Paper abstract:

D. Namdag's "Howl of the Old Wolf" (Khögshin chono ulisan ni) is a novella by the noted author written in the mid-1960s but was banned from publication due to its subversive nature. The story is about an old grizzled three-legged wolf and his life with his daughter and her mate, and their struggle to survive. Why was this novella so subversive? Understanding the history of the wolf in Mongolia, the extermination campaigns against wolves in socialist Mongolia, and Namdag's own biography is key to understanding "Howl of the Old Wolf."

Despite a pervasive popular and scholarly narrative that frames wolves as an object of spiritual reverence, the history of human-wolf relations in Mongolia is primarily antagonistic, which reached its height in socialist Mongolia's wolf extermination campaigns. Namdag's sympathetic portrayal of the wolf must be understood as flying in the face of official and popular anti-wolf sentiment. His work falls into a historical genre of wolf apologia literature, which empathizes with the suffering of the wolf, who are compared to as thieves and criminals. The old wolf who escapes traps that ensnares younger wolves is also a venerable trope in not only Mongolia but all wolf hunting countries, including the United States. Namdag's grizzled patriarch is also almost certainly an avatar for himself. He was imprisoned twice by his own government, once in 1932 Lunar New Year, the second in 1941 for alleged Nazi ties due to his education in Germany. Like the old wolf, he was persecuted by the Mongolian government and survived, but not unscathed.

Namdag's "Howl of the Old Wolf" was a banned work whose subversive nature requires a proper understanding of not just Mongolian history but specifically the history of the wolf and the pervasive anti-wolf sentiment in Mongolia. When put into the proper context, it is clear that Namdag's work was banned for equating the treatment of people like Namdag with the treatment of wolves, both of which were unacceptable to socialist censors. This helps us understand the treatment of both humans and animals in the Mongolian People's Republic.

This paper is dedicated to the memory of György Kara.