General characteristics of Mongolia. Characteristics of Mongolia Plan of characteristics of the physical and geographical location of Mongolia

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MONGOLIA(from 1924 to 1992 - Mongolian People's Republic), a state in East Asia. It borders on China in the east, south and west, and Russia in the north. Once called Outer Mongolia, the country occupies approximately half of the vast historical region that was once called Mongolia. This area is the homeland of the Mongol peoples, who created here in the 13th century. powerful empire. From the end of the 17th century. to the beginning of the 20th century. Mongolia was a vassal state of Qing China. In the 20th century Mongolia became the target of rivalry between China and the Soviet Union. In July 1921, a popular revolution took place in Mongolia and the country was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. Part of historical Mongolia called Inner Mongolia, currently an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China.

see also Below is the HISTORY OF MONGOLIA section.

Geographical characteristics.

Terrain.

Mongolia has an area of ​​1566.5 thousand square meters. km and is basically a plateau raised to a height of 900–1500 m above sea level. A series of mountain ranges and ridges rise above this plateau. The highest of them is the Mongolian Altai, which stretches in the west and southwest of the country for a distance of 900 km. Its continuation are lower ridges that do not form a single massif, collectively called the Gobi Altai.

Along the border with Siberia in the north-west of Mongolia there are several ranges that do not form a single massif: Khan Huhei, Ulan Taiga, Eastern Sayan, in the north-east - the Khentei mountain range, in the central part of Mongolia - the Khangai massif, which is divided into several independent ranges.

To the east and south of Ulaanbaatar towards the border with China, the height of the Mongolian plateau gradually decreases, and it turns into plains - flat and level in the east, hilly in the south. The south, southwest and southeast of Mongolia are occupied by the Gobi Desert, which continues into north-central China. In terms of landscape characteristics, the Gobi desert is by no means homogeneous; it consists of areas of sandy, rocky, covered with small fragments of stones, flat for many kilometers and hilly, different in color - the Mongols especially distinguish the Yellow, Red and Black Gobi. Land-based water sources are very rare here, but groundwater levels are high.

The rivers of Mongolia are born in the mountains. Most of them are the headwaters of the great rivers of Siberia and the Far East, carrying their waters towards the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The largest rivers in the country are the Selenga (within the borders of Mongolia - 600 km), Kerulen (1100 km), Onon (300 km), Khalkhin Gol, Kobdo, etc. The deepest is the Selenga. It originates from one of the Khangai ridges and receives several large tributaries - Orkhon, Khanui-gol, Chulutyn-gol, Delger-muren, etc. Its flow speed is from 1.5 to 3 m per second. In any weather, its fast, cold waters, flowing in the clay-sandy shores, and therefore always muddy, have a dark gray color. The Selenga freezes for six months, the average ice thickness is from 1 to 1.5 m. It has two floods a year: spring (snow) and summer (rain). The average depth at the lowest water level is not lower than 2 m. Having left Mongolia, the Selenga flows through the territory of Buryatia and flows into Baikal.

Rivers in the western and southwestern parts of the country, flowing from the mountains, end up in intermountain basins, have no outlet to the ocean and, as a rule, end their journey in one of the lakes.

Mongolia has over a thousand permanent lakes and a much larger number of temporary lakes that form during the rainy season and disappear during the dry season. In the early Quaternary period, a significant part of the territory of Mongolia was an inland sea, which was later divided into several large bodies of water. The current lakes are what remains of them. The largest of them are located in the basin of the Great Lakes in the north-west of the country - Uvsu-nur, Khara-Us-nur, Khirgis-nur, their depth does not exceed several meters. In the east of the country there are lakes Buyr-nur and Khukh-nur. In a giant tectonic depression in the north of Khangai there is Lake Khubsugul (depth up to 238 m), similar to Baikal in water composition, relict flora and fauna.

Climate.

Mongolia has a sharply continental climate with harsh winters and dry, hot summers. In the capital, the city of Ulaanbaatar, located approximately midway between the mountain ranges of the north-west and the desert arid zone of the south-east of the country, the temperature in January averages -23° C, and in July +17° C. If in the north-west While 250–510 mm of precipitation falls annually, in Ulaanbaatar it is only 230–250 mm; even less precipitation falls in the Gobi desert region.

Vegetable world.

The natural vegetation of Mongolia corresponds to local climatic conditions. The mountains in the northwestern part of the country are covered with forests of larch, pine, cedar, and various deciduous tree species. In the wide intermountain basins there are magnificent pastures. The river valleys have fertile soil, and the rivers themselves abound in fish. As you move to the southeast, with decreasing altitude, the density of vegetation cover gradually decreases and reaches the level of the Gobi desert region, where only in spring and early summer some types of grasses and shrubs appear. The vegetation of the north and northeast of Mongolia is incomparably richer, since these areas with higher mountains receive more precipitation. In general, the composition of the flora and fauna of Mongolia is very diverse. The nature of Mongolia is beautiful and diverse. In the direction from north to south, six natural belts and zones successively change here. The high-mountain belt is located north and west of Lake Khubsugul, on the Khentei and Khangai ridges, in the Mongolian Altai mountains. The mountain-taiga belt passes in the same place, below the alpine meadows. The zone of mountain steppes and forests in the Khangai-Khentei mountain region is the most favorable for human life and the most developed in terms of agricultural development. The largest in size is the steppe zone with its variety of grasses and wild cereals, most suitable for cattle breeding. Water meadows are common in river floodplains.

The fauna of each zone is specific: in the alpine zone - mountain sheep, mountain goat, leopard predator; in the forest - elk, deer, wild deer, musk deer, lynx, wolverine, wild cat manul, brown bear; in the mountain-steppe - wolf, fox, hare, wild boar; in the steppe - gazelle antelope, tarbagan marmot and other smaller rodents, partridges and other game birds, birds of prey. Semi-deserts and deserts are much poorer in flora and fauna, however, large representatives of the animal world also live here: the wild ass kulan, the gazelle antelope, which is less whimsical than the gazelle, the Gobi bear, the Przewalski's horse, and the wild camel.

Population.

More than 90% of the country's population are Mongols (northern and western) and merged groups of non-Mongolian origin who speak the Mongolian language. The Northern Mongols are the Khalkhas (Khalkhas, Khalkha Mongols), the Western Mongols are the Oirats (Derbets, Zakhchins, Olets, Tumets, Myangats, Torguts, Khoshuts). This also includes the Buryats, Barguts (Shine-Barga) and Dariganga, who speak languages ​​of the Mongolian group. Non-Mongols by origin are formerly Turkic-speaking Khotons, Darkhats, Uriankhians and Tsaatans, as well as Tungus - Khamnigans. Today, all of them form ethnographic groups within the Mongols and have practically lost their language and national specificity. Less than 10% of the population are Russians, Chinese and Kazakhs, who retain their language, national culture and way of life.

According to the latest census of 1989, 2,434 thousand people lived in Mongolia. As of July 2004 (according to data published on the Internet), the population of Mongolia was 2,751 thousand. The reason for the decline in population can be seen in several factors: the resettlement of a large number of Kazakhs from Mongolia to the Republic of Kazakhstan, the decline in the birth rate (21.44 per 1,000 inhabitants) at present , high mortality (7.1 per 1000 inhabitants), especially among newborns (55.45 per 1000 births).

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country with centuries-old traditions of nomadism. Accelerated urbanization in the post-war period was facilitated by a general increase in population and industrial development. By the early 1990s, 3/5 of the country's population became city dwellers. The number of inhabitants of Ulaanbaatar (formerly Urga), the capital and only large city of Mongolia, increased from 70 thousand in 1950 to 550 thousand in 1990. In Darkhan, a large industrial center built in the 1960s north of Ulan -Bator, in 1990 there were 80 thousand people. Other important cities in the country include the trade and transport center of Sukhbaatar located north of Ulaanbaatar, near the border with Russia, the new construction city of Erdenet, which grew up around a copper-molybdenum mining and processing plant, Choibalsan in the east, Ulyasutai and Kobdo in the west of Mongolia .

Language.

The Mongolian language belongs to the Mongolian group of the Altai macrofamily of languages. The latter also includes the Turkic and Tungus-Manchu language groups. Perhaps the Korean language belongs to the same macrofamily. The official language of Mongolia is based on the Khalkha dialect, which is spoken by the majority of the country's population. Several types of Mongolian writing are known. The oldest of them - Old Mongolian, or classical writing - was created in the 13th century. based on the Uyghur alphabet. With some changes made in the 17th century, it existed until the mid-20th century. During the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), the so-called. “square script” based on the syllable signs of the Tibetan alphabet. In the 17th century The Oirat enlightener Zaya-Pandita created a “clear letter” (tod bichg), known in science as the Oirat script. It also did not become widespread. Another type of writing called Soyombo was invented at the end of the 17th century. the head of the Buddhist community of Mongolia, Undur Gegen, but he also did not receive recognition and quickly went out of circulation. From 1942 to 1945, an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in Mongolia. Two more letters were added to the letters of the Russian alphabet - fita and izhitsa - to convey the sounds of the front row specific to the Mongolian language. The Mongols still use this script today. In 1990, a decree was adopted on the return to the old Mongolian script, the implementation of which was supposed to take 10 years.

Religion.

The official religion of Mongolia is Buddhism. As in every country, it has national specifics here. Buddhism was spread in Mongolia by Tibetan missionaries. The first attempt to introduce Buddhism was made by them in the 2nd half of the 13th century. under Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai, however, at that time Buddhism was accepted only by the imperial court and several other representatives of the Mongol aristocracy. The second attempt was more successful - at the end of the 16th century. In 1578, a congress of all the princes of Mongolia, with the participation of the head of the most significant Gelug Buddhist school in Tibet at that time, decided to adopt Buddhism as the state religion. The first Buddhist monastery was built in 1588; by the beginning of the 20th century. there were approx. 750. Mongolian, as well as Tibetan, Buddhism is characterized by an extremely high saturation of its practice with pre-Buddhist beliefs, rituals and ideas, the institution of “living gods” (the incarnation of the gods of the pantheon into the bodies of living people) and recognition of the important role of monasticism in achieving “salvation”. The latter concept resulted in a high percentage of monks in the country (40% of the male population, about 100 thousand people); in each family, one of the sons certainly became a Buddhist monk. Buddhist monasteries acted as the main centers of sedentary life. They owned huge herds, received considerable funds in the form of feudal rent and voluntary donations from believers, and were also engaged in trade and usury. In 1921, the People's Revolution was victorious in Mongolia. After the death of Bogdo Gegen, the “living god” and theocratic head of state, in 1924, local monks, and religion in general, began to gradually lose their former influence and authority. The anti-clerical and anti-religious attitude of the country's communist leadership accelerated this process. By the end of the 1930s, all monasteries were closed and destroyed, most of the monks were repressed. As a result of political and social reforms begun in Mongolia in 1986, most official restrictions on the practice of religion were eliminated. A revival of Buddhism has been taking place in the country since the late 1980s. During this time, a number of Buddhist monasteries, previously used as museums, were reopened, and restoration of other old monastic complexes began. At the moment there are already more than 200 of them.

Along with Buddhism, shamanism continued to persist in the remote regions of Mongolia.

In the early 1990s, several Christian denominations from Great Britain and the United States established their own small communities in Mongolia.

State structure.

The current constitution of Mongolia came into force in February 1992. It guarantees the fundamental rights of citizens of the Mongolian People's Republic, including freedom of conscience and political opinion. According to the constitution, the head of state is the president, and the highest legislative body is the unicameral State Great Khural. The President is elected for a 5-year term by popular vote, from among candidates nominated by members of the State Great Khural. The country's highest legislative body consists of 75 members elected by popular vote for 5 years. The judicial system is headed by the Supreme Court; Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the State Great Khural.

