Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal

Tsedenbal was born to a poor ethnic Dörvöd nomadic family in Zorigt Khan hoshuu of the Unen Zorigt Khan aimag (present day Davst sum in Uvs aimag). He was the fifth of eleven children in his family (three of his siblings died in infancy).

In 1925 Tsedenbal became among the first students in the newly organized public school in Ulaangom, graduating in 1929. The same year Tsedenbal went to Irkutsk to continue his education. He spent about nine years between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, where he learned the Russian language and later obtained a degree from the Siberian Finance and Economics Institute.

Tsedenbal (far right) at USSR Leader Joseph Stalin's 70th birthday ceremony with Chinese Communist Leader Mao Zedong and German Communist Leader Walter Ulbricht.

In 1939, having returned to Ulaanbaatar, Tsedenbal worked first as a deputy minister, and then as the Minister of Finance from 1939 to 1940.[1] Additionally, he was the governor of Bank of Mongolia at that time.[2] In 1940, at the 10th Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, he became the party's General Secretary at age 23 and again in 1958 during his premiership.

After taking over minor leadership in 1952 following Marshal Khorloogiin Choibalsan's death, Tsedenbal successfully purged his political rivals: Dashiin Damba in 1958–59, Daramyn Tömör-Ochir in 1962, Luvsantserengiin Tsend in 1963, and the so-called Lookhuuz-Nyambuu-Surmaajav "anti-party group" in December 1964. He held this office until 11 June 1974, when he eventually became head of state, thus making him the supreme ruler of the Mongolian People's Republic.

His foreign policy was marked by efforts to bring Mongolia into ever-closer cooperation with the USSR. Still, Tsedenbal and his group of party leaders (such as Tsagaan-Lamyn Dugersuren and Damdinjavyn Maidar) were dissatisfied with the economic role that the Soviet leadership assigned to Mongolia. While the USSR prodded the Mongolian government to concentrate its efforts on the development of agriculture and the mineral sector, Tsedenbal and his followers sought to foster rapid industrialization even in the face of Soviet opposition.[3] At the same time, Tsedenbal was cautious enough to frequently express his loyalty to the Kremlin and portray his intra-party critics—including Daramyn Tömör-Ochir, Tsogt-Ochiryn Loohuuz, and others—as "pro-Chinese factionalists" and "nationalists."[4]

Tsedenbal (left) with Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov and East German leader Erich Honecker in 1971.

With the full backing of the Soviets, Tsedenbal successfully purged his political opponents. During his reign as head of the state, Tsedenbal submitted requests for the incorporation of Mongolia into the USSR on five to eight occasions, but these proposals were invariably rejected by the Soviet leaders. At the time of the Sino-Soviet split, Tsedenbal decisively sided with the Soviet Union and incurred China's wrath. In Mongolia, Tsedenbal is remembered for successfully maintaining a path of relatively moderate socialism during the Cold War.

Tsedenbal was forced into retirement in August 1984 in a Soviet-sponsored move, officially on the account of his old age and mental weakness but at least partly because of his opposition to the process of Sino-Soviet rapprochement that had started with Leonid Brezhnev's Tashkent speech in March 1982. Jambyn Batmönkh became the general secretary of the MPRP. Tsedenbal was removed a month after receiving Chairman of the Vietnamese Council of State Trường Chinh and just days away before he was due to attend a ceremony in honor of the 45th anniversary of the Soviet-Mongolian victory in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.[5]

Tsedenbal remained in Moscow until his death; his body was brought to Mongolia, where it was buried.

A statue of Tsedenbal in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

His Russian wife, Anastasia Filatova (Анастасия Филатова), was often said to be the most powerful political figure in Mongolia due to her close relationship with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

A statue of Tsedenbal was built in 2000 on the plaza in front of the National Drama Academic Theater which has since been renamed to Tsedenbal Square (Цэдэнбалын талбай). The statue and its surroundings were refurbished in 2013.[6]

In 2019, Mongolian filmmakers produced a biographical film of Tsedenbal.[7]

•  Mongolian People's Republic:
  • Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1966)
  • Hero of Labor of the Mongolian People's Republic (1961)
  • 5 Orders of Sukhbaatar
  • 2 Orders of the Red Banner
  • Order of the Red Banner of Labor
  • Order of Friendship
  • Medal "For Victory over Japan"
  • Medal "30 year anniversary of the Victory over Japan"
  • Medal "25th Anniversary of Mongolian People's Revolution"
  • Medal "30 year anniversary of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol"
  • Medal "40 year anniversary of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol"
  • Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Republic"
  • Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Army"

•  Soviet Union:
  • 3 Orders of Lenin (1944, 1976, 1986)
  • Order of the October Revolution
  • Order of Kutuzov, 1st class
  • Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
  • Medal "For the Victory over Japan"
  • Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
  • Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
  • Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
  • Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
  • Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"

• Other countries:
  • 2 Orders of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
  • Order of Jose Marti (Cuba)
  • Order of the White Lion, 1st class (Czechoslovakia)
  • Order of Karl Marx (East Germany)
  • Order of Friendship of Peoples (East Germany)
  • Order of the National Flag (Hungary)
  • Order of the National Flag, 1st class (North Korea)
  • Order of the Grand Cross of the Rebirth of Poland (Poland)
  • Great Star of the Order of the Yugoslav Star (Yugoslavia)

• Batbayar, Tsedendambyn. Modern Mongolia: A Concise History. Ulaanbaatar: 2002.
• Nadirov, Sh. G. Tsedenbal and the Events of August 1984. Trans. Baasan Ragchaa. Bloomington (Ind.): Mongolia Society, 2005.
• Rupen, Robert. How Mongolia is Really Ruled. A Political History of the Mongolian People’s Republic, 1900–1978. Stanford (Cal.): Hoover Institution Press, 1979.
• Shinkarev, Leonid. Tsedenbal i Filatova. Liubov’, vlast’, tragedia. Moscow and Irkutsk: Izdatel’ Sapronov, 2004.