Bat-Ochirin Eldev-Ochir

Bat-Ochiryn Eldev-Ochir (Mongolian: Бат-Очирын Элдэв-Очир; 1905–1937) was a prominent political figure in early years of the Mongolian People’s Republic who, between 1928 and 1937, was one of three secretaries of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP). He served as the party’s First Secretary from 1929 to 1930 and again for a month in 1932. As party leader, Eldev-Ochir pushed for rapid implementation of socialist policies (forced collectivization and property confiscation) during the “Leftist” period of the early 1930s, led the persecution of institutional Buddhism in Mongolia, and backed Soviet-sponsored purges of counterrevolutionary elements, particularly Buryat-Mongols, during the Lkhümbe affair in 1934-1935. He died in 1937 after being injured in a car crash.