Until 1990, all issues of the country's political, economic and social life were resolved under the direct leadership of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), the local analogue of the CPSU. In 1990, in the face of massive popular demonstrations and calls for democracy, the MPRP abandoned its monopoly on power and agreed to the formation of opposition political parties, as well as the holding of the first multi-party elections in the country's history. Currently, all significant parties and movements are represented in the Mongolian parliament. The country is ruled by the second president since the beginning of democratic reforms.

Before World War II, except for relations with the former Soviet Union, Mongolia was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. The country joined the United Nations in 1961. In the 1960s, the process of establishing diplomatic relations with developed capitalist countries - Great Britain (1963), France (1965), Japan (1972), etc. began. Diplomatic relations with the United States were established in 1987.

Political parties.

From July 1996 to July 2000, the country was governed by a coalition of new parties that won the parliamentary elections in June 1996. The largest in the coalition was the National Democratic Party (NDP), formed in 1992 on the basis of the merger of a number of liberal and conservative parties and groups. In 2001, the NDP was renamed the Democratic Party. The coalition also included the Mongolian Social Democratic Party (MSDP, founded in 1990), the Green Party (ecological) and the Religious Democratic Party (clerical-liberal, founded in 1990).

In the 2000 elections, the previously ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) returned to power. The MPRP was created as the Mongolian People's Party based on the merger in July 1920 of two underground revolutionary circles. The party program adopted at its First Congress in March 1921 was focused on an “anti-imperialist, anti-feudal people's revolution.” Since July 1921, the MPP became the ruling party and established close ties with the Russian communists and the Comintern. The III Congress of the MPP in August 1924 officially proclaimed a course for the transition from feudalism to socialism, “bypassing capitalism,” which was enshrined in the party program adopted at the IV Congress in 1925. In March 1925, the MPP was renamed the MPRP, which turned into the Marxist-Leninist party . The program approved by the Tenth Congress (1940) provided for the transition from the “revolutionary-democratic stage” of development to the socialist one, and the 1966 program envisaged the completion of the “construction of socialism.” However, in the early 1990s, the MPRP officially abandoned Marxism-Leninism and began to advocate a transition to a market economy while maintaining the stability of society and increasing the well-being of the population. The new program, adopted in February 1997, defines it as a democratic and socialist party.

In addition to the two main political forces, there are other parties and organizations in Mongolia: the United Party of National Traditions, which united several right-wing groups in 1993, the Alliance of the Motherland (included the Mongolian Democratic New Socialist Party and the Mongolian Labor Party), etc.

Economy.

Mongolia's GDP in 2003 was 4.88 billion. US dollars. By sector, Mongolia's GDP is divided as follows: the agricultural share was 20.6%, industry - 21.4%, other services - 58%.

Pasture farming.

Pasture farming continues to be the main economic activity. The destruction of the nomadic way of life began with the Manchus' policy of attaching ethnic groups within the Mongols to certain territories. The catastrophic decline in livestock numbers in the period after 1924, when the influence of the Soviet Union increased in Mongolia, was the result of blindly copying the collectivization policy. Later, a special Mongolian form of collective farming was developed. The lands of each such collective farm were also considered an administrative unit - a district (Mongolian somon). In 1997, the total number of livestock - sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels - was approx. 29.3 million heads, of which 80% are sheep and goats, 11% are cattle. Today, Mongolia is among the leading countries in the world in terms of livestock per capita (approximately 12 heads per person). Significant progress has also been made in livestock breeding and veterinary medicine.

In line with the political and economic changes that began in the countries of the former socialist camp after 1989, Mongolia decided to transition to a market economy. Based on the Foreign Investment Law adopted in 1990, citizens of other countries were able to own shares in various types of enterprises, from firms with 100 percent foreign capital to joint ventures. New laws were passed regarding taxation and banking, credit and debt obligations. In May 1991, a privatization law came into force, according to which state property could pass into the hands of “law-abiding” citizens (i.e. those who had not previously committed serious crimes) permanently residing in the country. Each citizen was given a special investment coupon that could be bought, sold or given to any other person. Holders of such coupons became active participants in special auctions through which state property was privatized. Later, in 1991, “state farms” and cooperative livestock associations were liquidated, and the transfer of land and livestock to private ownership began.

Agriculture.

Agriculture plays a secondary role in the economic life of Mongolia. Various crops are grown in the northern and western parts of the country, some using irrigation. Irrigation systems have been created today in the Gobi. In 1990, the total area of ​​cultivated land was about 827 thousand hectares. Until 1991, the predominant part of these lands was cultivated by large state farms, the rest by cooperative livestock farming associations. The main crop is wheat, although barley, potatoes and oats are also grown. Experimental gardening has existed since the 1950s, and even melon growing in the Trans-Altai Gobi. Procurement of hay and feed for livestock plays a significant role.

Natural resources.

Mongolia is rich in fur-bearing animals (especially many marmots, squirrels, and foxes); in some parts of the country, the fur trade is an important source of income for the population. Fishing is carried out in the lakes and rivers of the northern regions.

Despite the abundance of mineral deposits, their development is still limited. There are 4 brown coal deposits in Mongolia (Nalaikha, Sharyngol, Darkhan, Baganur). In the south of the country, in the area of ​​the Taban Tolgoi mountain range, coal was discovered, the geological reserves of which amount to billions of tons. Average reserves of tungsten and fluorspar deposits have long been known and are being developed. Copper-molybdenum ore found in Treasure Mountain (Erdenetiin ovoo) led to the creation of a mining and processing plant, around which the city of Erdenet was built. Oil was discovered in Mongolia in 1951, after which an oil refinery was built in Sain Shanda, a city southeast of Ulaanbaatar, near the border with China (oil production ceased in the 1970s). Near Lake Khubsugul, gigantic deposits of phosphorites were discovered and their mining even began, but soon, due to environmental considerations, all work was reduced to a minimum. Even before the start of reforms in Mongolia, with the help of the USSR, the search for zeolites, minerals of the aluminosilicate group, which are used in animal husbandry and agriculture as adsorbents and biostimulants, was carried out unsuccessfully.

Industry.

A significant number of manufacturing enterprises are concentrated in Ulaanbaatar, and in the city of Darkhan to the north of the capital there is a coal mining, iron foundry and steel smelting complex. Initially, local industry was based almost exclusively on the processing of livestock raw materials, and the main types of products were woolen fabrics, felt, leather goods, and food products. Many new industrial enterprises appeared in Mongolia after the end of World War II - especially in the 1950s and early 1960s, when the country received significant financial assistance from the Soviet Union and China. In the 1980s, local industry provided approximately 1/3 of Mongolia's national product, while in 1940 it was only 17%. After the end of World War II, the share of heavy industry in total industrial production increased significantly. There are over two dozen cities with enterprises of national importance: in addition to the already mentioned Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan, the largest are Erdenet, Sukhbaatar, Baganur, Choibalsan. Mongolia produces more than a thousand types of industrial and agricultural products, most of which are consumed domestically; furs, wool, leather, leather and fur products, livestock and animal products, phosphorites, fluorites, and molybdenum ore are exported.

Transport.

Only in the middle of the 20th century. Roads (mostly unpaved) were built from Ulaanbaatar to the administrative centers of aimags. The strategic route Naushki - Ulaanbaatar (400 km) became the first tarmac road in Mongolia. In 1949, construction of a section of the railway connecting Ulaanbaatar with the Trans-Siberian Railway on the territory of the Soviet Union was completed. The line was later extended further south, and in 1956 it was connected to the Chinese railway network. Although the railway passing through Mongolian soil served mainly to transport goods between China and the Soviet Union, this line contributed significantly to the economic development of Mongolia itself. At the end of the 1980s, almost 3/4 of freight transport in the country was carried out by rail.

Air routes connect Mongolia with Russia, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Mongolia's own aircraft fleet is small, and long-distance air routes are served by aircraft from other countries. Mongolia's own aviation has regular air communications with all aimags of the country.

Trade.

Until 1991, more than 90% of Mongolia's foreign trade accounted for the rest of the countries of the socialist community, primarily the Soviet Union. Japan was Mongolia's leading trading partner among capitalist countries. Today, the main Mongolian exports are minerals and metal ores, as well as livestock products. Mainly machinery and equipment, petroleum products, and consumer goods are imported into the country. The monetary unit of Mongolia is the tugrik, and the small change coin is called mungu (1 tugrik contains 100 mungu).

Society.

Since the 17th century. In Mongolia, the principle of two branches of government took shape - secular and religious. The head of secular power, the Kagan, or Great Khan, stood at the head of the Mongol state. The state was divided into several aimaks, the ruler (and therefore the feudal ruler) of each of them was a khan, directly subordinate to the Great Khan. Aimaks were divided into khoshuns headed by noyons (small feudal lords who received their allotment by inheritance) and taishas (who earned their allotments in the public service). Khoshuns were divided into several bugs. All these divisions of the Mongolian state retained a clan-tribal structure, which was later replaced by an ethnic one. Each of the tribes that entered the 13th century. part of the Mongol Empire, was subordinate not only to the Great Khan, but also to its immediate rulers - khans, noyons and taishas, ​​on whom the daily life of the people depended.

In wartime, the order established under Genghis Khan was in effect. The entire male adult population was transformed into combat-ready cavalry, which made up two wings: the western (baruun gar) and the eastern (jun gar). Each wing was divided into tumens (10,000 warriors), tumens were divided into 10 myangas (1000 warriors), myangas were divided into hundreds (100 warriors), a hundred into tens. Each unit had its own leader, who was responsible for both morale and the equipment of the riders. The tribal principle of organization was maintained here too; close relatives went into battle shoulder to shoulder, and this made the army even more combat-ready.

Religious power was also built on a hierarchical principle. At its head was the “living god” - Bogdo-gegen, who was chosen as a child as the incarnation of one of the previous “gods”. The next steps were occupied by shiretuis - abbots of monasteries, followed by different categories of lamas who officially accepted monasticism. At the very bottom were the shabiners - serf arats (cattle breeders), whom their khans and noyons donated to Buddhist monasteries.

The traditional way of life of the Mongols corresponds to the geographical features of the territory. Livestock farming provides them with food, clothing, materials for building homes, and fuel. As hereditary nomads, the inhabitants of Mongolia prefer portable dwellings - these are yurts covered with felt felt mats (their Mongolian name is ger), they live in them both in summer and winter; and tents made of light maikhana fabric, which are used by hunters and shepherds driving livestock to summer pastures.

The staple foods of the Mongols include milk, butter, cheese, lamb, as well as barley, flour, millet and tea. The main one is the fermented milk drink airag (better known by the Turkic name “kumys”), which is made from mare’s milk. Thanks to sheep, the Mongols obtain wool, from which they make felts for yurts and sheepskin for sewing warm clothes; have milk, cheese and butter in summer, and lamb in winter; dry sheep, but much more cow manure and droppings are used as fuel. Mongolian horsemanship is legendary, and horse racing, along with wrestling and archery, is one of Mongolia's national sports.

Although the majority of the Mongolian population now lives in cities and many people work in various industrial enterprises, the old nomadic traditions are still not forgotten. There are many people in the country who successfully combine traditional and modern ways of life. Many of those who live in comfortable city houses strive to have a summer cottage in the form of a yurt or spend their holidays with relatives in khudon (rural areas). From there, dried or frozen lamb (sometimes whole carcasses), butter, and dry cottage cheese are delivered to city apartments, and they are stored on balconies and in the basements of houses as a supply of food for the winter.

Education.

The education system in Mongolia is controlled by the state. In 1991, 489 thousand students were studying in primary and secondary schools in the country, and the number of students in higher educational institutions was 13,200 people. The Mongolian State University in Ulaanbaatar has faculties of economics, mathematics, natural sciences, physics and social sciences. In addition, the capital has a Technical University, as well as Agricultural and Medical Universities. Special educational institutions include the Higher School of Buddhism, which has existed since 1976, the Art School and the relatively recently created Business School.

HISTORY OF MONGOLIA

The first steps on the path to statehood.

