The 1929 Tuvan coup d'état took place in the

Tuvan People's Republic The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR), known simply as Tannu Tuva, was a partially recognized socialist republic that existed between 1921 and 1944 in North Asia. It was located in the same territory as the former Imperial Russian protectorate of ...

. It occurred in January after the Tuvan government under Prime Minister

Donduk Kuular Donduk Kuular (, ; 1888–1932) was a Tuvan monk, politician, and prime minister of the Tuvan People's Republic. Life Born in Tannu Uriankhai during the rule of the Qing dynasty of China, Donduk was originally a Lamaist monk. As leader of a ...

attempted to implement

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

and

anti-Soviet Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union. Three common uses of the term include the following: * Anti-Sovietism in inter ...

policies, including making

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

the official religion. With support from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, five Tuvan youths successfully overthrew the government, and one of them,

Salchak Toka Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich Toka (, – 11 May 1973) was a Tuvan and later, Soviet politician. He was General Secretary of the Tuvan department of the CPSU from 1944 to 1973; previously, he was the List of leaders of Communist Tuva#Heads of party ...

, became supreme ruler as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the

Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party The Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party was a political party in Tuva, founded in 1921. When the Tuvan People's Republic was founded in the same year, the party held single-party control over its government as a vanguard party. History Under ...

. They quickly reversed Donduk's policies and brought the republic closer to the Soviet Union. The Tuvan People's Republic later joined the Soviet Union in 1944.

History

Background

Tuva Tuva (; ) or Tyva (; ), officially the Republic of Tyva,; , is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Federal subjects of Russia, federal sub ...

, today a

federal subject The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation () or simply as the subjects of the federation (), are the administrative division, constituent entities of Russia, its top-level political division ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, had been Chinese territory from the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

up until the

Wuchang Uprising The Wuchang Uprising was an armed rebellion against the ruling Qing dynasty that took place in Wuchang (now Wuchang District of Wuhan) in the Chinese province of Hubei on 10 October 1911, beginning the Xinhai Revolution that successfully overthr ...

of 1911 when Tsar

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...

annexed the region. The nominally independent

Uryankhay Republic The Uryankhay Republic (; ) was a nominally independent state that broke away from the Qing dynasty of China during the Xinhai Revolution. It was proclaimed as a republic in 1911 by the Tuvan separatist movement and was encouraged by the Russia ...

was proclaimed, which after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

—during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

—came to be occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

and the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. After retaking it from the Chinese, the Russian

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

s established the Tannu Tuva People's Republic on 14 August 1921 as another nominally independent state.

Donduk's policies

Tannu Tuva, renamed the Tuvan People's Republic a few years later, was ruled by the

and was recognised by only the

(USSR) and the

Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was a socialist state that existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia. Its independence was officially recognized by the Nationalist government of Republic of China (1912� ...

. The population, numbering roughly 300,000 at the time and largely

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

, adhered mainly to

("Lamaism") and

Tengrism Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is a belief-system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of ...

and lived under

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

conditions. The prime minister at the time was

, a Buddhist

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

. Formally independent, the country (which suffered continuous political unrest and several anti-Bolshevik rebellions) was viewed abroad as a Soviet

satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger ob ...

. Despite this Prime Minister Donduk enacted distinctly non-Soviet policies, heavily leaning towards

theocracy Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's ...

in opposition to the

state atheism State atheism or atheist state is the incorporation of hard atheism or non-theism into Forms of government, political regimes. It is considered the opposite of theocracy and may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments ...

of the contemporary USSR. In 1928 a law was passed making Lamaism the official state religion and legally restricting the production and distribution of anti-religious propaganda. Donduk, who opposed the influence of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

and the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

on his country, also favoured the introduction of religious education for all Tuvan youths.

The coup d'état

The USSR did not take kindly to these policies. At the same time as the Tuvan government built an increasingly religiously dominated political structure, the Soviet Russians laid the foundations for a new leadership, primarily by making connections among Tuvan youths. Among the measures taken was the creation of a "Revolutionary Union of Youth" movement, members of which were militarily trained, and several Tuvan youths were sent to the

Communist University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (, KUTV; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training school for important communist political leaders. The school operated under the umbrella of the Communist Internatio ...

. In January 1929 during the Second Plenary Session of the Central Committee, five of the youths educated in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

launched a successful coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Donduk and his faction. The new government launched a cultural revolution, not only purging about half of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party and coming down on the country's feudal landowners through

collectivisation Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

(as well as ending the

New Economic Policy The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...

), but also persecuting

lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...

s and other religious figures and destroying Buddhist temples and monasteries. One of plotters,

, became the pro-Stalinist supreme leader of the country as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the

. Donduk was executed in 1932, while his successor remained in power until 1973, overseeing the eventual annexation of the Tuvan People's Republic to the USSR in 1944.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1929 Tuvan coup d'etat Tuvan coup d'état Military coups in Russia History of the Tuvan People's Republic Tuvan coup d'état

Tuvan coup d'état

History

Background

Donduk's policies

The coup d'état

See also

References