Horloogiyn Choybalsan's Mongolia

[Cryotank Screams]

What do people here at RevLeft think of Horloogiyn Choybalsan's Mongolia?

[Marukusu]

According to the information on the oh-so-unbiased-wikipedia he just seem to have been another good and willing puppet to the Soviet Union. The old aristocracy and clergy where executed, analphabetism disappeared, yadda yadda (you know the drill). He seem to have failed in industrializing Mongolia though, as there are such a high percentage of nomads and peasants there still today.

Why are you so interested in Choybalsan btw? He is definately not among the most influential politicians or communist theorists through world history.

[Cryotank Screams]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18, 2007 04:26 pm
Why are you so interested in Choybalsan btw? He is definately not among the most influential politicians or communist theorists through world history.
I was browsing Communist eaders, and compiling notes for some research I will do later, and came upon his name, and gave a quick read via google searches, and thought I would ask RevLeft for there input, and maybe discuss Mongolia under him, his accomplishments, his errors, his "crimes," if you like, the economy under him, the worker's role, status, and part in Monogolia during his rule, and generally try to analyze Choybalsan era Mongolia; plus obscure aspects of history interest me.

[Sankara1983]

The history of the Mongolian People's Republic is very important in any study of the history of socialist revolutions. The MPR was the second socialist republic in the world (excluding the Hungarian Soviet Republic, which only was in power for a few months). Mongolia and neighboring Tuva had societies that were quite different from those in Eastern Europe.

[Cryotank Screams]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18, 2007 04:57 pm
The history of the Mongolian People's Republic is very important in any study of the history of socialist revolutions. The MPR was the second socialist republic in the world (excluding the Hungarian Soviet Republic, which only was in power for a few months). Mongolia and neighboring Tuva had societies that were quite different from those in Eastern Europe.
Proof? Sources? Links?

[Sankara1983]

Detailed information on Mongolia during Choybalsan's rule is very hard to find, because it was very isolated geographically and the regime did not allow general freedom of information.

My particular post had two facts and two opinions. Both facts are common knowledge and there are many sources to confirm them.

[The Author]

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition, has this to say about the Mongolian People's Republic. Unfortunately, I do not read or speak Russian, and any Russian comrades here who want to offer a much better translation than my poor computer Babelfish translation, feel free to do so, I insist. The original Russian page is here under the section V. Исторический очерк: http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/077/789.htm I am providing the poor English translation on this post.

All I know about Choybalsan was that during this period there was some industrialization, contradictions with the peasant landlord and aristocratic class, support by the U.S.S.R., etc. and that Choybalsan somehow mysteriously died in 1952. Then the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party took the Khrushchevite path with the U.S.S.R. in "criticizing" Choybalsan for the personality cult, etc. and followed a capitalist restoration until 1984 when Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal left office and the party followed the Gorbachevite, social-democratic path to complete capitalist restoration.


