The image of Genghis Khan in Mongolia’s national ideology and historical policy

Abstract

The article analyzes the image of Genghis Khan in the national ideology and historical policy of Mongolia. The study of this topic is relevant today in the context of the ongoing major geopolitical changes. In this context, it is important to note the various methods and technologies used to form the civic consciousness and national unity of Mongolians. One of the key approaches is the widespread integration of the extra-historical image of Genghis Khan into various spheres of Mongolian society. However, here it is important to distinguish between the real historical personality of Genghis Khan and the constructed image actively promoted by the contemporary leadership of Mongolia. Critical analysis of these differences allows us to better understand the nuances of collective identity formation. This issue is studied within the framework of a separate direction as Mongolology, created by the joint efforts of Russian, French, German, and British researchers of the nomadic Mongolian civilization, its original culture, and which in the last decade has become widespread in Mongolia itself. The study of the work of the last three Mongolian presidents on the image of Genghis Khan is of the greatest interest, since they personify modern Mongolia, and the period of their work covers both the heyday of democracy in the country and its contemporary crisis. It is concluded that the current president will continue to refer the Mongolian people to Genghis Khan, but no longer as a wise builder of the state, but as its inflexible and alternative ruler who ruled until his death. As practice suggests, it is big ideas that come to the aid of the ruling regime when its economic abilities are exhausted and there is nothing to present to the electorate. Thus, in modern Mongolia, the memorial canon is formed as one of the results of the historical policy pursued by the elites, in the framework of which the concept of «statehood», correlated with the category of «Mongolianness», occupies a special place.