Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921 - Formation of The Mongolian People's Party

Formation of The Mongolian People's Party

Russian expatriates in Urga had elected a revolutionary "Municipal Duma", headed by Bolshevik sympathisers, which had learned of the Consular Hill group. In early March 1920, the Duma was sending one of its members, I. Sorokovikov, to Irkutsk. It decided that he should also take a report with him about these Mongolians. Sorokovikov met with representatives of the two groups. On his return to Urga in June, he met with them again, promising that the Soviet government would provide "assistance of all kinds" to the Mongolian "workers". He invited them to send representatives to Russia for further discussions.

A new sense of purposefulness now animated both groups. They had maintained a wary distance from one another, perhaps because of their different agendas—the Consular Hill group espousing a rather progressive social program while the East Urga group was more nationalistic in its goals—and there had been little cooperation between the two. The Soviet invitation changed that. The two groups met on 25 June, and formed the "Mongolian People's Party" (renamed later the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, adopted a "Party Oath", and agreed to send Danzan and Choibalsan as delegates to Russia.

Danzan and Choibalsan arrived in Verkhneudinsk, the capital of the pro-Soviet Far Eastern Republic, in the first part of July. They met with Boris Shumyatsky, then acting head of the government. Shumyatsky knew little about them, and for three weeks dodged their demands for a speedy Soviet decision whether or not to provide military assistance to the Mongolians against the Chinese. Finally, perhaps at Shumyatsky's suggestion, they sent a telegram to members of the MPP in Urga with a coded message that they should obtain a letter, stamped with the seal of the Bogd Khaan, formally requesting Soviet assistance. The MPP did succeed in obtaining a letter from the Khaan's court, albeit with difficulty. Five members of the Party—D. Losol, Dambyn Chagdarjav, Dogsom, L. Dendev, and Sükhbaatar—brought it to Verkhneudinsk. When the seven men met with Shumyatsky, he told them that he had no authority to make a decision on their request; they must go to Irkutsk.

On arriving in Irkutsk in August, the Mongolians met with the head of what was later to be reorganised as the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International (Comintern), and explained that they needed military instructors, 10,000 rifles, cannon, machine guns, and money. They were told that they must draft a new letter, this time in the name of the Party, not the Bogd Khaan, stating their objectives and requests. Such a petition would have to be considered by the Siberian Revolutionary Committee in Omsk.

The Mongolians divided themselves into three groups: Danzan, Losol, and Dendev left for Omsk; Bodoo and Dogsom returned to Urga, where they were to enlarge the party's membership and form an army; Sükhbaatar and Choibalsan proceeded to Irkutsk to serve as a communication link between the others. Before separating, the group drafted a new appeal with a more revolutionary message: The Mongolian nobility would be divested of its hereditary power, to be replaced by a democratic government headed by the Bogd Khaan as a limited monarch. The document also contained a request for immediate military assistance.

• Mongolian Revolutionaries

• Dogsomyn Bodoo

• Khorloogiin Choibalsan

• Soliin Danzan

• Dansranbilegiin Dogsom

• Darizavyn Losol

• Damdin Sükhbaatar