Tserendorzh, Balingiin

Born 1868; died Feb. 3, 1928. Mongolian state figure, diplomat. Member of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party from 1921.

Tserendorzh was the son of a poor arat (livestock-raising serf). His knowledge of Manchu and Chinese afforded him the opportunity in 1886 to enter the civil service. After the overthrow of the Manchu Ch’ing Dynasty in Mongolia in 1911, Tserendorzh was named deputy minister of foreign affairs in 1913; he served as Mongolia’s minister of foreign affairs from 1915 to 1919.

Tserendorzh welcomed the Mongolian People’s Revolution of 1921 and devoted his last years to the revolutionary transformation of Mongolia. He was named deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the Mongolian People’s Republic in autumn 1921 and served as prime minister from 1923 to 1928. Tserendorzh was a member of the Mongolian delegation that met with V. I. Lenin in November 1921 and that signed the friendship agreement between Mongolia and the RSFSR on Nov. 5, 1921. Between 1922 and 1928 he was elected several times to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party.