Political systems of Mongolian People’s Republic and Tuvan People’s Republic in 1930s and 1940s: changes in the focus of power
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2021.3.2Keywords:
Tuvan People’s Republic; Mongolian People’s Republic; USSR; Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party; Tuvan People’s Revolutionary Party; Communist International; Prime Minister; General Secretary; political elite; Peljidiin Genden; Khorloogiin Choibalsan; Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal; Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich TokaAbstract
The article examines and compares the rivalry between prime ministers and general secretaries (‘genseki’) within the political system of the Mongolian People’s Republic and Tuvan People’s Republic in the 1930s and 1940s. Our study is based on documents, some still unpublished, and others preserved at the Russian State Archive of the Social and Political History and the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation.
We focus on what seems to be the most conspicuous cases of such rivalry and coexistence. On the one end of the spectrum lies the premiership of P. Genden, and the hesitant collaboration of Prime Minister Kh. Choibalsan and the Secretary General of the Central Committee of Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party Yu. Tsedenbal. On the other, the rule of the First (later General) Secretary of Central Committee of Tuvan People’s Revolutionary Party S. Toka. The struggle for power unfurled under unstable political circumstances, under the influence of USSR and the Communist International (Comintern), and with frequent overlaps of responsibilities assigned by the political documents and legal acts of the time to the Cabinet of ministers and the Party’s Central Committee. We conclude that the outcome of such political struggle mostly depended on its participants’ strength of character. While Mongolian prime ministers (especially Kh. Choibalsan, but for a shorter term and in smaller degree, this is also true for P. Genden) managed to hold the reins, in Tuva the First Secretary was ultimately victorious. Another decisive factor was the degree of support a politician could garner from the USSR – support which largely depended on his loyalty.
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For citation:
Otroshchenko I. V. Politicheskie sistemy Mongol’skoi Narodnoi Respubliki i Tuvinskoi Narodnoi Respubliki v 1930‑1940‑e gg.: izmeneniia sredotochiia vlasti [Political systems of Mongolian People’s Republic and Tuvan People’s Republic in 1930s and 1940s: changes in the focus of power]. New Research of Tuva, 2021, no. 3, pp. 15-33. (In Russ.). DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25178/nit.2021.3.2
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Author Biography
Ivanna V. Otroshchenko , A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Science, Republic of Ukraine
Doctor of History, Leading Research Fellow, Department of the Modern East, A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Science, Republic of Ukraine; Editor-in-Chief, Shìdnij svìt (The World of the Orient).
Postal address: Apt. 226, 4 Hrushevskyi St., 01001 Kyiv, Ukraine.
Email: shidnyj.svit@gmail.com
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