Political History

The modern state of Mongolia has its origin in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty of China in 1911, during the Republican Revolution. The Mongols of Outer Mongolia, which at that time was a province of China, declared that they had owed loyalty to the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty but owed none to the new Republic of China. (There were also uprisings in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia, but they were quelled and the region remained under Chinese control.) Mongol nobles proclaimed Outer Mongolia an independent monarchy and offered the throne to the leader of the Buddhist hierarchy, the Living Buddha of Urga. The government was under the control of powerful clerical and aristocratic interests. Mongolia was soon drawn into the orbit of tsarist Russia, which was only willing to support Outer Mongolia’s autonomy, rather than its independence. In 1915 China, Russia, and Mongolia signed the Treaty of Kyakhta, establishing the autonomy of Outer Mongolia under Chinese suzerainty. In practice, however, the territory was treated as a protectorate of the vast Russian Empire.

That empire collapsed in the Russian Revolution of 1917, when socialist revolutionaries called Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. A revolutionary movement soon emerged in Outer Mongolia. It advocated not only complete independence from China, but also that the Mongolian government be purged of Buddhist clerics and aristocrats. However, the revolution in Russia gave China the opportunity to reassert control over Outer Mongolia. With a large military force, General Xu Shuzeng (Hsu Shucheng) forced the Mongols to surrender to Chinese authority in early 1920. Strong popular resentment led to many uprisings and riots, and Mongol revolutionary leaders united to form the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP).

Later in 1920 Outer Mongolia was invaded by the White Russian (anti-Bolshevik) forces of general Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, who ousted the Chinese military regime. Although Ungern was initially hailed as a liberator, his brutalities soon turned the Mongols against him. In March 1921 MPP leaders met at Kyakhta (in Russia near the border with Mongolia) and formed a provisional revolutionary government. With substantial assistance from Bolshevik forces, the Mongol revolutionaries defeated Ungern and on July 1921 set up a new government at Urga under a restored king (the Living Buddha). After the king died in 1924, the MPP ended the monarchy once and for all by proclaiming the formation of the Mongolian People’s Republic. At that time the capital, Urga, was renamed Ulaanbaatar (Mongolian for “Red Hero”) and the MPP was renamed the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP).

The Mongolian People’s Republic

The Mongolian People’s Republic was the world’s second communist state and was modeled on the world’s first, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which the Bolsheviks had founded in 1922. Like the USSR, Mongolia was a one-party state; the communist MPRP was the only legal party. In 1929 the Mongolian government began a campaign to bring livestock under collective ownership, as was being done in the Soviet Union. But economic disorder and political unrest forced the Mongolian government to moderate its policies by 1932. Beginning in 1936 the country was dominated by Horlogiyn Choibalsan, who had been the most pro-Soviet revolutionary leader. Choibalsan became premier in 1939. His regime was in many ways patterned on that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. In the late 1930s most Buddhist temples and monasteries were closed and many Buddhist monks were jailed or executed. Other victims of Choibalsan’s purges included eminent intellectuals and politicians. In 1939, during World War II, a Japanese invasion from Manchuria was repelled with assistance from the Soviet Union.

Relations with China and the USSR

In August 1945 the USSR and China entered into a treaty in which China agreed to recognize Mongolian independence provided that the Mongols themselves indicated that this was their desire. Accordingly, in October 1945 a referendum was held, and the Mongolian people voted overwhelmingly for independence. In January 1946 China officially recognized the Mongolian People’s Republic, and the following month Mongolia concluded friendship treaties with both China and the Soviet Union. However, China’s split with the USSR in the late 1950s curtailed Chinese-Mongolian relations. The two countries concluded a border treaty in 1962, but Mongolia maintained its closest ties with the USSR, which in 1961 had sponsored its membership in the United Nations (UN). Although UN membership helped Mongolia widen its international contacts, it continued to look mainly to the USSR for guidance in its affairs.

In the 1960s ideological differences and political rivalries produced serious tensions between the communist regimes of the USSR and China. Mongolia, landlocked between them, sided with the Soviet Union. In 1966 Mongolia and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship, trade, and mutual assistance (renewed in 1986). With the permission of the Mongolian government, Soviet troops were stationed in the country to serve as part of the Soviet military force on China’s northern frontier.

Mongolia intensified efforts to develop its economy in the decades after World War II. Aid from China ceased in the 1960s, and thereafter the USSR remained Mongolia’s leading trade partner and aid donor. Following Soviet models, Mongolia carried out a series of five-year economic plans from 1948 to 1990. The collectivization of livestock herding was restarted in the late 1940s and was virtually complete by the end of the 1950s. With large-scale funding from the USSR, Mongolia achieved economic expansion through the creation of new industries and the exploitation of its mineral resources, especially beginning in the 1960s.

Choibalsan died in 1952, and Yumzhagiyen Tsedenbal, the general secretary (leader) of the MPRP since 1940, became head of state. When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev repudiated the excesses of the Stalin regime in 1956, Mongolia’s communist MPRP leadership followed suit, but little real liberalization of Mongolian society resulted.

