to seize the Mongolian army's arsenal and assassinate Xu Shuzheng; however, the placement of Chinese guards at the arsenal and a revised travel itinerary for Xu thwarted both plans.
Formation of the Mongolian People's Party
Russian expatriates in Urga had elected a revolutionary "Municipal Duma", headed by Bolshevik sympathisers, which had learned of the Consular Hill group. In early March 1920, the Duma was sending one of its members, I. Sorokovikov, to Irkutsk. It decided that he should also take a report with him about these Mongolians. Sorokovikov met with representatives of the two groups. On his return to Urga in June, he met with them again, promising that the Soviet government would provide "assistance of all kinds" to the Mongolian "workers". He invited them to send representatives to Russia for further discussions.
A new sense of purposefulness now animated both groups. They had maintained a wary distance from one another, perhaps because of their different agendas—the Consular Hill group espousing a rather progressive social program while the East Urga group was more nationalistic in its goals—and there had been little cooperation between the two. The Soviet invitation changed that. The two groups met on 25 June, and formed the "Mongolian People's Party" (renamed later the
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party), adopted a "Party Oath", and agreed to send Danzan and Choibalsan as delegates to Russia.
Danzan and Choibalsan arrived in Verkhneudinsk, the capital of the pro-Soviet
Far Eastern Republic
The Far Eastern Republic ( rus, Дальневосто́чная Респу́блика, ДВР, r=Dalnevostochnaya Respublika, DVR, p=dəlʲnʲɪvɐˈstotɕnəjə rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə), sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally indep ...
, in the first part of July. They met with
Boris Shumyatsky
Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky (russian: Бори́с Заха́рович Шумя́цкий; November 16, 1886 – July 29, 1938) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician, diplomat and the ''de facto'' executive producer for the Soviet film monopolie ...
, then acting head of the government. Shumyatsky knew little about them, and for three weeks dodged their demands for a speedy Soviet decision whether or not to provide military assistance to the Mongolians against the Chinese. Finally, perhaps at Shumyatsky's suggestion, they sent a telegram to members of the MPP in Urga with a coded message that they should obtain a letter, stamped with the seal of the Bogd Khan, formally requesting Soviet assistance. The MPP did succeed in obtaining a letter from the Khan's court, albeit with difficulty. Five members of the Party—D. Losol,
Dambyn Chagdarjav, Dogsom, L. Dendev, and Sükhbaatar—brought it to Verkhneudinsk. When the seven men met with Shumyatsky, he told them that he had no authority to make a decision on their request; they must go to Irkutsk.
On arriving in Irkutsk in August, the Mongolians met with the head of what was later to be reorganised as the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International (
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
), and explained that they needed military instructors, 10,000 rifles, cannon, machine guns, and money. They were told that they must draft a new letter, this time in the name of the Party, not the Bogd Khan, stating their objectives and requests. Such a petition would have to be considered by the Siberian Revolutionary Committee in Omsk.
The Mongolians divided themselves into three groups: Danzan, Losol, and Dendev left for Omsk; Bodoo and Dogsom returned to Urga, where they were to enlarge the party's membership and form an army; Sükhbaatar and Choibalsan proceeded to Irkutsk to serve as a communication link between the others. Before separating, the group drafted a new appeal with a more revolutionary message: The Mongolian nobility would be divested of its hereditary power, to be replaced by a democratic government headed by the Bogd Khaan as a limited monarch. The document also contained a request for immediate military assistance.
File:Dogsomyn Bodoo.jpg, Dogsomyn Bodoo
Dogsomyn Bodoo, (1885–1922) was a prominent early 20th century Mongolian politician who was one of the founding members of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He was elected leader of the provisional revolutionary government and fol ...
File:Kh. Choibalsan around 1925.jpg, Khorloogiin Choibalsan
Khorloogiin Choibalsan ( mn, Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан, spelled ''Koroloogiin Çoibalsan'' before 1941; 8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was the leader of Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) and Marshal (general chief com ...
File:Danzan.jpg, Soliin Danzan
Soliin Danzan ( mn, Солийн Данзан; 1885–1924)Batbayar, Ts. (1996). ''Modern Mongolia: A Concise History.'' Offset Printing, Mongolian Center for Scientific and Technological Information was a central figure in Mongolia's early revo ...
File:DansranbilegiinDogsom.jpg, Dansranbilegiin Dogsom
Dansranbilegiin Dogsom ( mn, Дансранбилэгийн Догсом; 1884 – July 27, 1941) was a prominent Mongolian revolutionary leader and post-Revolution political figure in Mongolian People's Republic. He served as Chairman of the P ...
File:DarijavynLosol.jpg, Darizavyn Losol
Darizavyn Losol ( mn, Дарьжавын Лосол ; April 15, 1890 – July 25, 1940) was a revolutionary leader and post-Revolution governmental figure in Mongolia until he was purged in 1939.
