Moscow: Publishing House "International Relations". 1975. 590 pp. The print run is 3000 copies. Price 1 rub. 51 kopecks.

The first volume of the collective work of Soviet and Mongolian scientists , 1 published simultaneously in Moscow and Ulaanbaatar, contains documents and materials describing relations between the USSR and Mongolia from 1921 to 1940.

Speaking in Ulaanbaatar at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Third Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the proclamation of the Mongolian People's Republic (MNR), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev said: "Relations between the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic appear today to the whole world as a model of relations of a socialist type imbued with a shared interest in each other's success... Friendship with the People's Mongolia, our oldest ally in the struggle for socialism , is for us, the Soviet people, a matter of honor and international duty."2 The materials of the reviewed book clearly confirm this assessment of the relationship between the Soviet and Mongolian peoples.

Compared to previous similar publications, 3 this is the most comprehensive collection of documentary materials on the history of Soviet-Mongolian relations. When selecting documents, preference was given to new, not yet published sources; from previously published sources, the book includes all the most important documents. In total, the volume contains 276 documents, of which 120 were widely published in the USSR for the first time and 252 in the MPR. Along with the Soviet documents, the book includes a large number of Mongolian documents.

The preface briefly describes the situation in Mongolia and the events in it on the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the People's Revolution in Mongolia. The Soviet Government in February 1918 and August 1919, in appeals to the Government of autonomous Mongolia, declared that Soviet Russia had renounced the enslaving treaties imposed on Mongolia by tsardom, that it had cancelled its loan debts, and that it recognized the right of the Mongolian people to independence and was ready to establish equal relations with it. However, the Mongol feudal lords, who were most afraid of the influence of the October ideas on their people, ignored these appeals, agreed to the occupation of Mongolia by Chinese militarists, and to eliminate its autonomous administration. The workers of Mongolia sought to establish fraternal relations with Soviet Russia. Their struggle for the independence and freedom of the country was led by the MPRP, which emerged in March 1921 on the basis of the revolutionary Arat (peasant) circles created in 1919 under the leadership of D. Sukhbaatar and Kh. Choibal-sana. Provisional People's Government of Mongolia March 16, 1921 It appealed to the RSFSR to provide military assistance to the Mongolian people in the fight against the White Guard gangs of Baron Ungern (doc. N 9). In the joint combat operations of the Red Army and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army units, a strong friendship between the two peoples was formed.

The Agreement between the Government of the RSFSR and the People's Government of Mongolia on the Establishment of Friendly Relations between Russia and Mongolia (doc. No. 46) and V. I. Lenin's Conversation with the Delegation of People's Mongolia (doc. No. 45) are important. These acts laid the foundations for friendship and mutual assistance of fraternal peoples, and they contributed to the victory of the Mongolian revolution, the strengthening of Mongolia's independence and its entry into a non-capitalist path of development. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the MPRP, Chairman of the Presidium of the Great People's Hural of the MPRP Yu. Tsedenbal highly appreciated the mentioned agreement: "The fraternal fighting Soviet-Mongolian Union received its interstate legal consolidation in the agreement signed on November 5

1 Editorial Board: Soviet part-F. I. Dolgikh (ed.), M. V. Iskrov, I. S. Kazakevich, M. S. Kapitsa, M. A. Kiselev, L. I. Panin, M. F. Tokarev, T. A. Yakimova; Mongolian part - G. Tserendorzh (ed.), Ch. Mizheehuu, Sh. Sandag, M. Sanjdorj, L. Hashbat, D. Tsedavsuren, B. Tseden. Compiled by: the Soviet part-V. I. Bushkov, I. M. Golman, L. I. Panin (ed.), G. I. Slesarchuk, E. N. Shakhnazarova; the Mongolian part-B. Balzhirgaram, S. Ichinnorov, D. Myagmarsuren, C. Tseveendorzh, D. Tsedevsuren (ed.). S. Kazakevich.

2 L. I. Brezhnev. Lenin's Course, vol. 5, Moscow, 1976, pp. 205, 206.

3 " Soviet-Mongolian relations. 1921-1966. " M. 1966, et al.

