Mongolia in the Twentieth Century: Landlocked Cosmopolitan

Northeast Asia Seminars

by Stephen Kotkin, Bruce Allen Elleman

The remote vastness of Mongolia has remained somewhat of a mystery to most Westerners - no less so in the 20th century. Homeland of the legendary conqueror Chingiz Khan, in modern times Mongolia itself has been the object of imperial rivalry. For most of the 20th century it was under Soviet domination. Mikhail Gorbachev began the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Mongolia in 1989, a process completed in 1992. By 1996 a coalition of opposition parties triumphed in national elections, and Mongolia launched itself on a new course. It is perhaps the most intriguing of the post-community "transition" societies. This volume examines Mongol history over the past century, embracing not only Mongolia proper but also Mongol communities in Russia and China. Contributions, based on new archival research and the latest fieldwork, are from the world's top experts in the field - including four authors from Mongolia and others from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Great Britain and the United States. Stephen Kotkin's introductory chapter is an overview of Mongol studies. The essays in part 1 examine Sino-Russian competition over Outer Mongolia. Part 2 looks at international diplomacy in Mongolia, including the role of Japan. Part 3 focuses on contemporary issues ranging from economic and cultural change to emergent elites. A concluding essay surveys Mongolian foreign policy.

Genres: History

334 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Stephen Mark Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author. He is the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. For 33 years, Kotkin taught at Princeton University, where he attained the title of John P. Birkelund '52 Professor in History and International Affairs, and he took emeritus status from Princeton University in 2022. He was the director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the co-director of the certificate program in History and the Practice of Diplomacy. He has won a number of awards and fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. He is the husband of curator and art historian Soyoung Lee.
Kotkin's most prominent book project is his three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin, of which the first two volumes have been published as Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (2014) and Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (2017), while the third volume remains to be published.