Sukhe-Bator, Damdiny

Born Feb. 2, 1893, in the aimak (administrative-territorial unit) of Tsetsen-Khana, now the aimak of Sukhe-Bator; died Feb. 22, 1923, in Urga (present-day Ulan Bator). Mongolian political and state figure. Founder of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP); leader of the Mongolian People’s Revolution of 1921.

Sukhe-Bator, the son of a poor arat (livestock-breeding serf), worked as a livestock driver in his youth. In 1912 he was inducted into the army of feudal-theocratic Mongolia and commanded a cavalry squadron. He fought in many battles against the Chinese militarists and bandit detachments of the Japanese agent Babudzhab. He was awarded the title Bator (hero) for his bravery, and this honorary title became part of his name.

In 1919, Sukhe-Bator began working as a typesetter at the Urga Printing Press, where he became acquainted with Russian revolutionaries and with V. I. Lenin’s ideas of liberation. In 1919 he organized an illegal revolutionary circle, which in 1920 merged with a similar circle headed by Choibalsan. This combined organization, headed by Sukhe-Bator, was formally reorganized as the Mongolian People’s Party in March 1921 and was renamed the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party in 1925. Together with Choibalsan and others, Sukhe-Bator conducted agitational work among the arals to create detachments for the struggle against the Chinese militarists and Russian White Guards, who had occupied Mongolia in October 1920.

The First Congress of the Mongolian People’s Party, held in March 1921 under Sukhe-Bator’s direction, summoned the Mongolian people to rebellion and declared the party’s task to be anti-imperialist and antifeudal revolution. Sukhe-Bator was elected to the party’s Central Committee, and on Mar. 13, 1921, he became a member of the Provisional People’s Government, minister of war, and commander in chief of the People’s Revolutionary Army. Youth regiments of the army, led by Sukhe-Bator, defeated the Chinese militarists on Mar. 18, 1921, near Maimachen (present-day Altan-Bulak). The army, commanded by Sukhe-Bator, together with units of the Soviet Red Army that had come to the aid of the Mongolian people, defeated Ungern’s White Guard forces between May and August 1921. On July 6, 1921, Urga was liberated, and on July 10 the Provisional People’s Government was reorganized as a permanent People’s Government, in which Sukhe-Bator became minister of war.

For his outstanding accomplishments in the struggle against the White Guard bands, the common enemy of the Soviet and Mongolian peoples, Sukhe-Bator was awarded the Soviet Order of the Red Banner. On Nov. 5, 1921, he participated in the signing in Moscow of the Agreement on Friendship between the RSFSR and Mongolia and was received by Lenin.