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A quick update on this AAR. I have been mostly focused on the new academic year, so I have not been on these forums much. I ended up missing the ACAs for Q2, so I will thank the time now to thank those of you that gave this AAR a vote. There are a lot of good works in this subforum. It is an honor to be counter amongst them.

I also want to add a point of correction to this previous update. Further reading has convinced me that my treatment of Prince De is not entirely accurate. I mentioned that after he failed to gain Soviet support, Prince De turned to the Japanese. But the history is much more complicated than that. This passage from historian Michael Dillon's Mongolia: A Political History of the Land and Its People describes it best:

Michael Dillon said:
"De Wang emerged as a leader in 1931 as Japan was poised to invade Manchuria and demanded that Chiang Kai-shek grant autonomy to Inner Mongolia, which at this time was not one political entity; different Mongol areas were attached to various Chinese provinces. De Wang argued that Inner Mongolia would be strategically vulnerable in the event of a Japanese invasion and that Mongol resistance would be stronger if the Mongols had a government of their own. He believed that Mongols would be more willing to defend such a government, whereas they would be less enthusiastic about protecting a Chinese warlord regime from the Japanese.

De Wang was not in a strong position: he relied heavily on the support of the high lamas and the old tribal aristocracy and was not willing to concede the social changes demanded by some of his more radical supporters. Chiang Kai-shek, who headed the National Government in Nanjing, was in no position to force provincial warlords to concede the autonomy that De Wang demanded, and they schemed against the Mongol leader...The Japanese, 'made enough moves favourable to the Mongols to prevent unity of action between anti-Japanese Mongols and Chinese, and at the same time prevented unity among the Mongols by subdividing Inner Mongolia, dealing with [De] Wang in only one of the subdivisions. By the end of the war [De] Wang was disliked by the Chinese as a ‘Japanese puppet’, but deeply respected by most Mongols. In their eyes he was no puppetof the Japanese. Not being strong enough to resist them, he had resorted to evasion.'

This is a persuasive rationale for Prince De’s actions but the region of Mengjiang, the Mongol Border Autonomous Region which he controlled during the Second World War with its capital at Kalgan (Zhangjiakou), is regarded by most Chinese historians as nothing more than a Japanese puppet regime. A history of allegations of collaboration with the Japanese occupiers have coloured Chinese attitudes towards the region ever since...After the foundation of the PRC in 1949, De Wang, who had also fought against the forces of the CCP, was declared to have been a ‘war criminal’."

Now for some belated replies:

Great update with Mongolia. That statue, I have illusions of posing like that on horseback one day! xD

Glad you enjoyed it. The statue is very impressive, and it made even more impressive by the fact that Sükhbaatar was an incredibly skilled horseman. He fought for almost a decade in the Mongolian calvary. Here's an anecdote from Michael Dillon on his horsemanship:

"Popular perceptions of Sükhbaatar’s status as a gallant and heroic warrior were enhanced by stories such as the occasion of the great naadam – the Mongolian equivalent of the Highland Games – of 1922 when he ‘rode down the field at full gallop, leaning from the saddle to pick up silver dollars from the ground – a show to delight the cavalryman in every Mongol heart’."

Fascinating look at a part of the world that sits at a very significant junction between rival powers. Interesting to note the extent to which the MPR has been (or is perceived to be) integrated within the USSR. Feels like, however settled things seem for now, there’s still potential for a flare up of tensions. But that’s just the whole Cold War, isn’t it?
The MPR (and Mongolia as a whole) will be a periodic source of tension for Sino-Russian relations. In the next update (on Sinkiang), I briefly explore the hardening of Sino-MPR border and its implications for the nomadic Kazakhs of Sinkiang, who have a much more...relaxed view on borders.

And of course everyone in the region wants Mongolia except maybe the Soviets (who are content with the MPR). Outer Mongolia wants to absorb Inner Mongolia, and Inner Mongolia wants reunification with Outer Mongolia, but the Cold War will complicate this because it brings up the question of what sort government would a unified Mongolia be. Beyond just a question of socialism or capitalism, the Greater Mongolia nationalists have to decide if reunification will take place within the USSR, within China, or independent of either of these powers.

For its own part, Chinese nationalists want Outer Mongolia because it has an essential place within an imagined Greater China. At the same time, China has this weird relationship with Mongolia which I do not yet fully understand myself. It's a relationship that seems to come up a lot for contiguous empires wherein conquered groups form a part of the conquering group's presentation of itself to the rest of the world. The historian Uradyn E. Bulag has an illuminating quote on this: "At the turn of the twenty-first century, numerous books and movies about Chinggis Khan are being churned out in China, often with a logo, "The Only Chinese to defeat the Europeans." Mongols, or rather their history and their quintessential heroes, have fought for the Chinese-wholeheartedly, it seems."
 
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Prince De's picture is off to the right, but the caption is in the middle. The other two look good though.

Overall, another interesting update, and a good summary of Mongolia's history!
Thanks! Good to hear on the picture. I accidentally formatted the Prince De picture that way, but I liked how it looked so I kept it in.
love a good qwerty aar, you've inspired me to start my own.
;)
 
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