Peljidiin Genden was a political leader of the Mongolian People's Republic who served as the country's first President and the ninth Prime Minister (1932–1936). As one of three MPRP secretaries, Genden was responsible for the swift compulsory implementation of socialist economic policies in the early 1930s. In 1932, he was granted Joseph Stalin's support to become Prime Minister, but then increasingly resisted pressure from Moscow to liquidate institutional Buddhism and permit increased Soviet influence in Mongolia. His independent temperament, outspokenness, and growing nationalist sentiments ultimately led to his Soviet-orchestrated purge in March 1936. Accused of conspiring against the revolution and spying for the Japanese, he was executed in Moscow on November 26, 1937.

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.