People of the Revolution and the USSR

Mongolia Communism 1868–1928 ○ Died of illness in office, (13 Feb or 13 Nov)

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.

Mongolian People's Party / Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Communism 1885–1924 ✕ Executed · rehabilitated 1962

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.

Mongolia Communism 1888–1938 ✕ Executed (details of sentence disputed)

Buryat revolutionary, drafter of Mongolia's 1924 constitution, victim of the Great Terror

At the third party congress in August 1924, as leader of the leftist faction he joined the rightists led by Dambadorj in accusing Danzan of representing bourgeois interests and dealing with American and Chinese firms; Danzan and Bavaasan were sentenced and shot within twenty-four hours.

A Buryat from Transbaikalia, he was elected first chairman of the Buryat-Mongol Central National Committee (Burnatskom) in April 1917 and helped lay the foundations of Buryat autonomy. In 1920 he became secretary of the Mongol-Tibet section of the Comintern's Far Eastern Secretariat. After the 1921 revolution he served until 1925 as chairman of Mongolia's Revolutionary Military Council, a government adviser, a member of the MPRP Central Committee presidium and a deputy in the Great and Small Khural. He helped draft the 1924 constitution and argued for the non-capitalist path at the third party congress, where he also joined in denouncing Danzan. Arrested in Moscow on 19 June 1937 (custody records date it 19 July), he was sentenced in 1938; sources disagree on the sentencing date and on when and where he was executed. A review of his case began in 1955 and he was rehabilitated in 1957.

Mongolia Communism 1893–1923 Unconfirmed: poison or illness

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.

Mongolia Communism 1895–1952 ○ Natural causes

Mongolian revolution and consolidation

In an August 1945 telegram to Stalin he vowed that the friendship of the Mongolian and Soviet peoples would remain indestructible forever.

A military and political participant in Mongolia’s 1921 revolution. He consolidated power through close Soviet ties and directed major purges in the late 1930s. State-building and political and religious repression are inseparable parts of his leadership period.

Mongolian People's Party / Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Communism 1916–1991

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.

Mongolian People's Party / Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Communism ?–1934 Died in Moscow; suspected poisoning unconfirmed

MPRP leader who joined the Danzan purge and was later expelled as a rightist

At the third party congress in 1924 he joined Rinchingiin Elbegdorj in denouncing Soliin Danzan as a representative of bourgeois interests, leading to his arrest and execution; afterwards he led the party's right wing in policies modelled on the New Economic Policy.

A Mongolian revolutionary and journalist, he was elected to the Mongolian People's Party Central Committee at its first congress in 1921, served as its secretary and deputy chairman, and headed its presidium as chairman from 1923 to 1928. At the third party congress in 1924 he joined the leftist Rinchingiin Elbegdorj in denouncing the moderate Soliin Danzan as a representative of bourgeois interests, leading to Danzan's arrest and execution; he then led the party's right wing in policies modelled on Lenin's New Economic Policy. Expelled as a 'rightist' at the seventh party congress in 1928, he was posted to Moscow as a trade representative at the Mongolian embassy and died there in June 1934. He was also the first editor of the newspapers Ardyn Erkh and Ünen and of the journal Mongol Ardyn Nam, and a translator of Engels.