KHORLOGHIYIN

CHOIBALSAN
Born February 8, 1895
Died January 26, 1952

RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
 Choibalsan’s early life
■ Choibalsan was born as the
youngest of four children to
unmarried herdswoman
named Khorloo in Achit
Beysiyn near present-day
Choibalsan, Dornod Province
, Mongolia, Qing Dynasty
China in 1895
RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
■ His father was likely a Daur Mongol from
Inner Mongolia called Jamsu, but Choibalsa
n claimed to be unaware of his identity

RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
■ At the age of 13, he
received the religious name
Choibalsan as he entered
the Buddhist monastery of
San Beysiyn Khüree, where
he received training to
become a Lama

RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
■ In 1913, he escaped the monastery
and arrived at Khüree (renamed
Ulaanbaatar in 1924), where he met
a teacher, Nikolai Danchinov, of
Buryat ethnicity, who enrolled him
in the Russian consulate's Russian-
Mongolian Translators School out
of sympathy and to prevent him
from being returned to the
monastery

RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
 RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
■ In 1917, communist separatists called for young
expatriates to return to fight in the upcoming rebellion;
Choibalsan answered the call, eventually joining the
Konsulyn Denj resistance group as the group's main
Russian translator.
 RAMOS, KARA C.
■ Shortly after, he joined a newly founded resistance 2LM2
group named Züün Khüre. In 1920, Züün Khüre
renamed itself the Mongolian People's Party. In late
Formation of
Jun 1920, he traveled with six other leading Mongolian the
nationalists (the group was later named "First Seven") Mongolian’s
to Irkutsk to make contact with the Soviets in order to
solicit support; Choibalsan and Sükhbaatar would People Party
remain in Irkutsk for military training for six months.
■ In mid-1921, he commanded a small
detachment in a larger campaign
involving Soviet forces and Ungern-
Sternberg's forces in western Mongolia.
He was likely to be present when Soviet
forces captured Ungern-Sternberg on 20
Aug 1921.
■ Later in 1921, he was named the
Chairman of the Mongolian
Revolutionary Youth League.

RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
 RAMOS, KARA C.
■ 1921, Choibalsan married seamstress 2LM2
Borotologai.
■ ACHIEVEMENTS &
POSITIONS
■ In 1923, Choibalsan was sent to a Moscow
Military Academy for further training. In 1924,
he was made the commander of the People's
Revolutionary Forces. Between 1924 and 1928,
he was also a member of the Presidium of the
State Great Hural from 1924 to 1928 and as
member of the Central Committee of the party,
now renamed Mongolian People's Revolutionary
Party.
 RAMOS, KARA C.
■ In 1929, he was made the Chairman of 2LM2
the Presidium of the State Little
Hural, which was the head of state; in
this role, he implemented
collectivization policies and persecuted
Buddhists.
■ In 1929, Choibalsan began an affair with the
actress Diwa, which led to a divorce with
Borotolgai in 1935. He would later marry
Gündegmaa in 1935.

■ Having stepped down in mid-1930, between

1931 and 1935, Choibalsan served as the
Minister of Livestock and Agriculture; in this
role, he forced traditional herders off of the
steppes and into badly managed collective
farms, which ultimately led to the destruction
of a third of livestock in the Outer Mongolia
region RAMOS, KARA C.
2LM2
 Lkhümbe Affair
• In the summer of 1934, Choibalsan’s name surfaced during interrogations of party members
arrested as part of the "Lkhümbe Affair," a manufactured conspiracy in which Mongolian
People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) General Secretary Jambyn Lkhümbe and other MPRP
elements, particularly Buryat-Mongols, were falsely accused of conspiring with Japanese
spies.

• Over 1500 people were implicated in the purge and 56 were executed. Choibalsan was called
to Moscow where he was arrested and interrogated regarding his possible involvement.
Within days, however, he was cooperating with the NKVD in the interrogation and torture of
fellow Mongolians. Satisfied with his loyalty, Stalin ordered Mongolia’s Prime Minister
Peljidiin Genden to appoint Choibalsan as deputy prime minister.

Pamela Apacible, 2LM2

 Great Terror
• In 1936 Choibalsan and Gelegdorjiin Demid were appointed
Marshals of the Armed Forces while Choibalsan also became
head of the newly elevated Ministry of Internal Affairs, 26
percent of whose staff were NKVD agents.

• Acting under Moscow’s directive, Choibalsan then had

Genden purged in March 1936 for sabotaging Mongol-Soviet
relations by rejecting Stalin’s demand that he eliminate the
country’s Buddhist clergy.

• Over the next three years, Soviet mentors in the Ministry of

Internal Affairs guided Choibalsan in planning and carrying
out the “Great Terror”.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

 Death of Marshal Demid
• In August 1937, the 36-year-old Marshal Demid, whose popularity
Choibalsan had always resented, died under suspicious
circumstances resulting in Choibalsan’s promotion to the dual role
of sole Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian military and
Minister of Defense.

• The following day Choibalsan, as Interior Minister, issued Order

366 which declared that many in Mongolia “had fallen under the
influence of Japanese spies and provocateurs.”

