3.102 Fall and Rise of China: Case of Mongolia and Tibet

Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the Mongolian Revolution of 1921. Mongolia found herself stuck between two crumbling empires who both were engulfed in brutal civil wars. Warlord Duan Qirui invaded Mongolia effectively making it a protectorate. This prompted Mongolian nobles to form resistance groups like the Consular Hill and East Urga to combat Chinese dominance. The merging of these groups birthed the Mongolian People's Party, seeking Soviet support for independence. Meanwhile, psychopath Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, claiming descent from Genghis Khan, emerged as a militaristic force, aligning with Russian Whites and Japanese interests to seize Mongolia. His brutal campaign ousted Chinese occupiers, restored the Bogd Khan to power, but brought tyranny, especially targeting Jews and Red Russians. The Mongolians were now seeking help, yet again from the Chinese, but someone else was looking to pick a fight with the megalomaniac Ungern-Sternberg.

#102 The Case of Mongolia and Tibet’s “status”

Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.

Last we left off, Ungern-Sternberg was having a merry time in Urga Mongolia. His secret police force led by Colonel Leonid Sipailov was hunting down all Reds and Jews he could find amongst the Russian colonial community of Mongolia. Although they never went after Mongols, they certainly were barbaric to their own. Its estimated Sipailov’s goons killed nearly 900 people, roughly 6% of the Russian colonial population of Mongolia at the time. Of these over 50 were Jewish, representing 6% of those executed under Ungern-Sternbergs orders. Meanwhile Ungern-Sternberg continued to develop his Asiatic Cavalry Division, seeking to make it the base model for a future Mongolian national army. His division at this point was quite multicultural, consisting of Russians, Cossacks, Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, Buryats, Tatar, Tibetans and other groups. Ungern-Sternberg had crushed as many Red Russians as he could find, but they were not done for the count. A Mongolian Red leader emerged named Damdin Sukhbaatar.

Sukhbaatar meaning “Axe Hero” in Mongolian was born in Ulaanbaatar, a Chinese trading settlement a few kms east of Ikh Khuree. His parents abandoned their home banner in Setsen Khan aimag when he was 6, as they moved to the Russian consulate. He then grew up around Russians, picking up the language. In 1911 when Mongolia declared independence, Sukhbaater joined the new national army. Russian military advisors to the Bogd Khan set up military academies at Khujirbulan in 1912 and Sukhbaatar found himself at one of them. He was shown to have a talent for military tactics and was good at riding and shooting. He quickly became a platoon leader of a machine gun company. In 1914 he found himself involved in a soldiers riot, they were discontent with corruption in the army and bad living conditions. He survived the ordeal and would soon serve under the command of Khatanbaatar Mahsarjav in Eastern Mongolia by 1917.

That year sprang forth the Russian Revolution and China’s Warlord Era, chaos would reign supreme. Soon Outer Mongolia was under Chinese occupation and this sprang forth two underground political parties, Consular Hill and East Urga group. By 1920 they united to form the Mongolian People’s Party and Sukhbaatar found himself becoming a delegate sent multiple times to multiple places in the new Soviet Union seeking military assistance. In 1921 Sukhbaater was placed in charge of smuggling a letter from the Bogd Khan through numerous Chinese checkpoints. In a father of marco polo like fashion, he hid the letter in the handle of his whip and its found in a museum today in Ulaanbaater. Now the year prior the Soviet government stated they were willing to help Mongolia, but asked the delegates to explain to them how they planned to fight off the foreign invaders. In September numerous delegates were sent to Moscow, while Sukhaatar and Choubalsan took up a post in Irkutsk for military training and to be contacts between the Soviets and Mongolia.

