Political repression was a constant fact of life under socialist rule in Mongolia, as it was elsewhere, such as the Soviet Union. It reached its peak in an eighteen month span from 1937 to 1939, when at least 22,000 to 25,000 lost their lives. Many were Buddhist lamas or Buriats, one of the various Mongolian ethnic groups. But many people were also simply 'caught up' in the repressions, and some were apparently simply arrested and shot to make quotas. The total number killed in the 1930s was around 4 per cent of the total population of the time.
Estimates of the total number of people arrested vary between 35,000 and 100,000, although the lower end is more likely for the period in the 1930s. Lamas were forced to leave the Buddhism church, or pay exhorbitant 'taxes.' Most of those killed or arrested in the repressions were the intellectuals and other elites of Mongolia. Entire villages - especially along the northern border, where Buriats lived - were almost completely stripped of their adult male population. Most people were charged with being Japanese spies and/or counter-revolutionaries. The vast majority of the more than 700 monasteries in Mongolia were also destroyed, as were countless historical and religious artifacts.
Den som kan detta och mer därtill är Christoffer Kaplinski. Här hans hemsida med länkar till artiklar. Han jobbar dessutom nu på en bok om 1930-talets Mongoliet.
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