Originally posted by poor babelfish translation of article
Mongolia from 1917. Victory of revolution 1921 solution of all-democratic problems. The victory of the October Revolution in Russia and the formation of the Soviet State into 1917 opened the real prospect for the revolutionary renovation of Mongolia. But reaction noyonstvo hostilely met the victory of the Socialist Revolution in Russia the government of bogdo-gegena shut boundary with THE RSFSR, it refused to accept Soviet diplomats it continued connections with the representatives of former tsarist Russia, it gave the agreement of in spring 1918 to the introduction into the country of troops of Chinese militarists, it hid from the people the August (1919) appeal of Soviet government to the Mongolian people and the government of the external Mongolia (in this rotation Soviet government it stated about its refusal of all unequal in rights agreements of tsarist Russia with the Mongolia, it recognized the right of Mongolia to the independent statehood she proposed to establish the diplomatic relations between two countries), agreed during November 1919 to the liquidation of autonomy, it converted the country in the refuge of Russian White Guards and the bridgehead of anti-Soviet intervention, showed into 1920 - 21 support to Japanese protege To r. f. ungern von to Sternberg, which occupied the country and which established in it the regime of the military dictatorship. The threat of the open colonial enslavement is overhanging above the Mongolia. Lead this threat and save the country could only successful anti-imperialist and antifeudal revolution. The preparation for this revolution (see Mongolian people revolution 1921) began. Progressive-minded representatives aratstva and progressive elements of others is layer the populations, headed By d. sukhe-Bator and Kh. choybalsan, created in autumn 1919 in Urge in the deep underground of 2 revolutionary circles, which into 1920 were combined in one revolutionary organization by the name of Mongolian people party. Attempting to establish direct coupling with Soviet Russia, Mongolian revolutionaries in middle 1920 directed their representatives into Irkutsk and Moscow. Acting under the conditions of the terrorist regime of Chinese, and then ungernovskikh occupiers, the members of Mongolian revolutionary organization conducted in the masses agitational and organizational work, were laid the bases of national-revolutionary army, preparing the national armed riot. During March 1921 in Kyakhte took place the 1st Party Congress, which organizationally designed the creation of Mongolian national-revolutionary party (MNRP) (to 1925 it were called Mongolian people party). Temporary people government was formed according to the resolutions of the congress on 13 March, was affirmed the staff of Mongolian national-revolutionary army, that are which assigned D. sukhe-Bator. On 18 March revolutionary troops freed from the occupiers g. of maymachen (contemporary Altan-Bulak). On the request of the temporary people government during June of 1921 for the joint fight against the bands Of ungerna the Mongolia entered the parts of the Red Army. On 6 July Mongolian national-revolutionary army and Soviet troops freed from the occupiers Urgu. On 10 July 1921 TSK of party delivered verdict about the transfer of central authority to permanent people government. Revolution conquered. Authority in the country was affirmed in the form of people hurals, which became the political basis of Mongolian state. In the country was legislatively fixed the unique form of the dictatorship of working aratstva, rukovodimogo by party and being rested on support and aid of working class of Soviet Russia and international Communist movement.

All state affairs were solved by people government, although in 1921 - 24 Mongolia it formally remained the limited monarchy headed by bogdo-gegenom, which was explained by the strong influence of church on the masses and by the need for the association of all patriotic forces in the anti-imperialist fight. The people's rule carried out a number of the deep conversions of the anti-imperialist and antifeudal nature: the annulment of debts to foreign merchants and to rostovshchikam (mainly Chinese), the nationalization of the earth and the liquidation of serfdom, the cancellation of feudal titles and privileges, the democratization of local self-guidance and so forth the development of revolution conducted to the demarcation of social forces, the aggravation 2GP 0N class struggle, of found reflection in the counterrevolutionary plots Baudot (1922) and Danzana (1924), destroyed by the people's rule.

Krepli were enlarged the connection of Mongolia with Soviet Russia. Important significance had the encounter of Mongolian delegation during November 1921 s By v. i. Lenin. Lenin's ideas about the possibility of the noncapitalistic development of Mongolia became the basis of the political policy of the party and people government. Party entered on the rights of that sympathizing the comintern. On 5 November 1921 in Moscow was signed Soviet-Mongolian agreement about the establishment of the friendly relations (see in st. Soviet-Mongolian contracts and agreements).

course on the noncapitalistic development of the country determined the 3rd congress of party (August 1924) as the general line of the party. The social and economic measures, carry ouied in 1921 - 24 under the leadership of party, contributed to strengthening people state and created the necessary prerequisites for establishing in the Mongolia the republic system. During November 1924 took place the 1st great people hural, which declared Mongolia people republic and affirmed the first constitution of the Mongolian People's Republic.

People government in every possible way stimulated an increase in the productive forces, relying on the aid of the Soviet State. During December 1921 was formed Mongolian central people cooperative (Montsenkoop), during June 1924 Mongolian commodity-industry bank was opened, during December 1925 the currency reform was carry ouied and was released national currency - tugrik. With the forces of state and cooperation began to be created the first industrial enterprises, the contemporary forms of transport and connection.

Development MNR along the noncapitalistic way to socialism met with the resistance of right deviationists (1926 - 28). The crushing defeat of right at the 7th congress MNRP (October - December 1928) was the great victory of Leninist general line of the party. In the beginning the 30's the foreign capital was finally extruded from the economy of the country and the government monopoly of foreign trade was introduced. Tax policy, strengthening Of montsenkoopa, aid of Soviet commercial organizations caused successful solution of this problem.