Meanwhile back in Mongolia, Ungern-Sternberg began an occupation. Mongolian delegates Chagdarjav and Choibalsan rushed back to Mongolia to find allies amongst the nobles. On February 10th a plenary session of the Comintern in Irkutsk passed a formal resolution to “aid the struggle of the Mongolian people for liberation and independence with money, guns and military instructors" The Mongolian People's Party had thus gained significant military assistance and was now a serious contender in the battle for Mongolia. The party held its first congress secretly between March 1st-3rd at Kyakhta attended by 17 and 26 members. They approved the formation of an army, to be headed by Sukhbaatar alongside two Russian advisors. They also adopted a new party manifesto and by March 13th formed a provisional government headed by Dogsomyn Bodoo. Sukhbaatar had begun recruiting troops for what was called the Mongolian People’s Partisans as early as February 9th. By the 15th of February the Mongolians decided to seize Khiagt currently under Chinese occupation. They sent an ultimatum to the Chinese, but their commanders refused to surrender.

By March 18th, the Mongolian Partisans were 400 men strong as they stormed the Chinese garrison at Kyakhta Maimaicheng. They seized it from the Chinese, despite being heavily outnumbered and this greatly bolstered their confidence. To this day this victory is celebrated as a military holiday. The party issued a proclamation announcing the formation of a new government that would expel the Chinese and promised to convene a congress of representatives of the masses who would elect a permanent government.

The provisional government moved over to Khiagt where they established ministries of Finance, Foreign affairs and military. A propaganda war also emerged between the provisional government and the Bogd Khaan’s court. The provisional government began spreading leaflets along the northern border urging Mongolians to take arms against White Russians while the Bogd Khaan’s side issued warnings to the people the supposed revolutionaries were going to destroy their nation and their Buddhist faith with it. Meanwhile the Soviet Union was trying to re-establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese government. They had dispatched representatives to Beijing and the Chinese did the same in Moscow. Because of this delicate situation, the Soviets were trying to keep everything low key about the Mongolian movement. However in early 1921, the Chinese cut talks with the Soviets because of the mess Ungern-Sternberg was causing in Mongolia. The Soviets offered Red Army assistance to dislodge his forces from Mongolia, but the Chinese rejected this. Since talks were severed, the Soviets then felt ok to unrestrain themselves in terms of aiding the Mongolian revolutionaries.

Throughout march of 1921, a flow of Soviet advisors and weapons came to the Mongolian revolutionaries. By April they doubled to 800 troops and they began sending spies and diversionary units throughout the region spreading propaganda and terror to weaken Ungern-Sternbergs forces. Once Ungern-Sternberg found out about the incursion he quickly assembled an expeditionary force to dislodge the hostile Red invaders. It seems Ungern-Sternberg was under the false belief he was a very popular figures and would receive support in Mongolia and from Siberia. Truth be told, he failed to strengthen his small army properly and would be outgunned and outnumbered heavily by the Reds. He also had no knowledge the Reds had already conquered Siberia and that the new Soviet government was beginning to make some economic progress.

Ungern-Sternberg divded his Asiatic Cavalry Division into two brigades, one was under his personal commander, the other under Major General Rezukhin. In May of 1921 Rezukhin launched a red west of the Selenga River while Ungern set out towards Troitskosavk. Meanwhile the Soviet Red Army sent units towards Mongolia from different directions. The Soviets enjoyed a enormous advantage in terms of pretty much everything. They had armored cars, minor aircraft, trains, river gunboats, plenty of horses, more ammunitions, supplies and man power. Initially Ungerns force managed to defeat a small detachment of 300 Red Army troops enroute to Troitskosavk. But Between June 11-13th the 35th Division of the Soviet 5th Red Army led by Commander Mikhail Matiyasevich alongside Mongolian People’s Partisan forces decisively defeated him. Having failed to capture Troiskosavask, Ungern-Sternberg fled back for Urga, sending word to Rezukhin to do the same.

