Kyakhta agreement

On 7 June 1915 (25 May in the Julian calendar then used in Russia), in Kyakhta, a town on the Russian–Mongolian border, representatives of Russia, China and Mongolia signed a tripartite agreement on the status of Outer Mongolia. The country, which for three and a half years had considered itself independent, was recognised as an autonomous part of Chinese territory. The agreement ended nine months of negotiations and for several years fixed Mongolia’s position between its two neighbours.

From independence to autonomy

When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in China in the autumn of 1911, the Mongolian princes and clergy broke with the Manchu dynasty. On 1 December 1911 they proclaimed independence, and at the end of the month in Urga, today’s Ulaanbaatar, the highest cleric of Mongolian Buddhism, the Bogd Khan, was enthroned as ruler of the state. Russia did not want to recognise Mongolia’s full independence, but it did want a buffer between Siberia and China. On 3 November 1912 it concluded an agreement with the government in Urga in which it promised to help maintain the country’s autonomy, and in return obtained broad trading privileges. A year later, on 5 November 1913, in a Russo-Chinese declaration, Russia recognised China’s suzerainty over Outer Mongolia, and China recognised its autonomy. The Mongols, who had not been consulted, protested and declared that they did not recognise the declaration. Russia then agreed to tripartite negotiations, in which Mongolia was to take part on an equal footing with Russia and China.

The negotiations opened at Kyakhta on 8 September 1914, after the outbreak of war in Europe. Russia was represented by State Councillor Alexander Miller, diplomatic agent and consul-general in Mongolia. China sent General Bi Guifang and Chen Lu, its minister in Mexico, and the Bogd Khan two dignitaries: the deputy head of the justice department, Shirnendamdin, and the head of the finance department, Prince Chagdarjav. The Mongolian delegation hoped that Russia would back its demand for full independence, and even for the annexation of Inner Mongolia, which Mongolian troops had entered in 1913. Petrograd, however, made it clear to the Mongols that it had never intended to support such plans. The Chinese, for their part, wanted the autonomy to be as narrow as possible. The Russian position, midway between the two sides, ultimately prevailed.

What was agreed

The agreement had 22 articles. Outer Mongolia recognised the Russo-Chinese declaration of 1913 and China’s suzerainty. China and Russia recognised the autonomy of Outer Mongolia “as part of Chinese territory”. The autonomous government in Urga could not conclude treaties with foreign states on political and territorial matters, but kept the exclusive right to administer internal affairs and to conclude commercial and industrial agreements. China and Russia undertook not to interfere in the country’s internal administration. The title of the Bogd Khan as ruler of Outer Mongolia was henceforth to be conferred by the President of the Republic of China, and in official documents the republic’s calendar was to be used alongside the traditional Mongolian one.

A Chinese dignitary was to reside in Urga with an escort of no more than 200 soldiers, and his deputies in Uliastai, Kobdo and the Mongolian part of Kyakhta with escorts of up to 50 men. The Chinese representative was entitled to precedence at all ceremonies, and at the same time was to see that the Mongolian authorities did not infringe China’s suzerain rights. The Russian consular guard in Urga could not exceed 150 men. The territory of the autonomy covered the lands formerly under the Qing dynasty’s officials in Urga, Uliastai and Kobdo. The exact border with China was to be marked out within two years by a commission of the three states. Chinese merchants paid no duties on goods brought into Mongolia, and the section of the telegraph line from Kyakhta through Urga to Kalgan lying on the territory of the autonomy became the property of the Mongolian government. In disputes over interpretation the French text was to be decisive. Notes were attached to the agreement in which China proclaimed an amnesty for Mongols who had submitted to the authority in Urga and promised not to hinder pilgrimages to the Bogd Khan.

Significance

For the Mongols the agreement was a disappointment: instead of recognition of an independent state they got autonomy under Chinese suzerainty, and China regained a permanent representation in Urga. Russia achieved its aim: it kept its trading privileges and influence in Outer Mongolia without committing troops at a time when all its attention was focused on the front in Europe. Peking, which in the same months had to defend itself against Japan’s demands, called the agreement a diplomatic expedient of a temporary nature.

The agreement outlived tsarist Russia only briefly. After the revolutions of 1917 there was no longer a great power to uphold it. In the autumn of 1919 Chinese troops entered Urga, and in November Peking abolished Mongolia’s autonomy. Two years later the Chinese were driven out of Urga by the forces of the White general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, and in 1924 the Mongolian People’s Republic was founded.