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MongoliaPurges of the Opposition, 1928-32
A decisive clash between leftists and rightists occurred at
the Seventh Party Congress from late October to December 10,
1928. After forty-eight days of debate, party chairman TserenOchiryn Dambadorj was exiled to Moscow, and other rightist
members were expelled as the left seized control of the party and
the government. With their power now secure at the top and with
party opinion united on major policy goals, the leftists
accelerated their programs.
Strong Soviet backing was assured by Josef Stalin, who in the
meantime had triumphed over his political foes in Moscow. In
addition, after 1927 Soviet caution toward China no longer was
necessary; Stalin was no longer constrained by his relationship
with Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang (Kuomintang in Wade-Giles
romanization), or Chinese Nationalist Party, which had broken
with the Chinese Communist Party and had consolidated its rule
over eastern China from Nanjing. Both domestic and international
changes had freed Mongolian leftists for radical changes.
Policies confirming the party line of developing the country
along noncapitalist lines were ratified by the Fifth National
Great Hural in December 1928. 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." The entire socioeconomic pattern was swiftly
changed. The collective farm experiment was dropped, worker
cooperatives were abandoned, the cattle tax was reduced, and
herders and peasants again were allowed to hold private property.
Foreign trade, still channeled exclusively to the Soviet Union,
continued to be controlled by the state, however. Under
continuing Soviet protection and domination, Mongolia now settled
down to a period of gradual social change.
An underlying reason for Moscow's reversal of the course of
Mongolian socialism had been the growing Japanese threat. The
September 18, 1931, Mukden incident had opened the way for Japan
to establish Manchukuo (Japanese-controlled Manchuria).
Mongolians were not alone in the fear that Japan might try to
establish a Japanese-controlled Mongolian monarchy, Mengkukuo.
Data as of June 1989
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