The Great Purge
First published in Twentieth Century Mongolia, Cambridge, White Horse Press, 1999 45 THE GREAT PURGE Baabar Chapter Twenty-One: The Great Purge ASS officially expressed its condolences on Demid’s death. In Ulaanbaatar, TChoibalsan mourned the decease of “his only close friend in the world” by taking an oath of allegiance. After the burial ceremony, on September 2, Choibalsan became Commander-in-Chief and Minister for Defense. The next day he issued Order No. 366, which stated: There are indications that among us are individuals and groups whose political conscious- ness has become so dull that they have fallen under the influence of Japanese spies and provocateurs and have become traitors of their native land.1 Creating an impression of the omnipresence of spies and traitors and producing justifications for future arrests was part of the final psychological preparation for the Great Purge. The technical preparations for the massacre were already complete. Many important things had happened in the few days between Demid’s death and the day Order No. 366 was signed by Choibalsan. On August 13, 1937, the Central Committee of the All- Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party chaired by Stalin decided to station the Red Army in Mongolia and to send a Bolshevik delegation there to implement the decision.2 On August 24, 1937, a large delegation of the Soviet government arrived in Ulaanbaatar unannounced. It included Smirnov, Deputy Minister for Defense, Frinovski, Deputy Minister for Soviet Internal Affairs, and Mironov, the newly assigned representative in Mongolia. Apparently the delegation had not intended to meet with Demid in Mongolia, who had just been called to Moscow for the second time, but rather to present to Prime Minister Amar Japan’s plan to take over Mongolia.
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