Genghis Khan Makes A Comeback

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ULAANBAATAR 000454

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI MG
SUBJECT: Genghis Khan Makes A Comeback

Refs: (A) Ulaanbaatar 381, (B) 05 Ulaanbaatar 601, (C)
05 Ulaanbaatar 436


1. Earlier this week, Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan)
replaced the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
(MPRP). The MPRP, the social democratic descendant of
the Communist Party which ruled Mongolia for nearly
seven decades, is the dominant party in the coalition
government formed in January. Akin to Los Angeles'
trademark "Hollywood" sign, the Cyrillic abbreviation
of the MPRP long has been emblazoned in white rocks on
the hills just south of Ulaanbaatar, a highly visible
emblem of the party's strength and influence. No more.
In the place of "MPRP," a huge portrait of Chinggis
Khaan now gazes northward over the capital.

800th Anniversary a Boon to Rebirth
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2. Genghis has had a good year, his presence expanding
as Mongolia prepares for a summer of celebrations to
mark the 800th anniversary of his establishment of the
Mongolian state in 1206 (refs a and b). In December,
he made a nominal conquest with the conversion of the
capital's "Buyant-Ukhaa Airport" to the "Chinggis Khaan
International Airport." Last August (ref c),a planned
memorial for him in central Ulaanbaatar required the
secretive, wee hours relocation of the remains of

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Sukhbaatar (the short-lived hero of the 1921
independence resolution) and Choibalsan (the Stalinist
era dictator who killed many, but who enjoys a mixed
legacy, being credited with preventing Mongolia from
being subsumed into the Soviet Union). In place of
their joint mausoleum, the massive new Chinggis Khaan
memorial complex will stand between Sukhbaatar Square
and Government House, the block square structure
containing Mongolia's legislature and the offices of
the President and Prime Minister.

Poor Planning Slows Khan's Memorial
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3. Unfortunately, the Chinggis Khaan memorial will not
be ready for this summer, the consequence of being
started too late and with a woefully inadequate initial
budget. The State Great Hural (parliament) just
approved a supplemental allocation for it and other
anniversary-related expenses. However, there are less
than four weeks to go before Naadam, the July 11-13
holiday which is a combination of national day and the
Mongolian-style Olympics (those being the "manly"
sports of horseracing, archery, and wrestling). The
memorial structure presently is roofless, the 64
massive five-storey tall concrete columns only now
beginning to be clad with stone. Authorities have
dropped statements of only a few weeks ago that the
exterior of the structure would be complete by Naadam
and the interior by November. Leaders grumble about
inadequate planning by "the previous government" (in
which the MPRP was a full partner before deposing it).

Communists Were Uncomfortable With Chinggis Khaan
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4. Since Mongolia's democratic revolution in 1990,
Chinggis Khaan has emerged as a potent symbol of
national pride and Mongolia's former world-shaking
power, and as a unifying figure above the economic
difficulties and petty politics of the current day.
The public adulation marks a great change. One year
after Mongolia was admitted to the United Nations in
1961, Mongolia's 2nd ranking Communist leader
authorized a stamp series, small monument, and
historical seminar to commemorate the 800th anniversary
of the great khan's birth. The Soviet Union reacted
with fury; Russians did not have fond memories of the
Mongol empire, and saw any positive reference to
Chinggis Khaan as a dangerous sign of Mongolian

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nationalism. The contrite MPRP deposed the leader and
exiled him internally. He was later hacked to death
with an axe. Scholars of Mongolian history were
imprisoned and some secretly executed. Years later,
the MPRP surrender of the capital's commanding heights
to Chinggis Khaan seems to validate the Soviet fears in

1962.

