Mongolia - mŏn-gōˈlēə, mŏng–, officially State of Mongolia, republic (1995 est. pop. 2,494,000), 604,247 sq mi (1,565,000 sq km), N central Asia; traditionally known as Outer Mongolia. Bordered on the west, south, and east by China, and on the north by Russia, it comprises more than half the historical region of Mongolia; the other part forms China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The capital and largest city is Ulaanbaatar (formerly Urga). The country is divided into 18 provinces and three municipalities.

Land and People

A high country, its average elevation exceeds 5,100 ft (1,554 m); the central, northern, western, and southwestern areas are covered with hills, high plateaus, and mountain ranges, reaching 15,266 ft (4,653 m) at Tavan Bogd Uul (Tabun Bogdo) in the Altai Mts. Much of the Gobi desert lies to the south and east; at no point is the elevation less than c.1,800 ft (550 m). Numerous beautiful lakes fill the depressions between the mountains; the largest, Uvs Nuur, or Ubsu Nur (c.1,300 sq mi/3,370 sq km) is saltwater. The main rivers are in the north and include the Selenga (Selenge Mörön), with its long tributary the Orkhon (Orhon), which flows into Lake Baykal in Russia; and the Kerulen. Navigability is limited—the rivers are swift and rough; they freeze in the winter, and many dry up during droughts.

The country's climate is dry continental, with little rain or snow and great extremes in temperature. Winters are severe, with low temperatures and high winds that blow away the light snow cover, causing the ground to freeze to unusual depths; summers can be very hot.

The population is predominantly Khalkha Mongol. Minorities include Oirat Mongols, Kazakhs, Chinese, and Russians. Khalkha Mongolian, the official language, was until the 1940s written in the old Uigur Turkic script; it now uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Turkic, Russian, and Chinese are also spoken by some. The dominant religion has long been Lamaist Buddhism, but it was harshly repressed under the Communist regime. It was not until the waning of Communist power in the early 1990s that religious freedom reemerged. There is also a small Muslim minority. The country's major institute of higher learning is the Mongolian State Univ., at Ulaanbaatar.

Economy

The paucity of snow in Mongolia permits year-round grazing, and nomadic herding has been the major occupation for centuries. Although the number of such herders is gradually declining, animal husbandry is still the mainstay of the Mongolian economy, and Mongolia has the world's highest number of livestock per person. Sheep and goats constitute most of the livestock, followed by cattle and horses; yaks are raised in the higher altitudes, and camels are extremely important in the desert and semidesert areas. Agriculture is limited since only 1% of the land is arable. Wheat is the chief crop, followed by oats, barley, corn, millet, rye, legumes, and potatoes.

Hunting is a source of revenue; the country abounds in wildlife, and sable, fox, lynx, marmot, snow leopard, squirrel, and wolf are all trapped for their furs. Mongolia has valuable timberlands, especially in the northern mountainous area; logs are shipped down the Selenga, Orkhon, and Kerulen rivers. Mineral resources are abundant. The extensive coal deposits have been exploited since 1913. Copper, molybdenum, fluorspar, gold, iron ore, tungsten, tin, uranium, zinc, lead, silver, and salt are also mined.

Industry, which was developed with Soviet aid, is centered chiefly in Ulaanbaatar. It is based largely on the country's livestock resources, with dairy products, packed meats, leather and leather goods, and woolen textiles and related items (clothing, blankets, carpets) the chief manufactures. The building-material, copper-smelting, and lumber industries are also important. Choybalsan and Darhan near the Russian border have become industrial centers.

The country has one railroad line running north and south from the Russian border through Ulaanbaatar to the Chinese frontier, with a few spur lines to mining or industrial points. Although the number of motor vehicles is increasing, there are few paved roads and beasts of burden are still used, notably in the south, where camel caravans are common. There are also 34 airports.

In the early 1990s, Mongolia went through a transition from a planned Communist economy to a free market system and struggled with economic decline and inflation. Mongolia's main exports are copper, livestock, cashmere, wool, hides, fluorspar, and nonferrous metals; most of its foreign trade is with Russia, China, and Kazakhstan.

Government

Mongolia is governed under the constitution of 1992. The president is the head of state, and the prime minister is head of government. There is a unicameral parliament (State Great Hural). Following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coaliton is usually elected prime minister by the parliament. The president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term.

Modern History

For the early history of Mongolia, see Mongols. The area was under Chinese control from 1691 until the collapse of the Manchu dynasty in China in 1911, when a group of Mongol princes ousted the Manchu governor and proclaimed an autonomous Mongolia with Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu (the Living Buddha of Urga) as ruler. The new state was reoccupied by the Chinese in 1919. The Chinese were driven out by White Russian forces under Baron von Ungern-Sternberg in early 1921, and the Whites in turn were ousted by Red Army troops and Mongolian units under the Mongolian Communist leaders Sukhe-Bator and Khorloin Choibalsan.

Mongolia was proclaimed an independent state in July, 1921, and remained a monarchy until the Living Buddha died in 1924. The establishment (Nov., 1924) of the Communist-led Mongolian People's Republic was followed by a struggle to divest the old privileged classes of their capital (largely in the form of land and livestock) and persecution of the Lama priests; this in turn led to the Lama Rebellion of 1932, when priests led thousands of people, with some 7 million head of livestock, across the border to Inner Mongolia.

In 1936 the USSR signed a mutual aid pact with the republic, thus formalizing the existing close relations between the two countries. A constitution adopted in 1940 consolidated the power of the Communist regime. During World War II the Mongolian army joined the USSR in Manchuria in the last, brief stage of the war against Japan. In 1945 a plebiscite was held under a Sino-Soviet agreement, and the republic overwhelmingly voted for continued independence. Khorloin Choibalsan, the prime minister from 1938 until his death in 1952, was succeeded by Yumzhaggiin Tsedenbal. A new constitution came into force in 1960, and Mongolia was admitted to the United Nations in 1961.

In the ideological dispute between the Soviet Union and China, Mongolia traditionally supported the Soviet Union. Mongolia's position shifted during the 1980s, however, and it established diplomatic relations with China in 1986 and with the United States a year later. After a series of demonstrations in the late 1980s calling for freedom and human rights, the Communist party voted to relinquish its constitutional power, which led to the election by the parliament of Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat as president in 1990. In the same year a multiparty political system was also instituted, and in 1991 the country was renamed the State of Mongolia.

In 1992, Mongolia opened its first stock exchange and adopted a new democratic constitution; the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party (MPRP—the former Communists) overwhelmingly retained control of parliament in elections that year. However, Ochirbat, running as a non-Communist, won Mongolia's first free presidential election in 1993. In the first half of 1996, Mongolia was beset by wildfires that raged for more than three months and scorched 41,000 sq mi (106,000 sq km) of forest and rangeland. In the 1996 parliamentary elections, the opposition Democratic Union Coalition won a stunning upset, gaining nearly two thirds of the seats. Following a downturn in the economy, Natsagiyn Bagabandi, the candidate of the MPRP, won a decisive victory against Ochirbat in the 1997 presidential elections. Parliamentary elections in July, 2000, resulted in a nearly total win for the MPRP, which won 95% of the seats; Natsagiyn Enkhbayar became prime minister. Bagabandi was reelected in May, 2001.

Bibliography

See O. Lattimore, Nomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited (1962); R. A. Rupen, The Mongolian People's Republic (1966); A. M. Pozdneev, Mongolia and the Mongols (Vol. I tr. 1971); S. Akiner, ed., Mongolia Today (1989); C. R. Bawden, The Modern History of Mongolia (1989).

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