His rule marked the first and last time in modern Mongolian history that an individual had complete political power. Sometimes referred to as "the Stalin of Mongolia", Choibalsan oversaw Soviet-ordered purges in the late s that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30, to 35, Mongolians. Most of the victims were Buddhist clergy , intelligentsia , political dissidents , ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs and other "enemies of the revolution. Throughout his rule, Mongolia's economic, political and military ties to the USSR deepened, infrastructure and literacy rates improved and international recognition of Mongolia's independence expanded, especially after World War II.
His father was likely a Daur Mongol from Inner Mongolia called Jamsu, but Choibalsan claimed to be unaware of his identity. In part to prevent him from being returned to the monastery, a sympathetic Buryat teacher named Nikolai Danchinov had him enrolled in the Russian consulate's Russian-Mongolian Translators' School.
Original members of the group also included Dambyn Chagdarjav and Darizavyn Losol. No longer faced with directly confronting the Chinese in Mongolia, the Soviets finally threw their backing behind the Mongolian revolutionaries.
At a Soviet-organized MPP conference held secretly in Troitskosavsk from March 1 to 3, subsequently regarded as the first congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party , Choibalsan was elected a member of the provisional revolutionary government. Joint Mongol and Red Army forces directly confronted Ungern's troops in a series of battles near Troitskosavsk from late May to mid-June. Choibalsan pursued remnants of Ungern's army and was likely on hand at Ungern's capture by Shchetinkin on August 22, While he often gravitated towards the leftist faction of the party, he was suspected of being a rightist in what little mention is made of him in Soviet and Mongolian reports of the era.
It was not until members of the Soviet security apparatus such as Soviet Commissar for Defense Kliment Voroshilov took note of Choibalsan's political usefulness in the late s and early s that his career prospects began to improve. In late , Choibalsan's MRYL foot soldiers carried out Prime Minister Bodoo's modernization campaign of forcibly cutting off "feudal" ornaments from Mongolian clothing large cuffs, women's jewelry, long hair etc.
