ABSTRACT
The divisions in Mongolian society, marked by extreme tension between former and new power-holders, ceased to exist in the mid-1920s. By the 1930s, the new strategy of development was visible and by the 1940s the restructuring of constant elements partly took place. The nomads’ latent tendency toward unity under the leadership of strong and despotic ruler, a ‘qan-father’, came to the fore via the personal cult of Kh. Choibalsan. The corporate monastic system was broken and new party structures occupied the power vacuum in local communities. In addition, the Khalkhin Gol battle embodied the Mongol desire for independence. However, the process of social transformation was incomplete. Social
terror at the end of the 1930s imposed fear on the population and led to a passive-conformist attitude towards the new administration but did not provide sustainable social development and improvement of exceedingly low living standards. Only in the 1940s did the MPRP and the People’s government start thinking seriously about improving living standard for all the citizens and launching an adequate social programme. The Tenth MPRP Congress’s decisions fully reflected this shift in social priorities. The Tenth MPRP Congress is an important landmark in the MPR’s his-
tory. Compared to previous congresses, the Tenth demonstrated political and ideological unity, and a complete lack of factions, deviations and competing groups. Preparation for the Congress began as soon as Choibalsan returned from Moscow at the beginning of the 1940s. During the preparation no contradictions or conflicting opinions appeared: all the major manifestos and resolutions were already approved by the leaders of the two peoples. Choibalsan was the undisputed Mongol leader,1 praised by all Congress delegates, and everyone assumed the Congress would go smoothly. At the Congress, much praise (as traditional Mongolian magtal2) was bestowed on the Soviet Union. Soviet advisers were so confident of a positive political outcome of the Congress that Comintern representatives, for the first time ever, did not even attend,3
nor did the official RCP(b) delegation. The Soviet representatives at the Congress were the Adviser for the People’s government, Yu. K. Prihodov; the Instructor attached to the MPRP CC, D.I. Sidorov; and the Secretary General of the Tuvinian People’s Revolutionary Party CC, S. Toka, and his
fellow party diplomats. No participants anticipated any critiques of MPR foreign policy or suggestions to change the character of Soviet-Mongolian relations. On the contrary, the Congress began with unanimous approval of the MPRP CC and of the governmental course of ‘strengthening the unbreakable fraternal friendship with the Soviet Union’. Another characteristic feature of the Tenth Congress was the propagation
of the mythical ‘theory of non-capitalist development under the banner of Marxist-Leninist teaching’. (The project of translating all of Marx’s works into Mongolian would be launched only in 1941.) In March 1940, the Tenth Congress adopted the new party programme of creating socialism in the MPR. Summarising the results of MPRP and government activities on building the new society, Congressional delegates announced that Mongolia was already ‘firmly standing on the rails of non-capitalist development’. To a certain extent, that statement was correct: however the country’s development was defined, it was clearly not capitalist. Delegates even believed that Mongolian society had already achieved a few stages of socialist development. The newly created myth was telling about the ‘revolutionary achievements hard-won by the working people in the struggle for their interests’. In reality very little was done in the interest of the common people (the arad). To support the myth that public welfare was a top priority and to guar-
antee a positive public attitude towards the MPRP, the Tenth Congress focused on economic problems and on increasing the number of livestock in particular. S.K. Roschin, in his book, illustrates this increase during the
1930s, from 19.6 million animals in 1933, to 26.2 million in 1940, to 27.5 million in 1941. The context of the given period, however, remains unclear. Additionally, compared to the livestock population before the jas campaign (23.5 million in 1930), the increase, in general, appeared to be relatively insignificant and occurred only because the New Course indulged private households and the first cooperatives. At the same time, as I pointed out in the previous chapter, nationalisation of the economy, political repression and militarisation did not serve economic growth. Expropriated resources were spent on party building and the military. The measures to increase the livestock population had not only an eco-
