The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX

The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 46
On February 4, 1924, the Politburo of the CC of the RCP (B) recommends Ryskulov for responsible work in the
Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI). On the 15th of April he is nominated assistant
(substitute) of the chairman of the Middle-East Section of the Eastern Department of the ECCI. 31 Later he
would become assistant (substitute) of the chairman of the Eastern Department of the ECCI as a whole. 32
Comintern representative in Mongolia
On October 6, 1924, he arrived in Mongolia as representative of the ECCI. Soon he wrote to Moscow:
»According to the instructions of the Comintern, understanding well my tasks, I decided at first to put myself in
an appropriate position. The Mongols thought that I was to be a simple specialist-instructor of the Comintern
near them, that I should write the reports and instructions they would wish – and to accept and, when they
would not wish – to reject them«. Further on, Ryskulov specifies, that »thus put himself gradually in a position
of a man actually managing the activities of the CC of the People’s Party… The Mongols have become
accustomed, now that - first of all - I put forward proposals on important questions, and second, that such a
proposal has to be accepted, third, that it will be necessary to respect the discipline of the Comintern as the
People’s Party is in the hands of the Comintern«. 33
In Urga (now named Ulhan-Bator) Ryskulov worked until July 1925. He redacted the drafts of the country’s
Constitution, the main decisions on financial and economic policy, the new program and the charter of the
MPRP (Mongolian Revolutionary People’s Party). In November 1924, during the working session of the First
Great People’s »Khural«, which ratified the Constitution of Mongolia, he took an active part in the discussion
about the agenda, including giving a new name to the capital of the country. It was his proposal to call the
capital of Mongolia Ulhan-Bator (»Red Bogatyr«). In the spring of 1925 Ryskulov visited China as a member of
the delegation of Mongolia to negotiate with General Fyn Yuisian about transit deliveries of weapons coming
from the USSR. 34
Ryskulov’s conflict with Elbek-Dorzhi Rinchino
It is also necessary to mention the serious personal and political conflict Ryskulov had with Elbek-Dorzhi
Rinchino, a Buryat communist, who was sent to Mongolia in 1921 on behalf of the Far Eastern Secretariat of the
Comintern as adviser of the government, but who was by then already was occupying the functions of chairman
of the Council of War of Mongolia, member of the Presidium of the CC of the MPRP and member of the
Presidium of the government. Rinchino was supported by A. N. Vasilyev, the Soviet plenipotentiary
31 RGASPI, fond 495, inv. 18, file 228, sh. 148. See also: G. M. Adibekov, E. N. Shakhnazarova, K. K. Shirinia:
[The Comintern's Organizational Structure. 1919-1943], Moscow, 1997, p. 72-74.
32 RGASPI, fond 17, inv. 9, file 1946, sh. 222 back; fond 495, inv. 65a, file 11021, sh. 6; fond 589, inv. 3, file
15599, vol. 4, sh. 214.
33 Ibid, inv. 152, file 24, sh. 30.
34 Ibid, file 31, sh. 9-11, 20; file 33, sh. 1-69; file 37, sh. 19