The, who was known the Bogd Khaan (Holy King) declared Mongolian independence from China on 1 December 1911 right after the fall of Qing, China’s last dynasty. Chinese government did not recognize this independence, but it was full of own domestic chaos. On 25 May 1915, Treaty of Khyagta was signed by Mongolia, China and Russia. The treaty granted Mongolia as limited autonomy.

China sent troops into Mongolia in 1919 and occupied the capital. In February 1921, retreating White Russian (anticommunist) troops entered Mongolia and expelled the Chinese. Mongolians desire for independence was now inflamed.

In July 1921, Mongolians with Bolsheviks military assistance recaptured Ulaanbaatar and, on 11 July of that year, the People’s Government of Mongolia was declared. The Bogd Khaan was retained as a ceremonial figurehead with no real power. The newly formed Mongolian People’s Party (the first political party in the country’s history, and the only one for the next 69 years) took over government. Mongolia’s first leader was Damdin Sukhbaatar, the former commander of Mongolia’s troops.

On 26 November 1924, the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) was declared and Mongolia became the world’s second communist country. After Lenin’s death in Russia in 1924, Mongolian communism remained independent of Moscow until Lenin’s successor, Stalin, gained absolute power in the late 1920s. Soviet and Mongolian communists worked secretly to eliminate all non-communist contenders for power. Once former MPRP leaders were dead, Khorloogiyn Choibalsan was selected as leader of the standing legislature, the Little Khural.

Following Stalin’s lead, Choibalsan ordered the seizure of land and herds which were then redistributed to peasants. Farmers were forced to join cooperatives and private business was banned. In 1937 Choibalsan launched a reign of terror against the monasteries in which thousands of monks were arrested and executed. The anti-religion campaign coincided with a bloody purge to eliminate ‘rightist elements’. It is believed that by 1939 some 27,000 people had been executed (3% of Mongolia’s population at that time), of whom 17,000 were monks.

In 1939, Japan attempted to invade eastern part of Mongolia in a pre-WWII showdown. Soviet army was moved back into Mongolia during the early 1930s and built up Mongolian military as well. Nearly 10% of Mongolia`s population was in the military. Japanese army was defeated by the joint Mongolia-Soviet force. Largely as a result of this battle, Japan signed a neutrality pact with the USSR in 1941 and the Japanese turned their war machine south instead.