The combined Red forces pursued the White Russians to Urga, skirmishing along the way and would capture the city on July 6th, brushing aside its few guard detachments. Although the Reds had seized Urga, they had not defeated the main bulk of Ungern-Sternbergs division who were then regrouping around Akha-gun-hure along the Selenga River. Meanwhile another Red Army led by Colonel Kazagrandi slaughtered a 350 man strong White Russian force stuck in the Gobi desert. Kazagrandi’s forces ultimately accepted the surrender of two groups of White Russians they had managed to cut and divie, one being 42 men, the other 35. Chinese forces were also attacking White Russians remnants as they crossed the border. It is beleived some of these men were deserters of Ungern-Sternbergs division.

Ungern-Sternberg now cought to invade Transbaikal, attempting to rally his soldiers and local peoples proclaimed to all Semyonov had reached an agreement with the Japanese who were soon to unleash an offensive to support them. The reality however was the Japanese had given up on the White cause. After a few days of rest, the Asiatic Cavalry division began raiding Soviet territory on July 18th. His force was estimated to be perhaps 3000 strong. In response the Soviets declared martial law in regions where White remnants were raiding. Ungern-Sternbergs men managed to capture some minor settlements, one being Novoselenginsk that they took on August 1st. Yet upon taking this settlement, Red Army forces began to converge on his location, prompting Ungern-Sternberg to declare they would go back to Mongolia to rid it of communism again.

By this point, most of his men were not idiots, they knew they were following a doomed cause. Many of them sought to desert and flee for Manchuria to join up with Russian refugees there. Ungern-Sternberg meanwhile seemed to also have his own escape plan, he was going to head for Tuba and then Tibet. Men under both brigades began to mutiny and on August 17th, Rezukhin was assassinated. The next day the same assassins tried to kill Ungern-Sternberg. He managed to evade them twice, by fleeing with a smaller detachment consisting exclusively of Mongolians. The Mongols rode out a distance with him, before tying him up and leaving him there to flee. At this point the rest of his two brigades had scattered for this lives fleeing over the Chinese border. Ungern-Sternberg was captured on August 20th by a Red Army detachment led by Petr Efimovich Shchetinkin. Petr also happened to be a Cheka, this was a Soviet secret police organization that infamously conducted the Red Terror. Ironically, I think I can say this here, but I am currently writing a few series for KNG and one is on the Russian Civil War, I go through the formation of all these organizations, if you want to check that out though, I think its a KNG patreon exclusive for awhile. On September 15th of 1921, Ungern-Sternberg was put on trial for well over 6 hours, under the prosecution of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. In the end he was sentenced to be executed by firing squad. He was killed that night in Novosibirsk. Thus ended the reign of quite a psychopath, gotta say written about many, this guy was something special.

Funny side note, historian John Jennings who worked at the US Air Force Academy argued Ungern-Sternberg ironically may have single handedly led Mongolia into the arms of the Bolsheviks. Ungern-Sternbergs expedition into Mongolia and conquest of Urga had driven out the Chinese forces who may have been a match for the incoming Red Army. Likewise, taking his white army into Mongolia basically drew the Reds to Mongolia to hunt him down, thus in the end some would argue its all his fault Mongolia became a Soviet satellite later on.

After Ungern-Sternbergs death and the mopping up of White armies in the region, the Soviets and Chinese reopened talks about the Mongolian situation. Unbeknownst to the Russians, China had actually appointed Zhang Zuolin to deal with the Ungern-Sternberg situation. Zhang Zuolin was supposed to create an expeditionary army to expel him from Mongolia. Yet by the time he was about to initiate the expedition, Red Army forces flooded the region making it a political nightmare for China. What ended up happening, similar to Colonel Kazagrandi’s hunt of Red’s in the Gobi desert, Zhang Zuolin hunted down Ungern-Sternbergs remnants as they fled into Manchuria. Thus when the talks began between the Russians and Chinese, the Chinese were emboldened, believing Zhang Zuolin had in fact cleaned up the entire situation on his lonesome and that they had the upper hand militarily. China came to the table stating Mongolia was still part of China and thus was not the subject of international negotiations.

