Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj

Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj (Mongolian: Цэрэн-Очирын Дамбадорж; 1898 – June 25, 1934) was a Mongolian politician who served as Chairman of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party from 1921 to 1928. He was expelled from the party in 1928 for his rightist policies and died in Moscow, USSR in 1934.

Tseren-Ochiryn Dambadorj Цэрэн-Очирын Дамбадорж
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
In office 31 August 1924 – 27 October 1928
Preceded by	Ajvaagiin Danzan
Succeeded by	Ölziin Badrakh
In office 15 March 1922 – 12 January 1923
Preceded by	Soliin Danzan
Succeeded by	Ajvaagiin Danzan
Personal details
Born	1898 Niislel Khüree, Mongolia, Qing China
Died	25 June 1934 Moscow, Soviet Union
Political party	Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party

Born in Niislel Khüree in 1898, Dambadorj attended Manchu and Russian Interpreter's School in the capital before moving onto the Russian gynamsium and then secondary school in Troitskosavsk. He joined the Mongolian People's Party (MPP) in 1921, was acting chairman of the MPP Central Committee in March 1921. After the Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921 he was elected vice chairman (January to March 1922) and then chairman of the MPP Central Committee from March 15, 1922 to January 12, 1923 and again from August 31, 1924 to October 27, 1928.

At the Third Party Congress in 1924, Dambadorj along with leftist leader Rinchingiin Elbegdorj, led calls for the arrest and execution of moderate party leader Soliin Danzan, accusing him of representing bourgeois interests and engaging in business with Chinese firms.[1] Following Danzan's death, Dambadorj and the party's right wing assumed control of the party (renamed the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party) [2] and promoted rightist policies mirroring Lenin's New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union.

In 1924-1925 Dambadorj undertook a mission to Europe ostensibly to promote the activities of the Institute of Science and Letters but in reality to establish contacts with French and German governments. Efforts by Dambadorj and others within the party to expand international recognition of Mongolia's independence only served to enrage the Soviets who grew increasingly suspicious of the party leader's allegiances.

Dambadorj confirmed these suspicions by making statements such as "the elimination of capital and the confiscation of capital of the old feudal nobility...are incompatible with the government's policies." [3] He often expressed concern about creeping Soviet imperialism even while opponents such as Khorloogiin Choibalsan praised the USSR as Mongolia's closest friend." [4]

The Soviets finally moved to purge Dambadorj and other rightwingers at the Seventh Party Congress in 1928. The rise of Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union ushered in a "Leftist Period" in the Mongolian People's Republic wherein the party pushed more rapid collectivization, land expropriation, and persecution of the Buddhist Clergy. "Rightwingers" such as Dambadorj, Ajvaagiin Danzan, Tseveen Jamsrano, and N. Jadamba, all of whom had played a role in what was later called "the Period of Rightist Opportunity", were expelled from the party.

Dambadorj was sent to Moscow as a trade representative attached to the Mongolian Embassy there. He died on June 25, 1934 in what some suspect was a result of poisoning.[5]

Notes

1. Sanders, Alan J. K. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Mongolia. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-8108-3077-9.
2. Lattimore, Owen (1962). Nomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited. Oxford University Press. p. 119. ISBN 1258086107.
3. Bawden, C.R. (1989). The Modern History of Mongolia. London: Kegan Paul International Ltd. pp. 284. ISBN 0-7103-0326-2.
4. Bawden 1989, p. 292
5. Sanders 1996, p. 52