Tsedenbal
Цэдэнбал
Mongolian planning and Soviet ties
He framed Mongolia's bond with the USSR as an 'elder brother–younger brother' (akh düü) one, and at Stalin's funeral in 1953 asked that Mongolia join the Soviet Union, a request Moscow rejected.
He became Mongolia’s head of government in 1952 after Choibalsan. Close Soviet political and economic ties supported industrialization and cooperative herding. His long rule combined modernization with exclusion of rivals and external dependence, ending with his removal in 1984.
Career timeline
- 1939Joined the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and became deputy finance minister.
- 1940Elected general secretary of the party Central Committee; the country's number two leader.
- 1941–1945Head of the Political Directorate and deputy commander-in-chief of the People's Army.
- 1945Chairman of the State Planning Commission.
- 1952–1974Chairman of the Council of Ministers (head of government).
- 1958–1984Regained party leadership as first secretary; general secretary title from 1981.
- 1974–1984Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Great Khural (head of state) and commander-in-chief.
- 1979Awarded the rank of Marshal of the Mongolian People's Republic.