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Planning in the Mongolian People's Republic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
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The Mongolian People's Republic completed its Second Five-Year Plan in 1957. A Thus although it has been a Soviet satellite since 1921 it has had full-scale planning of its economy for only a decade.
It is true that the Mongolian government had tried as early as 1931 to introduce ‘Five-Year Planning.’ But in that year it also tried to collectivize and settle the nomads who formed the bulk of its population. It further ordered the socialization of industry, handicrafts, transport, and trade. Finally it passed measures designed to liquidate the richer Mongols and lamas as a class. This program aroused such violent opposition that the government virtually lost its hold over the country and had to rely on Soviet tanks and airplanes to restore order. The Mongols resistance to their government's policy was probably encouraged by the general run of events in the Far East. In any case the presence of the Japanese on the Mongolian borders at the time demanded a swift resolution of the domestic crisis. The government, on regaining a grip on events, hastily abandoned its attempts to plan and to bring about sweeping social change.
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- Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1959
References
1 The author is Assistant Professor of Economics and in the Far Eastern and Slavic Institute, University of Washington, Seattle.
1 Mongolian People's Republic is hereafter abbreviated to M.P.R. Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party is abbreviated, after the first mention, to M.P.R.P.
The discussion which follows rests largely on Soviet sources or Soviet versions of Mongolian sources. It should be pointed out that Soviet view of the M.P.R.'s problems may not be the same as the Mongolian. In the absence of Mongolian sources this is a bias for which it is difficult to correct.
The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful criticisms and suggestions of Drs. Franklyn D. Holzman and Chung-li Chang of the Economics Department, and by members of the Inner Asia Colloquium, Far Eastern and Slavic Institute, University of Washington. Needless to say, all errors of fact and interpretation are his own.
2 See Ballis, William B., ‘The Political Evolution of a Soviet Satellite: The Mongolian People's Republic,’ Western Political Quarterly, IX (June 1956), 309ff.Google Scholar
3 The economic policies of the Mongolian government during the period 1921 to 1956 are discussed more fully in G. G. S. Murphy, ‘The Economic Development of the Outer Mongolian Economy in Recent Times,’ unpubl. diss. (Univ. of Wash., 1957). See also Holzman, Franklyn D., ‘The Financial System of the Mongolian People's Republic,’ Mongolian People's Republic (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, Inc., 1956), III, 1–158.Google Scholar
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07 Konstitutsiia i osnovnye zakonodatel'nye akty Mongol'skpi 'Narodnoi Respubliki, ed. Demidov, S. S. (Moscow, 1952), passim.Google Scholar
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13 See Krueger, John R., Poppe, Nicholas, and Kilcoyne, Martin, ‘Education,’ Mongolian People's Republic, I, 294.Google Scholar The law instituting the university mentions that the first class which had undergone education from 8 to 17 years of age graduated in 1941. Konstilutsiia …, p. 249.
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16 See, for instance, Tsaplin, p. 126.
17 See Bol'shaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia (2nd ed.) XXXI, 375. Also Badir'ian, G. and Kurov, I., ‘Otgonno-pastbishchnoe soderzhanie skota v kolkhozakh Zakavkaz'ia,’ Sotsldistkcheskoe Sel'skpe Khoziaistvo, No. 4 (Apr. 1, 1947), pp. 44–50Google Scholar. Also Badir'ian, G., ‘Otgonnoe Zhivotnovodstvo,’ Selskpkho-ziaistvennaia Entsiklopediia, III, 515.Google Scholar
18 As late as 1949 the basic means of transportation in the M.P.R. were cart haulage and pack transport.
19 See especially Mandelbaum, Kurt, The Industrialization of Backward Areas (Oxford, 1945).Google Scholar
20 Shul'zhenko, p. 65, lists 77 cases from 1874 to 1945.
21 Wiens, Herold J., ‘Geographical Limitations to Food Production in the Mongolian People's Republic,’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers, XLI (1951), 361.Google Scholar
