Governing Post-Imperial Siberia and Mongolia, 1911-1924: Buddhism, Socialism and Nationalism in State and Autonomy Building

230 Pages·2016·43.719 MB·English

by  Ivan Sablin

-
Governing Post-IDlperial
Siberia and Mongolia,
1911-1924
Buddhism, socialism, and nationalism in
state and autonomy building
Ivan Sahlin
~~ ~~o~1!~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
711 Third A venue, ew York, NY 100 17
Routledge is an imprint oft he Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Ivan Sablin
The right oflvan Sablin to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Bnt1sh L1braf)l Cataloguing m Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ofC ongress Cataloging in Publication Data
ames: Sablin, Ivan.
Title: Governing post-imperial Siberia and Mongolia, 1911-1924 :
Buddhism, socialism, and nationalism in state and autonomy building I
Ivan Sablin (National Research University Higher School of Economics,
Saint Petersburg; University of Heidelberg).
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2016. 1 Series:
Routledge studies in the history of Russia and Eastern Europe; 241
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 20150309751 ISBN 9781138952201 (hardback) I ISBN
9781315667713 ( ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Siberia (Russia}-Politics and government-20th century. I
Mongolia-Politics and government-20th century. I Buddhism and
state-Russia (Federation}-Siberia-History-20th century. Buddhism and
state-Mongolia-History-20th century. I Socialism-Russia (Federation}
Siberia-History-20th century. I Socialism-Mongolia-History-
20th century. I Nationalism-Russia (Federation)-Siberia-History-
20th century. I Nationalism-Mongolia-History-20th century. I
Nation-building-History-20th century. I Autonomy-History-20th century.
Classification: LCC DK766 .S23 2016 1D DC 951.7-dc23
LC record available at htt:p://lccn.loc.gov/2015030975
ISBN: 978-1-138-95220-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-66771-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Tin1es New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
The book cover features (back row, left to right) Elbek-Dorzi Rincino, Solijn Danzan,
Damdiny Suhbaatar, Azvagijn Danzan, Boris Sumackij, unknown, Dogsomyn Bodoo.
Contents
List off igures
Vlll
Acknowledgments
lX
Note on transliteration, dates, and maps
X
List ofa bbreviations
XI
Introduction 1
1 Demographics, economy, and communication in the
borderland, 1911- 1917 22
2 Transcultural spaces and entanglements, 1911- 1917 44
3 The Bury at national autonomy, 1917-1918 67
4 Power struggle in a stateless context, 1918-1919 95
5 The Mongol Federation and the Buddhist theocracy,
1919- 1920 115
6 The new independent states, 1920-1921 147
7 The Buryat autonomy in transcultural governance,
1921-1924 174
Conclusion 212
Index 218
Figures
I.1 The Baikal region and the recognized international boundaries
in Asia, 1917 2
I.2 The Mongol Federation 5
I.3 The Rightfully Detached State of the Khudun Valley 6
I.4 The Middle Mongolian Realm 7
I.5 The Buryat-Mongol Republic, Mongolia, and Tannu-Tuva 7
1.1 The political and administrative spaces of the Baikal region 23
1.2 The Baikal region in the larger communication space 25
1.3 Major mineral deposits in the Baikal region 28
1.4 Economies in the Baikal region 30
1.5 Ethnic spaces in the Baikal region in 1914 32
1.6 Ethnic spaces in the Baikal region in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries 34
1.7 Ethnic spaces in the Baikal region in the late nineteenth
century 35
2.1 Land use in the Baikal region in 1914 45
2.2 Religious spaces in the Baikal region in 1914 48
2.3 Buddhist places of worship in the Baikal region in the early
twentieth century 49
3.1 The Bury at aymaks and the international regime 79
6.1 Independent states and autonomies in the Baikal region, 1922 156
7.1 The Bury at-Mongol Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic,
1923-1927 191
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my supervisors Madeleine Herren-Oesch and Frithjof Ben
jamin Schenk, my teachers, colleagues, and friends Elena Sablina, Maria Save
ly eva, Kilian Schultes, Nikolay Tsyrempilov, David Mervart, Jonathan Samuels,
Anya Andreeva, Roland Wenzlhuemer, Alexander Semyonov, Sergey Glebov,
Birgit Kellner, Oliver Lamers, Frank Gruner, Eugenia Bogdanova, Zara Barlas,
Lisette Schouten, Liliya Bolyachevets, Matthias Brandau, Jagoda Kamola, Fiza
Ishaq, Cheng Zhang, Kerstin von Lingen, Jargal Badagarov, Bjom-Ole Kamm,
Tanja Penter, Jule Nowoitnick, Torsten Weber, and Alexandra I-Ieidle for their
valuable input, assistance, and support. The generous sponsorship of the German
Research Foundation made this project possible. The research for this book was
completed at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" at
the University of Heidelberg.
Tllis study was submitted as a PhD dissertation at the University of Heidel
berg under the title "Buryat-Mongol, Buddhist, and Socialist: Transcultural
Spaces and Boundary Construction in Post-Imperial Asia, 1917-1923" in 2014.
Note on transliteration, dates, and
maps
Bibliographic entries, unconventional terms, and personal names in Russian,
Buryat, and Mongolian were transliterated from Cyrillic into Latin characters
using the International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 9 due to
its univocal system of representation. Chinese characters were transcribed using
