Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0244/02440.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 29KB | 479 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02440}
$Pretitle{276}
$Title{Mongolia
Chapter 3D.   Modern Mongolia}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{mongolia
mongolian
soviet
government
japanese
army
chinese
russian
new
china}
$Date{1973}
$Log{Stupa, Sculptures*0244001.scf
}
Country:     Mongolia
Book:        Mongolia, A Country Study
Author:      Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 3D.   Modern Mongolia

[See Stupa, Sculptures: Stone Icons. Courtesy Embassy of Mongolia, Washington
DC.]

Revolution and Chaos

     In 1911 the Republican Revolution of October 10, 1911, overthrew the
decadent Ch'ing Dynasty of China. There had been considerable revolutionary
ferment in Mongolia in the years before the Revolution, to a large degree
encouraged by Tsarist Russia. Now Russian officials in Siberia provided arms
and equipment to Mongolian princes who hoped to gain independence from China
in the wake of the Manchu collapse.

     On November 18, 1911, Mongolia proclaimed its independence on the basis
that its allegiance had been to the Ch'ing Dynasty, and not to China. The
Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu was named Bogdo Khan, or ruler, of Outer Mongolia. An
army of 20,000 troops was created, and Russian officers appeared in Urga to
help train and organize the army. The new government in China refused to
recognize Mongolian independence, but was too busy with internal discord in
China to do anything about enforcing its sovereignty. Meanwhile Russia was
moving rapidly to take advantage of the situation. On November 3, 1912, a
Russian-Mongolian treaty was signed in Urga, affirming Mongolia's separation
from China, but not recognizing Mongolian independence. The treaty, in fact,
created a Russian protectorate over Outer Mongolia.

     Although additional Russian-Mongolian treaties were signed in 1913, and
again in 1915, Russia's involvement in World War I
reduced the attention that the Czar's government could pay to Mongolia. This
situation seemed to offer an opportunity in Mongolia to the new power in
Northeast Asia: Japan. When the Russian Revolution broke out, Japanese
interest was further encouraged. At the same time, the various warlord rulers
of northern China saw in the Russian Revolution an opportunity to reassert
Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia, and also to prevent further Japanese
penetration into the continent.

     The Mongolian government of the Living Buddha was shocked by the outbreak
of the Russian Revolution, and at first refused to recognize the new Bolshevik
Government. While the Mongols, now completely isolated from the outside world,
were wondering what they should do, the Chinese began to move in. In October,
1919, a small Chinese army occupied Urga, and received an acknowledgement of
Chinese sovereignty from the Mongolian government. The new Mongol army was
disarmed and disbanded.

     Soon, however, the tides of the Russian Civil War began to lap into
Mongolia from the north. In October, 1920, the White Russian troops of Baron
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg moved into Mongolian territory from Siberia. On
February 3, 1921 Ungern-Sternberg drove the Chinese out of Urga and occupied
the city. At first the White Russians were hailed as deliverers by the
Mongolians, but soon the repressive policies of the "Mad Baron," as
Ungern-Sternberg was called, aroused popular opposition. During the next
several months he instituted a reign of terror across much of Mongolia.

Nationalism and Communism

     The Chinese and White Russian invasions greatly stimulated the growing
spirit of Mongolian nationalism. Two nationalist revolutionary parties had
been established in 1919, one under Sukhe Bator and Danzan Khorlo, the other
headed by Khorloghiyin Choibalsan. On the advice of representatives of the
Moscow Comintern, the two parties merged in 1920, in order to be able to
present a strong and united nationalistic front to the foreign invaders. The
Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu gave his encouragement and support to the
revolutionary leaders, and in his name they appealed to Moscow for more
assistance.

     In Siberia the Japanese were pressing ahead with their efforts to take
advantage of the chaos of the Russian Revolution. Nominally as part of an
Allied Expeditionary Force intervening in Eastern Siberia to facilitate the
evacuation of the Czech Legion, a large Japanese force had taken over much of
the Trans-Siberian Railway between Vladivostok and Lake Baikal. Japanese funds
were provided to Ungern-Sternberg and other White Russian dissidents, in order
to prevent the Soviet government from re-establishing control in Eastern
Siberia or from obtaining too much influence in Mongolia. The Japanese efforts
were to a large degree thwarted, however, by the strictly neutral attitude
taken by the American elements of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and slowly
the Red Russians established control over Siberia.

     The improved Communist position in Siberia enabled Moscow to give some
response to the appeals of the Mongolian nationalists. On March 13, 1921, a
Revolutionary Provisional Government of Mongolia was established at Kyakhta,
just inside Siberia from Mongolia. Here a joint Russian-Mongolian military
force was established. The Mongolian contingent, under Sukhe Bator, was a very
small proportion of the assembling army.

     In early June, Red troops, together with Sukhe Bator's small Mongolian
force, defeated Ungern-Sternberg's forces at the border town of Altan Bulak.
Moscow apologized to Peking for this violation of the Chinese border. Yet the
continued existence of the Baron and his scattered troops in Mongolia,
although no threat to Russia, gave the Bolsheviks an excuse for the
re-establishment of Russian power in Outer Mongolia. On July 3, a joint
Russian-Mongolian army invaded Mongolia and marched on Urga. On July 6, the
capital city was occupied. Ungern-Sternberg was soon captured and executed.
The Communist victors established a new national government at Urga, with the
Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu as the nominal head of state but actual direction
under a monk named Bodo, who in turn was controlled by the three revolutionary
leaders. The government was maintained in power by the Soviet troops, who
virtually occupied the country.

Soviet Domination

     On November 5, 1921, a new Soviet-Mongolian treaty of friendship was
signed, recognizing the People's Government of Mongolia as the "only legal
government." The treaty provided for the exchange of diplomatic
representatives, and also for the independence of the northwest portion of
Outer Mongolia, in the Altai Mountains, as the independent Republic of Tannu
Tuva, under a Soviet protectorate.

     Many Mongolian nationalists were unhappy about the relations of their new
country with Russia. To them it seemed that they had merely exchanged the
Chinese for the Russians as foreign masters. There was considerable internal
unrest and dissension, although this was quite surreptitious, because of the
continuing Soviet occupation force, and the pervasive presence of the feared
OGPU, the Soviet secret police. One of the nationalists who wished for a
reduction of Russian-Communist influence was the monk Bodo. In April, 1992,
he was arrested by the Communist secret police, accused of being a
"pro-Chinese plotter," and was executed. On February 22, 1923, Sukhe Bator
died under mysterious circumstances which have never been satisfactorily
explained.

     Soviet foreign policy focused upon events in China in the early 1920s,
where Moscow hoped to bring about a Communist revolution while maintaining
good relations with Peking. To avoid antagonizing the Peking government, which
had lost actual control over Mongolia, Russia signed a treaty with the
Republic of China on May 31, 1924. The treaty recognized Mongolia as under
China's sovereignty and promised to withdraw Soviet troops from the country.
In effect, it gave China nothing, but it worried the Mongols, who stil