Long time strong positions in the economy retained the former feudal lords. In 1924 to them belonged more than entire third cattle. The expropriation of large feudal property began in 1929. Cattle and property of the former feudal lords became the property of paupers and people state. The process of the liquidation of feudal lords as class was conducted to the conditions of the bitter fight. Reaction used various forms of resistance - from the small diversions to open armed appearances (1932). In this case she used errors (1929 - 32) leftist of the management in the party and the state of those days, which, ignoring real position, declared about the passage of revolution to the socialist stage and it began to carry out the policy, which caused serious economic and political difficulties, the 3rd extraordinary plenum OF TSK and TSKK MNRP (June 1932) condemned the allowed distortions and was conducted work on the restoration of general line of the party. The 9th congress OF MNRP taken place during September - October 1934 approved the decisions of extraordinary plenum.

Release from the colonial dependence and liquidation of feudal relations gave impetus to the development of productive forces. Livestock of cattle in the country increased from 1929 through 1940 by 36 %. it arose state and cooperative industry (mainly coal mining, electric energy generation and processing cattle-breeding raw material). Truck, RR and aviation transport was developed. Retail commodity turnover into 1934 - 39 grew 2,5, export - 2,3 times, imports - 2 times. By the basic source budget receipt of steel of entering from the state and cooperative sectors (taxes and collections from the population into 1940 they composed only 16,7 % incomes).

Development MNR was passed to the complex international situation, connected with the aggressive policy of Japan. Under these conditions during November 1934 was concluded Soviet-Mongolian dzhentl'menskoye (oral) agreement about the mutual aid in the case of attack on one of the sides. This agreement was fixed during March by 1936 signing of Soviet-Mongolian protocol about the mutual aid. Japanese troops, vtorgshiyesya during May 1939 to the territory MNR in the region r. Khalkhin-Gol, received crushing rebuff with the side of Mongolian army and arrived by it to the aid of Soviet troops and during August 1939 they were destroyed.

As a result of the realization of revolutionary conversions social structure MNR to 1940 substantially changed: the class of feudal lords disappeared, aratstvo became the class of free small-scale commodity producers, was formed the national working class (into 1940 it was counted about 15 thousand workers), it were added working intelligentsia. Basic economic structures became small-scale commodity and socialist. Socialist sector covered state and cooperative industry, mechanized transport, financial system, state and cooperative business. The centers of socialist production were located also in the agriculture in the form of state farms, but predominated in it small-scale commodity structure. There were in the agriculture capitalist elements - large-scale cattle-breeding farms, which were being been based on hire and operation of strange labor; in the commodity turnover these elements were particular merchants. But their specific weight in the national economy of the country was on the whole insignificant. People state carried out the policy of limitation and displacement of these elements.

In the all-democratic stage unrolled cultural revolution under the sign of overcoming feudal survivals in the consciousness, assertions of revolutionary world view and foremost culture.

The sums of all-democratic stage were supplied on the 10th congress OF MNRP (March - April 1940) and the eighth great people hural (June 1940). Congress accepted the new program of party, and the eighth great people hural - new constitution, which reflected deep social and economic changes in the republic.

Period of the building of socialism. After solving to 1940 all-democratic tasks of revolution, MNR entered the new stage - socialist. Its primary tasks: the acceleration of the rates of increase in the productive forces, the continuous voluntary production cooperation of individual aratskikh economies, the creation of the united socialist system of national economy, further development of cultural resolution.

