Page | 30Mongolian leaders immediately established a constitutional monarchy, sharply
diminishing the Bogdo Khan’s political powers.^153 The new Mongolian People’s
Government forbade a search for a reincarnation of the Bogdo Khan after his death in
1924, thus eliminating the last vestige of Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhist theocracy.^154
During a congress of the Mongolian People’s Party in August 1924, the party embraced a
closer relationship with the Soviet Union and was renamed the Mongolian People’s
Revolutionary Party (MPRP). By November 1924, the newly established Mongolian
People’s Republic had a constitution modeled after the Soviet Union’s and a renamed
capital city of Ulaanbaatar (“Red Hero”).
(^155) It was during this period of time that
Horloyn Choybalsan, a nationalist leader who established close links with Soviet leader
Josef Stalin, began his rise to power.^156
Collectivization and Threats from the East
As the Soviet Union continued to forge close
political and trade relations with newly
independent Mongolia, political figures within
Mongolia opposing the Communist faction in the
government found themselves on the defensive.
By the late 1920s, the Mongolian government was
implementing radical collectivization policies on a
population that continued to largely consist of
nomadic herders. Buddhist monks and tribal
nobles found themselves under attack by the
government. At the same time angry and frightened herders, facing the loss of their
private livestock, began slaughtering their herds.^157
(^152) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Modern Mongolia, 1911–84: Revolutionary
Transformation, 1921–24,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1991), 40.
Uprisings in western Mongolia in
1932 resulted in Soviet leaders pushing the Mongolian government to back off on its
rapid push toward a state-controlled collectivist economy.
(^153) Encyclopædia Britannica Online, “Mongolia: History: Mongolia Since 1900,” Owen Lattimore, 2011,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/389335/Mongolia/27423/Internecine-strife
(^154) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Modern Mongolia, 1911–84: Revolutionary
Transformation, 1921–1924,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1991), 42.
(^155) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Modern Mongolia, 1911–84: Revolutionary
Transformation, 1921–1924,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1991), 42.
(^156) Ronald E. Dolan, “Chapter 5: National Security: The Mongolian Army, 1921–68: Early Development,”
in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), 229.
(^157) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Modern Mongolia, 1911–84: Purges of the
Opposition, 1928–1932,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1991), 45.