Early life
Losol (or "Darizhavyn" or "Darijavyn" ...
File:Sukhbaatar.jpg, Damdin Sükhbaatar
Damdin Sükhbaatar ( mn, Дамдины Сүхбаатар, Damdinii Sühbaatar, ; February 2, 1893 – February 20, 1923) was a Mongolian communist revolutionary, founding member of the Mongolian People's Party, and leader of the Mongolia ...
Ungern-Sternberg
![Roman Ungern von Sternberg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Roman_Ungern_von_Sternberg.jpg)
After several meetings with Soviet authorities in Omsk, the Mongolian delegation was told that such an important matter could be decided only in Moscow. Danzan and his compatriots left for Moscow, arriving in about mid-September. For over a month they met frequently but inconclusively with Soviet and Comintern officials.
A White Guard invasion of Mongolia under Baron
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg
Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg (russian: link=no, Роман Фёдорович фон Унгерн-Штернберг, translit=Roman Fedorovich fon Ungern-Shternberg; 10 January 1886 – 15 September 1921), often refer ...
, however, forced the Soviet government into action. In late October to early November 1920, around 1,000 troops under his command had laid siege to the Chinese garrison in Urga numbered about 7,000. On 10 or 11 November, the three Mongols were hurriedly summoned to a meeting with Soviet authorities. They were told that the Party would be supplied with all the weapons it needed, but they must quickly return to Mongolia, and there increase the Party's membership and raise an army. At the same time, Moscow ordered the Soviet Fifth Red Army to cross the Mongolian border and destroy von Ungern-Sternberg's army.
The Chinese garrison in Urga, however, successfully repulsed von Ungern-Sternberg's attack. This altered the Soviet strategy. The army of the Far Eastern Republic was already exhausted. Only the Fifth Army of the Reds was left on the eastern front, and already by late 1920 many of its more experienced units had either been demobilized, or sent west to fight in Poland, or assigned to the labor front, where they were needed to repair the badly damaged Siberian economy. Thus, when the Chinese repulsed von Ungern-Sternberg, the Soviets on 28 November withdrew their order for an invasion.
However, von Ungern-Sternberg launched a second attack in early February 1921. This time he was successful. Chinese soldiers and civilians fled the city in panic. With the fall of Urga, the Chinese administrations and military garrisons at
Uliastai
Uliastai ( mn, Улиастай; ), also spelled Uliyasutai or Oulia-Sontai, and sometimes known as Javkhlant, is a city in Mongolia located in the western part of the country and from the capital Ulaanbaatar. Uliastai is the capital of Zavkhan P ...
and
Khovd departed quickly for Xinjiang. The Bogd Khan was restored as Mongolian monarch by von Ungern-Sternberg. The Bogd Khan and his government were also restored, and a solemn ceremony held on 22 February.
Growth of the Mongolian People's Party
News of von Ungern-Sternberg's seizure of Urga again influenced Soviet plans. A plenary session of the Comintern in Irkutsk on February 10 passed a formal resolution to aid the "struggle of the Mongolian people for liberation and independence with money, guns and military instructors". With Soviet support, the MPP was now a serious contender for power. The Party, hitherto rather amorphous and loosely connected, required better organisational and ideological definition. A party conference (subsequently regarded as the first congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party) met secretly on 1–3 March at Kyakhta. The first session was attended by 17 persons, the second by 26. The Party approved the creation of an army command staff headed by Sükhbaatar with two Russian advisors, elected a central committee chaired by Danzan with one representative from the Comintern, and adopted a party manifesto composed by the progressive Buryat
Jamsrangiin Tseveen
Jamsrangiin Tseveen ( mn, Жамсрангийн Цэвээн; russian: Цыбен Жамцаранович Жамцарано; often romanized to Jamtsarano), (1880 – May 14, 1942) was a Buryats, Buryat scholar and one of the leading figures i ...
. On 13 March, a provisional government of seven men was formed, soon to be headed by Bodoo. On 18 March, the Mongolian guerrilla army, its ranks now enlarged to 400 through recruitment and conscription, seized the Chinese garrison at
Kyakhta Maimaicheng (the Chinese portion of
Kyakhta
Kyakhta (russian: Кя́хта, ; bua, Хяагта, Khiaagta, ; mn, Хиагт, Hiagt, ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Rus ...
). A new confidence now animated the Party. It issued a proclamation announcing the formation of the government, the expulsion of the Chinese, and the promise to convene a congress of "representatives of the masses" to elect a permanent government. A propaganda war of sorts between the provisional government and the Bogd Khaan's court followed: the Party saturated the northern border with leaflets urging people to take up arms against the White Guards; the legal government of the Bogd Khaan government barraged the same area with warnings that these revolutionaries were intent upon destroying the Mongolian state and shattering the very foundations of the Buddhist faith.
