First prime minister of the Mongolian People's Republic, diplomat of the old regime
On 23 September 1924 a constitution-drafting commission chaired by Prime Minister Tserendorj was set up, and on 26 November 1924 the first Great Hural unanimously adopted its 6-chapter, 50-article constitution declaring Mongolia's first republican order.
Born in 1868 at Kherlen Bayan Ulaan as a subject of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu's Great Shabi, he learned Mongolian, Manchu, Chinese and Russian and worked as a scribe and translator in the Manchu administration in Khüree from 1885 to 1911. After the 1911 independence he entered the Foreign Ministry, serving as deputy foreign minister in 1913-1915 and first-ranked minister in 1915-1919. He signed the 1919 renunciation document under Chinese occupation and became deputy foreign minister in the revolutionary government of 1921. Appointed prime minister in 1923, he headed the 1924 constitution-drafting commission and became the republic's first prime minister. After 1926, as Moscow tightened control, he resisted the abolition of private property and the persecution of the Buddhist Church, and he died of illness in office in 1928; sources give his death as 13 February or 13 November 1928.
Career timeline
- 1885–1890Scribe in the Manchu administration in Khüree
- 1890–1904Teacher at the Russian consulate's translator school
- 1904–1911Chinese-language translator in the Manchu ministry in Khüree (6th rank)
- 1913–1915Deputy foreign minister of Autonomous Mongolia
- 1915–1919First-ranked minister of foreign affairs
- 1923–1928Prime minister of Mongolia, from 1924 of the Mongolian People's Republic
The Tibetan-born reincarnate lama enthroned as the last great khan of Mongolia
'The princes feared him, the common people loved him.'
Born in Lhasa, Tibet, the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu was, after the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, the highest living incarnation in Mongolian Buddhism. When the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, Mongol nobles enthroned him on 29 December as the 'Bogd Khan' ('Holy Ruler') of a new theocratic state. Stripped of power when China abolished autonomy in 1919, he was reinstated as a limited monarch after the 1921 revolution and died of throat cancer on 20 May 1924, ending the monarchy. The first and last great khan of Outer Mongolia since the late 17th century, he held Mongols together amid upheaval through his religious charisma.
Career timeline
- 1874Arrived in Urga (Ih Hüree), recognized as head of Mongolian Buddhism
- 1911Enthroned as Bogd Khan on 29 December
- 1919Lost power as China abolished autonomy
- 1921Reinstated as limited monarch after the People's Revolution
- 1924Died of throat cancer, ending the monarchy
Founding member and first party chairman, shot as a 'bourgeois'
Arrested at the third party congress in August 1924, he was tried, sentenced and shot within twenty-four hours while the congress went on meeting.
A founding member of the Mongolian People's Party in 1919, he led the party's first Central Committee after the 1921 revolution and served as finance minister in the early people's government. He directed the purge and execution of Prime Minister Bodoo in 1922, an early sign of the revolution's inner violence. Wanting less Soviet control and limited capitalism, he clashed with Comintern leftists and was denounced as a 'bourgeois' at the third party congress in August 1924, then arrested and shot within a day. The purge sealed the party's turn toward the non-capitalist path and the republic.
Career timeline
- 1919Founded the East Khüree group and helped found the Mongolian People's Party
- 1920Member of the party delegation to Moscow that met Lenin
- 1921Elected Central Committee chairman at the 1st congress in Kiakhta (March–September)
- 1921–1922Minister of finance
- 1922Directed the purge and execution of Prime Minister Bodoo
- 1923Member of the Central Committee Presidium
- 1924Denounced as a 'bourgeois' and executed at the 3rd party congress
Military leader of Mongolia's 1921 revolution, posthumously canonized as its 'father'
Appointed commander-in-chief of the people's partisans in February 1921, he took Kyakhta in March and entered Khüree on July 6; on July 11 he became minister of the army in the new government. Mongolian-language records date that appointment to July 1922.
A Mongolian revolutionary and founding member of the Mongolian People's Party, he led the people's partisans that entered Khüree (now Ulaanbaatar) in 1921. Of a poor arat family, he worked as a typesetter and a relay-station rider, and joined Urga's underground anti-Chinese group in 1919. He went to Soviet Russia in 1920, was confirmed commander-in-chief at Kyakhta in 1921, became minister of the army that July and met Lenin in Moscow in November. The cause of his death is unconfirmed, and his posthumous canonization is itself a central dispute.
Career timeline
- 1919–1920Joined Urga's underground anti-Chinese group
- 1920–1921Traveled to Soviet Russia on party missions
- 1921Commander-in-chief of the people's partisans; took Kyakhta and entered Khüree
- 1921–1923Minister of the army and commander-in-chief