Passage to the socialist stage occurred under the conditions of 2-1 world war 1939 - 45. From the first day of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941 - 45 Mongolian people, MNRP and government MNR engaged the consecutively internationalistic position of the support of the valid affair of the peoples OF THE USSR (declaration of the united session of the presidium OF TSK MNRP, the presidium of small hural and the Council of Ministers OF MNR of 22 June of 1941), after showing to them great moral and material assistance. Into the fund of the aid of the Red Army entered thousands of tons of food products, warm clothing, working economy of Mongolian workers, thousand of head of cattle. In the years of war as the gift of the Mongolian people OF THE USSR were directed 32 thousand horses. Toilers MNR sent to the fronts of patriotic war several echelons of gifts. To the means, assembled by the workers OF MNR, were built tank column "revolutionary Mongolia" and air squadron "Mongolian arat", actively participated in combat against the Fascist-German troops. In their economic policy MNRP and people government in these years they were oriented toward every possible use of local resources and satisfaction of the needs of the country by the products of its own production. MNR took direct part in the crushing defeat of Japanese aggressors, after declaring to Japan on 10 August 1945 war. Its 80-tys. army completed the heroic march through the desert of the Gobi to the Liaotung molded edge, after making its contribution to the common cause of victory.

In 1944 governments MNR it abolished limitations in the selective rights of former feudal lords and those, who exploited strange labor earlier, after granting to them the right to select into the organs of the people's rule and to be chosen. In 1949 several-stage selections were substituted with straight lines, the open voting - secret. International position MNR was strengthened. Its sovereignty was confirmed by Crimean tripartite conference (1945). Further development obtained fraternal interrelations with THE USSR. During February 1946 was signed the treaty of friendship and mutual aid between THE USSR and MNR, and also agreement about the economic and cultural collaboration. From 1948 began the establishment of diplomatic relations MNR with all socialist states, economic and cultural collaboration with them was enlarged.

Postwar period was marked by great achievements in the socialist building, the 11th congress OF MNRP into 1947 made a decision about the passage to the long-range planning of national economy and culture, after affirming directives according to the first 5- summer plan for 1948 - 52.

The session of great people hural, which occurred during July 1954, selected the chairman of the presidium of great people hural To zh. samb (it died into 1972) and it formed government headed by Yu. tsedenbal.

During the subsequent years national economy MNR was developed on the basis of the second 5- summer plan (1953 - 57) and the 3- summer plan (1958 - 60).

The development of industry led to an increase in the working class MNR. The number of workers and employees into 1960 was above their number into 1940 5,9 times. In socialist development stage MNR the working class became the leading force in the building of new society.

The production cooperation of agriculture began to acquire mass nature with 1955. To the spring 1959 V agr. of association entered practically all aratskiye economies of the country. Taken place during December 1959 plenum OF TSK MNRP noted that with the completion of the production cooperation of aratstva the socialist production relations conquered in all regions of national economy. This meant that MNR accomplished a passage to the socialist social system, that the general line of the party to the noncapitalistic development to socialism crowned by success. The historic victories of Mongolian people was reflected in the new constitution, affirmed during July 1960 by 1st session of the great people hural of the 4th convocation.

During July 1961 took place the 14th congress OF MNRP. Congress established that the country entered the period of the completion of the building of socialism, when every possible development and completion of the process of creating the material and technical base of socialism becomes primary task. Congress affirmed the directives of the third 5- summer plan (1961 - 65). New program MNRP, accepted by the 15th congress in 1966, reflected the successes reached and were determined the tasks, connected with the transformation MNR into the industrial-agrarian state. Were affirmed the directives of the fourth 5- summer plan of the development of national economy and culture (1966 - 70). As a result of successful execution of the plan further upsurge of the economy and culture in the country was achieved.

The expanded estimation of the sums of the semi-centennial fight of the workers OF MNR for the liquidation of byloy backwardness, for the victory of the socialist way of the development of the country gave 16th congress OF MNRP (June 1971). Congress affirmed directives according to the fifth 5- summer plan of the development of national economy and culture on 1971 - 75. The main economic task of the new five-year plan lies in the fact that to attain a notable increase in the volume of public production via a steadier increase in the agriculture, further development of industry and other branches of the economy, to ensure on this basis a steady increase in the material and cultural standard of living of workers.

