著者

青木 雅浩

出版者

公益財団法人 史学会

雑誌

史学雑誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.119, no.3, pp.293-324, 2010-03-20 (Released:2017-12-01)

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After resigning as prime minister and foreign minister of the Mongolian People's Government in January 1922, Bodoo, an important leader of the Mongolian People's Party, was purged in the following summer, giving rise to what is called the "Bodoo Affair." After the Mongolian People's Government was formed, Soviet Russia and the Comintern become very important factors determining the political situation in Outer Mongolia; however, the research to date has yet to study the influence exerted by the Bodoo Affair on their strategy. The purpose of this article is to analyze that influence in order to further illuminate the facts surrounding the Affair, the political situation in Outer Mongolia and one aspect of the process in which Soviet Russia expanded its sphere of influence in East Asia. In the beginning, Soviet Russia and the Comintern placed Bodoo in high regard as a politician well suited to their purposes. However, Bodoo himself regarded these two powers as interfering in Outer Mongolia and became opposed to A. Ya. Okhtin, the vice-representative of Soviet People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in Outer Mongolia. This is why Bodoo left the Mongolian People's Government and along with his comrades tried to pursue ways of developing Outer Mongolia without Soviet assistance. At that time in Outer Mongolia, there were many people who stood against Soviet Russia and the Mongolian People's Government, and Okhtin was well aware of these "anti-Soviet elements." In response, he planned to bring in more Soviet staff members to build the Mongolian People's Party with Soviet Russia's direct participation and form new Party lines suited to the present condition. In practice, however, the new Government included such "anti-Soviet elements" as the Mongolian aristocracy and Buddhist sects in order to stabilize the situation. The article concludes that Soviet Russia and the Comintern were to forced change their former strategy of regarding Outer Mongolia as an "ally" in the face of the Bodoo Affair, which presented an obstacle to their plan to utilize Outer Mongolia in the interest of their national security in the Far East. The Affair brought about changes not only in the formation of the Mongolian People's Government, but also in Soviet Russia's Mongolian policy, thus representing an important turning point in Mongolia's modern history.