Agvan Dorzhiev - After The Russian Revolution

After The Russian Revolution

After the Russian revolution Dorzhiev was arrested and sentenced to death, only to be reprieved due to the intervention of friends in Saint Petersburg. The temple in the city was plundered and his papers destroyed.

As a means of making peace with the dramatically changed politics, Dorzhiev was quick to propose the conversion of monasteries into collective farms. In 1926 the Buddhist monasteries in Buryatia were 'nationalised': "responsibility for the management of the monasteries" was transferred to collectives of laypeople and the clergy was deprived of its power. This led to much hostility, but the monasteries remained active, and the position of the reformist forces was again strengthened.

In August 1927, he led and managed a conference of Tibetan doctors in Atsagat. Proposals were made for a central institute to supervise production and standardisation of Tibetan herbal remedies.

Dorzhiev managed to co-exist with the Communists during the 1920s but was again arrested by the NKVD during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge on 13 November 1937 and charged with treason, preparation for an armed uprising, and spying for the Mongolians and Japanese. He died in police custody, though apparently of cardiac arrest, after being transferred from his cell to the prison hospital on 29 January 1938, aged 85.

He was buried at in "a secret traditional burial place in the forest near Chelutai". The location of the cemetery has only been made known in recent years and some estimates say at least 40,000 people were buried there. Dorzhiev was not officially fully rehabilitated, though, until 14 May 1990, when the case was dismissed, 'on grounds of lack of evidence and absence of criminal activity.'