47 Facts About Khorloogiin Choibalsan

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was a Mongolian politician who served as the leader of the Mongolian People's Republic as the chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1939 until his death in 1952.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian People's Army from 1937, and the chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural from 1929 to 1930.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan's rule was maintained by a repressive state and cult of personality.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was one of the 1921 Mongolian revolutionaries and held several political and military roles in the 1920s.

Mongolia's economic, political, and military ties to the Soviet Union deepened, though after World War II, Khorloogiin Choibalsan supported pan-Mongolian unification with Inner Mongolia.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan died of cancer in Moscow in 1952 and was succeeded as leader by his protege, Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was born on 8 February 1895 in Achit Beysiyn, near present-day Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Dornod Province.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was the youngest of four children born to a poor, unmarried herdswoman named Khorloo.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan's father was likely a Barga tribesman, Daur Mongol from Inner Mongolia called Jamsu, but Choibalsan claimed to be unaware of his identity.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan secretly ventured as far as Khuree to consult with MPP supporters, enlist fighters, and spirit members of Sukhbaatar's family back to Troitskosavsk.

At a Soviet-organized MPP conference held secretly in Troitskosavsk from 1 to 3 March 1921, Khorloogiin Choibalsan was elected a member of the provisional revolutionary government.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was appointed Political Commissar of the Mongol Ardyn Huv'sgalt Tsereg, or the Mongolian People's Army, commanded by Sukhbaatar.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan took command of a Mongolian detachment based in Tariat, in modern-day Arkhangai province and, together with the Russian forces commanded by Petr Efimovich Shchetinkin, fought right guard actions in western Mongolia in support of the main Russian-Mongolian advance through modern-day Selenge and Tov provinces.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan pursued remnants of Ungern's army and was likely on hand at Ungern's capture by Shchetinkin on 22 August 1921.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan's heavy drinking, womanizing, and violent temperament alienated him from party leaders and at one point in the early 1930s he was temporarily demoted from being Minister of Foreign Affairs to the role of simple Museum Director.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan himself did not include many of his own speeches from this period in his collected works, indicating his role during this period was not a prominent one.

The angry public backlash led to Bodoo's purge and eventual execution in August 1922, while Khorloogiin Choibalsan was stripped of both full party membership and his position as deputy commander of the Mongolian military.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was sent to a Moscow Russian Military Academy after Sukhbaatar's death in 1923.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan held positions as a member of the Presidium of the State Great Khural from 1924 to 1928 and as a member of the MPRP Central Committee.

At the Third Party Congress in 1924, Khorloogiin Choibalsan sided with the leftist leader Rinchingiin Elbegdorj as left and right-wing factions of the MPRP called for the arrest and execution of moderate party leader Danzan, who was accused of protecting bourgeois interests and engaging in business with Chinese firms.

At the Eighth Party Congress in 1930 Khorloogiin Choibalsan contributed to a ramping up of leftist socialist reforms when, again encouraged by Soviet agents, he introduced personally formulated decrees that intensified land confiscation and forced collectivization measures.

Comintern agents counted on Khorloogiin Choibalsan to be a strong advocate for its New Turn policy to correct the "excesses" of "the Left Deviation" when it was introduced in an extraordinary plenum of the MPRP Central Committee in June 1932.

Later MPR histories would credit Khorloogiin Choibalsan with being the first to criticize the leftist period and propose reforms, but these were mere fabrications meant to build up Khorloogiin Choibalsan's cult of personality.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was called to Moscow, where he was arrested and interrogated regarding his possible involvement.

Possibly advised by a Soviet Official, Chopyak, Khorloogiin Choibalsan had Internal Affairs Committee rules amended in May 1936 to facilitate the detention of high ranking politicians without first consulting political superiors.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan rubber-stamped NKVD execution orders and at times personally directed executions.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan added names of political enemies to NKVD arrest lists simply to settle old scores.

Secure in his position, Khorloogiin Choibalsan brought the terror to an end in April 1939 by declaring that the excesses of the purges had been conducted by overzealous party officials while he was away in the USSR, but that he had overseen the arrests of the real criminals.

Nevertheless, the victory, which took place close to his birthplace, helped cement Khorloogiin Choibalsan's growing cult of personality which portrayed him as a staunch defender of Mongolian independence against imperialist Japanese aggression.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan proclaimed his country's unwavering support for the Soviet Union after Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, although Mongolia never officially declared war against Germany and waited until August 1945 to declare war against Japan.

Khorloogiin 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.

At the Tenth Party Congress in March to April 1940, Khorloogiin Choibalsan arranged the purge of MPRP Secretary-General Baasanjav and had him replaced with a new favorite of Stalin's, 24-year-old Minister of Finance Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.

An ardent Mongolian nationalist, Khorloogiin Choibalsan never gave up a hope of uniting all of the Mongols under the auspices of the Mongolian People's Republic.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan saw the impending defeat of Japan as an opportunity to realize his long-held dream of a "Great Mongolia", the uniting of Outer and Inner Mongolia, and he fully expected Stalin's backing as a reward for Mongolia's steadfast support of the Soviets during the war.

When Khorloogiin Choibalsan ordered Mongolian troops to move south of the Great Wall as far as Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Batu-Khaalga, he was ordered by an angry Stalin to call them back.

Furthermore, the Khorloogiin Choibalsan-led MPRP introduced modern medicine, brought about almost universal literacy, and cultivated widespread industrialization that led to greatly improved standards of living.

Personal relations between the two leaders deteriorated to the point that by 1949 Khorloogiin Choibalsan refused to attend Stalin's 70th-birthday celebration in Moscow, sending Tsedenbal in his place.

When in 1950 Tsedenbal and other proteges urged Khorloogiin Choibalsan to have Mongolia follow the example of Tuva and petition Moscow to be permitted to join the Soviet Union, Khorloogiin Choibalsan severely rebuked them.

In late 1951 Khorloogiin Choibalsan traveled to Moscow to receive treatment for kidney cancer.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was taken by train to the hospital for a week and he died there on 26 January 1952, soon after he had arrived.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan's body was returned by a special train to Mongolia with full military honors and was given a state funeral in the capital which was attended by Mongolian and Soviet officials alike.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan was originally buried at the Altan-Olgii National Cemetery in Ulaanbaatar.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan married a devout Buddhist seamstress named Borotologai in 1921 and the two remained married until 1935 despite his womanizing.

Khorloogiin Choibalsan had no children with either of his wives.

In 1937 Khorloogiin Choibalsan adopted the son of one of his Interior Ministry subordinates.

Public anger over the violence of the purges falls predominantly on the Soviet Union and the NKVD, with Khorloogiin 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.

Nevertheless, Khorloogiin Choibalsan is not the object of strong resentment in Mongolia.