Glossary-- Mongolia
- arad
- Mongolian term for people; the workers; the common people.
- aymag
- Provincial-level or second-level unit of administration in
Mongolia since 1921. Aymags are divided into
somon (q.v.). Traditionally, an aymag
was a tribe.
- Communist International
- also called the Comintern or the Third International. It was
founded in Moscow in 1919 to coordinate the world communist
movement. Officially disbanded in 1943, the Comintern was revived
as the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) from 1947 to
1956.
- Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
(Comecon)
- Also abbreviated CEMA and CMEA, the organization was
established in 1949 to promote economic cooperation among
socialist bloc countries and is headquartered in Moscow. Its
members as of 1989 included the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Cuba,
Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic (East Germany),
Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Romania, and Vietnam. Mongolia, the
first non-European member, joined Comecon in 1962 and has
traditionally been a supplier of raw materials to the Soviet
Union.
- fiscal year (FY)
- January 1 through December 31.
- Five Principles of Peaceful
Coexistence
- Mutual respect for one another's territorial integrity and
sovereignty; mutual nonaggression; mutual noninterference in one
another's internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and
peaceful coexistence.
- ger
- Mongol term for the round, felt-covered tent known by its
Russian (from the Turkic) name of yurt.
- glasnost
- Russian term meaning outreach, openness.
- Golden Horde
- From Mongol, altan ordo, or Tatar (q.v.),
altun ordu, literally golden palace or camp, from the
color of the tent used by Batu Khan (died 1255) in his conquest
of Russia. Term used to refer to the Mongol suzerains of Russia
(1240-1480), also known as the Khanate of Kipchak.
- gobi
- Mongol term for arid pastureland, and source of the name
Gobi.
- gross domestic product (GDP)
- The total value of goods and service produced by the domestic
economy during a given period, usually one year. Obtained by
adding the value contributed by each sector of the economy in the
form of profits, compensation to employees, and depreciation
(consumption of capital). Most GDP usage in this book was based
on GDP at factor cost. Real GDP is the value of GDP when
inflation has been taken into account.
- gross national product (GDP)
- Obtained by adding GDP (q.v.) and the income
received from abroad by residents less payments remitted abroad
to nonresidents. GNP valued at market prices was used in this
book. Real GNP is the value of GNP when inflation has been taken
into account.
- horde
- A horde (ordo in Mongol) was a force of several
tumen (q.v.), roughly equivalent to a modern
army corps. See also Golden Horde.
- hurals
- Assemblies of people's deputies. Hural is a
vernacular term for kuriltai (q.v.).
- Inner Mongolia
- The southern part of traditional Mongolia; during the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911), comprised the provinces of Suiyuan, Qahar,
and Rehol; the present-day Nei Monggol Autonomous Region of China
(Outer Mongolia, q.v.).
- Kazakh
- Turkic-speaking, traditionally Muslim ethnic group of
pastoralists, living in the Soviet Union, northwestern China, and
western Mongolia.
- Khalkha
- Mongol subethnic group inhabiting the central and eastern
portion of Mongolia and forming the majority of the population.
Variant form: Halha.
- khan
- A king, prince, or chief; common title for sovereigns in
Inner Asia. Sometimes used interchangeably with kaghan.
- kuriltai
- A council of Mongol chieftains or khans having origins among
the assembly of the Kitan; a great assembly and a type of
electoral procedure developed among tribal leaders in the first
century A.D. A classical Mongol term having the same meaning as
hural (q.v.).
- Lamaism
- Tibetan Buddhism, became the state religion of Mongolia in
1586.
- Living Buddha or Incarnate Buddha
- Western term for Tibetan Buddhist leaders who are considered
incarnations and reincarnations of buddhas actively working for
human salvation. Mongolia's Jebtsundamba Khutuktu was one of the
many Living Buddhas.
- Manchuria
- The present-day northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang,
Jilin, and Liaoning; homeland of the Manchus, founders of the
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Known as Manchukuo during the period of
Japanese control (1931-45).
- negdel
- Mongol term for a herding collective. Comprises agricultural
stations and herding camps in the somon (q.v.)
and is subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Industry. Contrast with state farm, which produces crops.
- nomenklatura
- Russian-language term for the elite administrative positions
filled by direct appointment by the communist party, and hence
for the elite administrative class as a whole.
- Outer Mongolia
- The name applied to the northern part of traditional Mongolia
during the period of Manchu control (1691-1911) and commonly in
Western literature thereafter.
- perestroika
- Russian-language term meaning reform, or, restructuring of
political system.
- somon
- Third-level administrative unit, subdivision of an
aymag. The term, the root of which means arrow, derives
from a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) hereditary military unit of about
100 families.
- Tannu Tuva
- Uriankhai region of northwestern Outer Mongolia
(q.v.); in December 1921, as a result of Soviet
insistence, it became the Tannu Tuva People's Republic, the
independence of which was later recognized by Mongolia in the
Mongolian-Soviet Treaty of Friendship of 1926. In 1944 it was
annexed by the Soviet Union as the Tuvinian Oblast of the Russian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and in 1961 it became the
Tuvinskaya Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Tuvins
(q.v.).
- Tatar
- Name of unknown origin, which first appeared in the eighth
century. In the thirteenth century it became the European
appellation for the Mongols, although the Mongols themselves had
been fighting against the Tatars. From the fourteenth century,
the name was applied to Turks living in the European parts of
Russia, mainly in the khanates of Kazan and of the Crimea.
- tugrik
- The unit of currency; in March 1989, value of 1
tugrik=US$2.985. The tugrik is made up of 100 mongo; there are
one, two, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and fifty mongo
denomination coins and a one tugrik coin. Currency consists of 1,
3, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 tugrik notes.
- tumen
- Traditional Mongol military unit, roughly equivalent to a
modern division, comprising 10,000 troops and their families.
- Tuvins
- Ethnic group of Turkic-speaking pastoralists from the Tannu
Tuva region of the Soviet Union, which was administered as part
of Mongolia under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Also known as
Uriankhai.
- Uighurs
- Inner Asian ethnic group of oasis-dwelling, Turkic-speaking,
traditionally Muslim agriculturalists resident largely in
northwest China's Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region.
- Urga
- see Yihe Huree.
- Uzbeks
- Central Asian ethnic group of Turkic-speaking, Muslim
agriculturalists, resident primarily in the Soviet Union.
- yasaq
- A legal code developed after Chinggis Khan's death but
attributed to him; regulations; the code of Mongol law.
- Yihe Huree
- Literally, "great monastery" or "great camp," founded in the
seventeenth century as the residence of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu
(Living Buddha, [q.v.]) and capital of Mongolia in 1911,
when it was renamed Niyslel--capital--Huree. Commonly referred to
in Western literature as Urga. In 1924 when the state was
secularized, the name was changed to Ulaanbaatar, which means Red
Hero.