Meanwhile after Ungern-Sternberg was run out of Urga, the Mongolian People's Party proclaimed a new government on July 11th. Sukhbaatar became the minister of the army and Bogd Khan had his monarch powers limited to basically just being symbolic. It was a rough start for the new government. Dogsomyn Bodoo became the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, but he immediately found himself at political war with Soliin Danzan. Danzan had lost his seat as party leader to Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj a relative to Bodoo. Danzan assumed Bodoo had helped his relative steal his seat. Danzan became the Minister of Finance and began engineering a scheme to get rid of Bodoo from his office.

Bodoo had initiated a very unpopular company, initially instigated by the Soviets. It was to modernize the peoples by forcibly cutting off feudal accessories, such as Mongolian feels, womens jewelry and long hair. Danzan accused Bodoo of plotting alongside another leading figure Ja Lama, the Chinese and Americans to undermine the entire revolution so they could establish an autocratic government. Ja Lama was a warlord who fought the Qing dynasty and claimed to be a Buddhist lama. When Ungern-Sternberg sent a delegation to Lhasa in 1920, Ja-Lama murdered all of them. Since Ungern-Sternbergs death, Ja Lama attempted to operate an independent government from a hideout, he was a bit of a loose cannon. There was also Dambyn Chagdarjav who was loosely linked to the supposed cabal. He was the provisional governments former prime minister when Unger-Sternberg was around. He was quickly outed and replaced with Bodoo, and it seems it was just convenient to toss him in with the accusations against Bodoo. On January 7th, of 1922 Bodoo resigned from all his positions in the government, stating it was because of health issues. This did not stop Danzan who laid charges against Bodoo, Chagdarjav, Ja Lama and 14 others, who were arrested and interrogated by Russian secret police working with the Mongolian government. They were all found guilty and executed by firing squad on August 31st 1922. They all would only be the firsts of a longer lasting purge raging through the 1920s and 1930s.

Following the execution of Bodoo, party leaders invited the high Buddhist incarnation, Jalkhanz Khutagt Sodnomyn Damdinbazar, hell of a name by the way, to became the new prime minister. He was largely chosen to quell religious minded Mongolian’s who were upset at the execution of Bodoo who was a lama. Danzan was not done with political rivalries. He soon found himself butting heads with Rinchingiin Elbegdori a leader amongst the leftists and chief advisor to the Comintern in Ulaanbaatar. Following the 1921 revolution, Elbegdorj was appointed head of the Army training and education department. Alongside Choibalsan, he founded the radical Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League. He enjoyed backing from Moscow and he came to dominate the political scene in Ulan Bator. Danzan had previously collaborated with him to get rid of Bodoo, but afterwards Danzan sought to reduce the number of Soviet advisors in Mongolia and attempted to place the Revolutionary Youth league under party control. Danzan was a business man who supported capitalism as a path for Mongolia, thus he was not exactly friendly to those like Elbegdorj who wanted to make Mongolia socialist if not full blown communist.

Elbegdorj joined some rightists led by Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj in an effort to defeat Danzan. During the third party congress in August of 1924, both accused Danzan of only representing the interests of the bourgeois and being in league with American and Chinese corporations. Danzan found himself alongside others put on trial and sentenced to death. Funny enough the trial and execution literally occurred within the same 24 hour period of the congress, the others simply continued on haha. Some rich irony in the fate of Danzan. I wont delve to far into the rest, but it goes without saying, Elbegdorj would himself be accused of representing the interests of bourgeois and was exiled to the USSR and would be executed during the Great Purge in 1938. Yes it was a very messy time for Mongolia, but in 1924 the Chinese and Soviets signed a treaty that saw the Soviets recognize Mongolia was an integral part of China.