22 Shul'zhenko, pp. 54–73.
23 Stackelberg, G. A. von, ‘Mongolia and the Xllth Congress of the Mongolian National Revolutionary Party,’ Bulletin (Munich Institute), April 1955, pp. 11–17.Google Scholar
24 The First Fivc-Ycar Plan is described in Planirovanie narodnogo khoziaistva Mongolii, pp. 20–99; in Tsapkin, N. V., Mongol'skaia Narodnaia Respublika (Moscow, 1948), p. 96 ff.Google Scholar; in Mandel, William, ‘Outer Mongolia's Five Year Plan,’ FES (June 15, 1949), pp. 140 ff.Google Scholar
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27 Konstitutsiia …, pp. 137–143. There is an odd anomaly in the 1950 tax law, for whereas the tax reliefs for herds produced in excess of plan dearly encourage sheep and cattle raising, the effect of the regular tax schedule may be actually to encourage cattle, horse, and camel raising. See Holzman, F. D., ‘Equity of the Livestock Tax of Outer Mongolia,’ American Slavic and East European Review, XV (1957), 506–510.Google Scholar
28 Totals of livestock output are misleading indicators of success or failure in stockraising. As Mongolian herds are composed of five types of animals not all of equal value, data on the value of the total herd would be a better indicator. But there is not enough information on Mongolian prices to prepare an index of changes in the value of the total number of livestock in the M.P.R. It is possible to make. a rough approximation, however. Shul'zhenko, p. 43, indicates the value of animals expressed in terms of sheep: one goat equals.75 sheep equivalents, a head of cattle 6, a horse 6, a camel 12. An index of changes in the total number of Mongolian livestock expressed in sheep equivalents woul d appear as follows:
1930 100.0 1940 128.2
1931 102.1 1941 130.7
1934 95.7 1945 104.0
1935 103.2 1950 116.3
1937 107.8 1951 115.8
Such a scheme does not allow for changes in the value of the total number of livestock resulting fro m a greater percentage of young animals (o r rams, bulls, etc.) in one year as against anothe r year. Furthermore Shul'zhenko's equivalents are probably based on the amount of pasture taken to support different animals rather than o n relative price values.
29 Bavrin, E. and Prokhorov, G., ‘Uspekhi ekonomicheskogo razvitiia Mongol'skoi Narodnoi Respubliki,’ Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 7 (1956), p. 74. Target outputs and actual outputs are in constant 1940 prices.Google Scholar
30 Maslennikov, V., Mongol'skaia Narodnaia Respubliki na putt k sotsializmu (Moscow, 1951), p. 99.Google Scholar
31 The coal target is given in Planirovanie …, p. 63 (542 thousand metric tons). 1952 production was 238.7 thousand metri c tons {Zarubezhnye strany, ed. A. I. Denisov, D. I. Ignat'ev, and N. G. Pal'gu-nov [Moscow, 1957], p. 472).
32 Iakimova, T., ‘Vneshneekonomicheskie sviazi Mongol'skoi Narodnoi Respubliki,’ Vneshniaia Torgovlia (Aug. 1957), p. 3.Google Scholar
33 The second Five-Year Plan is described by Ivor Montagu, Land of Blue Sky (London: Dobson, 1956), pp. 169 ff.Google Scholar Also see U. S. State Department, Foreign Broadcast Information Services, Far East, Daily Report, Oct. 4, 1954. (Hereafter FBIS.)
34 Iakimova, T. A., Mongol'skaia Narodnaia Rcspublika (Moscow, 1956), p. 47.Google Scholar
35 Makhnenko, A. Kh., Gosudarstvennyi stroi Mongol'skpi Narodnoi Respubliki (Moscow, 1955). P. 55.Google Scholar
36 Iakimov, A., ‘Uspekhi mongol'skogo naroda na puti k sotsializmu,’ Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 12 (1954). P. 55. See als o Iakimova, 1956, p. 16.Google Scholar
37 Bal'zhinniam, B., ‘Zhivotnovodstvo-bogatstvo nashei strany,’ Sovremennaia Mongoliia, No. 1 (July-Aug. 1956). P. 5.Google Scholar
38 Iakimov, pp. 55 ff.; Bavrin and Prokhorov, p. 76. These were probably not complete exemptions but were those of the 1950 livestock tax.
39 Maslennikov, V. A., Stroitel'stvo osnov sotsializmu v Mongol'skoi Narodnoi Rcspubtiki (Moscow, 1955), P. 15. (Hereafter Maslennikov, 1955b.)Google Scholar
40 Iakimov, p. 55; Iakimova, 1956, p. 10; Borisenko, p. 315.
41 FBIS, Jan. 16, 1956.
42 Maslcnnikov, 1955a, p. 62; Raymond, Jack, ‘Mongolia Imports Chinese Workers,’ New York Times, Aug. 28, 1956. For a recent complaint of labor shortage see FBIS, March 27, 1958.Google Scholar
43 Raymond, New York Times, Aug. 28, 1956.
44 Industrial output for the M.P.R. is invariably given in gross terms. This should however be substantially reduced to arrive at net output for gross output is much inflated due to double counting. Unfortunately there is not sufficient information to estimate the M.P.R.'s National Income. The Chinese loan must however look quite big even in terms of National Income.
45 Izvestiia, May 17, 1957.
46 For details of the Third Plan see Pravda, March 20, 21, and 23, 1958; also FBIS, March 27, 1958.
47 Tumur-Ochir, D., ‘Ot Mongolii feodal'noi k Mongolii sotsialisticheskoi,’ Sovetskpe Vostokpvedenie (Oct. 1957), p. 67.Google Scholar
48 Rupen, Robert A., Report on Soviet Mongolian Studies (mimeo.), Nov. 1956. Dr. Rupen, while visiting the Soviet Union, met Soviet experts on the M.P.R.Google Scholar