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.

Exposed to Bolshevism while living among Irkutsk's radicalized student population,[6] Choibalsan joined the revolutionary Consular Hill or Konsulyn Denj (Консулын дэнж) group, heavily influenced by Bolshevist philosophy and established to resist the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia after 1919.

In late June 1920, Choibalsan and Danzan embarked for Irkutsk (they were later joined by Losol, Chagdarjav, Dogsom, L. Dendev, and Sükhbaatar—the famous "First Seven") to establish contacts with the Soviets and seek assistance in their struggle for independence.

[10] While the group of seven continued their lobbying efforts in Soviet Russia, forces commanded by the anti-Bolshevik Russian warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia from the east and ejected occupying Chinese garrisons from Khüree in February 1921.

[12] Within days, Sükhbaatar's Mongolian partisan army (now numbering 400 men) defeated the larger but demoralized Chinese garrison that had fled to Kyakhta Maimaicheng (modern-day Altanbulag).

[15] His heavy drinking, womanizing, and violent temperament alienated him from party leaders and at one point in the early 1930s he was temporarily demoted from being Minister of Foreign Affairs to the role of simple Museum Director.

[16] In late 1921, 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.).

[17] The angry public backlash led to Bodoo's purge and eventual execution in August 1922, while Choibalsan was stripped of both full party membership and his position as deputy commander of the Mongolian military.

The rise of Josef Stalin and termination of Lenin's New Economic Policy influenced political developments in the MPR with the 1928 MPRP Seventh Party Congress ushering in the "Leftist Period."

Soviet advisors arranged for Choibalsan to be "kicked upstairs" to be Chairman of the Little Hural (i.e. titular head of state)[18] from where, in 1929 and 1930, he supported implementation of Soviet-backed leftist policies of more rapid collectivization, land expropriation, and persecution of the Buddhist faith.

At the Eighth Party Congress in 1930 Choibalsan contributed to a ramping up of leftist socialist reforms when, again encouraged by Soviet agents, he introduced personally formulated decrees that intensified land confiscation and forced collectivization measures.

Comintern agents counted on Choibalsan to be a strong advocate for its New Turn policy to correct the "excesses" of "the Left Deviation" when it was introduced in an extraordinary plenum of the MPRP Central Committee in June 1932.

[28] Acting under Moscow's directive, Choibalsan then had Genden purged in March 1936 for sabotaging Mongol-Soviet relations by rejecting Stalin's demand that he eliminate the country's Buddhist clergy.

Possibly advised by a Soviet Official, Chopyak,[28] Choibalsan had Internal Affairs Committee rules amended in May 1936 to facilitate the detention of high ranking politicians without first consulting political superiors.

[35] While the NKVD effectively managed the purge by staging show trials and carrying out executions,[36] a frequently intoxicated[37] Choibalsan was sometimes present during torture[37] and interrogations of suspected counterrevolutionaries, including old friends and comrades.

[36][37] Racked with stress, Choibalsan spent six months (August 1938 – January 1939) recuperating and consulting with Voroshilov, Yezhov, and Stalin in Moscow and Sochi[38] while NKVD agents and Interior Ministry officials carried on purge operations from Ulaanbaatar.

Secure in his position, Choibalsan brought the terror to an end in April 1939 by declaring that the excesses of the purges had been conducted by overzealous party officials while he was away in the USSR, but that he had overseen the arrests of the real criminals.

Over the course of three battles (May – September 1939) a heavily armoured Soviet military force commanded by Georgy Zhukov decisively defeated the Japanese advance near the village of Nomonhan.

[41] Nevertheless, the victory, which took place close to his birthplace, helped cement Choibalsan's growing cult of personality which portrayed him as a staunch defender of Mongolian independence against imperialist Japanese aggression.

As early as 1939, Stalin had pushed Choibalsan to increase Mongolia's livestock population to 200 million as a source of raw materials for the Soviet Union in the event of war in Europe.

Choibalsan and the newly elected Secretary General of the MPRP Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal traveled to the front near Moscow to distribute gifts to Red Army troops.

[42] Stalin awarded Choibalsan the Order of Lenin for his outstanding effort in organizing the Mongolian economy for the delivery of aid in goods to Red Army in July 1944.

[43] At the Tenth Party Congress in March to April 1940, Choibalsan arranged the purge of MPRP Secretary-General Baasanjav and had him replaced with a new favorite of Stalin's, 24-year-old Minister of Finance Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal.

[46] On 10 August 1945, Mongolia declared war on Japan two days after the Soviet Union and both armies joined forces to attack Japanese strongholds in northern China during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

Furthermore, the Choibalsan-led MPRP introduced modern medicine, brought about almost universal literacy, and cultivated widespread industrialization that led to greatly improved standards of living.

[50] In addition to establishing the country's first major university, Choibalsan initiated policies to increase the literacy rate and developed the 10 year elementary, middle and high school system.

[51] Although Choibalsan maintained a policy of stronger ties with the Soviet Union (in February 1946 he renewed the 1936 Protocol Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance for another ten years and concluded the first bilateral agreement on economic and cultural cooperation[52]), he nonetheless understood the importance of solidifying Mongolia's independence through international recognition.

The MPRP Central Committee issued proclamations to fight increased anti-revolutionary sentiment and Interior Ministry secret police cells sprouted throughout the country.

[56] Choibalsan's body was returned by a special train to Mongolia with full military honors and was given a state funeral in the capital which was attended by Mongolian and Soviet officials alike.

[62] Public anger over the violence of the purges falls predominantly on the Soviet Union and the NKVD, with Choibalsan viewed sympathetically (if not pathetically) as a puppet with little choice but to follow Moscow's instructions or else meet the fate of his predecessors Genden and Amar.