Bazaryn Shirendev

Bazaryn Shirendev was born on 16 May 1911 in Dalai Choinkhor Wang banner (later Shine-Ider District, Khövsgöl Province), the sixth of 13 children.

In 1930, he began working as the manager of the Chuluut District commune, and in 1932 was sent to the Mongolian Workers' Faculty in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryat ASSR.

[1][2] On returning to Mongolia in 1941, Shirendev was appointed as a reference assistant to Khorloogiin Choibalsan and worked in the Gobi areas.

[1][2] While chairing a special commission re-evaluating the Stalin-era purges, Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, who had taken power in 1952, tried to arrest Shirendev as a spy.

Shirendev was chairman of the Permanent Committee of the International Congress of Mongolists from 1970 to 1982, and wrote books expressing the official views on Mongolian history, including Mongolia on the Boundary of the 19th and 20th Centuries, History of the Mongolian People’s Revolution, and Bypassing Capitalism, which were translated into several foreign languages.

Although he was officially described as a "renowned scientist and brilliant and talented organizer and administrator", Shirendev was ousted from all positions and the academy's presidency in January 1982 on Tsedenbal's orders, for his alleged "lack of principle and party spirit".