That pretty much ends the story for Mongolia for now, but I thought it might be interesting to end this podcast looking at another similar case study, that of Tibet. Now Tibet came under rule of the Qing Dynasty in 1720. When the Wuchang uprising broke out, revolutionary fever hit numerous provinces within China, as it likewise did in territories like Tibet. A Tibetan militia sprang up and launched a surprise attack against the Qing garrison. The Qing forces were overwhelmed by the Tibetans, forced to flee back to China proper. Obviously the Qing dynasty was scrambling to face the revolutionary armies throughout China, and could not hope to challenge the Tibetans. By 1912, Qing officials in Lhasa were forced by the Tibetans to sign a three point agreement, officially surrendering and expelling their forces from central Tibet. When the new republic of China government sprang up that same year, they proclaimed control over everything the previous Qing dynasty controlled, 22 provinces within China, Outer Mongolia and Tibet.

As the provincial government's president, Yuan Shikai sent a telegram to the 13th Dalai Lama, restoring all his traditional titles. The Dalai Lama refused them and stated in a reply "I intend to exercise both temporal and ecclesiastical rule in Tibet." Now prior to the Xinhai Revolution, in 1910 the Qing had sent a military expedition to Tibet, one could argue it was an invasion mind you, to establish direct Qing rule over Tibet. This was because the British had performed their own expeditions in 1904, destabilizing the Qing dominance over Tibet. The Qing forces occupied Lhasa on February 12th of 1910 and they deposed the 13th Dalai Lama by the 25th. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India, but he returned in 1913 whence he proclaimed stated “that the relationship between the Chinese emperor and Tibet had been that of patron and priest and had not been based on the subordination of one to the other. We are a small, religious, and independent nation"

In January of that year, a treaty was signed between Mongolia and Tibet, proclaiming mutual recognition of each others independence from China. Within the treaty both nations pledged to aid each other against internal and external enemies, free trade and declared a mutual relationship based on the Gelug sect of Buddhism. The Tibetan officials who signed this document at Urga were led by Agvan Dorjiev, a Buryat and thus subject of Russia. This caused some doubts about the validity of the treaty. The 13th Dalai Lama would go on to deny ever authorizing Dorjiev to negotiate such political issues. The Russian government likewise stated Dorjiev had no diplomatic capacity on behalf of the Dalai Lama to do such a thing. The text of the document was neer published, many believe it never even existed, until 1882 when the Mongolian Academy of Science finally published it.

Upon signed the supposed treaty, Agvan Dorjiev proclaimed that Russia was a powerful Buddhist country that would ally with Tibet against China and Britain. In response to this, Britain convoked a conference at Viceregal Lodge in Simla, India to discuss the matter of Tibet’s status. The conference was attended by representatives of Britain, the Chinese republic and Tibet’s government based out of Lhasa. Sir Henry McMahon, the foreign secretary of British India led the British; for China it was I-fan Chen, the commissioner for Trade and Foreign affairs at Shanghai; and for Tiet it was Paljor Dorje Shatra, known also as Lonchen Shatra, the leading prime minister of Tibet. Now the British and Chinese had telegram communications to their governments, but the Tibetan team only had land communications. What became known as the Simla conference, was held in both Delhi and Silma because of the extreme summer heat of Delhi, saw 8 formal sessions from October 1913 to July 1914. In the first session, Lonchen Shatra declared "Tibet and China have never been under each other and will never associate with each other in future. It is decided that Tibet is an independent state." Thus Tibet was refusing to recognize all the previous treaties and conventions signed between Tibet and China. The Tibetans sought their territorial boundaries to range from the Kuenlun Range in the north, to the borders of Sichuan and Yunnan. The Tibetans also sought payment for damages done to them over the past years.

Ifan Chen’s counter proposal was to state Tibet was an integral part of China and that China would not tolerate any attempts by the Tibetans or British to interrupt China’s territorial integrity. Ifan Chen continued to say a Chinese official would be stationed in Lhasa and they would guide Tibet’s foreign and military affairs. Tibet would also grant amnesty to all Chinese who had recently been punished in Tibet, and Tibet would conform to the borders already assigned to it.

