Sükhbaataryn Yanjmaa (15 February 1893 – 1 May 1962) was a Mongolian politician. As Chairwoman of the Presidium of the State Great Khural, she became the second non-hereditary woman head of state after

Khertek Anchimaa-Toka Khertek Amyrbitovna Anchimaa-Toka (1 January 1912 – 4 November 2008) was a Tuvan and Soviet politician who was the Chairwoman of Little Khural of the Tuvan People's Republic from 1940 to 1944, and was the first non-royal female head of state ...

of Tannu Tuva, and the first in an internationally-recognized country. She was the widow of Mongolian revolutionary leader

Damdin Sükhbaatar Damdin Sükhbaatar (2 February 1893 – 20 February 1923) was a Mongolian revolutionary, founding member of the Mongolian People's Party, and leader of the Mongolian partisan army that took Khüree during the Mongolian Revolution of 19 ...

Life

Yanjmaa was born on February 15, 1893, into a poor

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in ...

family near present-day

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

. She worked for Sükhbaatar's revolutionary group as a messenger in 1919 and when her husband travelled to the Soviet Union in 1920 to establish contact with Bolshevik revolutionaries, Yanjmaa stayed behind in Ulaanbaatar with their son, evading capture from Chinese officials hunting down subversives. In 1921

Khorloogiin Choibalsan Khorloogiin Choibalsan (8 February 1895 – 26 January 1952) was a Mongolian politician who served as the leader of the Mongolian People's Republic as the Prime Minister of Mongolia, chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1939 unt ...

helped her and her son flee to

Kyakhta Kyakhta (, ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Russia border. The town stands directly opposite the Mongolian border to ...

to be reunited with Sükhbaatar. After her husband led Mongolian partisans to victory in the Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921, Yanjmaa became a member of the

Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League The Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League () was a youth movement in the Mongolian People's Republic under the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (old), Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. History On August 25, 1921, on the initiative o ...

(MYRL). When Sükhbaatar died in 1923, she adopted "Sükhbaataryn" in place of her

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

''Nemedeyen'' and joined the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) a year later in 1924. As a member of the party Central Committee and of the Presidium of the Central Committee, she represented the MPRP at the Third International Conference of Communist Women (where she met

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the Inde ...

and

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and politic ...

) and the Fifth World Congress of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, both in 1924. She was involved in the creation of Mongolia's first trade union in 1925. From 1927 to 1930 she studied at the

Communist University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (, KUTV; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training school for important communist political leaders. The school operated under the umbrella of the Communist Internatio ...

in Moscow. In 1933 Yanjmaa headed the newly created women's section of the MPRP Central Committee where she focused on developing women's education. From 1940 until 1954, Yanjmaa served on the MPRP

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

and was Secretary of the party's Central Committee from 1941 until 1947. She was a member of the Presidium of the Little Khural (the executive committee of the

State Great Khural The State Great Khural is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia,Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, Foreign Service office of Montsame News Agency, , p. 40 located in the Government Palace in the capital Ulaanbaatar. History 191 ...

, or Parliament) from 1940 to 1950. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Yanjmaa helped raise funds to support the Soviet Union for which she was awarded the Soviet

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

in 1946. In 1945 she was elected a member of the

Women's International Democratic Federation The Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international women's rights organization. Established in 1945, it was most active during the Cold War when, according to historian Francisca de Haan, it was "the largest and probably ...

(WIDF). Yanjmaa was a member of the People's Great Khural from 1950 to 1962. Following the death of

Gonchigiin Bumtsend Gonchigiin Bumtsend (; 11 September 1881 – 23 September 1953) was a Mongolian revolutionary who held several high level positions within the Mongolian government in the 1940s and early 1950s. He was Chairman of the Presidium of the State Litt ...

, she became acting

President of Mongolia The president of Mongolia is the executive head of state of Mongolia.Montsame NW Agency. ''Mongolina''. 2006, , p. 42 The current president is Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. Political parties with representation in the State Great Khural nominate ...

for the transitional period, lasting from 23 September 1953 until 8 July 1954. This made her the second woman in the role of formal head of state of a republic, after

in the

Tuvan People's Republic The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR), known simply as Tannu Tuva, was a partially recognized socialist republic that existed between 1921 and 1944 in North Asia. It was located in the same territory as the former Imperial Russian protectorate of ...

Notes

References

Sources

* Sanders, Alan J. K. (1996). ''Historical dictionary of Mongolia''. Asian historical dictionaries, No. 19. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. * Baabar, B. (1999). ''History of Mongolia''. Cambridge: University of Cambridge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanjmaa, Sukhbaataryn 1893 births 1962 deaths Communist University of the Toilers of the East alumni Female heads of state Heads of state of Mongolia Members of the State Great Khural Mongolian communists Mongolian People's Party politicians 20th-century Mongolian women politicians 20th-century Mongolian politicians Women government ministers of Mongolia First women presidents Women presidents in Asia Women's International Democratic Federation people