MOSCOW and PEACEFUL BUDDHISTS

Historical documents show that the new regime in Mongolia was carefully crafted under watchful eye of the Komintern and Moscow. The infamous thesis of Stalin about "deepening class struggle" in the course of building socialism in Mongolia was aimed first and foremost against Buddhist monks as the "main ideological opponent." 

Under the Komintern pressure, a thorough plan of total extermination of Buddhism was meticulously executed in Mongolia. It began with political and economic sanctions introduced during 1924-1937 and ended with the total confiscation of all monasteries property. 

To behead the Buddhist religious institution several show trials involving high priests were staged to prove their "counter-revolutionary activities." All other priests, heads of monasteries, saints and those having teological degrees were arrested and executed.

Nothing remained of the Buddhist religion glory. Monasteries were torn down and monks decimated.

All the property and herds of monasteries were confiscated. As monks were forced to become herders and set up communies. As the result, the country lost more than 7.5 million cattle. A revolt by ordinary people was cruelly suppressed by army. 

But the Kremlin was not still satisfied, demanding to step up the purges. 

The deep contradiction between the Kremlin and Mongolian leaders peaked up in early 1935. At the meeting with Stalin, Mongolian Prime Minister P.Genden called the Russian politics in Mongolia "red imperialism."  

Moscow did not like the new economic program by Genden under the slogan "Get rich!" even though the country's economy recovered and added some 10 million cattle. 

P.Genden was blamed of "delaying" the implementation of Moscow instructions to "surround and eliminate Buddhist monks." The open conflict with the "leader of all nations of the world" cost Genden his lfe. At age of 40, after heading the country for 12 years as the first president and then prime minister, he was summoned to Moscow, arrested and shot in 1937.

Stubborn Mongols did not understand this warning. Genden's successor, new Prime Minister Amar spoke about the need to stop the "wave of repressions" at his first public speech. But the Ministry of Internal Security was out of his control as it has become a monster on its own. 

Amar was arrested as well and taken to Moscow. We would never learn what tortures and pains he underwent during the two years in Stalin prisons or where he was buried. Former Russian security offcer Dobrotin and his translator Baldano admitted in 1953 of torturing Mongolian politicians.

Prime minister A. Amar (1886-1941), who paid his life trying to protect the country against Communist dictators. Photo taken at a prison in Moscow.

And there is the speech made by Prime Minister Amar at the court trial: "I am not a criminal! If Mongolia is an independent country why I am being tried by the Soviet court? I love my people, and feel symphatetic towards the Russian people. But I defy Reds and their regime. As any other superpower, they conduct aggression politics in Mongolia... Super powers occupy and arrest the leaders of smaller nations and states, and my case if the clear evidence of this..." Prime minister Amar was executed in July of 1941. 

He was replaced by the Moscow appointee, H. Choibalsan called by people the "Bloody Butcher." Perhaps, this was the price he paid to preserve the nation's semi-independence. His fate was not different from that of other Mongolian leaders- he was poisoned in 1952 while treated in a VIP hospital in Moscow.

Scholars say that only the war with Japan in 1939 and WW II saved Mongols from following the fate of Buryats who lost one third of their numbers in mass purges of 1930s. With the escalating world war, political purges were reducing in scale. In any case, the task of "preserving and maintaing the Komintern influence, even by dirty means, in this country with 800,000 populations is more important that building socialism" has been achieved. 

Stalin's straight jacket was put on Mongolia.

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