How sparsely populated Mongolia helped the USSR in the fight against Hitler, almost like the United States

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Mongols were the first to volunteer to help the Soviet Union repel the attack of Nazi Germany. A remote and weak country with a small population and a backward economy, under the threat of Japanese invasion, helped the USSR as much as it could. Defense supplies to the Russians from this country are in some respects comparable with the help of the United States under the Lend-Lease program.

Mongolian government decision and Mongolian people's reaction

The history of Mongolian-Soviet relations goes back to the period of the Civil War on the territory of Russia. The people's revolution of the Mongols in 1921 won with all the support of the country of the Soviets, which sided with the Mongol revolutionaries. Back in 1920, the future leaders of the Mongol revolution came into contact with the Russian Bolsheviks, becoming, in fact, the first military trained in Russia. Therefore, on June 22, 1941, as soon as Nazi Germany launched an open aggression against Moscow, a government meeting was held in Mongolia.

On the same day, it was decided to help the Soviet Union fight against the Nazis. And the intentions of the Mongolian leaders were not at all ostentatious. By the autumn, under the government of the People's Republic, a Central Commission was formed, organizations for aid to the front were created in each aimag. Their tasks were to provide assistance to the Red Army, and a massive river of donations poured from all over the country.

Mongolian People's Echelons

At that time, the population of the Mongolian People's Republic was by no means distinguished by a decent standard of living. At the same time, ordinary Mongolian cattle breeders literally carried the last crumbs from poor household stocks. Brigades for the preparation of meat and furs worked in the aimags. In the USSR, warm clothes, food and medicine were transferred to the fighting units of the Red Army. The white sheepskin coats of officers, known from Soviet war films, have become the trademark of the help of the Asians of the Red Army. Ordinary Mongolian workers did not go home even after the end of the work shift.

Representatives of all strata of the Mongolian people contributed to the victory of the USSR. Without a developed industry at their disposal, the Mongols could not help the Soviet Union with tangible batches of specialized military equipment. A squadron called "Mongolian Arat" and a tank brigade, which were named "Revolutionary Mongolia" by friendly Asians, were formed with voluntary donations from Mongol workers. This cost Mongolia almost 4 million rubles, which was a huge amount for a state of this level.

The first national aid echelon in the fall of 1941 brought 15 thousand short fur coats, felt boots, mittens, quilted jackets, scarves and warm leather and woolen things from Mongolia. The second echelon in the winter of 1942 brought to the Western Front almost 150 tons of meat, tens of tons of sausages, canned food, bread, butter and another batch of warm clothes. More than 200 carriages of the third echelon, in addition to food and clothing, delivered felt yurts and ammunition for Soviet cavalrymen to the USSR. In March 1943, another train arrived, and by the end of the year, two more. In addition to the usual products and valuable foodstuffs, gifts to Soviet soldiers arrived on behalf of Mongolian friends.

Every fifth front-line horse is from Mongolia

The contribution of the Mongols to the supply of front-line horses to the Red Army became especially valuable. For 4 years, up to half a million horses of the "Mongol" breed have entered the borders of the USSR. Animals at the front were closing the hole in the absence of military equipment. The horses were delivered on a planned basis, at a conventional cost. For the most part, this was offset for debts to the USSR. In this way, the political, economic and military investments of the Bolsheviks in the Mongolian People's Republic paid off.

A distinctive feature of Mongolian horses was unpretentiousness. Semi-wild animals accustomed to harsh conditions came to the court in the extreme conditions of the front against the background of thoroughbred breeding European animals. More than 30 thousand Mongolian horsemen (for 6 cavalry divisions on a wartime scale) were donated to the Soviet Union as a gift from the Arats. In fact, after 1943, every fifth front-line horse was Mongolian.

Mongolian volunteers

To date, the exact number of volunteers from Mongolia who participated in the Patriotic War on the side of the Red Army has not been established. But most military historians agree that more than one thousand Mongols have visited the borders of the Eastern Front. They fought as sappers and cavalrymen, from natural-born hunters they made excellent snipers. The trained and strengthened Mongolian army later, in 1945, became a serious opponent of the Kwantung Army.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, every 10th Mongol took part in the Soviet-Japanese battles. Mongolian history has preserved the memory of a shepherd woman named Engeliin Badam, who gave about 100 horses, 16 camels and over one and a half thousand sheep to the Russian front.

One of the most famous Mongols who fought on the side of the Russians was Dolzhinsүrengiin Sүkhee. He came to the USSR even before the start of the war. After graduating with honors from the Kostroma technical school, he went to Moscow to improve his qualifications. Later he worked in the Mongolian embassy, was subjected to repression, was sent to settle in a colony, and then mobilized to the front as a Baltic sailor. Here they decided to shorten the complex Asian name, and Dolzhinsүrengiin Sүkhee turned into Sukhova. He fought bravely in the most dangerous sectors of the Leningrad Front, repeatedly crossed the front line as a scout, taking more than one "language". At the end of 1943, the military unit of Sukhov was sent to destroy the enemy tank column. In that battle, Marine Sukhov was seriously wounded and was discharged. He repeatedly asked to be reinstated in the ranks of his comrades, but his health condition did not allow the command to take such a step. And already from the beginning of the war with the Japanese, he managed to register at the front, where he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star.

It is hard to believe that Mongolia was once a huge invincible empire that was destroyed by hordes of mosquitoes.