At the beginning of the 12th century. scattered Mongol tribes made the first attempt to unite and create a state that more closely resembled a union of tribes and went down in history under the name Khamag Mongol. Its first ruler was Haidu Khan. His grandson Khabul Khan was already able to win a temporary victory over the neighboring regions of Northern China, and he was bought off with a small tribute. However, his successor Ambagai Khan was captured by the Tatar tribes at war with the Mongols and handed over to the Chinese, who put him to a painful execution. A few years later, the Tatars killed Yesugei-Bagatur, the father of Temujin, the future conqueror of the world Genghis Khan.

Temujin spent his childhood and youth in poverty. He came to power gradually, at first he was given the patronage of Van Khan, the ruler of the Kereits in Central Mongolia. Once Temujin had gained enough followers, he conquered the three most powerful states in Mongolia: the Tatars in the east (1202), his former patrons the Kereits in Central Mongolia (1203), and the Naimans in the west (1204). At the kurultai - a congress of Mongolian tribes in 1206 - he was proclaimed the supreme khan of all the Mongols and received the title of Genghis Khan.

Creation of an empire.

Genghis Khan ruled Mongolia from 1206 to 1227. Having dealt with internal enemies, he began to take revenge on the Jin rulers in Northern China for the humiliations suffered by his ancestors. As a result of three campaigns, he conquered the Tanguts, whose kingdom of Xi-Xia was located between his possessions and the state of Jin. In 1211, the Mongols attacked the Jin state and occupied all the territory north of the Great Wall of China. In 1213 they broke through the Wall and poured into Northern China; by the spring of 1214, the entire territory north of the Yellow River was in the hands of the Mongols. The Jin ruler bought peace by paying a huge ransom, and the Mongols left. Soon after this, it was decided to move the Jin capital from Beijing, which the Mongols interpreted as a resumption of hostilities, again attacked China and ravaged Beijing.

The following year, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia. Now Central and Western Asia have attracted his attention. The Naiman leader Kuchluk, after the defeat he suffered in 1204, fled to the west and found refuge in the Karakitai state, where he managed to seize the throne. His actions posed a constant threat to the western borders of Genghis Khan's state. In 1218, the Mongol army under the command of the great commander Jebe invaded the lands of the Karakitai. Kuchluk fled to Afghanistan, where he was captured and killed.

Hike to the west.

The conquest of this Central Asian territory gave the Mongols a common border with Khwarezmshah Muhammad, the ruler of Khwarezm, which lay southeast of the Aral Sea. Muhammad owned a gigantic territory stretching from India to Baghdad and north beyond the Aral Sea. The war was inevitable under all conditions, but it was accelerated by the murder of Genghis Khan's ambassadors.

In the fall of 1219, the Mongols reached the border city of Otrar. Leaving part of the army to besiege the city, Genghis Khan quickly reached the large cities of Bukhara and Samarkand and plundered them. The Sultan fled to Iran in panic, pursued by the Mongol army and eventually he died on one of the islands in the Caspian Sea. Having learned about his death, the Mongols turned north, crossed the Caucasus Mountains, entered the expanses of Rus', defeated the Russian-Polovtsian army on the Kalka River in 1223 and went back to the east.

In the fall of 1220, Genghis Khan began a campaign to the southeast to the lands bordering Afghanistan. He sent his youngest son Tolui to complete the conquest of Khorasan, which was then much larger than the current province of Eastern Iran and included such large cities as Merv, Herat, Balkh and Nishapur. This area was never able to fully recover from the devastation wrought there by the Mongol invasion.

In the fall of 1221, Genghis Khan attacked Jalal ad-Din, the son of Khorezm Shah Muhammad. Pressed with his troops to the Indus, surrounded by the Mongols, Jalal ad-Din threw himself into the river and escaped by crossing to the other bank. For several years he attacked the Mongols until he died in Anatolia in 1231.

Return to the East.

The battle on the banks of the Indus ended Genghis Khan's campaign to the west. Having learned about the unrest among the Tanguts, he turned back, but moved slowly and returned to his headquarters in Mongolia only three years after he left India. The last campaign against the Tanguts ended in their complete defeat. Genghis Khan did not live to see the completion of his last campaign. He died while on holiday at his summer camp on 25 August 1227.

Army.

The Mongols owed their military successes not only to the size of their army, since Genghis Khan’s entire army, apparently, did not exceed 150–250 thousand people. The strength of the Mongol army lay in its organization, discipline and tactics. Discipline made it possible to attack in close formation and thus gain the upper hand over the numerically superior but poorly constructed ranks of the enemy. The standard tactic of the Mongol army was to cover the enemy’s flank with an entire wing of its army to strike from the rear. The papal envoy John of Plano Carpini, who visited the homeland of the Mongols after their invasion of Central Europe in 1240, argued that European princes could not resist a second such invasion unless they borrowed from the enemy his methods of warfare.

The Mongols' great advantage was their mobility. During the campaigns, they brought with them such a number of horses that each warrior could ride a fresh horse every day for three to four days in a row. Once the enemy's initial resistance was broken, the Mongols captured their territory with a speed that would not be matched until the advent of World War II tanks. The widest rivers did not pose a serious obstacle for them; they crossed them in a special kind of folding boats, which they carried with them as standard equipment. Equally, the Mongols were skilled in siege: there was a case when they even diverted a river and rushed into a besieged city along a dry riverbed.

Organization of the empire.

The system of government of the empire was based on a set of laws called Great Yasa. From the surviving fragment of this code of laws, one gets the impression that the yasa was a fusion of Mongol customary law with additions made by Genghis Khan himself. The first include, for example, the prohibition of poking a knife into the fire, so as not to offend the spirit of the hearth. Particularly interesting is the yasa, which exempted the clergy of the conquered peoples from paying taxes, performing military service and forced labor. This situation is in good agreement with the Mongols’ readiness to take into their service officials of all nationalities and beliefs. Genghis Khan himself kept Muslims and Chinese as advisers. His brilliant first minister, Yelu Chutsai, was a representative of one of the aristocratic families of the Khitan. It is believed that it was on his advice that the Mongols stopped the wholesale extermination of the settled population and began to use the talents of the conquered peoples to manage their empire. In Persia, under the Ilkhans, not only Muslims, but also Christians and Jews reached high positions, and during the reign of Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, administrators were recruited throughout the empire and in Europe.

With the exception of the clergy, all conquered peoples, in the interests of collecting taxes and recruiting into the army, were divided into the same tens, hundreds, etc., as the Mongols. Thus, the capitation tax was calculated for ten people at once. The maintenance of each yam, a postal station with a change of horses, was entrusted to two ten-thousandth units, which were responsible for providing the yam with the necessary food, horses and services. The yam system was introduced under Ogedei, the successor of Genghis Khan. Marco Polo describes in great detail this system as he saw it in action in China during the reign of Kublai Kublai. Thanks to this system of changing horses, the Great Khan's couriers could cover up to 400 km of travel per day.

Before his death, Genghis Khan expressed his desire to be succeeded by his third son, Ögedei (r. 1229–1241). The choice turned out to be correct - under the skillful and energetic leadership of Ogedei, the empire flourished and expanded its borders. One of the first decisions of the new khan was to build an imperial capital. In 1235, the city of Karakorum (Kharahorin) was built, located 320 km southwest of the place where Ulaanbaatar is currently located.

All the time that Genghis Khan was on campaign in the west, the war continued in Northern China. At the beginning of 1232, Ogedei and Tolui (the youngest son of Genghis Khan) themselves set out on a campaign. Two years later they achieved their goal: the last emperor of the Jin dynasty fled and subsequently committed suicide.

A trip to Europe.

Another army of Ogedei, under the command of Batu, the son of Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi, and the commander Subedei, invaded Europe. Mongol troops crossed the Volga in the fall of 1237 and attacked the principalities of Central Rus'. At the beginning of 1238 they turned to the north, but, not reaching 100 km from Novgorod, they retreated to the south, trying to avoid the spring thaw. In the summer of 1240 the Mongols resumed their campaign and in December captured and plundered Kyiv. The path to Central Europe was open.

Until this time, Europe had received the most conflicting reports about the Mongols. The most common version was that it was the powerful ruler of India, King David (some said that he was the king of the Jews) who rose up against the Saracens. Only the invasion of Batu made Europe understand how poorly it knows the real state of affairs. The right flank of Batu's army passed through Poland and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Polish-German forces at the Battle of Liegnitz (Silesia) on April 9, 1241, and then turned south to join the main forces in Hungary. Having won a victory there on April 11, the Mongols became masters of all lands east of the Danube. In December, they crossed the river and invaded Croatia, pursuing the Hungarian king Béla IV, who was fleeing from them. Apparently, the army was already ready to invade Western Europe when a messenger arrived with the news that Ögedei had died in November. In the spring of 1242, Mongol troops left Europe and never returned there.

Empire under the grandchildren of Genghis Khan.

Ogedei's death ushered in an interregnum that lasted almost five years, during which the Merkit khan Turakina, his widow and mother of his son Guyuk, acted as regent. At the same time, the Mongol armies defeated the ruler of the Seljuk Konya Sultanate in northwestern Iran, thus expanding the borders of the empire to the Mediterranean Sea.

At a kurultai meeting near Karakorum in 1246, Guyuk (reigned 1246–1248) was finally elected Great Khan. This kurultai was attended by the Franciscan monk Plano Carpini, who delivered letters from Pope Innocent IV to the Mongol court. Guyuk rudely rejected the pope's protest against the devastation of Poland and Hungary and invited the pope, along with all the crowned heads of Europe, to personally appear before him and take an oath of allegiance to him.

If Guyuk had lived longer, he would not have avoided a civil war with his cousin Batu. Guyuk served under Batu during the campaign against Rus', but quarreled with him and left for Mongolia before the invasion of Central Europe. At the beginning of 1248, Guyuk set out from Karakorum, apparently intending to attack Batu, but died on the way.

After the death of Guyuk, as after the death of his father, a long period of interregnum began. The widow Ogul-Gamish became the ruler-regent of the empire. Batu, the eldest of the Mongol khans, convened a kurultai to choose Guyuk's successor. The Kurultai elected Möngke (r. 1251–1259), grandson of Genghis Khan, son of Tolui, conqueror of Merv and Nishapur. Due to the opposition of Guyuk's sons and their supporters, the ceremony of the Great Khan's accession to the throne took place only in 1251. At the same time, a conspiracy against the newly elected Great Khan was discovered, and the conspirators were expelled or executed. Among those executed was the former regent. Ogedei's grandson Haidu fled to Central Asia, where throughout his long life he remained the greatest enemy of the great khans. This is how the first of the splits occurred among the descendants of Genghis Khan, which ultimately led to the death of the Mongol Empire.

For the first time after the death of Ogedei, the Mongols could think about new conquests. In 1253, Kublai Khan, the brother of the Great Khan, invaded the Song dynasty in southern China, and his other brother, Hulagu, went on a campaign to the west, ending with the sack of Baghdad. In the fall of 1258, Mongke himself led a campaign against the Song Empire, during which he died in August 1259, leading the siege of one of the cities.

Mongke's death meant the virtual end of the unified Mongol Empire. His brother Khubilai and Khubilai's successor Temür still bore the title of Great Khan, but the Empire had already begun to disintegrate into separate states.

YUAN DYNASTY IN CHINA (1271–1368)

The Yuan, or Mongol dynasty in China was made famous by its founder Kublai Kublai (r. 1260–1294). Kublai ruled as both the Great Khan and Emperor of China. The Golden Horde, founded by Batu, finally separated from the Mongol Empire, but Khubilai continued to be recognized as the Great Khan in Iran and, to a certain extent, in Central Asia. In Mongolia, he suppressed the rebellion of his brother Arig-Bug, who claimed the throne, and kept his sworn enemy Haida, heir to the overthrown house of Ogedei, at bay.

In China, Khubilai did much more. In 1271 he proclaimed the new Chinese Yuan dynasty. The long-term war with the Song dynasty from Southern China ended victoriously in 1276 with the capture of the Song Emperor by Kublai's commander Bayan, although the Guangzhou region held out until 1279. For the first time in 300 years, China was united under a single ruler; Korea and Tibet became submissive tributaries, the Thai tribes (later founding Siam) were driven from their land in southern China, and the countries of Southeast Asia were reduced to the position of at least nominal vassals.

