U569 Modern Inner Mongolia
Lecture, Tuesday, Week 11

 

  1. Renewed relations with Mongolian People's Republic
    1. Top level diplomatic relations
      1. In Moscow, Nov. 1949, Mao asks for OM back, rebuffed
      2. Sends Jiyaatai (IM Tümed Communist) as 1st PRC ambassador to UB
      3. After Choibalsang dies, relations warm
        1. Sept, 1952, MPR PM, Yu. Tsedenbal to Beijing > exchange treaty
        2. 1954 Stalin dies, Mao asks Khrushchev for OM back, rebuffed
        3. Jiyaatai replaced by career diplomat
      4. 1954-1958, height of PRC/MPR friendship
        1. Nov., 1954, Wulanfu speaks at MPRP party congress
        2. 1955:  Economic aid, PRC will send guest workers to MPR
        3. MPR establishes consulate in Höhhot
        4. Trans-Mongolian railway completed, 1956
  2. Cultural Policy and Japanese/pan-Mongolist Background
    1. Mongol intelligentsia:  re-educated Japanese-trained nationalists
      1. Sample of 32 leading authors:
        1. All born under Japanese occupation, none in party before 1946
        2. 17 in Japanese-sponsored prim. schools, 8 in CCP schools
        3. 5 students in Japanses-sponsored high-schools, 3 teachers
        4. 7 active in 1945/6 autonomous regimes
      2. Leading author:  Sainchogtu, leading critic Erdenitogtakhu
        1. Erdenitogtakhu:  teacher, Khinggan W, Official in EM, 1945/6
      3. Japanese leading foreign language (except in Hulun Buir)
    2. Communist changes
      1. Inner Mongols start Cyrillicization program, Cyrillic script for Daurs
        1. Committee chaired by Khafungga, July 1955-March 1958
      2. Ideology
        1. Secular, scientific, nationalist, materialist, progressive, democratic
        2. M-L adds:  stages of historical progress, class struggle
          1. Focus on numbers, not feelings
        3. Class struggle  nationalism:  reactionaries seen as alien
        4. CCP:  Mao cult, Chinese patriotism, "struggle-ism"
      3. Symbolized:  Chinggis Khan's temple and his mausoleum
    3. Cultural Expansion
      1. Mass literacy programs, literary troops, IM People's Daily
      2. Formal Schooling
        1. 1950:  "Mongolian" primary schools ten times more than 1945
        2. Veterinary college, teachers college, IMU
        3. 1947-1952:  330 textbooks (primary, secondary), 1,942,000 copies
      3. Reading:  1948 to '52:  titles tripled, copies quadrupled
      4. Performing arts, Ulaanmüchir, film industry (Tümed, Sino-Soviet)
  3. Ethnic and Political Tensions:  publicly invisible
    1. Wulanfu by 1957:  chairman, party sec., military region head, IMU pres.
      1. In Beijing:  on nationalities commission, Mongolian foreign policy
    2. Tensions of sinicization
      1. Significant by 1945, worry grows over 1945
      2. Rural and urban forms
        1. Urban elite:  regional autonomy>>capitals in Chinese cities
        2. Cadres, teachers, officers see children sinicized
        3. Rural form continues, Kharachin, Tümed dialects disappear
      3. By 1957, Mongol officials seeing this as political problem
    3. Tension:  East Mongols vs. West Mongols (mostly Tümeds)
      1. Comprehensive preferential policies
      2. West Mongols:  good class background, bad Mongolian
      3. East Mongols:  bad class background, good Mongolian
    4. What about those with PRPIM (Nei Ren Dang) background?
      1. Since 1949:  line had been strongly negative
      2. July, 1956:  IM Party Com.'s Personnel Investigation Office reports:
        1. Issues basically positive assessment, "explanations" not needed