Foreign policy MNR is directed toward the guarantee of peaceful conditions for the building of socialism, strengthening of unity and cohesion of world socialist system. MNR supports the national liberation motion of peoples and the revolutionary working class struggle of capitalist countries, it contributes to retention and strengthening of peace and safety of peoples. On the basis of the observance of the principles of equality of rights, mutual respect and nonintervention into the internal affairs MNR are conducted the course on establishment and the development of relations with the nonsocialist states independent of their social system. MNR speaks in favor of the realization of the proposals OF THE USSR about general and complete disarmament (1959, 1962), signed Moscow agreement 1963 about the nuclear weapons testing ban in the atmosphere, the outer space and under water, the treaty on the non-proliferation on nuclear weapons (1968), the agreement about sea bottom (1970). MNR supports the fight of the Arab countries against the aggression of Israel, the fight of the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, proposal OF PDRK - PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF KOREA about the peaceful association of Korea, the anti-imperialist fight of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the idea of collective security in Asia, and also the struggle of progressive forces for peace and safety in Europe. MNR - member OF UNITED NATIONS (with 1961), member COMECON - COUNCIL FOR MUTUAL ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE (from 1962). MNR established diplomatic relations with 61 (1973) and commercial relations more than with 20 countries: he collaborates in 62 international organizations, including in 19 government: the member of committee on disarmament (from 1969). Soviet-Mongolian relations are regulated by the treaty of friendship, collaboration and mutual aid between THE USSR and MNR, concluded during January 1966. The treaties of friendship and collaboration MNR it signed also with a number of other socialist countries.

[Cryotank Screams]

Thank you CriticizeEverythingAlways! I shall read it, and ask any further questions later.

Edit; Is there an official USSR analysis or report of Monogolia and Choybalsan?

[The Author]

Well, the page of the encyclopedia I quoted that translated text from, http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/077/789.htm has an entire country profile on Mongolia up to the early 1970s (note that the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was written throughout the 1970s, so there is nothing detailing what happened in Afghanistan in 1979, Brezhnev's death, Gorbachev, or anything in the 1980s and onwards. If you wanted to look up countries, you have to look up countries as they existed during the period. For instance, if you wanted to look up the country of Zimbabwe, you cannot because Zimbabwe still did not exist- it was still known by the white colonialist name "Rhodesia."). I only quoted a small portion of the historical section of that text on Mongolia relevant to the discussion.

As for Choybalsan, yes, there is a page on him: http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/122/625.htm

which roughly translates to:


Originally posted by babelfish translation
Choybalsandn of khorlogiyn (8.2.1895, Tsetsenkhanskiy, now eastern, Aimak, 26.1.1952, Moscow, it is buried in Ulan-Bator), Mongolian political and statesman. It were borne in the poor aratskoy family. From 1912 he worked in Urge (now Ulan-Bator) as porter, watchman, independently were trained to certificate, it entered into the school of translators and mastered the Russian language. In 1914 for continuing the formation it was directed to Irkutsk, where it were located to 1917. Revolutionary events in Russia had on h. clout. In 1919, when Sukhe-Bator organized in Urge revolutionary circle, h. somewhat more lately created there analogous circle. The association of these circles into 1920 marked the beginning of creation of Mongolian national-revolutionary party (MNRP). In summer 1920 h. it left to Soviet Russia in the composition of the first Mongolian delegation, which was turned to the government OF THE RSFSR with the request about rendering aid to Mongolian people into the fight for the release of Mongolia from the foreign aggressors. After returning to Mongolia during November 1920, h. took active part in the creation of the parts of the national-revolutionary army. It participated in the preparation for 1 congresses of the Mongolian people party during March of 1921 (from March 1925 - MNRP). It entered into the composition of the temporary people government (created during March with 1921), and after the victory of Mongolian people revolution, from July 1921 - into the composition of people government. With 1924 h. he were repeatedly selected by the member OF TSK MNRP, his presidium and Politbureau. In 1921 - 23 h. it was the deputy of the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian People's Army, into 1923 - 24 learned in the military academy in Moscow, into 1924 - 28 commander-in-chief of the Mongolian national-revolutionary army (MNRA), in 1928 - 30 chairman of the presidium of small hural MNR, into 1930 Minister of Foreign Affairss, in 1931 - 35 minister of stock raising and agriculture. In 1935 - 39 first Deputy Prime-Minister, with 1939 prime minister OF MNR. With the joint operations of Soviet and Mongolian troops on the crushing defeat of Japanese militarists in the region r. Khalkhin-Gol into 1939 and in the Manchurian operation 1945 h. was the commander-in-chief OF MNRA. H. was appropriated the title of marshal (1936) and hero MNR (twice), its name named city in MNR. It is rewarded with the orders Of sukhe-Batora, combat Red Banner, etc; 2 by Order of Lenins and by other Soviet orders.

