Abstract

The long Mongolian tradition of statehood was an essential factor in the Inner- Asia state-making processes in the first half of the 20th century. From the Indian idea of the Chakravartin (Universal Emperor) to the worship of the Great Khubilai Khan’s concept of Two Orders, the Mongolian ideas about power and charisma constituted a cultural base of new protectorate states. The strong and powerful anti-Communist uprising initiated by Transbaikalian Ataman Semenov was deeply connected with Inner Mongolian Pan-Mongolists (Babuujab’s circle) and their ideas of rejoining Buryat-Mongolia and Barga. The proclamation of the Great Mongolian Federal State in February 1919 with its provisional government on the Dauria station was perceived as the first step to unification of Mongol tribes. The new government consisted of people with different political and social experience: Russian academics, Buddhist monks, warlords, Transbaikalian Cossacks and Inner Mongolian nobility. This paper aims at showing – using the example of the Great Mongolia Federal State – the connection between the Mongolian political imagination and frontier protectorate building practices. The paper is based on new approaches towards political anthropology of frontier state-making and new sources on the Great Mongolian Federal State.