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holds immensely interesting documents on Mongolia s rela- workshop will provide a forum for discussing Mongolia s
tions with the Warsaw Pact countries and records of joint evidence on the Cold War, exchanging views on freedom of
Soviet-Mongolian military exercises in 1979, in response to information and access to historical documents in a demo-
the Sino-Vietnamese War. More curious documents are found cratic society, and for considering possibilities for future col-
in the Central Intelligence Archive, including intelligence and laboration between Mongolian and Western scholars and
reports on the Lin Biao incident (with many photographs). historians. The workshop s local co-sponsors are the Ameri-
Access to this archive is utterly impossible, all the more so can Centre for Mongolian Studies, Civic Education Project -
after recent scandals with unauthorized release of materials Mongolia, National University of Mongolia, Open Society
related to repressions in Mongolia in the 1930s, but experi- Institute, and the United States Embassy. Organizers hope
ence suggests possible workarounds. that the workshop and the subsequent publication of se-
Since access to the archives in Mongolia remains diffi- lected Mongolian documents will contribute to the interna-
cult and frustrating, I frequently found it much easier to work tional Cold War scholarship, encourage research in the Mon-
with private document collections, eagerly shared by retired golian archives, and advance the cause of freedom of infor-
Mongolian policy-makers who also offered valuable com- mation in Mongolia. For more information, please visit the
mentaries to these documents, over a bottle or two of Mon- workshop s website: http://serrad.by.ru/mongolia
golian arkhi. Some Mongolian historians have also collected workshop.shtm or contact CWIHP Associate Sergey
important materials over the years and published them openly. Radchenko at S.S.Radchenko@lse.ac.uk. Further information
The most interesting example is Tsedenbal s personal diary, is also available at the CWIHP website at http://cwihp.si.edu
published in abridged form in 1991 by B. Sumya.1 Some where translated documents obtained for the conference are
records of conversations between Tsedenbal, Choibalsan, slated to be published.
and Stalin were published in the early 1990s in the central
newspapers, at the high tide of the Mongolian glasnost.2 Sergey S. Radchenko is completing his PhD as the London
Overall, Mongolian archives contain very important evi- School of Economics. He is the author of CWIHP Working
dence on the Cold War, especially on the Sino-Soviet split. Paper No. 42, The Soviets Best Friend in Asia:
For decades Ulaanbaatar had been the Soviet voice in Asia. The Mongolian Dimension of the Sino-Soviet Split (No-
The Mongolians sided with Moscow in the quarrel with vember 2003), available at http://cwihp.si.edu.
Beijing despite Chinese political and economic pressure. In-
deed, Mongolian leaders were often more explicitly anti-Chi-
. . . . . . . .
nese than their Soviet comrades. This fact alone shows the
tremendous role of cultural differences and antagonisms be-
NOTES
tween neighboring Asian nations. Mongolian elites, how-
ever, were in disagreement over the country s future. Whereas
1
B. Sumya (ed.), Gerel Suuder: Yu. Tsedenbalyn Huviin
some leading figures insisted on ever closer relations with
Temdeglel [Light and Shadow: Yu. Tsedenbal s Personal Diary],
the Soviet Union, to the point of accession, others urged
Ulaanbaatar, 1991.
caution and even suggested to play on the Sino-Soviet dif-
ferences to chart an independent course. These disagree- 2
For instance, Conversation between Joseph Stalin and
ments were often at the center of power struggles in
Yumjagin Tsedenbal (5 September 1952), Unen N9 (23 January
Ulaanbaatar, indicating a much more complex political land- 1992), p. 2.
scape of Moscow s relations with its closest allies than pre-
viously thought. Mongolian archives also reflect on Soviet
foreign policy, evidenced in dozens of records of conversa-
tions between the Soviet leaders and Tsedenbal, for he had
seemingly closer relations with Moscow than any other leader
of the socialist commonwealth. Last but not least, Mongolia s
unique geographic position at the heart of Asia allowed
Mongolian leaders frequent meetings with Asian
powerbrokers Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and
others. Mongolian archives therefore hold valuable evidence
on foreign relations of Asian countries at the time when many
420
COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN, ISSUE 14/15
Todor Zhivkov and the Cold War:
Revelations from His Personal Papers
n cooperation with the Cold War International History tion with the Central State Archive Sofia and the Cold War
Project (CWIHP), the Cold War Research Group-Bulgaria International History Project. The collection s English lan-
Igained access to the personal papers of longtime Bulgar- guage translations were edited largely by Nancy L. Meyers
ian leader Todor Zhivkov in 2002. A first result of the research (CWIHP).
on the private papers of one of the longest-serving Commu- The CD-ROM was introduced to the Bulgarian public
nist leaders is a new CD-ROM on Bulgaria and the Cold during a visit to Sofia by CWIHP director Christian Ostermann
War. Documents from Todor Zhivkov s Personal Records, in the fall of 2002 and has received widespread media cover-
published by the Group in 2003. The collection covers the age in all major Bulgarian newspapers and several radio and
entire period of Zhivkov s reign from his election as Commu- TV shows. For further information, contact Dr. Jordan Baev
nist party leader in 1954 through the collapse of communism at baevj@mail.orbitel.bg.
in Bulgaria in 1989.
The CD-ROM contains more than 700 pages of previ-
ously unknown stenographic notes of Todor Zhivkov s con-
versations and correspondence with over thirty foreign state
and political leaders from all five continents spanning more
DOCUMENT No. 1
than three decades. The documents contain new evidence
Memorandum of Conversation between Bulgarian
on a key political and military conflicts throughout the world
Prime Minister Todor Zhivkov and Indian Prime
during the Cold War years.
Minister Indira Gandhi, Delhi, 24 January 1969
The documents presented in a sampling below include a
diverse array of conversations between the Bulgarian leader
[Source: Central State Archive, Sofia, Fond 378-B,
and foreign counterparts, including Indian Prime Minister
File 249; translated by Dr. Rositza Ishpekova, edited
Indira Gandhi (24 January 1969), Italian Foreign Minister Aldo
by Dr. Jordan Baev.]
Moro (27 April 1970), Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (22
April 1980), US Undersecretary of State John Whitehead (4
February 1987), Chinese leaders Zhao Ziyang and Deng
Stenographic Report
Xiaopeng (6-7 May 1987), and Greek Prime Minister Andreas
Official talks
Papandreou (22 April 1989).
Between the President of the Council of Ministers of the
Future document samplers from this collection to be pub-
People s Republic of Bulgaria Todor Zhivkov and the Prime
lished by CWIHP online (http://cwihp.si.edu) will focus on
Minister of India Indira Gandhi
events in the Middle East and in the Third World. Included in
Delhi, 24 January 1969
that collection will be conversations with Libyan leader
11.30 A. M.
Muammar Qaddafi, Syrian president Hafiz al-Assad, Pales-
tinian leader Yasser Arafat, and many leaders of the leftist
The talks attended:
guerilla movements from the countries in Central America
and Africa. Also among the documents in the collection are
From Bulgarian side Ivan Bashev, Minister of Foreign Af-
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