Khorloogiin Choibalsan

Khoorloogiin Choybalsan (Mongolian, Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан) (1895-1952) was a Mongolian Communist who served as President and Prime Minister of that country from 1936 to his death in 1952. He achieved the office with the assistance of the NKVD, who helped him on the orders of Joseph Stalin, who believed that Choibalsan would be a more pliable ruler of the Soviet puppet state than more nationalistic members of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. In this he generally proved correct, as Choibalsan did not attempt to navigate an independent foreign policy but rather put his country at Stalin's disposal in matters of international relations. He also emulated Stalin's domestic policies, cultivating a totalitarian political culture and promoting a cult of personality with himself as head.

Choibalsan in Hitler's War
Khorloogiin Choibalsan followed Stalin's lead in the late 1930s by conducting purges of the officer corps of the Mongolian Army. Many officers were driven to defect rather than endure the purge. Though their defection was motivated entirely by a sense of self-preservation and the need to escape the danger which Choibalsan had created for them, the Mongolian dictator convinced himself that the defections were evidence of disloyalty, which made him even more suspicious of remaining officers.

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