Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Senior Advisor to the Tuvan Government and the Central Committee of the Tuvan People’s Revolutionary Party P. S. Medvedev: a History of Tuva in the 1920s through the Prism of His Life and Activities
Abstract
The study of the life and activities of the bright representative of the fi rst advisers of the young Tuvan state (August 1921 - October 1944), Pavel Safronovich Medvedev, was carried out on the theoretical basis of historical, biographical and other methods of historical cognition. His activities in Tuva proceeded in the 1920s, in the fi rst period of the history of the Tuvan People’s Republic (TPR), and were directly related to the dual policy of the conservatives in the Tuvan Government fl uctuating between adherence to the old order and acceptance of assistance from the USSR, including that of experts. These fl uctuations caused tension between the Tuvan and Soviet parties in the process of their interaction and were refl ected in the activities and destinies of Soviet specialists, instructors and advisors in the TPR. All this can be clearly seen in the study of Pavel Medvedev’s personality and activities. Pavel Medvedev joined the political process early, in the diffi cult situation of 1919-1921 (intervention in Tuva by the Mongolian occupation squad): fi rst he became a member of the Mongolian Affairs Commission and then took the position of its chairman. In the early 1920s, he was elected as the Chairman of the Regional Revolutionary Committee; he headed the diplomatic department at the Uriankhai (Tuvan) Branch of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, presided at congresses of representatives of the Russian population of the region. He took an active part in the organization and holding of the All-Tuvan Founding Khural (Tuv. ‘assembly’, ‘legislative authority’) which proclaimed the establishment of the Tuvan People’s Republic in August 1921. P. Medvedev was the Senior Adviser to the Government and the Central Committee of the Tuvan People’s Revolutionary Party (TPRP), assisting in developing the newly founded state and strengthening Soviet-Tuvan relations. The 1920s were for the TPR by all means a decade rich in historical events, both external and internal ones. The period witnessed the formation of the state apparatus (the Government and the Khurals at all levels), formation of socio-political structures (parties, trade unions, women’s and youth movements, etc.), negotiation of obsolete stereotypes (renunciation of ranks and titles, the key acquisition being the principle ‘all are equal before the law’, etc.), suppression of the 1924 armed anti-state insurrection, organization of the state’s economic system (budget development, planning), search for new forms of accommodation of Soviet citizens permanently residing in Tuva, recognition of the TPR by its neighboring states (Mongolia and the USSR) in 1925-1926. P. Medvedev took an active part in all these events.
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