Khorloogiin Choibalsan was a Mongolian politician who served as the leader of the Mongolian People's Republic as chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1939 until his death in 1952. He was also commander-in-chief of the Mongolian People's Army from 1937, and chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural from 1929 to 1930. His rise to power in the 1930s was personally orchestrated by Joseph Stalin, and his rule was maintained by a repressive state and cult of personality. Choibalsan led a dictatorship and organized Stalinist purges in Mongolia between 1937 and 1939 as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Mongolian People's Republic was a socialist state that existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia under the Qing dynasty. It was officially recognized by the Nationalist government as independent from the Republic of China in 1946. Until 1990, it was a one-party state ruled by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, and maintained close political and economic ties with the Soviet Union, as part of the Eastern Bloc.