Overseas campaigns were not so successful. An army sent to the island of Java, deceived by the local ruler, the cunning prince Vijaya, defeated the enemy troops, after which Vijaya forced his hapless allies to leave the island, exhausting them with guerrilla warfare. The attempted invasion of Japan had catastrophic consequences. In 1284, a typhoon, known in Japanese history as the “Wind of the Gods” (kamikaze), sank the Mongol armada, and the Japanese captured or killed almost the entire Chinese army of 150 thousand people.

Domestically, Kublai's rule was marked by peace, flourishing trade, religious tolerance, and cultural expansion. An important source of information about this period are the notes of the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, who served at the court of the Great Khan.

Decline and expulsion of the Yuan dynasty.

Temür, grandson of Kublai Kublai (r. 1294–1307), inherited some of his grandfather's abilities, but after his death the dynasty began to decline. His successors failed to accomplish anything significant due to constant dynastic strife. The last Mongol emperor of China, Toghon Temur, reigned from 1333 to 1368; only Kublai Kublai was in power longer than him. Endless intrigues and infighting among the Mongol nobility led to numerous rebellions, and by the end of 1350 most of Southern China fell into the hands of partisan leaders. One of them was a peasant son and former Buddhist monk named Zhu Yuanzhang, the future emperor and founder of the Ming dynasty. Having defeated his rivals and seized their possessions, Zhu by 1368 became the ruler of all China south of the Yangtze. The infighting Mongols did not seem to react to the loss of this vast area and did not put up any effective resistance when Zhu moved his army north in 1368. Togon Temur fled, and Zhu's troops triumphantly entered his capital. Toghon Temur died in exile in 1370.

THE GOLDEN HORDE IN THE RUSSIAN LANDS (1242–1502)

Batu (Batu). Genghis Khan gave his eldest son, Jochi, a vast ulus without clear boundaries, stretching from the eastern outskirts of present-day Kazakhstan to the banks of the Volga. After Jochi's death in 1227, the eastern part of the ulus in Western Siberia (later called the White Horde) went to his eldest son. Batu (r. 1242–1255), second son of Jochi, inherited the western part of the ulus, which included Khorezm and the southern Russian steppes.

Returning from a campaign in Hungary in 1242, Batu founded the Khanate, which later became known as the Golden Horde (from the Turkic-Mongolian “horde”, “camp”, “station”, “camp”). The Kipchak Turks, who had inhabited this region for a long time, mixed with the conquerors, and their language gradually replaced Mongolian.

The ruler of the Russian principalities, Batu, lived on the eastern bank of the Volga, in the summer he went down the river and spent the winter at the mouth of the river, where he built his capital Sarai. Plano Carpini and another monk, William of Rubruk, both of whom visited Batu during his trip to Mongolia and on the way back, left detailed descriptions of his court.

Batu is believed to have died in 1255. After the short reign of his two sons, Batu was succeeded by his brother Berke (ruled 1258–1266).

Wars with the "Persian" Mongols.

Unlike his brother, who remained faithful to the religion of his ancestors, Berke converted to Islam. His conversion explains his hostility to the “Persian” Mongols, who destroyed the Arab Caliphate and remained for the most part shamanists, Buddhists or Nestorians. He was equally hostile to his cousin, the Great Khan Kublai, and supported the claims to the throne of Kublai's rivals, Arigh Bugh and Khaidu.

However, Berke's main focus was on the war with his cousin Hulagu, the first Ilkhan of Persia. Apparently, at first, luck favored the “Persian” Mongols, who approached the southern outskirts of Sarai. Here they were defeated by the Golden Horde and suffered heavy losses during their retreat. The war flared up sporadically until Bärke's death in 1266.

Independent development of the Golden Horde.

Berke's nephew and successor Mongke Temur (reigned 1266–1280), unlike his predecessors, maintained good relations with the Russian vassals. In accordance with Great Yasa, a set of laws of Genghis Khan, he issued a decree exempting the Orthodox clergy from taxes and military service.

Munke Temur's cousin and Berke's cousin, Nogai Khan, even before the start of the wars with the Persian Mongols, went on campaigns against Byzantium. Now, having become the son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor and the de facto ruler of the Lower Danube region, Nogai, after the death of Mongke-Temur, represented the most powerful figure in the Golden Horde. But Nogai was eventually captured and killed by his rival Tokta.

The remainder of Toqta's (d. 1312) reign was relatively calm. His nephew and successor Uzbek (ruled 1313–1342) was a Muslim, and under him Islam became the state religion of the Golden Horde. The long and generally prosperous reign of Uzbek is considered the golden age of the Golden Horde Mongols. Soon after the death of Uzbek, a period of anarchy began, during which the military leader Mamai became the true ruler of the Golden Horde, playing approximately the same role as Nogai in the previous generation. During this period, the struggle of the Russian people against the Tatar yoke began. Mamai was defeated by the Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field in 1380.

Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane (Timur).

Taking advantage of the Russian victories, Khan of the White Horde Tokhtamysh invaded the Golden Horde in 1378 and captured Sarai. The decisive battle between Mamai and Tokhtamysh took place in the Crimea and ended in the complete victory of the White Horde. Mamai hid in a Genoese trading post, where he was killed. Having become the ruler of the Golden and White Horde, Tokhtamysh again reduced the Russians to his vassals and tributaries, plundering Moscow in 1382.

It seemed that the Golden Horde had never been so strong. However, by invading Transcaucasia and Central Asia, Tokhtamysh made an enemy in the person of the great Central Asian conqueror Tamerlane (Timur), who had recently been his patron. By 1390 Tamerlane had captured the territory from India to the Caspian Sea. He helped Tokhtamysh come to power in the White Horde, but when Tokhtamysh encroached on his lands, Tamerlane decided to put an end to him. In the battle of 1391, one of Tokhtamysh’s armies was defeated; in February 1395, Tamerlane crossed the Caucasus, finished off the remnants of Tokhtamysh's troops, pushed the enemy to the north, and on the way back devastated the lands of the Golden Horde.

After Tamerlane left for Central Asia, Tokhtamysh regained his throne, but in 1398 he was expelled by his rival from the White Horde. He was sheltered by the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who acted on his behalf, but was defeated. Pursued by enemies, Tokhtamysh fled to Siberia, where in the winter of 1406–1407 he was captured and killed.

Disintegration of the Horde.

The final collapse of the Golden Horde began with the separation of the Kazan and Crimean Khanates from it in the mid-15th century. In alliance with these khanates, Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow (r. 1462–1505) managed to isolate the Golden Horde, after which he refused to pay tribute to Khan Akhmat (r. 1460–1481). In 1480 Akhmat moved to Moscow. For several months, the opposing armies stood against each other, without engaging in battle, on the Ugra River, then in the fall Akhmat retreated. This meant the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus'. The Golden Horde itself survived him by only a few years. She received a fatal blow in 1502 from the Crimean Khan, who burned Sarai. The successor states of the Golden Horde, the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates on the Middle and Lower Volga, were captured by Russia under Ivan the Terrible in 1552 and 1556. The Crimean Khanate, becoming a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, lasted until 1783 and was also annexed to Russia.

ILKHANS IN PERSIA (1258–1334)

Conquests of Hulagu.

By the middle of the 13th century. The Mongols controlled almost the entire territory of Persia. Having defeated the Assassins, adherents of a sect of fanatical opponents of orthodox Islam, Hulagu, brother of the Great Khan Mongke, was able to start a war with the Arab Caliphate itself. From his headquarters, he sent a demand to the Caliph, the religious head of Islam, to surrender, but received no response. In November 1257, the Mongol offensive began on Baghdad. In February 1258, Caliph al-Musta'sim surrendered to the mercy of the winner, and Baghdad was plundered and destroyed. Al-Mustasim was wrapped in felt and trampled to death: the Mongols were superstitiously afraid of shedding royal blood. Thus ended the history of the Arab Caliphate, which began in the 7th century.

Having captured Baghdad, Hulagu withdrew north to Azerbaijan, the seat of his Persian dynasty of Ilkhans ("khans of the tribe"). From Azerbaijan in 1259 he set out on a campaign against Syria. Soon Damascus and Aleppo fell, and the conquerors reached the border of Egypt. Here Hulagu received the news of the death of the Great Khan Mongke. Leaving his commander Ked-Bug in Syria with a much smaller army, Hulagu turned back. The Egyptian commander Baybars (“Panther”), most likely of Polovtsian origin, who at one time was sold into slavery in Egypt, where he made a career in the Mamluk army, spoke out against the Mongols. The Mamluks defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut in Palestine. Ked-Bug was captured and executed. All of Syria up to the Euphrates was annexed to Mamluk Egypt.

Ilkhans after Hulagu.

Hulagu's son and successor Abaka Khan (r. 1265–1282) continued a low-intensity war with Berke, ending with the latter's death. In the east, he repelled the invasion of Borak, the ruler of the Chagatai ulus in Central Asia. His wars with the Mamluks were less successful; the Mongol army that invaded Syria was defeated and retreated beyond the Euphrates.

In 1295, Ghazan Khan, grandson of Abak Khan (r. 1295–1304), took the throne, beginning his short but brilliant reign. Ghazan Khan not only accepted Islam, but made it the state religion. Ghazan Khan showed a keen interest in the history and traditions of his people and was considered a great authority in these matters. On his advice, his vizier, the historian Rashid ad-Din, wrote his famous work Jami at-Tawarikh(Collection of chronicles), an extensive historical encyclopedia.

The last rulers of the Ilkhan dynasty were Ulzeytu (r. 1304–1316) and Abu Said (r. 1304–1316). After them, a period of fragmentation began in the country, when local dynasties came to power in its various parts, swept away by the end of the century by the invasion of Tamerlane. The reign of the Ilkhans was marked by the flourishing of Persian culture. Architecture and art reached a high level of development, and poets of that era, such as Saadi and Jalaleddin Rumi, went down in history as classics of world literature.

CHAGATAY ULUS IN CENTRAL ASIA

To his second son Chagatai, a recognized expert in Mongolian law, Genghis Khan gave lands stretching from Eastern Xinjiang to Samarkand, called the Chagatai ulus. Chagatai himself and his first successors continued to lead the nomadic lifestyle of their ancestors in the steppes of the eastern part of their possessions, while the main cities in the west were under the jurisdiction of the great khans.

The Chagatai ulus was probably the weakest of the successor states of the Mongol Empire. The Great Khans (even Khubilai's opponent Haidu, until his death in 1301) imprisoned and removed Chagatai khans at their discretion. In 1347, Kazan, the last ruler of Transoxiana from the house of Chagatai, died in a battle with the army of the Turkic nobility, which, until the rise of Tamerlane, actually ruled in Transoxiana - the region of the right bank of the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya basin.

Tamerlane (Timur) (1336–1405) was born in the vicinity of Samarkand. He achieved power through a combination of treachery and military genius. Unlike the methodical and persistent collector of the state of Genghis Khan, Tamerlane collected wealth. As one might expect, after his death the state collapsed.

In the eastern part of the Chagatai ulus, the Chagataids managed to survive the invasion of Tamerlane and retained power until the 16th century. In Transoxiana itself, Tamerlane's successors did not last long and were driven out by the Shaybanids, another branch of the house of Genghis Khan. Their ancestor Sheiban, Batu’s brother, took part in the campaign against Hungary, after which he took possession of an ulus east of the Ural Mountains. In the 14th century The Shaybanids migrated to the southeast and filled the vacuum left by the White Horde, leading an alliance of tribes that had been called the Uzbeks since the reign of the Golden Horde Khan Uzbek (1312–1342). During this period, the Kazakhs, a group that broke away from the Uzbeks, first appeared.

