Choibalsan (died 1952)

Mongolian revolutionary leader. In 1921 he helped to establish the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, and when in that year Soviet Red Army units entered Urga, the capital of Outer Mongolia, and sponsored the creation of a pro-Soviet government, Choibalsan became a deputy war minister. In succeeding years he became the dominant leader of the Mongolian People's Republic (formally established in 1924) and had eliminated all his rivals by 1940.

Originally trained as a lamaist monk, he went to Siberia, where he made contact with Russian revolutionaries. He founded his first revolutionary organization in 1919.

His policies were modelled on those of Stalin, including the cultivation of a personality cult and harsh treatment of landowners. He was also responsible for the execution of thousands of lamaist monks.