As party leader, Eldev-Ochir pushed for rapid implementation of socialist policies (forced collectivization and property confiscation) during the “Leftist” period of the early 1930s, led the persecution of institutional Buddhism in Mongolia, and backed Soviet-sponsored purges of counterrevolutionary elements, particularly Buryat-Mongols, during the Lkhümbe affair in 1934-1935.

Eldev-Ochir was born in 1905 in Zasagt Khan Province where, from 1922 to 1925, he was leader of the local cell of the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League (MYRL).

[4] In March 1930, Eldev-Ochir was appointed head of the Internal Security Directorate and ordered to suppress uprisings against the government’s unpopular policies by lamas at Tögsbuyant and Ulaangom monasteries in Uvs Province.

In response, Moscow ordered the curtailment of socialist policies and purged several MPRP leaders (including Badrah, Shijee, and Prime Minister Tsengeltiin Jigjidjav) as agents of “Leftist Deviation” in May 1932.

In spring 1933 Prime Minister Genden and Eldev-Ochir consented to the arrest of party secretary Jambyn Lkhümbe in the wake of spurious allegations that he was head of a Japanese spy ring plotting the government's overthrow.

The subsequent investigation, known as the " Lkhümbe Affair," implicated hundreds of Mongolians and resulted in the purge of numerous high ranking politicians and military officers, particularly Buryat-Mongols.

Under house arrest at the Black Sea resort town of Foros, Genden was desperate to return to Mongolia and at one point reached out to Eldev-Ochir, who was vacationing in nearby Yalta, for assistance.