nomic but also an administrative purpose: progress in cattle breeding was planned in close connection with the development of arad industrial enterprises under party control at all levels.4 The party was viewed as capable of introducing changes to the nomadic economy. The underdevelopment of nomadism was explained by ‘feudal remnants’ and socialism was believed capable of intensifying cattle production. When travelling in the hödöö nowadays and seeing vast valleys with freely grazing cattle, a ger or groups of ger separated from each other by dozens, sometimes hundreds, of kilometres, and the natural, non-mechanical mode of production among arad families, one wonders whether there is any social reform or political regime capable of changing this picture. Obviously, the so-called ‘non-capitalist way of development’ did not essentially change the nomadic economy as the dominant mode of production, so the matrix of the social system remained untouched. Socialism introduced certain changes to the system and tradition, however, without transforming the foundation. The new administration’s agents filled the systemic vacuum that appeared after the elimination of the privileged (the noyon and lamas), and simultaneously adapted to the power hierarchies and patronage relationships common among the nomads. The new generation of state and party officials adjusted to normative social stratification: a young 18-year-old man could not easily acquire a high position as he could have in the 1920s and 1930s; at the beginning of the 1940s, he had a chance to take his first career steps in a local party cell, then, as he was acquiring life and administrative experience, listening to his elder comrades, he could gradually navigate his way to the top of the power hierarchy. Strict subordination between older high-ranking and young low-ranking officials was always obligatory in society. At the Tenth Congress, Yu. Tsedenbal wrote a report on the state of agri-
culture.5 He was elected as a member of the Presidium and then Secretary General of the MPRP CC. The promotion of this ‘modest and quiet’ man was no accident. Most historians agree that Tsedenbal was Moscow’s candidate. Choibalsan, after making short work of all competitors and ‘old’ party members and acquiring full power (by the Tenth Congress he controlled the CC, the Presidium, the Small Khural, and various ministries and public organisations), was probably searching for a loyal assistant and possible successor. Soon after, in August 1940, Choibalsan left the post of Minister of
Domestic Affairs. He gave his young protégés – Procurer General Jambaldorj and the Head of the Small Khural Tsedev – the task of initiating a number of political plots. In 1942, Choibalsan and Tsedenbal signed a secret resolution according to which the MDA was allowed to torture prisoners. Repressions occurred in 1940, 1941 and 1942. The Eighth Great Khural was prepared based on the outcome of the Tenth
Congress and held on 22 June to 5 July 1940. The Khural became known for adopting the new MPR Constitution, which was a copy of Stalin’s USSR Constitution of 1936, a fact that Mongolian lawmakers at the Khural proudly pointed out in the draft. In composition, the new Constitution was a stronger document than the previous one of 1924; it pronounced changes in society and state management that had occurred between 1924 and 1940, and proclaimed the MPR an independent state (although the 1924 Soviet-Chinese agreement had not been cancelled) that had eliminated feudal lords andwas on its way toward non-capitalist development ‘in the context of a smooth transition to socialism’. The Constitution reaffirmed the principle of nationalisation of land and natural resources, which were termed the people’s property, but also announced the existence of cooperative and private property. The new Constitution proclaimed the equality of all citizens in the domain of civil rights. The new Constitution reflected the MPRP’s evolution and the first stages
of the nomenklatura’s formation. Article 95, in particular, was telling of party members’ standing as practically a new privileged social class, as it proclaimed the party’s leading role. Thus its adoption, in essence, precluded any hesitation or discussion about the MPR’s future development in accordance with the Soviet model. It was assumed that after the Tenth Congress and the Eighth Great
Khural a stage of ‘directly building socialism’ began, and the previous period (1921-1940) was called ‘revolutionary-democratic’. To build socialism and encourage the working class to work for it, a number of measures were taken in the second half of 1940 and the beginning of 1941 that imitated Stalin’s 1939 reforms regarding strengthening discipline at work. In June 1940, the Presidium of the Small Khural replaced the six-hour working day with the eight-hour working day, and in December, the MPRP CC Plenum adopted one-year plans as part of its economic management strategy. In 1941, the Plenum also accepted the plan for developing the people’s economy and culture. In February 1941, at the 24th Session of the Small Khural, a new Law on Labour was passed, which regulated employee hiring and dismissal, working hours, salaries, employee rights and responsibilities, etc., and marked the establishment of strict government control over the emerging industrial enterprises, which, along with public organisations, were required to report their activities to the party. As the Law on Labour was adopted, labour books were introduced for workers and officials. Both groups (especially the workers) were absolute minorities in 1941; over time, the number of officials would increase, but a shortage of workers would always plague Mongolia.
