Today I visited the Political Victims Museum in the heart of the city. It does a good job of explaing the purges of the 30's when Stalin ordered the torture and death of 28,000 of the intellectual class and the buddhists and their monasteries. Above is a collection of skulls(with bullet holes) of a few of those purged. There have been recent discoveries of more of these burial sites where hundreds have buried together in a common grave. By these purges the Soviets were able to eliminate the potential leaders of Mongolian society as they levelled Mongolia to a peasant class entirely (think Cambodia).
Next, I went to the National Museum of Mongolia which covers the nation's history from 500,000 BC to the present. Thus museum is very well organized and seems complete. The Soviet era from 1924 to 1990 is covered of course. But what is interesting is the fact that no blame is asserted for these purges nor anything more that that they occurred. The fates of some of these leaders who were lost is not mentioned so this seems like a whitewash. Thankfully, for these hearty independent people you have the other museum mentioned above.
This second museum does a good job of explaining the peaceful revolution of 1989-90 which brings us to today. And so it goes.
It reminds me of your post about the Lenin Statue and your question, why is it still standing. I suppose the museum (and the blameless treatment of some history) gives you some insight into the culture or perhaps more questions.
ReplyDeletePart of the answer may lie in the fact that Mongolia wants a peaceful coexistence with Russia and, of course, with China. It is noted that China and Russia by far send more visitors to Mongolia than any other nation. So Mongolia does not want these visitors returning home and complaining about things that disagree with the propaganda that its citizens receive in school and in the press...just a hunch.
DeleteI find it interesting that there is a history museum going back to 500,000 years ago and that this is not in the natural history museum.
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