The square was named for Mongolian revolutionary hero Damdin Sükhbaatar after his death in 1923, and features a monumental equestrian statue of him in its center.

Just east of the Government Palace, on the square's north-east corner, sits the former home to the State Printing Press, a white two story building designed by German architect Kavel Maher in the 1920s,[7] which re-opened as the Galleria Ulaanbaatar Shopping Mall in 2018.

[8] To the south sits the old Lenin Club building (built in 1929) located right next to the modern sail shaped skyscraper, Blue Sky Tower.

An open-air field was located just south of the temple complex and was surrounded on all sides by rough-hewn wooden fences and prayer wheels.

The newspaper "Izvestiya Ulanbator khoto" reported on July 15, 1925, that "in line with Mongolian tradition, the fourth anniversary of the People's Revolution was celebrated with rallies at the square dedicated to D.Sükhbaatar".

[7] The theater also hosted party conferences and, during the Great Purge of 1937–1939, was the site of show trials where numerous victims were condemned to death.

[7] After the theater was destroyed by fire in 1949, Mongolia's leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan ordered the construction of the Government Palace on its site in 1951, which still stands today.

[1] Large parades were also staged for important visitors, such as when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev made an official visit to Mongolia in 1966.

[12][13] Sükhbaatar Square was also the scene of the violent riots on July 1, 2008 when 5 people were shot dead and many more injured while protesting parliamentary election results.