Tsedenbal, Iumzhagiin

Born Sept. 17, 1916, in Ubsunur Aimak. Figure in the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the international communist movement. State figure of the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR).

The son of a poor peasant who raised livestock, Tsedenbal graduated in 1938 from the Irkutsk Finance and Economics Institute. In 1939 he joined the MPRP. In 1939 and 1940 he was initially deputy minister and then minister of finance of the MPR. In 1940 he became a member of both the Central Committee of the MPRP and the Presidium (renamed the Politburo in 1943) of the Central Committee.

From 1940 to 1954, Tsedenbal served as general secretary of the Central Committee of MPRP. He concurrently held a number of other posts, including deputy commander in chief and head of the political administration of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Army from 1941 to 1945, deputy prime minister of the MPR from 1945 to 1952, and chairman of the State Planning Committee from 1945 to 1948. Between 1952 and 1974, Tsedenbal was chairman of the Council of Minsters. In 1958 he became first secretary of the Central Committee of the MPRP. In 1974 he was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Great People’s Khural of the MPR.

For his help in organizing assistance to the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 and for his military services in defeating the Japanese militarists, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Tsedenbal the Order of Lenin in 1944 and the Order of Kutuzov First Class in 1945. He was awarded the Order of the October Revolution in 1971 and a second Order of Lenin in 1976. Tsedenbal was named a hero of Labor of the MPR in 1961 and a Hero of the MPR in 1966. In 1966 he became an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the MPR. He has been awarded numerous Mongolian orders, including the Order of Sukhe-Bator. Tsedenbal received the Joliot-Curie Gold Peace Medal in 1973.