Creating national identity in socialist Mongolia

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 35-49

  Kaplonski, Christopher ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

^b RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIC NATIONALISM; ETHNIC NATIONALISM; ETHNICITY; NATIONAL IDENTITY; SOCIALISM;

CHINA; MONGOLIA;

EID: 0031751904     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634939808401022     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. I do not mean to argue that this distinction should be totally erased. It has certain uses. Rather, I am suggesting that often attempts to maintain a distinction between types of nationalism or national identity (i.e. civic vs. ethnic) have the effect of clouding, rather than clarifying the issue.
2. 'Messy' at the level of being able to separate out components, at any rate. Nationalism and national identity as manifested in post-socialist Mongolia is, on the surface at least, much 'neater'.
3. The use of terms such as 'ethnic group' or 'tribe' is problematical here. The exact nature of these groups, however, is not as vital to our current project as the fact that they, not the 'nation' served as the loci of identity. (See Sneath, 1997, for an alternative model of pre-national social structure in Mongolia.)
4. There is no publication date on the book itself, but textual references to events of 1924 make this the most likely publication date. Despite its anonymous nature and lack of other information, Charles Bawden, in a letter pasted in the back of the Cambridge University Library's copy (formerly belonging to Dr Lindgren) notes: 'It shows all the signs of being genuine - references to past events, spellings, and so on.'
5. Treaties do tend to refer to 'Mongolia' as a whole, but two points must be made. The first is that the concerns of international politics can be influential in shaping how a group represents itself (e.g. Norbu, 1992; Mountcastle, 1996). The second is that this usage tells us nothing about the beliefs and feelings of most of the people - our concern here.
6. This fascinating pamphlet is worthy of further study in its own right. Originally published in 1960, it was reissued by the Government Archives in 1992, in (slightly delayed) commemoration of the 1911 Revolution. The 1992 edition has a number of paragraphs deleted from the 1960 edition (apparently left out after being declared 'not important,' to which one can safely impute political reasons). The restored introductory paragraph notes how the Mongol aimags had been separated for over 200 years, and ruled by the Chinese, Manchus and Russians. While this sounds more nationalistic, and there are references to Chinggis Khaan and the Mongol Empire, we still do not find the Mongols being referred to as a single nation.
7. They further refer to the Bogd Khaan as 'the symbol of Mongol nationalism' (ibid), but in this case, their choice of words is unfortunate.
8. Unfortunately, Dindub's is not available to me for consultation.
9. My basic argument is premised on the conjunction of this time period with 'successful collectivization in Mongolia during the late 1950s. I, following Hosking (1989), suggest that there is a connection between collectivization and social memory. See also my comment (above) that textbooks declare this same general period to be the creation of socialist Mongolia.
10. The argument I am making here has a parallel in the idea of physical action as a form of 'habit memory,' which, it has been argued, serves to reinforce memory in other forms (Connerton, 1989).
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