McMahon then issued the first and most important question “what is the definition of limits of Tibet”. Afterwards they could deal with the lesser issues, such as Tibetans claims of compensation for damages and for Chinese amnesties. Lonchen Shatra agreed to the procedure, Ifan Chen countered it by asking the political status of Tibet should be the first order of business. Ifan Chen also revealed he had definitive orders from his government to give priority to the political question. McMahon thus ruled he would discuss the frontier issue with Lonchen Shatra alone, until Ifan Chen was given authorization from his government to join it, ompf. It took 5 days for Ifan Chen to get the authorization.

On the issue of the frontier, Ifan Chen maintained China had occupied as far west as Giamda, thus this would encompass Pomed, Markham, Zayul, Derge, Gyade, Draya, Batang, Kokonor and Litang. Lonchen Shatra replied that Tibet had always been an independent nation and at one point a Chinese princess had been married to a Tibetan ruler and a boundary pillar had been erected by them at Marugong. Ifan Chen countered by stating the so called pillar was erected 300 li west and soon both argued over the history of pillars and boundary claims going back centuries. China claimed their historical evidence was that of Zhao Erfengs expedition of 1906-1911 which constituted a effective occupation recognized under international law. Lonchen Shatra said that was ridiculous and that what Zhao Erfeng had performed was a raid and thus unlawful.

McMahon meanwhile formed the idea of distinguishing Inner and Outer Tibet. He based this on the premise the Chinese had only really occupied Outer Tibet and never Inner Tibet. McMahon proposed formalizing this with official boundaries and pulled up old maps dating back to the 9th century for border lines. He also brought out maps from the 18th century and using both came up with two defined zones for Inner and Outer Tibet. Lonchen Shatra opposed some parts of Outer Tibet should be added to Inner Tibet and Ifan Chen argued some parts of Inner Tibet should be given to Sichuan province. A series of confused negotiations began over historical claims over territory, while border skirmishes erupted between the Tibetans and Chinese. McMahon losing his patience appealed to both men stating for "can we have a broad and statesmanlike spirit of compromise so that our labors could be brought to a speedy conclusion”. Ifan Chen maintained it was still premature to draft anything since they had not established what was Inner and Outer Tibet.

Finally in April of 1914 a draft convention, with a map was begun by the 3 men. Ifan Chen was the most reluctant but gradually accepted it. Britain and China agreed to leave Tibet as a neutral zone, free of their interference. However China repudiated Ifan Chen’s plenipotentiary actions, stating he had been coerced into the draft convention, McMahon said that was ridiculous. China charged McMahon for being unfriendly to China and having an uncompromising attitude, which is funny because if I read to you every single meeting these men had, it was 99% Ifan Chen not budging on a single issue. China continued to lobby for more and more adjustments, but all would be turned down prompting China to state they would not sign the convention.

The official boundary between Inner and Outer Tibet became known as the McMahon line, it was negotiated between Britain and Tibet separately. The convention stated Tibet formed part of Chinese territory, after the Tibetans selected a Dalai Lama, the Chinese government would be notified and a Chinese commissioner in Lhasa would quote "formally communicate to His Holiness the titles consistent with his dignity, which have been conferred by the Chinese Government". The Tibetan government would appoint all officers for Outer Tibet and Outer Tibet would not be represented in the Chinese parliament or any other such assembly. China refused to acknowledge any of it. This entire situation remains a problem to this very day as most of you probably assumed.

I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.

Mongolia saw some bitter fighting between Red and White Russians and Chinese, and would gradually gravitate towards the Soviets. The case of Tibet, unlike Mongolia, was somewhat less violent, but a political maelstrom nonetheless. The chaos of China’s warlord Era would greatly affect these two, well into the 1930’s.