20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

558 Marie-Dominique Eventhat are addressed by elders for general protection to the community, andshamanic spirits that are invoked and incorporated by shamans in order tofight enemies in this world or the other.The softening of the Soviet regime in the 1950s allowed for moreboldness among Mongolia’s new intelligentsia. In 1962, at the time ofthe Sino-Soviet dispute where Mongolia sided with its Soviet mentor,the Chinese government decided to celebrate with ostentation the 800thanniversary of Chinggis’ birth at the Ezen Khoriy-a sanctuary in InnerMongolia. When Mongol historians suggested organizing Mongolia’sown celebrations with an academic conference, the erection of a stelecommemorating Chinggis Khan at his birthplace in the Khentei area, andissuing special marks, the Party first approved a low-key celebration, butthe Soviet Union condemned such display of nationalism. Chinggis wasjust a brutal invader whose offspring imposed the “Mongol yoke” on theRussians. Moscow accused the Mongols of giving in to a Stalinian formof personality cult and the Central committee secretary Tömör-Ochir washeld, responsible and dismissed. The stele in a far-away mountain survivedand was not destroyed, but none dared raise the “affair” anymore but àmots couverts. On the topic of Chinggis Khan, the Soviet historiographyapproach was the only acceptable one, resulting in much bitterness on theMongol side (cf. Bawden 1989, Aubin 1993, Rachewiltz 1994,Boldbaatar 1999). 11In her study of the Chinggis fever that hit Mongolia in the beginning ofthe 1990s, F. Aubin (1993) argues that Chinggis Khan, who used to be onlyan ancestor for his lineage, was becoming at the time a hero for the wholenation. In fact, before 1990, Chinggis Khan was more than a simple familyancestor for the Chinggisids. In view of the important place he occupiesin the history of the Mongols and of their neighbors, mirrored in scholarlyworks as well as popular literature, and in view of the political – albeitreduced – legitimacy Chinggisids were enjoying in society several centuriesafter, at times when both Manchus and Buddhism dominated the stage, it is11On the attempt by the Mongolian People’s Republic’s historians to organiseMongolia’s own celebration, and the following political downfall of D. Tömör-Očir,Politburo secretary at the time, a detailed description of the events has been provided manyyears later (1990) by the historian Išžamts (Dorno Dakhinii sudlal 1990, 2, 93-100). The1962 conference papers were confiscated by the authorities before their publication, butsee the text of Ts. Damdinsüren’s communication for which he was himself criticized(as he expressly denigrates the Russian Marxist historians’ presentation of Chinggis Khanas barbaric and wild, a far cry from the scholarly research of their predecessors), and theinteresting foreword by his disciple R. Otgoonbaatar (Damdinsüren 2002).See Bawden 1963.