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1921 An agreement on the establishment of friendly relations between Mongolia and the Land of the Soviets, which was based entirely on the principles of proletarian internationalism. " 4 Lenin's conversation with the Mongolian delegates (including Sukhbaatar) was of great importance for the fate of Mongolia, for the formation and consolidation of Soviet-Mongolian friendship. Answering their questions, Lenin stressed that the only correct way for the workers of Mongolia was to fight for state and economic independence in alliance with the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia, and that the creation of a people's revolutionary party was a prerequisite for the success of this struggle. "Only from the islands of the new economic system created under the influence of the party and the government, "Lenin said," will a new non - capitalist economic system of Arat Mongolia be formed " (p.57). The historical significance of this conversation was noted by Leonid Brezhnev: "The chronicle of our friendship has many glorious pages. But, as before, the memory of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's historic meeting with Sukhbaatar, the fearless leader of the Mongolian revolution, is especially dear to all of us. This meeting marks the beginning of a long road that we have walked shoulder to shoulder."5 Yu Tsedenbal stressed at the XXV Congress of the CPSU: "We are glad and proud that the torch of Mongolian-Soviet friendship, lit by the great Lenin and the leader of the Mongolian People's Revolution Sukhbaatar, is in the safe hands of our Marxist-Leninist parties. And it will burn unquenchably and forever as a symbol of the indissoluble brotherhood of our peoples. " 6
Of great interest is the Protocol on Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the Mongolian People's Republic of March 12, 1936 (doc. N 214). The Protocol provided for mutual support in preventing and preventing the threat of a military attack. When the Japanese militarists invaded the territory of the MNR in the Khalkhin Gol region in the summer of 1939, the Red Army and the People's Revolutionary Army of the MNR fought together in battles with large formations of aggressors. This is evidenced by documents (NN 247 - 263) reflecting the course of hostilities in the Khalkhin Gol area, which ended with the defeat of Japanese troops. This victory saved the Mongol people from enslavement by the Japanese militarists, thwarted their plans to use the territory of the MNR as a springboard for the invasion of the USSR.

In addition to documents describing party-political and interstate relations, military cooperation, the volume contains treaties, agreements, notes, telegrams, etc.on economic, including trade, scientific and technical, as well as cultural relations between the USSR and the MNR. Among them are the 1934 Agreement on the Basis of Soviet-Mongolian trade between the USSR and the MNR (doc. N 194), the 1934 Agreement on Soviet-Mongolian mixed Companies (doc. N 193), the Memorandum of the Soviet-Mongolian commission on the transfer of the joint-stock company "Mongoltrans" to the MNR government of April 9, 1936 with proposals on the further work of the society (doc. N 218), etc. Relations between the USSR and the MNR have always been based on friendship and fraternal cooperation, which is vividly illustrated by the Soviet and Mongolian documents cited in the book. Of considerable interest are the notes that are given to 268 documents. They reveal the historical significance of documents reflecting the internationalist nature of relations between the USSR and the MNR.

As an appendix, the volume includes the memoirs of L. E. Berlin, who participated in the Soviet-Mongolian negotiations in the autumn of 1921; a member of the Mongolian delegation B. Tserendorzh about the meeting with Lenin; Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov about the results of the battles in the Khalkhin-Gol area. This section could be supplemented with the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky, who participated in the liberation of Mongolia from Unger's gangs in 1921.7
Unfortunately, the book lacks some important documents, in particular the materials of the Third Congress of the MPRP, whose significance is enormous, because it defined the general course of Mongolia's non-capitalist development towards socialism, and brought the Mongolian and Soviet peoples and their parties even closer together ideologically and politically. It would also be desirable to include X's memoirs in the volume. Choibalsana on the beginning of the Mongolian Revolution and

4 Yu. Tsedenbal. Selected articles and Speeches, Moscow, 1974, p. 536.

5 L. I. Brezhnev. Op. ed., pp. 204-205.

6 "Greetings to the XXV Congress of the CPSU", Moscow, 1976, p. 46.

7 "Youth of ancient Mongolia", Moscow, 1964.

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in the battles for the liberation of Mongolia, in which he participated as deputy commander of the People's Revolutionary Army 8 . The publication of the collection of documents on Soviet-Mongolian relations is an event of great political and scientific significance, a testament to the brotherhood and comprehensive cooperation of the peoples of the two countries.

8 Choibalsan Village. A brief outline of the history of the Mongolian People's Revolution, Moscow, 1952.

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