In 1500, the Uzbek Khan Muhammad Sheybani captured Transoxiana and founded the Bukhara Khanate. Babur, the great-grandson of Tamerlane, fled over the mountains to India, where he founded the Mughal dynasty, which ruled almost the entire subcontinent from 1526 until the British conquest of India in the 18th and 19th centuries. Various dynasties succeeded in the Bukhara Khanate, until in 1920 the last khan was deposed by the Soviet authorities.

LATE MONGOL STATES

Western Mongols (Oirats).

The descendants of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, expelled from China in 1368, returned to their homeland and found themselves under the rule of other Mongol tribes, the Oirats. Having defeated Uldziy-Temur, the great-great-grandson of the last Yuan emperor, the Oirats struck to the west in 1412, where they defeated the eastern Chagataids. The Oirat ruler Esen Khan owned a vast territory stretching from Lake Balkhash, and in the south to the Great Wall of China. Having been refused a marriage with a Chinese princess, he overcame the Wall, defeated the Chinese and captured the Chinese Emperor. The state he created did not survive him for long. After the death of Esen Khan in 1455, the heirs quarreled, and the Eastern Mongols pushed them west, uniting again under the supremacy of Dayan Khan.

Khoshuty.

One of the Oirat tribes, the Khoshuts, settled in 1636 in the area of ​​Lake Kukunar, in what is now the Chinese province of Qinghai. Here they were destined to play a decisive role in the history of neighboring Tibet. Gushi Khan, the ruler of the Khoshuts, was converted to Buddhism by the Tibetan Gelug school or, as it was also called, “Yellow Caps” (based on the color of the hats worn by the clergy of this school). At the request of the head of the Gelug school, the 5th Dalai Lama, Gushi Khan captured the head of the rival Sakya school and in 1642 declared the 5th Dalai Lama the sovereign ruler of all Buddhists in central Tibet, becoming the secular ruler under him until his death in 1656.

Torguts, Derbets, Khoyts and their descendants Kalmyks.

During the 16th – early 17th centuries. The Western Mongols, forced out of their lands by their neighbors, the Chinese from the south, the Mongols from the east, and the Kazakhs from the west, began searching for new territories. Having received permission from the Russian Tsar, they came to Russia in several streams from 1609 to 1637 and settled in the southern Russian steppes between the Volga and Don. Ethnically, the group that went to Russia was a mixture of several Western Mongolian peoples: Torguts, Derbet, Khoyts and a certain number of Khoshuts. The number of the group, which began to be called Kalmyks, was more than 270 thousand people. The fate of Kalmyks in Russia has not been easy. At first they had the Kalmyk Khanate, which was quite independent in its internal affairs. However, oppression by the Russian government displeased the Kalmyk khans, and in 1771 they decided to return back to Western Mongolia and took with them about half of their subjects. Almost everyone died along the way. In Russia, the Khanate was liquidated, and the remaining population was subordinated to the Astrakhan governor.

Dzungars and Dzungaria.

Part of the Oirats - Choros, several clans of Torguts, Bayats, Tumets, Olets created a khanate in the west of Mongolia, which received the name Dzhungar (from the Mongolian “jungar” - “left hand”, once the left wing of the Mongol army). All subjects of this khanate were called Dzungars. The territory in which it was located was (and is) called Dzungaria.

The greatest of the Dzungar khans, Galdan (r. 1671–1697) was the last Mongol conqueror. His career began inconspicuously as a Buddhist monk in Lhasa. After being released from his vow by the 6th Dalai Lama to avenge his brother's death, he founded a state stretching from western Xinjiang to eastern Mongolia. But in 1690, and then in 1696, his advance to the east was stopped by the troops of the Manchu Emperor Kangxi.

Galdan's nephew and successor Tsevan-Rabdan (r. 1697–1727) expanded the state to the west, capturing Tashkent, and to the north, stopping the Russian advance in Siberia. In 1717, he tried to prevent Chinese penetration into Tibet, but Chinese troops expelled him from there too, placing the VII Dalai Lama in Lhasa, convenient for China. After a period of civil war, the Chinese displaced the last Dzungar khan in 1757 and turned the Dzungar possessions into the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The Choros people, where all the Dzungar khans came from, were almost completely exterminated by the Chinese, and Turks, Mongols and even Manchus settled on their lands, joined by close relatives of the Dzungars, the Kalmyks, who returned from the Volga.

Eastern Mongols.

After the victory of the Oirats over Uldziy-Temur, representatives of the house of Kublai almost exterminated each other in a bloody civil strife. Mandagol, the 27th successor of Genghis Khan, died in battle with his nephew and heir. When the latter was killed three years later, the only surviving member of the once large family was his seven-year-old son, Batu-Mange of the Chahar tribe. Abandoned by his mother, he was taken in by the young widow of Mandagol, Mandugai, who achieved his proclamation as khan of the Eastern Mongols. She served as regent throughout his early years and married him at age 18. He went down in history as Dayan Khan (reigned 1470–1543) and managed to unite the Eastern Mongols into a single state. Following the traditions of Genghis Khan, Dayan Khan divided his tribes into the “left wing”, i.e. the eastern, directly subordinate to the khan, and the “right wing”, i.e. Western, subordinate to one of the khan’s closest relatives.

Acceptance of Buddhism.

The new Mongol state did not long outlive its founder. The collapse is probably associated with the gradual adoption by the Eastern Mongols of pacifist Buddhism of the Tibetan Gelug school.

The first converts were the Ordos, a “right wing” tribe. One of their leaders converted his powerful cousin Altan Khan, the ruler of the Tumets, to Buddhism. The head of the Gelug school was invited to a meeting of Mongolian rulers in 1578, where he established the Mongolian church and received the title of Dalai Lama from Altan Khan (Dalai is the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan words meaning “wide as the ocean,” which should be understood as “all-encompassing”). Since then, the successors of the head of the Gelug school have held this title. The next to be converted was the great khan of the Chakhars. Since 1588, the Khalkhas also began to convert to the new faith. In 1602, the head of the Buddhist community of Mongolia, its supreme hierarch, was declared the incarnation of Jebtsun-damba-khutukhta, one of the first preachers of Buddhism in Tibet. The institution of “living gods,” already established in Tibetan Buddhism by that time, also took root in Mongolia. From 1602 to 1924, the year when the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed, 8 “living gods” stood at the head of the church, taking turns replacing each other. 75 years later, the 9th "living god" appeared. The conversion of the Mongols to Buddhism explains, at least in part, their rapid subjugation to a new wave of conquerors - the Manchus. Before the attack on China, the Manchus already dominated the area later called Inner Mongolia. Chakhar Khan Ligdan (r. 1604–1634), who bore the title of Great Khan, the last independent successor of Genghis Khan, tried to subjugate the southern Mongols, but they became vassals to the Manchus. Ligdan fled to Tibet, and the Chahars also submitted to the Manchus. The Khalkhas held out longer, but in 1691 the Manchu Emperor Kangxi, an opponent of the Dzungar Khan Galdan, convened the rulers of the Khalkha clans for a meeting at which they recognized themselves as his vassals. Mongolia's vassal dependence on Qing China continued until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1911–1912, a revolution took place in China, during which the Manchu Qing dynasty was overthrown and the Republic of China was proclaimed. Outer Mongolia (territorially coinciding with present-day Mongolia) declared its independence. Inner Mongolia wanted to do the same, but its independence movement was suppressed and it remained part of China.

Independence of Outer Mongolia.

The head of independent Mongolia became the 8th head of the “living god” Buddhist church, Bogdo Gegen. Now he was not only a religious, but also a secular ruler of the country, and Mongolia turned into a theocratic state. Bogdo Gegen's inner circle consisted of the highest strata of the spiritual and feudal aristocracy. Fearing a Chinese invasion, Mongolia moved towards rapprochement with Russia. In 1912, Russia promised to support the “autonomy” of Outer Mongolia, and the following year its status as an independent state was recognized in a joint Russian-Chinese declaration. In accordance with the Kyakhta Agreement, concluded by China, Russia and Mongolia in 1915, the autonomy of Outer Mongolia under the suzerainty of China was officially recognized. During this period, Russia and especially Japan sought to strengthen their positions in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, a revolutionary party was formed in Mongolia under the leadership of D. Sukhbaatar, which called not only for the liberation of the country from foreign dependence, but also for the removal of all clergy and aristocrats from the government. In 1919, the Anfu clique, led by General Xu Shuzhen, restored Chinese control over Mongolia. Meanwhile, supporters of D. Sukhbaatar united with members of the circle of H. Choibalsan (another local revolutionary leader), laying the groundwork for the formation of the Mongolian People's Party (MPP). In 1921, the united revolutionary forces of Mongolia, with the support of the Soviet Red Army, defeated the forces opposing them, including the Asian Division of the Russian White Guard general Baron Ungern von Sternberg. In Altan-Bulak, on the border with Kyakhta, a provisional government of Mongolia was elected, and in the same 1921, after negotiations, an agreement was signed to establish friendly relations with Soviet Russia.

The provisional government, created in 1921, operated under a limited monarchy, and the Bogd Gegen remained the nominal head of state. During this period, there was a struggle within the government itself between radical and conservative groups. Sukhbaatar died in 1923, and Bogd Gegen died in 1924. A republic was established in the country. Outer Mongolia became known as the Mongolian People's Republic, and the capital Urga was renamed Ulaanbaatar. The Mongolian People's Party was transformed into the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). In 1924, as a result of negotiations between Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen and Soviet leaders, an agreement was signed in which the Soviet Union officially recognized that Outer Mongolia was part of the Republic of China. However, less than a year after its signing, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR issued a statement in the press that, although Mongolia was recognized by the Soviet government as part of China, it had autonomy, excluding the possibility of Chinese interference in its internal affairs.

In 1929, the Mongolian government organized a campaign to transfer livestock into collective ownership. However, by 1932 it was necessary to make adjustments to the policies being pursued due to the ensuing economic devastation and political unrest. Since 1936, H. Choibalsan, who opposed forced collectivization, acquired the greatest influence in the country. Choibalsan took the post of prime minister of the republic in 1939, and the order he established in Mongolia was in many ways an imitation of the Stalin regime. By the end of the 1930s, most Buddhist temples and monasteries were closed; many lamas ended up in prison. In 1939, the Japanese, who by that time had already occupied Manchuria and largely Inner Mongolia, invaded the eastern regions of the MPR, but were driven out of there by Soviet troops who came to the aid of Mongolia.

Mongolia after World War II.

In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the heads of government of the Allies - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - agreed that "the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic) must be maintained." For the nationalist forces (the Kuomintang Party) that controlled the Chinese government at that time, this meant maintaining the position enshrined in the Sino-Soviet agreement of 1924, according to which Outer Mongolia was part of China. However, as the Soviet Union persistently pointed out, the presence in the text of the conference decisions of the name “Mongolian People's Republic” meant that Churchill and Roosevelt recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia. China also expressed its readiness to recognize the independence of Mongolia in an agreement with the USSR concluded in August 1945, but subject to the consent of the inhabitants of Outer Mongolia. In October 1945, a plebiscite was held, during which the overwhelming majority of its population agreed that the country should receive the status of an independent state. On January 5, 1946, China officially recognized the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR), and in February of the same year, the MPR signed treaties of friendship and cooperation with China and the Soviet Union.

For several years, relations between the Mongolian People's Republic and China (where the Kuomintang was still in power) were marred by a number of border incidents, for which both countries blamed each other. In 1949, representatives of the Chinese nationalist forces accused the Soviet Union of violating the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1945 by encroaching on the sovereignty of Outer Mongolia. However, already in February 1950, the newly proclaimed People's Republic of China, in the new Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, confirmed the validity of the provisions of the 1945 treaty concerning Mongolia.

In the late 1940s, the collectivization of pastoral livestock farms was again begun in the Mongolian People's Republic, and by the end of the 1950s it was almost completed. During this post-war period, industry developed in the country, a diversified agriculture was created and mining expanded. After the death of H. Choibalsan in 1952, his former deputy and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) since 1940, Y. Tsedenbal, became the prime minister of the republic.