In 1962 Mongolia celebrated the 800th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, and the widespread enthusiasm revealed the strength of Mongol national pride. When the Soviet Union objected, however, the celebration was abruptly cancelled. Although Mongolia was an independent country, it was fully expected to assert the “correct” political line as defined by the Soviet Union. Strong feelings of nationalism were actively discouraged.

Democratic Reforms

Tsedenbal was removed from office in 1984 and succeeded by Jambyn Batmonh as both head of state and general secretary of the MPRP. Following the course of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Batmonh introduced Mongolian versions of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”) in the late 1980s. However, his reforms failed to improve economic production and planning, and so demands arose for more radical reforms to deal with the legacy of decades of mismanagement and inefficiency. Dissatisfaction with the slow pace of both economic and political reforms led to large protests in Ulaanbaatar in December 1989. For the first time since 1921 opposition parties were allowed to organize and hold public demonstrations.

From these developments, a broadly based movement for democracy arose in Mongolia. Opposition groups pressed in early 1990 for further democratic reforms. The strongest of the new opposition groups, the Democratic Union, was recognized by the government in January 1990 and was renamed the Democratic Party of Mongolia. Negotiations were then undertaken for opposition representation in the legislature. In March 1990, in response to public unrest, the entire leadership of the MPRP resigned, including Batmonh. He was replaced as head of state by Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat, who carried out a reorganization of the MPRP. Some formerly prominent members, most notably Tsedenbal, were expelled, and many figures from the past were rehabilitated. Soon afterward the MPRP began preparations for the legislative elections scheduled for July. The constitution of 1960 was amended to rescind all references to the MPRP as the sole legal party and guiding force in politics. Although the MPRP won 357 of the 431 seats in the legislature, the opposition parties succeeded in competing in the elections in most areas of the country, thus breaking the MPRP’s monopoly on power.

In 1990 the Soviet Union agreed to begin a total withdrawal of its military forces from Mongolia. The withdrawal continued after the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991. Russian influence in Mongolia waned with the departure of Russian troops and technical advisers. However, the two countries agreed to maintain their long history of friendship and cooperation in a 1993 treaty that replaced the outdated Soviet treaty of 1986.

Democratic Republic of Mongolia

In September 1990 the Mongolian legislature elected Ochirbat to the newly created office of president. Ochirbat promoted political and economic liberalization in Mongolia. Privatization of state and collective property was begun in 1991, and a new, democratic constitution was adopted in early 1992. It provided for a unicameral legislature, the Great Hural, and changed the country’s official name from the Mongolian People’s Republic to Mongolia.

The existing legislature adopted a presidential election law in March 1993, and the first direct presidential elections were held in June, along with elections to the new Great Hural. The MPRP swept the legislative elections, while Ochirbat won the presidential election as the candidate backed by leading opposition parties. In Mongolia’s 1996 parliamentary elections, a coalition of opposition parties presented a platform of continued economic reform. The Democratic Alliance, as the coalition was called, won a resounding victory in the elections, taking 50 of the 76 seats in the Great Hural. The victory brought an end to the single-party, communist rule of the MPRP.

However, Mongolia’s transition to a free-market system generated mixed support among the country’s voters. Even with generous loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and individual donor countries, the economic reforms caused increased inflation and unemployment. In presidential elections held in 1997, voters replaced Ochirbat with the MPRP candidate, Natsagiyn Bagabandi, who campaigned on promises of slowing the pace of reform and increasing social services. In the 2000 legislative elections, the MPRP won a landslide victory, securing 72 seats in the Great Hural. Nambaryn Enkhbayar of the MPRP became prime minister. The new MPRP government also indicated it would pursue economic reform at a more cautious pace. In another show of public support for the MPRP, Bagabandi was reelected in the 2001 presidential elections. That year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved nearly $40 million in low-interest loans to help the Mongolian government tackle poverty and boost economic growth. In 2003 Mongolia contributed 200 troops to the United States-led forces in Iraq (see U.S.-Iraq War).

The legislative election of 2004 produced no clear winner, with a near draw between the MPRP and the opposition Democratic Union Coalition. The ensuing political deadlock was eventually broken with a power-sharing deal, and a member of the opposition coalition, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, was named prime minister.

In 2005 former prime minister Enkhbayar was elected president of Mongolia. In November of that year, U.S. president George W. Bush stopped in Mongolia on a tour of Asia, becoming the first serving American leader to visit the country.

In early 2006 the MPRP withdrew from the coalition government, forcing Elbegdorj’s resignation. The Great Hural chose Miyeegombo Enkhbold of the MPRP as the new prime minister, but the MPRP ousted him as party leader in late 2007, forcing him to resign the premiership. The Great Hural chose the new chairperson of the MPRP, Sanj Bayar, as prime minister. The frequent changes in government enhanced the role of the presidency, a largely ceremonial position.