Pinyin without tone marks. Romaji was used for the Romanization of Japanese.
The Gregorian calendar was used for dates after February 14, 1918, and the
Julian calendar for earlier events related to the Russian Empire. In some sources
the relevant calendar could not be determined. The Asia North Equidistant Conic
Projection was used for the maps.
Abbreviations
AEF American Expeditionary Forces
AMBR Autonomous Mongol-Bury at Region (Bury at-Mongol
Autonomous Region) of the Russian Socialist Federative
Soviet Republic
BMAR Bury at-Mongol Autonomous Region of the Far Eastern
Republic
BMASSR Bury at-Mongol Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic
Burceka Central Committee of the Bury at-Mongols of Eastern Siberia
Burmonavtoupr Administration of the Bury at-Mongol Autonomous Region of
the Far Eastern Republic
Burnackom Central Bury at National Committee
Bumarduma People's Duma of the Buryats of Eastern Siberia
Bumarrevkom All-Buryat People's Revolutionary Committee
Burrevkom Revolutionary Committee of the Bury at-Mongol Autonomous
Region of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
Centrosibir' Central Executive Committee of Siberian Soviets
CER Chinese Eastern Railway
Comintem Communist International
Dal'bfuo Far Eastern Bureau of the RCP(b), later the Far Eastern
Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b)
Dal'revkom Far Eastern Revolutionary Committee
FER Far Eastern Republic
GARB Gosudarstvennyj arhiv Respubliki Buratia, State Archive of
the Republic of Buryatia
GARF Gosudarstvennyj arhiv Rossijskoj Federacii, State Archive of
the Russian Federation
JACAR Japan Center for Asian Historical Records
Komsomol Russian Young Commtmist League
MPP Mongolian People's Party
MPR Mongolian People's Republic
MPRP Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
Narkomnac People's Commissariat of Nationalities
NKID People's Commissariat ofF oreign Affairs
xii Abbreviations
Politburo Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b)
POW prisoner of war
RCP(b) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
rev. reverse
Revvoensovet Revolutionary Military Council
RGASPI Rossij skij gosudarstvennyj arhiv social'no-politiceskoj istorii,
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History
RGVA Rossijskij gosudarstvennyj voennyj arhiv, Russian State
Military Archive
RRSC Russian Railway Service Corps
RSDLP Russian Socialist Democratic Labor Party
RSFSR Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
Sekvostnar Section of the Eastem Peoples
Sibburo Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b)
Sibrevkom Siberian Revolutionary Committee
Sovnarkom Council of People's Commissars
SR Socialist Revolutionaries
USNA United States National Archives
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
VCIK All-Russian Central Executive Committee
Introduction
The fall of the Qing and Russian empires in the early twentieth century resulted
in economic and political turmoil throughout Eurasia, quest for restructuring
social organizations, and fom1ation of new political entities. Between 1911 and
1924 several independence and autonomy projects were developed and imple
mented in the areas populated by Mongolic peoples in North and East Asia ulti
mately leading to the establishment of the Bury at-Mongol Autonomous Socialist
Soviet Republic (BMASSR) within the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet
Republic (RSFSR) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and inde
pendent Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) which introduced new boundaries
to Asia's post-imperial spaces.
The study covers the period between the collapse of the Qing Empire in 1911
and the creation of the MPR in 1924 and focuses on the northem part of the
former imperial borderland, the area around Lake Baikal, where most of the new
state and autonomy projects were developed. Some of the events which were
crucial for the topic took place in Urga (Khuree; Ulaanbaatar after 1924), Vladi
vostok, Harbin, Saint Petersburg (Petrograd in 1914-1924; Leningrad in
1924-1991), Omsk, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, Lhasa, and elsewhere.
The Baikal region (Figure I.l) (Pereselenceskoe upravlenie 1914a;
W. & A. K. Johnston 1912) had long been a zone of dynamic interactions
between various European, Asian, and Eurasian actors. Its entangled social
environment had been shaped by the movement of people and transfer of ideas
and material objects. Politically active exiles, Christian missionaries, Buddhist
monks and scholars, Siberian and Mongolian shamans, Asian and European set
tlers, merchants, explorers, diplomats, and soldiers came to the region with their
beliefs, knowledge, values, practices, and goods, whereas people of various
etlmic, religious, and social backgrounds bom there traveled to other places in
Eurasia and beyond. The Baikal region had long played a major role in the polit
ical and economic topologies of the Russian Empire securing its control over
Siberia, the Russian Far East, and even Alaska, granting access to Mongolia and
Manchuria, and connecting Europe with East Asian and American markets.
The creation of the BMASSR in 1923 and MPR a year later was supposed to
provide the Bolsheviks with effective control over the strategic border region
between the recently collapsed empires and demonstrate a globally applicable