After in 1956 the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev condemned gross violations of the law during the Stalinist regime, the party leadership of the MPR followed this example with regard to the past of their own country. However, this event did not lead to the liberalization of Mongolian society. In 1962, the people of Mongolia celebrated the 800th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan with great enthusiasm and a sense of national pride. After objections from the Soviet Union, which declared Genghis Khan a reactionary historical figure, all celebrations were stopped and a harsh purge of personnel began.

During the 1960s, due to ideological differences and political rivalries, serious tensions arose in Sino-Soviet relations. With their deterioration, 7 thousand Chinese working under contracts were expelled from Mongolia, which took the USSR’s side in this conflict, in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Ulaanbaatar repeatedly denounced the PRC. The fact that Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, has a significant Mongol population, only intensified the hostility. In the early 1980s, four Soviet divisions were stationed in Mongolia as part of a group of Soviet troops stationed along China's northern border.

From 1952 to 1984, Y. Tsedenbal was in power in the MPR, who combined the positions of General Secretary of the MPRP Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1952–1974) and Chairman of the Presidium of the Great People's Khural (1974–1984). After he was dismissed, he was replaced in all posts by J. Batmunkh. In 1986–1987, following the Soviet political leader M.S. Gorbachev, Batmunkh began to implement a local version of the policy of glasnost and perestroika. Population dissatisfaction with the slow pace of reforms led to large demonstrations in Ulaanbaatar in December 1989.

A broad social movement for democracy has emerged in the country. At the beginning of 1990, there were already six opposition political parties that actively called for political reforms. The largest of them, the Democratic Union, was officially recognized by the government in January 1990 and was later renamed the Mongolian Democratic Party. In March 1990, in response to the unrest, the entire leadership of the MPRP resigned. The new General Secretary of the MPRP Central Committee P. Ochirbat carried out a reorganization in the party. At the same time, some very well-known persons were expelled from the party (primarily Yu. Tsedenbal).

Then, in March 1990, P. Ochirbat became head of state. Soon after this, preparations began for elections to the country's highest legislative body. Amendments were made to the 1960 constitution to exclude references to the MPRP as the only party and the only guiding force in the political life of Mongolian society. In April, a congress of the MPRP was held, the purpose of which was to reform the party and prepare for participation in the elections; The congress delegates elected G. Ochirbat as General Secretary of the MPRP Central Committee. Although in the July 1990 parliamentary elections the MPRP won 357 of 431 seats in the highest legislative body, all opposition political parties were able to take part in electoral competition in most regions of Mongolia, thereby breaking the MPRP monopoly on power. In 1992, a new, democratic constitution was adopted, which introduced the post of president of the country. In the same year, P. Ochirbat (term of office 1992–1997), representing the democratic forces of the country, was elected president.

In September 1990, the coalition government of D. Byambasuren was formed, which, along with members of the MPRP, also included representatives of the opposition - the Mongolian Democratic Party, the Mongolian Social Democratic Party, and the National Progress Party. In June 1992, the MPRP again won the elections: having received 56.9% of the votes, it took 70 of 76 seats in the State Great Khural. The remaining mandates went to the “Democratic Bloc” (4 seats) consisting of the Democratic Party, the Civic Unification Party and the National Progressive Party (later merged into the National Democratic Party), Social Democrats and Independents (1 seat each). After the elections, a one-party government of the MPRP was re-formed, headed by P. Zhasray. Having proclaimed a “centrist course,” it continued to implement the market reforms it had begun, which included the privatization of land and industry.

Political confrontation in the country was growing. The opposition parties (NDP, MSDP, Greens and Religious) united in the “Democratic Union” bloc and accused the authorities of the collapse of the economy, thoughtless squandering of funds, corruption and mismanagement using “old communist methods.” Coming out under the slogan “Man – Labor – Development”, they were able to win the parliamentary elections in July 1996, receiving 47.1% of the vote and 50 of the 76 seats in the State Great Khural. This time the MPRP got 40.9% of the votes and 25 seats. The right-wing United Party of National Traditions received 1 mandate. The leader of the PDP, M. Ensaikhan, headed the government. The winning coalition began to speed up reforms. The rapid transformation of a centralized economy into a market economy led to a deterioration in the situation of a significant part of the population and social conflicts. The discontent showed itself quickly: the presidential elections in May 1997 were unexpectedly won by the MPRP candidate N. Bagabandi, who collected about two-thirds of the votes. The new president studied in the USSR, and from 1970–1990 headed one of the departments of the MPRP Central Committee. In 1992 he was elected deputy chairman of the MPRP Central Committee, in 1996 he headed the parliamentary faction of the party, and in 1997 he became chairman of the party.

The former ruling party began to consolidate its positions. Y. Tsedenbal's membership in the MPRP was posthumously restored, and a conference dedicated to his memory was held. However, disagreements in the government camp grew. In October 1998, one of the leaders of the 1990 democratic movement and a contender for the post of head of government, Minister of Infrastructure S. Zorig, was killed. The ruling coalition was unable to appoint a new prime minister for a long time; 5 candidates for this post failed to succeed. Only in December 1998 did the khural approve the mayor of Ulaanbaatar E. Narantsatsralt as head of government, who resigned in July 1999 and was replaced by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs R. Amarzhargal.

The drought of the summer of 1999 and the unusually cold winter that followed caused a catastrophic drop in agricultural production. Up to 1.7 out of 33.5 million livestock died. At least 35 thousand people needed food assistance. The growth of foreign investments (in 1999 they increased by 350% compared to 1998 and amounted to 144.8 million US dollars) in copper mining and the production of cashmere fiber, as well as textiles, could not mitigate the consequences for the population of structural economic reforms that were carried out under the patronage of International Monetary Fund. A third of the population lived below the subsistence level, the average per capita income was 40–80 US dollars per month and was lower than in Russia and China.

Disappointment with the policies of the ruling coalition led to its heavy defeat in the parliamentary elections in July 2000. The MPRP won 72 of 76 seats in the State Great Khural and returned to power. 1 place each went to the PDP, the bloc of the Party of Civil Courage and the Greens, the Homeland Alliance and the Independents.

General Secretary of the MPRP N. Enkhbayar, who became the head of government after the elections, promised that market reforms would continue, but in a softened version. Enkhbayar is a well-known translator of Russian and Anglo-American literature; in 1992–1996 he served as Minister of Culture; in 1996 he was elected General Secretary of the MPRP. Considers himself an active Buddhist; in the MPRP he is a supporter of the social-democratic image of the party.

The hegemony of the MPRP was strengthened in May 2001, when N. Baghabandi, having received 57.9% of the votes, was re-elected for a second term. The president reaffirmed his commitment to economic change, human rights and democracy and denied accusations that he intended to return to a one-party system. In 1998, Mongolia was visited for the first time since 1990 by a head of Western European state: German President Roman Herzog.

Mongolia in the 21st century.

In 2001, the International Monetary Fund provided a loan of $40 million.

In 2004, elections to the Great Khural were held, but they did not reveal an obvious winner, since the MPRP and the opposition coalition “Motherland - Democracy” received approximately the same number of votes. After lengthy negotiations, the parties came to a compromise, dividing power, and opposition representative Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj became prime minister. He belongs to the so-called. young democrats of the late 1980s - early 1990s.

In 2005, former Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar was elected President of Mongolia. The President was a symbolic figure. Although he could block decisions of parliament, which in turn could change the president's decision with a majority vote, this required a two-thirds vote.

At the beginning of 2006, the MPRP left the government coalition as a sign of disagreement with the country's economic policy, which resulted in Elbegdorj's resignation. The opposition held protests. More than one and a half thousand demonstrators broke into the building of one of the ruling parties.

On January 25, 2006, the Great People's Khural by a majority vote elected Miegombo Enkhbold, the leader of the MPRP, to the post of Prime Minister of the country. The appointment was also confirmed by the country's President Enkhbayar. Thus, the crisis in Mongolia, which threatened to develop into a revolution, ended. These events were called the “yurt revolution.”

At the end of 2007, Enkhbold was expelled from the party and therefore had to resign. That same year, Sanzhiin Bayar, also a member of the MPRP, was elected as the new prime minister. Such frequent changes of government led to an increased role of the presidency.

Since 2007, Mongolia began to pursue an active foreign policy, in particular, rapprochement with China and Russia began.

In July 2008, the opposition again tried to play out the orange scenario. On June 29, 2008, elections to the Great Khural took place. The Democratic Party announced election fraud. Riots began, and on July 1, the opposition captured and set fire to the MPRP headquarters in the center of Ulaanbaatar. The authorities responded decisively - the police opened fire and used tear gas, as a result of which several people were killed, arrests were made and a state of emergency was declared. The authorities managed to take control of the situation.

Literature:

Maisky I.M. Mongolia on the eve of the revolution. M., 1960
Dalai Ch. Mongolia in the 13th–14th centuries. M., 1983
History of the Mongolian People's Republic. M., 1983
Skrynnikova T.D. Lamaist Church and State. Outer Mongolia, XVI – early XX centuries. Novosibirsk, 1988
Trepavlov V.V. The political system of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. M., 1993
Nadirov Sh.G. Tsedenbal, 1984. M., 1995
Grayvoronsky V.V. Modern Aratism of Mongolia. Social problems of transition, 1980–1995. M., 1997
Kulpin E.S. Golden Horde. M., 1998
Walker S.S. Genghis Khan. Rostov-on-Don, 1998
Pershin D.P. Baron Ungern, Urga and Altan-Bulak. Samara, 1999



Mongolia is a country located in the eastern part of Asia. Its area is about 1.565 million square kilometers, making Mongolia one of the largest landlocked countries in the world.

The capital of Mongolia is the city of Ulaanbaatar. This state has borders in the north with Russia, and in the south with China.

The country's population is more than 3 million people, most of whom (90%) are Mongols.

Mongolia is a parliamentary republic with its own constitution. The country has a president who is elected by voting for a term of 4 years.

The nature in Mongolia is very beautiful and unique, one might say real, it is the main wealth for this state, because it is practically untouched by man.

Most of the territory of this state is dominated by deserts and steppes, the vast expanses of which are simply mind-blowing. Mongolia is also proud of its numerous beautiful blue lakes.

On the territory of this country you can find taiga forests, snow-capped mountains and desert oases. It is worth noting the world-famous Gobi Desert, which occupies almost 0.5 square kilometers - this is a third of the country. This desert consists not only of sandy steppes and oases, but also of grassy plains and saxaul gardens.

The main entertainments of the Mongols are hunting with golden eagles and fishing. Hunting for hares and foxes with the help of golden eagles is very popular in Mongolia, and therefore, nowadays they even organize international festivals with real hunting with the help of such birds.

Archery competitions are also very popular in Mongolia.

A very interesting place for all people, and especially for tourists, is the so-called “dinosaur cemetery”. This cemetery is located in the Nemegetu Mountains. Here you can see dinosaur skeletons in the rocks of the mountains.

Mongolia is a developed country. It has all types of transport - buses, river boats, trains and planes.

Shopping is developed in this country. Mongolia is famous for its renowned finest cashmere in the entire world. Tourists love to buy gold jewelry, blankets and carpets.

The main food products of the Mongols are: lamb, goat meat, horse meat, as well as camel meat, cheese, bread, potatoes and rice. Traditional Mongolian cuisine consists of meat dishes with a lot of fat and flour. The Mongolians' favorite drink is tea, which they like to drink in silence, unlike Russians and other peoples.

Mongolia is certainly an original, beautiful country that is worth visiting for any tourist.

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Basic moments

Hundreds of kilometers of land separate Mongolia from the nearest seas. This is the second largest country on the planet after Kazakhstan that does not have access to the World Ocean. Mongolia is also known for the fact that among all the sovereign states in the world it is the most sparsely populated, and its main city is Ulaanbaatar– is one of the coldest capitals along with Reykjavik, Helsinki, Ottawa. But, despite such alarming records, the mysterious and original Mongolia never ceases to attract travelers. The homeland of Genghis Khan is famous for its rich cultural and historical heritage, fantastic landscapes, and diverse landscapes. Mongolia is called the “Land of Eternal Blue Sky” because the sun shines here more than 250 days a year.

