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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ULAANBAATAR 000454 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
SIPDIS 
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 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶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 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000454  002 OF 003 
 
 
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? 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶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 
---------------------------- 
 
¶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? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000454  003 OF 003 
 
 
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 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶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