Khorloogiin Choibalsan (The Three-Way War)

''This is a Mongolian name. The given name is Choibalsan, and the name Khorloogiin is a patronymic, not a family name. The subject should be referred to by the given name.''

Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Mongolian: Хорлоогийн Чойбалсан; February 8, 1895 – January 26, 1952) was the Communist leader of the Mongolian People's Republic and Marshal (general chief commander) of the Mongolian armed forces from the 1930s until Mongolia's annexation by the Soviet Union in 1949. His rule marked the first and last time in modern Mongolian history that a single individual amassed complete political power. Often referred to as “the Stalin of Mongolia”, Choibalsan oversaw violent Soviet-ordered purges in the late 1930s that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Mongolians. Most of the victims were Buddhist clergy, intelligentsia, political dissidents, ethnic Buryats and Kazakhs, and other "enemies of the revolution." His intense persecution of Mongolia's Buddhists brought about their near complete extinction in the country.

Although Choibalsan's devotion to Joseph Stalin helped preserve his country's fledgling independence during the early years of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR), it also turned Mongolia into the first satellite state of the Soviet Union, and ultimately led to its annexation at the end of World War II. Throughout his rule, Mongolia's economic, political, and military ties to the USSR deepened, infrastructure and literacy rates improved. After the annexation, Choibalsan was allowed to live in retirement, but in 1950 was taken from his home in Ulaanbaatar by Soviet agents and taken to Moscow, where he was executed on Stalin's command.