There are 22 national parks in the country, most of them have a well-developed tourism infrastructure. There are roads and hiking routes throughout the protected areas, campsites, souvenir shops, cafes, and bird and animal watching areas are available for tourists. Each park offers travelers its own unique destinations and excursion programs. IN Ulaanbaatar and Kharkhorin, standing on the site of the ancient Mongolian capital, you can see monuments of Buddhist and Chinese architecture of world significance, in mountain caves along the rivers - rock paintings by primitive artists, in the Mongolian steppes you can see stone steles with weathered images of ancient gods everywhere.

Tourists who like adventure and exotica willingly travel to Mongolia. They go to the desert or climb mountains, travel on horses and camels. The range of active sports entertainment is very wide - from rafting on mountain rivers to paragliding. The ecologically clean reservoirs of Mongolia, where salmon, whitefish, and sturgeon are found, are a dream for lovers of great fishing. There are also separate programs in Mongolia for those who want to go on a yoga tour or hunt with a golden eagle.

All cities of Mongolia

History of Mongolia

Tribes of primitive people began to inhabit the territory of modern Mongolia at least 800,000 ago, and scientists date traces of Homo sapiens presence on these lands to the 40th millennium BC. e. Archaeological excavations indicate that the nomadic way of life, which determined the history, culture, and traditions of the Mongols, established itself in these lands in 3500-2500 BC. e., when people reduced the cultivation of scarce land to a minimum, giving preference to nomadic cattle breeding.

At different times, right up to the early Middle Ages, the tribes of the Huns, Xianbei, Rourans, ancient Turks, Uyghurs, and Khitans replaced, pushed aside, and partially assimilated with each other on Mongolian lands. Each of these peoples contributed to the formation of the Mongolian ethnic group, as well as the language - the Mongol-speaking of the ancient Khitans has been reliably confirmed. The ethnonym “Mongol” in the form “Mengu” or “Mengu-li” first appeared in the Chinese historical annals of the Tang Dynasty (VII-X centuries AD). The Chinese gave this name to the “barbarians” who roamed near their northern borders, and it probably corresponded to the self-name of the tribes themselves.

By the end of the 12th century, on vast lands stretching from Great Wall of China to Southern Siberia and from the upper reaches of the Irtysh to the Amur, numerous tribal tribes united in unions roamed. At the beginning of the 13th century, Khan Temujin, who belonged to the ancient Mongolian family of Borjigin, managed to unite most of these tribes under his rule. In 1206, at the kurultai - a congress of the Mongolian nobility - other khans recognized Temujin's supremacy over themselves, proclaiming him great kagan. The supreme ruler took the name Genghis. He became famous as the founder of the most extensive continental empire in human history, extending its power over most of Eurasia.

Genghis Khan quickly carried out a series of reforms to centralize power, created a powerful army and introduced strict discipline into it. Already in 1207, the Mongols conquered the peoples Siberia, and in 1213 they invaded the territory of the Chinese state of Jin. In the first quarter of the 13th century, Northern China, Central Asia, and territories came under the rule of the Mongol Empire. Iraq , Afghanistan , Armenia. In 1223, the Mongols appeared in the Black Sea steppes, on the Kalka River they crushed the combined Russian-Polovtsian troops. The Mongols pursued the surviving warriors until Dnieper, invading the territory of Rus'. Having studied the future theater of military operations, they returned to Central Asia.

After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, the unity of the Mongol Empire began to acquire only a nominal character. Its territory was divided into four uluses - the hereditary possessions of the sons of the great conqueror. Each of the uluses gravitated towards independence, only formally maintaining subordination to the central region with its capital in Karakorum. Later, Mongolia was ruled by the direct descendants of Genghis Khan - the Genghisids, who bore the titles of great khans. The names of many of them are captured on the pages of history textbooks telling about the times of the Mongol-Tatar occupation of Rus'.

In 1260, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan became Great Khan. Having conquered the Celestial Empire, he proclaimed himself the Chinese emperor, the founder of the Yuan dynasty. In the lands conquered by the Mongols, Khubilai established a strict administrative order and introduced a strict tax system, but the ever-increasing taxes caused increasing resistance among the conquered peoples. After a powerful anti-Mongol uprising in China(1378) the Yuan dynasty was defeated. Chinese troops invaded Mongolia and burned its capital, Karakorum. At the same time, the Mongols began to lose their positions in the West. In the middle of the 14th century, the star of a new great conqueror rose - Timur Tamerlane, who defeated the Golden Horde in Central Asia. In 1380, on the Kulikovo field, Russian squads, led by Dmitry Donskoy, completely defeated the Golden Horde, marking the beginning of the liberation of Rus' from the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

At the end of the 14th century, federalization processes intensified in feudal Mongolia. The collapse of the empire lasted for 300 years, and as a result, three large ethnic formations were outlined on its territory, which in turn were divided into several khanates. In the 30s of the 17th century, the Manchu Qing dynasty, ruling in Northeast China, began to lay claim to Mongolian lands. The first to be conquered were the Southern Mongol khanates (now Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region China), the last to fall under the rule of the Qing dynasty was the Dzungar Khanate, which resisted until 1758.

After the Xinhai Revolution (1911), which destroyed the Qing Empire, a national liberation movement unfolded throughout the former Mongol Empire, which led to the creation of a feudal theocratic state - Bogd Khan Mongolia. It consistently had the status of an independent power, a protectorate of the Russian Empire, an autonomy within China, the ruler of which was the Buddhist leader Bogdo-gegen XVIII. In 1919, the Chinese abolished autonomy, but two years later from Urga (today - Ulaanbaatar) they were ousted by the division of the Russian general Ungern-Sternberg. The White Guards, in turn, were defeated by the Red Army. A People's Government was created in Urga, the power of Bogdo Gegen was limited, and after his death in 1924, Mongolia was proclaimed a People's Republic. Its sovereignty was recognized only by the USSR until the end of World War II.

Most of Mongolia is a vast plateau with mountain ranges, steppes, and hilly valleys located at an altitude of 1000 m. The western lands are divided by a continuous chain of valleys and basins into mountainous regions - the Mongolian Altai with the highest point of the country, Munkh-Khairkhan-Ula (4362 m), the Gobi Altai and Khangai, bounded in the south by the semi-desert Valley of the Lakes, and in the West by the Basin of the Great Lakes. In the northeast of Mongolia, near the border with Russia The Khentei Highlands are located. Its northern spurs stretch into Transbaikalia, and the southwestern ones, descending to the central part of the country, surround its capital - Ulaanbaatar. The southern regions of Mongolia are rocky Gobi Desert. Administratively, the country is divided into 21 aimaks, the capital has the status of an independent unit.

A quarter of Mongolia's territory is covered by mountain steppes and forests. This belt, covering mainly the Khangai-Khentei and Altai mountain regions, as well as the small territory of the Khangan region, is the most favorable for life and, accordingly, the best developed region. In the steppe regions, people engage in farming and grazing livestock. In the floodplains of rivers, there are often flooded meadows with tall herbs used as hayfields. The northern moist slopes of the mountains are covered with forests, mostly deciduous. The banks of the rivers are bordered by narrow strips of mixed forests, where poplar, willow, bird cherry, sea buckthorn, and birch predominate.

The forests are home to marals, elk, roe deer, deer, brown bears, as well as fur-bearing animals - lynxes, wolverines, manulas, and squirrels. In the mountain-steppe regions there are many wolves, foxes, hares, wild boars; the steppe is inhabited by ungulates, in particular gazelle antelopes, marmots, birds of prey, and partridges.

Full-flowing rivers arise in the mountains. The largest of them is the Selenga (1024 km), crossing Mongolia, then flowing within Russian Buryatia and flowing into Lake Baikal. Another large river - Kerulen (1254 km) - carries its waters to Lake Dalainor (Gulun-Nur), located in China. There are more than a thousand lakes in Mongolia, their number increases during the rainy season, but shallow seasonal reservoirs soon dry up. 400 km west of Ulaanbaatar, in a tectonic depression in the Khangai Mountains region, there is a large Lake Khubsugul, collecting water from 96 tributaries. This mountain lake lies at an altitude of 1646 m, its depth reaches 262 m. According to the composition of the water and the presence of a unique relict fauna Lake Khubsugul similar to Baikal, from which it is separated by only 200 km. The water temperature in the lake fluctuates between +10...+14 °C.

Climate

Mongolia, located inland, is characterized by a sharply continental climate with long and extremely cold winters, short hot summers, capricious springs, dry air and incredible temperature changes. Precipitation is rare here, most of it occurs in the summer. Winters in Mongolia have little or no snow, and rare snowfalls are considered a natural disaster, as they do not allow livestock to reach food in the steppe. The lack of snow cover cools the exposed ground and leads to the formation of areas of permafrost in the northern regions of the country. It is worth saying that permafrost is not found anywhere else on the planet at similar latitudes. The rivers and lakes of Mongolia are frozen in winter; many reservoirs freeze literally to the bottom. They are ice-free for less than six months, from May to September.

In winter, the entire country falls under the influence of the Siberian anticyclone. High atmospheric pressure sets in here. Weak winds rarely blow and do not bring clouds. At this time, the sun reigns in the sky from morning to evening, illuminating and somewhat warming snowless cities, towns and pastures. The average temperature in January, the coldest month, ranges from -15 °C in the south to -35 °C in the northwest. In mountain basins, frosty air stagnates, and thermometers sometimes record temperatures of -50 °C.

In the warm season, Atlantic air masses approach Mongolia. True, when traveling a long way over land, they waste their moisture. Its remains go mainly to the mountains, especially their northern and western slopes. Desert areas receive the least amount of rain Gobi. Summer in the country is warm, with an average daily temperature from north to south from +15 °C to +26 °C. IN Gobi Desert the air temperature can exceed +50 °C; in this corner of the planet, characterized by an extreme climate, the range of summer and winter temperatures is 113 °C.

Spring weather in Mongolia is extremely unstable. The air at this time becomes extremely dry, the winds carrying sand and dust sometimes reach the force of a hurricane. Temperature changes over a short period can amount to tens of degrees. Autumn here, on the contrary, is everywhere quiet, warm, sunny, but it lasts until the first days of November, the arrival of which marks the beginning of winter.

Culture and traditions

Mongolia is a mono-ethnic country. About 95% of its population are Mongols, a little less than 5% are peoples of Turkic origin speaking dialects of the Mongolian language, a small part are Chinese and Russians. The Mongol culture was initially formed under the influence of a nomadic lifestyle, and later it was strongly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.

Throughout Mongolia's history, shamanism, an ethnic religion widespread among the nomads of Central Asia, was widely practiced here. Gradually, shamanism gave way to Tibetan Buddhism; this religion became official at the end of the 16th century. The first Buddhist temple was built here in 1586, and by the early 30s of the last century there were more than 800 monasteries and about 3,000 temples in the country. During the years of militant atheism, places of worship were closed or destroyed, and thousands of monks were executed. In the 90s, after the fall of communism, traditional religions began to be revived. Tibetan Buddhism has returned to its dominant position, but shamanism continues to be practiced. The peoples of Turkic origin living here traditionally profess Islam.

Before the accession of Genghis Khan, there was no written language in Mongolia. The oldest work of Mongolian literature was “The Secret History of the Mongols” (or “Secret Legend”), dedicated to the formation of the clan of the great conqueror. It was written after his death, in the first half of the 13th century. The Old Mongolian script, created on the basis of the alphabet borrowed from the Uyghurs, existed with some changes until the mid-twentieth century. Today, Mongolia uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which differs from the Russian alphabet by two letters: Ө and Y.

