The National Assembly quickly established reforms meant to destroy
feudal society, but it took several decades to truly build a socialist
economy under a totalitarian government controlled by the Mongolian
Communist Party (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, or MPRP).
In fact, several leaders tried to build a free market economy before
the socialist planned economy was imposed.*
With the advent of Stalin's dictatorship in Russia (1928), Mongolia
became a puppet state of the Soviet Union. Its leaders (Choibalsan,
Tsedenbal, and the Politburo) organized purges of those who opposed
the government every time Stalin held a "purge," the command
economy imposed 5-year plans on the rural and industrial parts of
the economy, herders were gathered into collectives, and daily life
became mechanized.*
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Choibalsan, first Communist dictator, courtesy
of the National Museum of Mongolian History.
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