• Working through Soviet advisers already embedded within the

Ministry of Interior and with a willing Choibalsan providing
symbolic cover, Frinovsky built the purge framework from behind
the scenes; producing arrest lists and creating an NKVD style
Troika (headed by Choibalsan) to try suspects.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

 World War II, 1939-1945
• In the spring of 1939, three battles occurred between the Japanese Kwantung Army
military leaders and Mongolian. Over the course of three battles (May – September
1939) a heavily armoured Soviet military force commanded by Georgy Zhukov
decisively defeated the Japanese advance near the village of Nomonhan. The victory,
which took place close to his birthplace, helped cement Choibalsan’s growing cult of
personality which portrayed him as a staunch defender of Mongolian independence
against imperialist Japanese aggression.

• Choibalsan proclaimed his country’s unwavering support for the Soviet Union after
Germany’s invasion of the USSR in June 1941,. Stalin awarded Choibalsan the Order
of Lenin for his outstanding effort in organizing Mongolian people for delivery of aid
in goods to Red Army in July 1944.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

 World War II, 1939-1945
• Despite the privations of wartime, Choibalsan and
party leaders pressed on with what limited social
progress they could manage while delivering much
of the country’s economic output to the Soviets.
Choibalsan consistently sought Moscow’s assent
before making key policy decisions, even in minor
matters and made efforts to curry Moscow’s favour
whenever possible.

Choibalsan and Zhukov

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2) during the war
 Cult Development
• Building up Choibalsan’s cult of personality became an important component of maintaining MPRP
control over the country. Throughout the early 1940s, Choibalsan and party leaders, with help from the
Soviets, launched a campaign to depict him as a national hero and savior of the nation, the Mongolian
Stalin to Sükhbaatar’s Lenin

• Several films were made that portrayed as the leading hero. Official histories of the Revolution were also
rewritten to give Choibalsan a more central and heroic role. The university and the main industrial
combine in Ulaanbaatar were named after him, as were the town and province of his birth.

• An ardent Mongolian nationalist, Choibalsan never gave up a hope of uniting all of the Mongols under
the auspices of the Mongolian People's Republic. At the same time, Choibalsan unleashed a brief wave
of pan-Mongolist nationalism through the press, calling for unification and encouraging a grassroots
pan-Mongolist movement in Inner Mongolia. Conversely, it also marked greater Mongolia's permanent
division into an independent Mongolian People's Republic and a neighboring Inner Mongolia.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

 Post War and Death
• Choibalsan looked to modernize the country based on the Soviet model while expanding the communal
agriculture sector. Funded largely through Soviet aid, the country’s first five-year plan focused on
economic development, infrastructure construction, and doubling the country’s livestock.

• Although Choibalsan maintained a policy of stronger ties with the Soviet Union, he understood the
importance solidifying Mongolia’s independence through international recognition. In 1948 the MPR
established diplomatic relations with the DPRK (North Korea) and then with the People’s Republic of
China in 1949.

• When it became clear that Stalin would never back unification, he grew increasingly disillusioned with
his former hero.

• In late 1951 Choibalsan travelled to Moscow to receive treatment for kidney cancer. He died there on
January 26, 1952. Choibalsan’s body was returned to Mongolia with full military honors and he was
buried at the Altan Ulgii cemetery in Ulaanbaatar.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

 Critique
Choibalsan's image in modern Mongolia remains mixed. At the time of his death he was widely mourned as a
hero, a patriot, and ultimately a martyr for the cause of Mongolian independence. Some scholarssuggested that
Mongolians avoid blaming Choibalan for the purges in an attempt exonerate themselves for what happened.
Public anger over the violence of the purges falls predominantly on the Soviet Union and the NKVD, with
Choibalsan viewed sympathetically as a puppet with little choice but to follow Moscow’s instructions or else meet
the fate of his predecessors Genden and Amar.

With the end of socialist rule in 1990, however, re-examining of Choibalsan’s rule has occurred, and there does
seem to be an attempt by some Mongolians to come to terms the country’s socialist past in a more general context.
Nevertheless, that resentment is directed towards the Soviet Union instead of Choibalsan.

As for Choibalsan’s lasting influence, what is clear is that his aggressively pro-Russian stance and his active role
in increasing Mongolia’s economic, political, and social reliance on the Soviet Union turned the country into a
Soviet dependency, which has had a lasting impact on modern Mongolian identity and development. His
destruction of the Buddhist church and numerous monasteries also robbed Mongolia of a rich cultural heritage.

(Pamela Apacible, 2LM2)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
■ http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=1045. World War II Database, 2004.
■ http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_item.a4d?catId=35518;r=41. Endangered Archives.
■ http://pcbsaogoncalo.blogspot.com/2013/03/apenas-junto-com-as-mulheres.html. PCB -
BASE NITERÓI / SÃO GONÇALO, March 15, 2013.
■ Mongolia: Independence and Revolution, Retrieved May 18, 2017,
https://www.britannica.com/place/Mongolia/Independence-and-revolution#ref1111649
■ Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Retrieved May 18, 2017,
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Khorloogiin%20Choibalsan