Robert A. Rupen

Mongolia in the Sino-Soviet Dispute

Mongolia has unexceptionably, unqualifiedly, and unhesitatingly supported the Soviet Union in all aspects of its dispute with China. It signed the test-ban treaty (on August 8); it publishes all the Soviet attacks on China immediately, and publishes Chinese attacks on the Soviet Union only after the Soviet press does so; it vilifies Albania; and praises and deals with Yugoslavia. A semi-weekly Russian-language newspaper was inaugurated in Ulan Bator on January 1, 1963 ( Novosti Mongolii ), and the introduction of an expanded and intensified programme of Russianlanguage instruction throughout the country was announced on May 24. In August, the Mongolians reorganised its State Planning Commission to include a separate division for agriculture and one for industry, along the lines of the reorganisation of the Soviet Communist Party. Mongolia supported the inclusion of the Soviet Union in Afro-Asian councils (at the conference of journalists in Indonesia), and in the United Nations moved that Iraq be condemned for its attack on the Kurds. Every day in every way it has been a firm supporter of the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet quarrel and in all things.

Inside Outer Mongolia

THE Mongolian Peoples Republic, better known as Outer Mongolia, a purportedly independent country of over 600,000 square miles and less than a million people, is not administratively a part of either the Soviet Union or Communist China, and its location between these two countries lends it special political importance. Direct Russian influence in Outer Mongolia has clearly declined, but major legacies remain of the many years of Soviet dominance. Most important are the single Communist Party (called the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party) which dominates the political life of the country, and other concomi tants of a Communist system: high degree of centralization and discipline; an official line of interpretation of history, art and other aspects of life; a tightly controlled press, with Mongolian equivalents of Pravda, Red Star, Krokodil, etc. Terror, too, has in the past been an instrument of government, nor has Mongolia been spared the curse of secret police and purges. An internal pass port system does not now exist, but is being seriously discussed, and labor books have become important documents for many Mongols. The Party com prises 3 to 4 percent of the total population, and it operates an extensive set of mass youth organizations with nearly universal membership. Molotov still serves officially as the Soviet Ambassador in Mongolia, al though he has apparently been absent much of the time. The U.S.S.R. also maintains a consulate in the city of Choibalsan (formerly Bayan-t?men) in the eastern part of the country, where direct Russian-Mongolian trade makes use of the rail cutoff from the Trans-Siberian line constructed for military operations against the Japanese in the late 1930s. Russian-Mongolian trade also employs shipping on Lake Khubsugul in northwestern Mongolia (per sonal observation confirms this) and the old Kobdo-Biisk-Barnaul route in the far west also reportedly continues to operate. Russian goods are sold in Mongolian shops, although Chinese-made clothing and textiles occupy an im portant place, along with increasing amounts of products from East European countries. Russian machinery is the rule in the few industrial enterprises. Few Russians live in Mongolia now, and the number of Russian advisers has greatly decreased in the last few years. The Mongolian middle schools re quire Russian as the only foreign language, but surprisingly few Mongols speak the language well, and those who do have generally studied in the Sov iet Union. School textbooks are usually Mongolian translations of Russian originals. The Cyrillic script is in use, although there is opposition to it, along with related pressure to return to the old native alphabet. New school texts for the study of Mongolian literature employ the old script as a deliberate attempt to keep it alive, for Mongols consciously recognize that use of Cyril lic cuts them oif from their past. Furthermore, the Cyrillic script has been abandoned in Inner Mongolia, and a strong pan-Mongolist sentiment sur vives. Almost all of the more than 1,000 Mongols who study abroad pursue higher education in the Soviet Union, but Mongolian educational institutions have been deliberately expanding to reduce the need for foreign education.

The Mongolian People's Republic: The Slow Evolution

A catastrophic flood, adoption of a new Party Program and a new Five Year Plan, and many Government and Party personnel changes, marked 1966 in the Mongolian Peoples Republic (MPR). The small Asian country (1,120,000 population) continued to support the USSR against China, and showed no signs of changing that position. Soviet economic assistance continues, while Chinese aid phases out. No great economic or other shifts appear likely, and livestock-raising and yurt (tent) living go on. Continued development of light industry is planned, but no steel mills or gigantic projects. Darkhan, north of Ulan Bator, continues to be the focus of Soviet developmental efforts.