Socialist Revolutions in Asia The Social History of Mongolia in the 20th Century Central Asian Studies Series

Contemporary Mongolia is often seen as one of the most open and democratic societies in Asia, undergoing remarkable post-socialist transformation. Although the former ruling party, the Mongolian People?s Revolutionary Party (the MPRP), has fundamentally changed its platform, it holds leadership and frames nation-building policy. This book re-conceptualises the socialist legacy of Mongolia and explains why in the 1920s a shift to socialism became possible. Furthermore, the role of Mongolian nationalism in the country's decision to ally with the USSR in the 1920-1930s and to choose a democratic path of development at the end of the 1980s is explored.
Focusing on social systems in crisis periods when the most radical differentiation in social relationships and loyalties occur, the book describes the transformation of the elite and social structures through the prism of the MPRP cadres? policy and the party?s collaborations with the Third Communist International and other Soviet departments that operated in Mongolia. Based on original sources from former Soviet and Mongolian archives the author offers a critique of the post-modernist approaches to the study of identity and its impact on political change. This book will be of interest to academics working on the modern history of Central and Inner Asia, socialist societies and communist parties in Asia, as well as the USSR?s foreign policy.

Introduction. Mongolia’s Socialist History Historiography: A Sketch 1. 1921–1924 Theocratic Monarchy and Revolution in Mongolia 2. 1925–1928 The Birth of the Mongolian People’s Republic 3. 1929–1932 Old and New Mongolian Terror 4. 1933–1939 Between Russian Communism and Japanese Militarism 5. 1940–1945 The Mongolian Arad and the Second World War 6. 1946–1952 Socialist Nomadism. Conclusion

Irina Morozova is lecturer at Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Studies. Since 2003 she has been a research fellow in Central Asian history at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, and since 2007 she has been a Humboldt fellow at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies in Hamburg.