Sükhbaatar
Сүхбаатар
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