The Stalinist repressions in Mongolia from 1937 to 1939, known locally as the Ikh Khelmegdüülelt or "Great Repression," were a period of intense political violence that swept through the Mongolian People's Republic. This brutal chapter unfolded under the shadow of Stalin’s Great Purge in the Soviet Union, extending its methods and paranoia into Mongolia. Orchestrated by Soviet NKVD advisors and carried out under the leadership of Mongolia's Khorloogiin Choibalsan, the repressions targeted anyone perceived as a threat to the Soviet-backed regime.
In the preceding years, Mongolia had experienced smaller purges and political infighting that foreshadowed the scale of the Great Repression. After the 1921 Mongolian Revolution, early prime ministers like Dogsomyn Bodoo and others were executed on trumped-up charges of treason. Later waves of purges targeted the Buddhist clergy, aristocracy, and intellectuals. By the mid-1930s, tensions heightened further as the Soviet Union sought to secure Mongolia as a buffer zone against Japanese expansion into neighboring Manchuria. Accusations of collaboration with Japanese spies became the pretext for eliminating thousands of political opponents and potential dissenters.
In 1936, Choibalsan, a staunch ally of Stalin, solidified his control over the government, allowing him to lead the purges under Soviet direction. As Japanese aggression in the region increased, Stalin ordered a crackdown on “counterrevolutionaries” in Mongolia. NKVD Commissar Mikhail Frinovsky arrived in Ulaanbaatar in 1937 with a list of targets, which included lamas, aristocrats, and government officials. Arrests began in September that year, with public trials staged to instill fear and obedience.
The purges targeted a wide array of individuals and groups. The Buddhist clergy bore the brunt of the violence, as their influence was seen as incompatible with the Soviet-style socialist state. Over 18,000 lamas were executed, while thousands of others were forcibly defrocked or conscripted into the army. Monasteries—more than 700 in total—were destroyed, and Mongolia’s rich Buddhist heritage was decimated. The aristocracy and intelligentsia were similarly persecuted, with accusations of pan-Mongolist nationalism and collaboration with foreign powers used as justification for executions. Ethnic minorities, including Buryats and Kazakhs, were also targeted, reflecting the broader ethnic purges happening in the Soviet Union.
Choibalsan, though a willing participant, was deeply entangled in the Soviet machinery of repression. He rubber-stamped thousands of execution orders and even personally directed some interrogations. Yet, he was also a pawn in Stalin’s broader strategy. At times, Choibalsan attempted to mitigate the severity of the purges, but his efforts were often overridden by NKVD officers who had the final say. The show trials and mass executions left Mongolia reeling, with estimates of those killed ranging from 20,000 to 35,000—amounting to up to 5% of the population.
By 1939, the Great Repression began to wind down. Choibalsan, now Mongolia’s uncontested leader, declared that the excesses of the purges were the result of rogue officials who had acted without his knowledge. Figures like his deputy Nasantogtoh and Soviet handler Kichikov were scapegoated and executed. The purges’ legacy, however, was far-reaching. The country’s cultural and religious foundations were shattered, its political leadership decimated, and its ties to the Soviet Union cemented more firmly than ever.
In the decades that followed, discussion of the purges was suppressed, and Choibalsan was celebrated as a national hero. Only after the fall of communism in 1990 did Mongolia begin to confront this dark period openly. Mass graves were unearthed, revealing the scale of the atrocities, while efforts to restore the nation’s cultural and religious heritage gained momentum. Even today, the legacy of the Great Repression remains a sobering reminder of the devastating impact of Stalinist policies on Mongolia’s history and identity.