Mostly it's a digest of what he did in office. Surprisingly, nothing is mentioned about his supposed support of the "personality cult."

[Cryotank Screams]

Thanks again CEA! What I am trying to figure out is how the first attempt at the Five Year Plans in 1921-1939 in Mongolia failed, and did little progress, unlike the rapid and quick advancements, industrialization, and modernization that occurred in the USSR, and China, and most other Communist nations of the past, and why it took so long for the Mongolians to modernize, I realize they were pretty backwards but still.

[Severian]

Official Soviet sources are the last place you should go for accurate historical information. They're the model for all that stuff in Orwell's 1984 about periodically rewriting history.

A couple Marxist bits on the subject:
Lenin: Talk With Mongolian representatives (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/nov/05b.htm)
Joseph Hansen: Review of a book by Owen Lattimore about Mongolia (http://www.marxists.org/archive/hansen/1956/xx/mongolia.htm)

Even bourgeois sources, used with care, may give more insight than the official Soviet falsifications:
From the Encyclopedia Britannica article on Mongolia (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-27426/Mongolia)

This uneasy situation endured with increasing economic distress and social unrest until the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war. In 1919 a faction within the shaky republican Chinese government took advantage of the instability in Russia and sent a military expedition into Mongolia that forced the Mongols to sign a “request” to be taken over by China. Almost immediately afterward, defeated anti-Bolshevik troops from Russia began to enter Mongolia. Their most important leader was Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, known as the “Mad Baron,” who defeated the Chinese occupation forces but then treated the Mongols with unfeeling savagery.

In this period of terror and confusion, two secret revolutionary groups, which later merged, were formed by Damdiny Sühbaatar, a former trooper and machine gunner in the Mongol forces disbanded by the Chinese, and Khorloghiyin Choibalsan, who had run away from a monastery as a boy and later studied in Siberia. Choibalsan, though not the principal leader during the lifetime of Sühbaatar, was in touch with underground Bolsheviks—refugees hiding in Mongolia who were later massacred by Ungern-Sternberg. Memoirs of the Mongol partisans enlisted by these two show that, quite apart from Russian propaganda, there was already in Mongolia a geographically widespread and socially embittered demand for radical social and political change. The traditional leaders had been discredited by their inability to handle either the Chinese intervention or the incursions of the antirevolutionary Russians.

The revolutionaries took the initiative in going to the Bolsheviks for help, which was quickly granted. The remnants of the Chinese warlord forces were driven out, and Ungern-Sternberg was handed over to the Bolsheviks for execution. Urga, the capital (now Ulaanbaatar), was taken by a joint Mongol-Russian column in July 1921, now considered the date of the founding of the present republic, though the first measures of the revolutionary victors were surprisingly moderate. The Jabtsandamba Khutagt (the living Buddha of Urga) was continued in office but as a “constitutional monarch,” meaning he could sign only documents prepared for him by the new regime.

Sühbaatar died in 1923 and the Khutagt in 1924. Mongolia was engaged in a revolutionary process which was also going forward at different rates of speed in the Soviet Union, where Soviet leader Vladimir Ilich Lenin died in 1924, and in China, whose leader Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian) died in 1925. The problem of the Khutagt was easily solved; no successor was found, and on November 26, 1924, Mongolia was proclaimed a People's Republic—using a wording that exactly follows the Chinese, not the Soviet, model. The government, and the controlling People's Revolutionary Party, was a coalition of conservative and nationalistic revolutionary elements. Shifts between “rightist” and “leftist” policy ensued, closely affected by the rise of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and by the defeat of the Chinese communists (for the time being) by the Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek. Increasingly important, too, was the Japanese invasion of Northeast China (Manchuria) in 1931, followed by Japanese encroachment on Inner Mongolia and North China and all-out invasion of China in 1937.