Mongolian music was formed under the influence of nature, nomadic lifestyle, shamanism, and Buddhism. The symbol of the Mongolian nation is the traditional stringed musical instrument morinkhur, its headstock is made in the shape of a horse's head. Long-winded, melodic Mongolian music usually accompanies solo singing. Epic national songs praise the native land or favorite horse; lyrical motifs are usually heard at weddings or family celebrations. Throat and overtone singing is also famous, which, using a special breathing technique, creates the impression that the performer has two voices. Tourists are introduced to this unique form of art during ethnographic excursions.

The nomadic lifestyle of the Mongols was also expressed in local architecture. In the 16th-17th centuries, Buddhist temples were designed as rooms with six and twelve corners under a pyramidal roof, reminiscent of the shape of a yurt - the traditional dwelling of the Mongols. Later, temples began to be built in Tibetan and Chinese architectural traditions. The yurts themselves - mobile collapsible tent houses with a frame covered with felt felt - are still home to 40% of the country's population. Their doors still face the south - towards warmth, and in the north, the most honorable side of the yurt, they are always ready to welcome a guest.

The hospitality of the Mongols is legendary. According to one of them, Genghis Khan bequeathed to his people to always welcome travelers. And today, in the Mongolian steppes, nomads never refuse accommodation or food to strangers. Mongols are also very patriotic and united. It seems that they are all one big happy family. They treat each other with warmth, calling strangers “sister”, “brother”, demonstrating that the respectful relationships instilled in the family extend beyond its borders.

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All sights of Mongolia

Central Mongolia

In the middle of the Tove (Central) aimag, the main city of the country is located as an enclave. Ulaanbaatar and administratively subordinate territories. Almost half of Mongolia's population lives here. This vibrant, original city, surrounded by a dense ring of yurts, impresses with its contrasts. High-rise buildings coexist here with ancient Buddhist monasteries, modern skyscrapers coexist with faceless buildings from the times of socialism. The capital has the best hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, nightclubs, and a National Amusement Park.

The city has many monuments dedicated to national heroes and masterpieces of religious architecture. Architectural symbol Ulaanbaatar is Gandan Monastery, where 600 monks live permanently and religious ceremonies are held daily. The main attraction of the temple is a 26-meter statue of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, one of the most revered representatives of the Buddhist pantheon, covered with gold leaf. The palace complex represents the Chinese architectural tradition Bogdo Gegen. The last ruler of Mongolia lived here until 1924.

In the depths of the modern city, behind a palisade of skyscrapers, a beautiful temple complex hides Choijin-lamyn-sum(Temple of Choijin Lama). It includes several buildings, one of which houses the Museum of Tibetan-Mongolian Religious Art. Wonderful museums with rich collections in Ulaanbaatar about a dozen. The most famous of them are the National Museum of the History of Mongolia, the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Fine Arts.

Incredibly picturesque surroundings near and far Ulaanbaatar, where national parks are located surrounded by mountains. Among them the most famous Bogd-Khan-Uul, surrounding the mountain of the same name. In its gorge, according to legend, the young Genghis Khan hid from his enemies. There is a walking route through the park that leads to the top of the mountain, from where a spectacular panorama opens up. Ulaanbaatar.

From the capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, to Ulaanbaatar Buses depart daily. Departure – at 07:00, arrival at the station near the railway station Ulaanbaatar- at 20:00. The bus travels through the Mongolian cities of Sukhbaatar and Darkhan.

The territory of Mongolia is a huge plateau, which is elevated above sea level. Mountains with a height of 1500-3000 m occupy at least 40% of the area of ​​the entire country, and its high-mountain areas with a height of more than 3000 m occupy about 2.5-3%. Mongolia ranks 17th in the world in terms of the size of its territory.

Interesting fact: Mongolia is the smallest country in terms of population density, its density is approximately 1.7 people/sq.km. And the total population reaches about 3 million people.

Mongolia is a country where you can drive hundreds of kilometers and not meet a single person. In a number of areas, such as deserts and highlands, population density reaches a minimum threshold - from 0.01 to 1%.

In its great history, the ethnic groups of Mongolia have gone through a great many different periods of formation. As a result, with the formation of a single, united Mongolian people, the Greatest Mongolian state emerged. It was a great world empire, which to this day has no equal. Arin V.D. Russia and Mongolia at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries: economics, diplomacy, culture / V.D. Arin.--Irkutsk, BGUEP, 2013.--402 p.

In Mongolia, there is the world's tallest statue of a horse rider, which is an hour's drive from the capital. The Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the whole world.

Mongolia is home to 25% of all snow leopards living on our planet.

Mongolia is a country with an ancient history, and is fraught with many mysteries from the past.

An interesting discovery was announced in Mongolia. A Scythian warrior was found. It was discovered in the Altai region at an altitude of 2.6 kilometers. And the most interesting thing is that it was completely intact in the burial mound. As is obvious, he was a rich man, since he was covered with beaver and sable fur, and he also had a sheepskin on him. The warrior's body was covered with many tattoos.

And the main feature of this find was the warrior’s hair; he was blond. True, some scientists say that the hair could have become this color even after his death.

Near the grave, 2 horses were found with richly decorated bridles and saddles, as well as weapons, a clay vessel and animal horns. They were placed in the grave next to the mummy so that they could accompany him on the other side of life.

The rivers of Mongolia are born in the mountains. Most of them are the upper reaches of the great rivers of Siberia and the Far East, carrying their waters towards the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The largest rivers in the country are the Selenga (within the borders of Mongolia - 600 km), Kerulen (1100 km), Tesiin-Gol (568 km), Onon (300 km), Khalkhin-Gol, Kobdo. The deepest is the Selenga.

Mongolia has many permanent lakes and a much larger number of temporary lakes that form during the rainy season and disappear during the dry season. In the early Quaternary period, a significant part of the territory of Mongolia was an inland sea, which was later divided into several large bodies of water. The present lakes are what is left of them.

Next, consider the climate of Mongolia. Mongolia has a sharply continental climate with harsh winters and dry, hot summers. In the capital, the city of Ulaanbaatar, located approximately halfway between the mountain ranges of the north-west and the desert arid zone of the south-east of the country, temperatures range from minus 25 - 35 degrees in winter, to plus 25 - 35 degrees in summer. Ulaanbaatar is one of the coldest winter capitals in the world: the coldest month is January. The warmest month is July.

It is often cold in the mountainous regions, north and west of the country. Much of the country is hot in summer and very cold in winter, with January averages dropping to -30 degrees.

Let us consider in detail the administrative division of Mongolia.

Mongolia is divided into 21 aimags, which in turn have 329 somons. The capital Ulaanbaatar is an independent administrative unit.

Mongolia has an interesting address system. Due to the significant number of temporary settlements (yurts) in the country, which change their spatial location over time, traditional address systems (city, street, house) are not very suitable for Mongolia.

On February 2, 2008, the Government of Mongolia decided to adapt the Universal Address System technology to the needs of the country, that is, the use of Natural Area Code to address objects on the ground. This system allows you to address on the ground within the Earth, both entire regions and cities, individual houses and even small objects with an accuracy of up to a meter. The more accurately the address is specified, the longer its code. For example, the address of the city of Ulaanbaatar as a whole is RV-W QZ, and the address of the monument in the center of Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar is RW8SK QZKSL.

Although more people live in cities, Mongolia's economy is centered on industries such as mining and agriculture. Mineral resources such as copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten and gold make up a significant part of the country's industrial production.

In the period from 1924 to 1991, the MPR received large financial and economic assistance from the USSR. At its peak, this aid accounts for one third of its GDP. In the early 1990s. years and into the next decade, Mongolia's economy experienced a severe decline followed by stagnation.

Exports: copper and other non-ferrous metals, fluorspar, uranium ore, coal, oil, clothing, livestock, wool, hides, animal products, cashmere. The main buyers in 2011 are China (85.7%), Canada (6.3%) and Russia in 10th place (3%).

Imports: machinery and equipment, fuel, automobiles, food, industrial consumer goods, chemicals, building materials, cigarettes and tobacco products, household appliances, soaps and detergents, sugar, tea. The main suppliers in 2011 were China (43.4%), Russia (23.3%, mainly oil and electricity), South Korea (5.6%), Japan (5.1%).

Mongolia is a member of the World Trade Organization (since 1997). The country's main trading partners are China and Russia, and Mongolia's economy largely depends on these countries. In 2006, 68.4% of Mongolia's exports went to China, while imports accounted for only 29.8%. Mongolia imports about 95% of its petroleum products and part of its electricity from Russia, making the country extremely economically dependent.

Tibetan Buddhism was officially adopted in the country in 1578, but shamanism continues to be practiced by a small part of the population (primarily in the north of the country). By the time of the People's Revolution of 1921, there were 755 Buddhist monasteries and 120 thousand monks and priests in the country (out of a total population of 650 thousand people).

As a result of repression, by the end of the 1930s. years, all monasteries were closed or destroyed, and their property was nationalized.

In 1949, a single monastery was reopened in Ulaanbaatar, but the freedom of religion declared by the 1960 constitution was only ensured in the late 1980s. years and the revival of traditional Buddhism, shamanism, and Islam began (among the Kazakhs). Since the early 1990s, foreign Christian missions, Baha'is, Moonies and Mormons began their activities. Baabar History of Mongolia: From world domination to the Soviet satellite / Baabar. - Kazan: Tatarstan, 2010. - 543 p.

Mongolia's culture is heavily influenced by the traditional Mongolian nomadic lifestyle, as well as Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese and Russian cultures. Love of one's origins and family are valued in Mongolian culture; this is evident in everything from old Mongolian literature to modern music. Another characteristic and most important feature of the steppe people is hospitality. The yurt is an important part of Mongolian national identity; to this day, many Mongols live in yurts.

Education is one of the priority areas of Mongolia's domestic policy. To date, illiteracy in the country has been practically eliminated, thanks to the creation of seasonal boarding schools for children from nomadic families.

Since 1990, Mongolia has experienced social change and improvements in health care. The healthcare system includes 17 specialized hospitals, four regional diagnostic and treatment centers, nine district hospitals, 21 aimak and 323 soum hospitals. In addition, there are 536 private hospitals.

Some of the earliest examples of Mongolian fine art are rock paintings and bronze and copper weapons with images of animals. There is also an Iron Age stone stele here. Mongolian art was strongly influenced by the visual canons of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Indian, Nepalese and Chinese art. At the beginning of the 20th century, the tradition of secular painting began to develop in Mongolia, its founder was Baldugiin Sharav. After the revolution, for a long time the only acceptable style in Mongolian painting was socialist realism, and only in the 1960s did artists have the opportunity to move away from the canons. The first representatives of modernism in Mongolia were Choydogiin Bazarvaan and Badamzhavyn Chogsom.

The oldest literary and historical monument is the “Secret Legend of the Mongols.” One of the founders of modern Mongolian literature is the writer, poet and public figure Dashdorzhiin Natsagdorzh, the first translator of Pushkin’s works into the Mongolian language.

The instrumental ensemble occupies an important place in Mongolian music. Folk instruments: amankhur (harmonica), morinkhur and limbo (bamboo flute). There are traditional works for key instruments in Mongolian music. Vocal art also has a long tradition. Baldaev R.L. Public education in the Mongolian People's Republic / R.L. Baldaev. - M.: Mir., 1971. - 230 p.

In modern sports, Mongols are traditionally strong in single events. These are boxing, freestyle wrestling, judo, and shooting. In terms of the number of Olympic medals per capita, Mongolia is ahead of many highly developed countries. Quite exotic sports for Mongols, such as bodybuilding and powerlifting, are developing at an active pace.

The number of Armed Forces is 10.3 thousand people (2012).

Recruitment is carried out by conscription, the service period is 12 months. Men aged from 18 to 25 years are called up. Currently, the Mongolian army is undergoing a reform aimed at increasing combat effectiveness and updating the technical fleet of weapons and military equipment. Russian, American and other specialists are actively participating in this process.

Since 2002, Mongolia has been involved in peacekeeping activities.