Attempts to build a Pan-Mongolian state in the first half of the twentieth century

Attempts to build a Pan-Mongolian state from 1911 to 1945 and their historical background are discussed, with special attention to the Pan-Mongolian Movement of 1919. The Pan-Mongolists lacked the resources to take control of territories they claimed and did not receive sufficient foreign support. In 1919, leaders of the Pan-Mongolian Movement had different goals. Dissension among the Pan-Mongolist leadership persisted until the very collapse of their project. The Red and White Russian governments, engaged in Civil War, opposed this project. The Reds viewed Mongolia as a tool of exporting revolution and combating the Whites, while the Whites adhered to the pre-revolutionary Kyakhta Agreement of 1915, which recognized the autonomy of Outer Mongolia under Chinese suzerainty. Japanese military officers who initially supported the Pan-Mongolian Movement, did not find support among their top leadership, where a different line prevailed. There is no evidence that the Pan-Mongolian Movement was inspired by Japan. Moreover, Japan and other powers active in the Far East opposed the Pan-Mongolian state as contradicting their geopolitical interests. These interests were primarily tied to China, which considered all of Mongolia to be her own, and actively opposed the Pan-Mongolian Movement.