So the initial period was marked by an approach of politically leading the Mongolian toilers to achieve as much social progress as possible under the objective conditions.

But in the 1930s, policy changes were ordered by bureaucratic fiat - without regard to the political conditions (what Mongolian working people wanted) or what was objectively economically possible.

One of these policy shifts in the 1930s was an attempt to forcibly collectivize the herds. As everywhere, forced collectivization was a disaster in terms of agricultural production - in Mongolia it was reversed for a time. Oughta answer your latest question, CS.


As conservative officials were eliminated from the government, Choybalsan was chosen as head of the National Little Hural. The leftist leaders called for the immediate confiscation of feudal property, the development of a five-year plan, the collectivization of stockbreeders, the ouster of Chinese traders, and the implementation of the Soviet trade monopoly. These extreme measures followed standard Soviet economic policy. In less-sophisticated Mongolia, however, the economic situation seemed to defy such planning. The basically nomadic society was largely illiterate, and there was no industrial proletariat; the aristocracy and the religious establishment held a large share of the country's wealth; popular obedience to traditional authorities continued to be widespread; the party lacked grass-roots support; and the government had little organization or experience. Nevertheless, the party was receptive to Moscow's directives; and the Mongolian revolutionaries made mistakes similar to those of the Soviets through an excess of zeal, intolerance, and inexperience.

The first harsh repression of opposition came in 1929. Under the direction of Choybalsan, more than 600 feudal estates (herds and fixed property) were confiscated and were given to members of the laity and to monks who left their monasteries. In 1931 and 1932, the property of more than 800 religious and secular leaders was seized, and more than 700 heads of households were killed or imprisoned. The antireligious campaign was three-pronged: ordinary monks were forced to leave the monasteries and enter the army or the economy; monks of middle status were put in prison camps; and those of highest rank were killed. Collectivization followed expropriation, and by 1931 more than one-third of the stock-raising households had been forcibly communized.

The brutal collectivization of herdsmen was rapid, and it caused bloody uprisings. Although the Eighth Party Congress from February to April 1930 had recognized that the country was unprepared for total socialization, the party reaction to opposition was to reenforce its measures nevertheless. The massive shift from private property to collectivization and communization was accelerated. The party then attacked the entire monastic class, the nobility, the nomads, and the nationalists, while purging its own ranks. The government imposed high and indiscriminate taxes, confiscated private property, banned private industry, forced craft workers to join mutual aid cooperatives, and nationalized foreign and domestic trade and transportation.

Extremism produced near-disaster. The power of the monks and the feudal nobles finally was broken, Chinese traders and other foreign capitalists were ousted, and still greater dependence on Soviet aid was required (see The Suppression of Buddhism , ch. 2). The mechanical imposition of communes on an unprepared nomadic sheep-herding and cattle-herding society, however, resulted in the slaughter of 7 million animals in three years by angry and frightened herders. Mongolia's economy, which rested entirely on animal husbandry, was severely affected. The failure of communes, the hasty destruction of private trade, and inadequate Soviet supplies contributed to spreading famine. By 1931 to 1932, thousands were suffering severe food shortages, which, together with the people's reaction to terror, had brought the nation to the verge of civil war. Finally the government was forced to call in troops and tanks; with Soviet assistance, it suppressed the spreading anticommunist rebellion in western Mongolia.

In May 1932, a month after anticommunist uprisings in western Mongolia, the Comintern and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union directed the Mongolian party to end its extremism. The next month, the party Central Committee rejected its prior policy as "leftist deviation" and expelled several top leaders as "leftwing adventurers." Choybalsan announced that "the overall development of our country has not yet entered the stage of socialism, and also it is wrong to copy Soviet experience in every single thing."

Ya think so, Choybalsan? Emphasis added. Note that not only monks and aristocrats were expropriated - all herds were subject to forced collectivization. Herders reacted predictably, by destroying or feasting on their property before it could be taken from them. This is the same way that peasants in the USSR reacted to forced collectivization. Somewhat similar problems occurred in the PRC as well, especially with the creation of the rural "communes".
Source - Library of Congress Country Study (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mntoc.html#mn0091)

[The Author]

Originally posted by [email protected] February 20, 2007, 03:08 am
Official Soviet sources are the last place you should go for accurate historical information. They're the model for all that stuff in Orwell's 1984 about periodically rewriting history.