The new Soviet government was anxious to establish diplomatic relations with China. It had sent a representative to Beijing; the Chinese government reciprocated with its own to Moscow. Perhaps the principal reason that the Soviets had hesitated to aid the Mongolians too openly was fear of prejudicing those negotiations. But by early 1921 whatever restraints there were upon open Soviet support for Mongolia had ended: China suspended talks with the Soviet government in January 1921; the Chinese government appeared to be incapable of dealing with von Ungern-Sternberg; and in early March it had refused Soviet military assistance against the White Guards. It was then that the Russians became firmly committed to the Mongolian revolution.
The material expression of this commitment was an increase in the flow of Soviet advisers and weapons in March to the MPP. In March and April, Soviet and Far Eastern Republican units were transferred to Kyakhta, while the Mongols doubled the number of their guerrillas to 800. Von Ungern-Sternberg's forces attacked Kyakhta in early June. He encountered a body of Red Army troops army several times larger than his own, and the White Guards were thrown back with heavy losses. On 28 June, the main Soviet expeditionary corps
crossed the border into Mongolia, and on 6 July, the first Mongolian and Russian units entered Urga.
Formerly it was solely stated generally with regard to von Baron Ungern Sternberg that Mongol/Mongolian Communist troops had defeated him and had him executed apparently duly for his widespread impalements and killings.
The Mongolian revolutionaries went to work immediately. On 9 July, they sent a letter to the Bogd Khaan's court, announcing that power was now in the hands of the people: "The disorder which reigns presently is as much due to the shortcomings of the
ereditaryleaders as to the fact that the existing laws and situation do not correspond any longer to the spirit of the times. Everything, therefore, except religion, will be subject to gradual change." The following day, the Party's Central Committee issued a resolution declaring the formation of a new government headed by Bodoo, with the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu as a limited monarch. On 11 July, he was ceremonially installed on the throne of Mongolia.
Aftermath
![1921 Ардын хувьсгал](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/1921_%D0%90%D1%80%D0%B4%D1%8B%D0%BD_%D1%85%D1%83%D0%B2%D1%8C%D1%81%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BB.png)
Von Ungern-Sternberg's army, now defeated, began to crumble. His men deserted him, and he was seized by a Red Army detachment. The Soviets executed him later that same year. Fighting then shifted to western Mongolia, and by the end of 1921, the White Guards had either been destroyed or expelled.
The Chinese government was not indifferent to von Ungern-Sternberg's invasion, appointing
Zhang Zuolin
Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...
as commander of an expeditionary army to deal with it. However, the occupation of Urga by Red forces in July and internal Chinese warlord politics forced him to abandon his plans.
On the diplomatic front, the Soviets had proposed to the Chinese the convening of a tripartite conference, similar to that of 1914-15, to discuss Mongolia's relationship with China. The Chinese government, however, emboldened by the prospect of Zhang's expedition, responded that Mongolia was part of China, and thus could not be the subject of international negotiations. It was not until 1924 that a Chinese-Soviet treaty was concluded, by which the Soviet Union recognised Mongolia as an integral part of China, and agreed to withdraw its troops. The treaty notwithstanding, the death of the Khutuktu in that same year provided an opportunity for the MPP to dispense with theocratic rule entirely, and the Party announced the establishment of the Mongolian People's Republic. In 1945, the Chinese Nationalist government recognized the full sovereignty of the Mongolian People's Republic, though
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
was to withdraw that recognition a few years later. However, in 2002 the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
did recognize Mongolia as independent.
On May 21, 2012, the
Mainland Affairs Council
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is a cabinet-level administrative agency under the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China in Taiwan.
The MAC is responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of the cross-strait relations ...
of the Republic of China in Taiwan stated that Outer Mongolia should be considered as an independent state. Taiwan however continued to appoint a "Minister of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission" (until 2017
).
See also
*
Mongolian Revolution of 1911
The Mongolian Revolution of 1911 (Mongol: Үндэсний эрх чөлөөний хувьсгал, , ''Ündèsnij èrx čölöönij xuv’sgal'') occurred when the region of Outer Mongolia declared its independence from the Manchu-led Qing Chi ...
*
Chinese occupation of Mongolia
*
Soviet intervention in Mongolia
The Soviet intervention in Mongolia was a period of time from 1921 to 1924 when Soviet troops fought at the request of the communist government of the Mongolian People's Party against the anti-communist government of White Russian Baron Ungern a ...
*
Mongolian People's Republic
The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
References
{{Authority control
History of Mongolia
20th century in Mongolia
China–Mongolia relations
Communist revolutions
20th-century revolutions
Communism in Mongolia
1921 in Mongolia
Mongolia–Soviet Union relations
Conflicts in 1921
Revolutions of 1917–1923