Until 1990, it was a one-party state ruled by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, and maintained close political and economic ties with the Soviet Union, as part of the Eastern Bloc.

In late 1911, the Qing dynasty collapsed in the Xinhai Revolution, and Outer Mongolia declared its independence under the leadership of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, who was named the Bogd Khan.

In October, White Russian cavalry under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg entered Mongolia, and in February 1921 drove out the Chinese and restored the Bogd Khan.

The MPP made a provisional government at its first congress on 1 March, and that July cavalry under Sükhbaatar, supported by Soviet troops, captured the capital in the Mongolian People's Revolution.

The MPP declared a socialist "non-capitalist path of development", was renamed the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), and joined the Comintern.

During 1930–1932, there were uprisings led by the lamas of several monasteries, the largest of which took place in 1932 and was brutally suppressed, and herdsmen began to slaughter their livestock or herd their animals across the border.

[1] From September 1937 to April 1939, Stalinist purges in Mongolia saw mass arrests of top party and state leaders, lamas, soldiers, and citizens on false charges of "counter-revolution" and spying for Japan.

In March 1939, Choibalsan, Stalin's close ally, became prime minister of Mongolia and led a Stalinist dictatorship, and initiated further episodes of repression during his tenure.

That July, Japan launched an unsuccessful attack across the river, and in August, Soviet and Mongolian troops under General (later Marshal) Georgy Zhukov, encircled and destroyed the Japanese forces.

[9] Mao Zedong privately hoped for Outer Mongolia's reintegration with China, and he was rebuffed by Soviet leadership after raising the question in 1949 and again in 1954, the year after Stalin's death.

It was recognized by India in 1955, and that year attempted to join the United Nations (UN), but its request was vetoed by the ROC (now based in Taiwan) which had withdrawn its recognition of Mongolia's independence and renewed its territorial claim on the country.

[1] Tsedenbal, a friend of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, sent many of his political rivals into internal exile during his leadership, including Dashiin Damba in 1959, Daramyn Tömör-Ochir in 1962, Tsogt-Ochiryn Lookhuuz and others in 1964, Bazaryn Shirendev in 1982, and Sampilyn Jalan-Aajav in 1983.

After Jamsrangiin Sambuu's death, Tsedenbal was elected in his place as chairman of the presidium of the People's Great Khural (head of state) in 1974, and handed the premiership to Jambyn Batmönkh.

[11] In 1988, the MPRP newspaper Ünen urged accelerated reforms to overcome the party's "dogmatic interpretation of socialism", declared that "authoritarianism and intellectual indolence" undermined national "renewal", and described Tsedenbal as "willful and unprincipled".

[1] Before 1928, the leader of the MPRP was the chairman (darga) of its Central Committee (töv khoroo), which had a presidium (tergüülegchid) of about 10 members representing the core party leadership.

The constitution contained a declaration of the rights of the people, equality before the law, and suffrage at age 18 (with the exception of "feudalists" and Buddhist lamas resident in the monasteries).

Amendments adopted by the ninth Great Khural in February 1949 introduced electoral reform, including a secret ballot, universal suffrage, and direct elections.

It received large amounts of economic, financial, and technical assistance through the council from the USSR and Eastern Europe, in the forms of credits, advisers, and joint ventures.

Both towns, which are today Mongolia's second and third largest, were built in previously uninhabited areas and gained modern power stations, high-rise housing, schools, hospitals, and shops.

[1] Mongolia has industrial reserves of coal, copper, fluorite, and iron ore as well as numerous deposits of gold, silver, zinc, lead, tin, tungsten, and other precious and rare metals.

Comecon membership enabled import of machinery and vehicles from Eastern Europe in exchange for raw materials, though some 85 percent of trade remained with the USSR.

In the 1980s, 1 to 2 percent of trade was opened with Western countries; the value of imports far exceeded that of exports, and the imbalance was funded by long-term loans from the USSR, estimated at 10 billion rubles by 1990.

[1] Before the 1920s, Mongolia had no health services apart from what was provided by lamas or shamans, who offered a combination of herbal remedies and incantations, and the population was in decline from untreated sickness.

Modern healthcare in Mongolia was developed starting in 1922 under the Soviet Semashko model, with the construction of a large hospital and clinical network and training of staff in Western medicine.

Other official publications included the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League newspaper Zaluuchuudyn Ünen ('Youth Truth') and the cultural paper Utga Zokhiol Urlag ('Literature and Art'), which dispensed ideological guidance.

Much of traditional culture was viewed as "feudal" or "religious", and was officially abandoned in favor of artworks depicting revolutionary heroism, intended to mold the "new man" of the socialist society.

[1] The most prominent figure to emerge in modern Mongolian poetry and literature was Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj, whose opera Uchirtai gurvan tolgoi ("Three Sad Hills") remains popular today.

Traditional arts were best preserved as epic poetry, music, and song, which had been passed down by bards and storytellers and first recorded (in printed word and sound) in the 20th century.

Under Soviet influence, European instruments were introduced, foreign works were performed, and Mongolian composers began to write music for orchestras and brass bands.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Mongolia received modern equipment, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy and anti-aircraft artillery, radar, attack helicopters, and jet fighters.