893.01 Outer Mongolia/5: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:20 p.m.]
236. In the course of a highly confidential conversation Karakhan65 who has just returned from a mission to the Mongolian Republic made the following statement to me:
“I was sent to the Mongolian Republic because of the discovery of a most serious Japanese plot to overthrow the Mongolian Government and to replace it by a pro-Japanese Government. Several members of the Government, high officers in the Army and leading members of the Mongolian OGPU were in Japanese pay. Five members of the Government and various officers in the Army and members of the OGPU were decapitated. The position of the Government is now secure.
During my visit the Mongolian Republic again asked to be admitted to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union refused the request as it has refused in the past a half dozen similar requests because we do not wish at this moment to frighten various foreign countries by an action which will certainly be called ‘Bolshevik imperialism’. We greatly prefer the present situation in Mongolia. We have our representatives in the Government, the Army and the OGPU and in reality completely control the Government. The Mongolian Government [Page 233] a number of times has desired to introduce communism but in every case we have advised the Government to refrain from communist measures because in a country of nomads communism is an absurdity. There is but one factory in the whole of Mongolia, a textile mill with 700 employees. We hope that the Mongolian Republic will continue indefinitely as a ‘petit bourgeois’ state under our control.”
- L. M. Karakhan, former Soviet Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs.↩