{{Short description|Prime Minister of Tannu Tuva (1888–1932)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Donduk Kuular | native_name = Куулар Дондук | native_name_lang = Tuvan | image = Donduk Kuular.jpg | birth_date = 1888 | birth_place = Tannu Uriankhai, Outer Mongolia, Qing China | death_date = {{death date and age|1932|3|23|1888}} | death_place = | party = Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party | spouse = | order = Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Tuvan People's Republic | term_start = 1925 | term_end = 1929 | predecessor = Soyan Oruygu | successor = Adyg-Tulush Khemchik-ool }}
'''Donduk Kuular''' ({{langx|tyv|Куулар Дондук}}, {{IPA|tyv|kuːˈlɑr dɔnˈduk|}}; 1888–1932) was a Tuvan monk, politician, and prime minister of the Tuvan People's Republic.
== Life == Born in Tannu Uriankhai during the rule of the Qing dynasty of China, Donduk was originally a Lamaist monk.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QwquCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1197 Jonathan D. Smele: ''Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916–1926'', 2015, Lanham (Maryland) 2015, p. 1197.]</ref> As leader of a group of Russian-supported Bolsheviks, he proclaimed the independence of the People's Republic of Tannu Tuva from the Russian Empire in 1921. He subsequently switched his allegiance to the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party.
Aware of his young nation's vulnerability, Donduk sought to establish ties with the Mongolian People's Republic. His monastic background and theocratic inclinations gave him a close relationship with the country's lamas, whose interests he sought to advance in spite of Joseph Stalin's growing irritation. In 1926 he established Buddhism as the state religion of Tannu Tuva, which in November was renamed the Tuvan People's Republic.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=akouCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69 Frank Stocker: ''Als Vampire die Mark eroberten: Eine faszinierende Reise durch die rätselhafte Welt der Banknoten in 80 kurzen Geschichten'', (online) 2015, p. 69.]</ref>
Stalin found Donduk's separatist and theocratic tendencies obnoxious, and counter to communist principles of internationalism and atheism. In 1929 he was removed from power and arrested. Meanwhile, five Tuvan graduates of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East were appointed ''commissars extraordinary'' to Tuva. Their loyalty to Stalin ensured that they would pursue policies, such as collectivization, that Donduk had ignored. A coup was launched in 1929. One of these commissars, Salchak Toka, replaced Donduk as General Secretary of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party. On 22 March 1932, Donduk was sentenced the highest penalty{{snd}}death by firing squad{{snd}}alongside 3 other figures named "exploiters" including Mongush Buyan-Badyrgy,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dorzhu|first1=Zoia|last2=Irgit|first2=Ottuk|date=July 2017|title=Political Repressions in the Tuva People's Republic: Was It Possible to Avoid Them?|url=http://museum.tuva.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%BB%D0%B8-%D0%B1%D1%8B%D0%BB%D0%BE-%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B6%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D1%85-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85-%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D0%B2-%D0%A2%D1%83%D0%B2%D0%B5.pdf|journal=Journal of Siberian Federal University|volume=7}}</ref> and the following day they were executed.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wtY_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT114 Indjin Bayart: ''An Russland, das kein Russland ist'', Hamburg 2014, p. 114.]</ref>
==References== <references/>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuular, Donduk}} Category:1888 births Category:1932 deaths Category:Anti-Stalinist left Category:History of the Tuvan People's Republic Category:People executed by the Soviet Union Category:Independence activists Category:Tuvan people Category:Tibetan Buddhism in Siberia Category:Tibetan Buddhists from Russia
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