Historical Struggle: What Chinese Dynasty?
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5. Struggles over history have not completely
vanished. Two weeks ago, President Enkhbayar told the
Ambassador that there is an active debate over whether
to carry out the original plan to place a statue of
Khubilai Khan outside the memorial structure (which
will have a huge central statue of Chinggis Khaan, and
on one side a statue of Ogodei Khan, who ruled the
Mongolian empire from 1229-1241). The problem with
Khubilai Khan, Enkhbayar said, is the link to Chinese
history: Khubilai Khan, who ruled the Mongolian empire
from 1260-1294, also founded China's Yuan dynasty in

1279. While proud of Khubilai Khan's conquest of their
much larger neighbor, democratic Mongolia has sometimes
urged Chinese scholars to retroactively remove the Yuan
from their list of dynasties, the better to underline
Mongolia's utter separation from the Middle Kingdom.
The Yuan dynasty ended in 1368 and the Mongolians were
expelled. In the 1700s, one side in an internal
Mongolian struggle invited the Chinese in, and it took
Russian help to help finally end Chinese rule in 1921.
Looking past the Stalinist era purges and effective
Russian colonial rule in the world's second Communist
state, Mongolians today remain grateful to the Russians
and wary of the Chinese. In surveys, 54% describe
Russia as Mongolia's best partner, as compared to 15%
for China (and 44% for the United States).

Genghis Brand All-Conquering
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6. Chinggis Khaan's status, however, contains no such
grey areas, and the new portrait gazing benevolently
over Ulaanbaatar is not necessarily the end of the
matter. The 800th anniversary organizing committee
proposed to change the capital's name (a Communist era
creation meaning "Red Hero") to "Chinggis City." The
national anthem is being revised for the anniversary,
and we would not be surprised to see the Great Khan's
name crop up in the new lyrics. Foreign territory is
not immune: last year, Ambassador Bold urged
Washington, DC to make space for a Chinggis Khaan
monument in some corner of the city unoccupied by
America's own legendary figures. Our own commemorative
embassy coin bears the State Department seal on one
side and the same portrait of Genghis Khan on the
reverse as now gazes down on the capital (the portrait
was done years after his death by a court painter
during the Yuan Dynasty, with the result he looks more
like a benevolent Chinese ruler than a hardy nomadic
conqueror). Still, some in Mongolia's legislature have
grown disturbed by the commercial use of Genghis Khan's
name, and have suggested legislation to restrict this.
Those interested in such things may need to buy their
Genghis beer and Genghis vodka soon, and book their
vacation in the Chinggis Khaan ger camp just outside
the capital.

Mixed Feelings Among Some Foreign Guests?
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7. Elsewhere, Genghis Khan's image as merely a
brutally bloody conqueror is undergoing a bit of a
makeover (partially due to Jack Weatherford's 2004
book),but some of the foreign visitors to the
celebrations this summer may have mixed emotions.
After all, Chinggis Khaan's unification of the
disparate Mongolian tribes in 1206 also organized the

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nation for the conquests abroad that soon ensued. This
may not so much trouble the Dutch Crown Prince, who
arrives in Mongolia today to begin a four-day visit.
The Mongols stopped the westward reach of their
conquests in Hungary in 1241 (Weatherford opines they
found the European climate and the loot not to their
liking). We wonder, however, whether Russian Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov, one of the foreign throng
slated to be here during Naadam, will be thinking of
the Mongol conquest of Russia which began in 1223. The
100 Mongolian soldiers now attached to the
multinational force in Iraq may want to mute their own
celebrations; Baghdad never quite recovered from the
Mongolian armies who ransacked it in 1258.

Thanks to U.S. Aid, Mongolian Troops Again Roam World
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8. COMMENT: The United States has not yet decided on
its own official representative to the celebrations,
but our own attitude should be less conflicted. As a
young nation ourselves, without the possibly painful
memories others may have of Mongolia's beginnings, the
U.S. can stay focused firmly on supporting Mongolia as
a modern day example of democratic and economic
transformation in Asia, and as an emerging peacekeeping
contributor whose troops are assisting that same
transformation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and
Kosovo. Mongolia has a proud past which includes
Genghis Khan, but it is the U.S.-Mongolia
"comprehensive partnership" of shared values and common
interests which is central to this country's future.
END COMMENT.

SLUTZ