I would prefer the official Soviet sources first over something produced by Encyclopedia Britannica or the Library of Congress. The latter happen to be very biased in favor of showing capitalism as the favorable social system, while communism is almost always depicted as "brutal, merciless, forced." It's humorous you refer to "rewritten history" and "falsification" since the bourgeois accounts of history do just that, or worse. You can't just use bourgeois sources with "care," you need to nitpick everything written in bourgeois sources with great criticism. I'm not implying the Soviet sources are 100% correct, but at least they're much more accurate than bourgeois sources, which is why I would put them first.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20, 2007 12:02 pm
I would prefer the official Soviet sources first over something produced by Encyclopedia Britannica or the Library of Congress.
Get real. The official Soviet sources had a total censorship-enforced monopoly; they could tell any lie, and nobody could contradict them. Some Soviet citizens took to assuming that whatever Pravda said, the opposite was true. (An assumption that often steered them wrong, of course.)

Under bourgeois democracy, at least there are contending publications. They have to adopt a subtler approach to lying - saving it for the most important occasions, for example. Often they're worse on opinion or interpretation than on data.

Note than Britannica acknowledges a number of positive facts about the 1921 Mongolian Revolution.

[The Author]

Originally posted by [email protected] February 21, 2007, 03:12 am
Get real.

"Get real"? This is how you respond to a person's posts?


The official Soviet sources had a total censorship-enforced monopoly; they could tell any lie, and nobody could contradict them. Some Soviet citizens took to assuming that whatever Pravda said, the opposite was true. (An assumption that often steered them wrong, of course.)

Thank you for me giving me the official bit of anti-communist propaganda. Usually, I would expect this sort of response from some apologist of capitalism defending private ownership of the press over working-class ownership under the dictatorship of the proletariat. I wasn't expecting a leftist to provide a similar kind of response.

Of course, Pravda was not the only game in town, there were plenty of other newspaper and other forms of media.

And there is something in this remark which is contradictory in nature: you say some Soviet citizens (no indication of which class these citizens belonged to) assumed the opposite truth of what was said in the media and were often wrong, and yet on the other hand you say the media "could tell any lie." If the media "could tell any lie" and the workers and poor peasants wised up to this, wouldn't they be supposedly steering in the right? How were these "citizens" steered wrongly?


Under bourgeois democracy, at least there are contending publications. They have to adopt a subtler approach to lying - saving it for the most important occasions, for example. Often they're worse on opinion or interpretation than on data.

"When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own, to some extent. When bourgeois newspapermen quarrel they reveal to the public the venality of the 'big dailies' and the tricks they are up to." -- V.I. Lenin (http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/CP14.html)

Bourgeois media sometimes lie in a subtle way, but they also have more of a tendency to lie out in the open as well. Sometimes the bourgeois media presents facts, and sometimes they present "facts."



Note than Britannica acknowledges a number of positive facts about the 1921 Mongolian Revolution.

The only reason why the early years of the Mongolian revolution are presented positively is because it was going through a period on the crossroads between feudalism and socialism, and since the economic base and political/cultural superstructure was akin to embryonic capitalism (existence of the theocratic monarchy, presence of foreign capital in the country, private forms of ownership, for instance). Afterwards, in regards to the socialist period itself starting in the late 1920s, the usual anti-communist "criticisms" such as suppression of opposition, liquidation of private property, supposed man-made famine enter the bourgeois presentation of the picture. A picture which depicts communism as a noble but futile, misguided effort to create utopia. Of course mistakes were made by the party, and the Soviet source does point this fact out. And the Soviet source also points out a class analysis, theoretical path, development of the productive forces, and relation of Mongolia to the international order. I don't see any "rewriting of history" by the Soviet source, but I do see attempts by Britannica and the Library of Congress to negate facts from history and distort the picture quite a bit.