Date of tip: June 2005

Source: Sergey Radchenko, S.S.Radchenko@lse.ac.uk

Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 50 meters to the east of the Sukhbaatar Square, between Tuushin Hotel and Unen newspaper headquarters.

Possible Accommodation: Accommodation in Mongolia is inexpensive and good quality. Contact J. Sarantuya (sarantuyaj@yahoo.com), at the National University of Mongolia, for information on housing.

How to get there: Getting to Ulaanbaatar is easy, especially in the summer. There are direct flights from Moscow (Sheremetyevo) by both Aeroflot and MIAT (Mongolian airlines), schedule is available online: http://www.aeroflot.ru and http://www.miat.com/. Another flight route is through Beijing or Seoul (tends to be more expensive). Adventurous researchers may enjoy the Trans Siberian (takes about a week to get from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar by train). One could also fly via Irkutsk, in Russia, or Ust-Kamenogorsk and Bayan-Olgii in Kazakhstan and Mongolia (more for excitement than for saving money). Travel in town is cheap by taxi: 250 tugrugs per km (23 cents). 

Link to archive: Not there yet, but try my own website, http://mongolhistory.radchenko.net, for samples of documents and http://www.radchenko.net/campaign.shtm for more information on the Mongolian archives. 

Language: Mongolian. Most post-WWII documents are in Cyrillic; earlier documents are in traditional Mongolian script. See website of my colleague, Chris Kaplonski, http://www.chriskaplonski.com for samples of documents in the Mongolian script. Some documents from the late 1940s-early 1950s are in Russian (but only a small fraction of holdings). 

Getting started: It helps to have an official affiliation with an institution in Mongolia. The National University of Mongolia welcomes independent researchers, and may not only provide logistical support (such as housing, visas, etc.), but facilitate archival access. The point of contact is J. Sarantuya (Office of International Affairs), int_rel@num.edu.mn or sarantuyaj@yahoo.com. 

Opening Hours: 9:30—17:30 every day, 9:30—12:30 on Friday. Lunch is 12:30 to 14:00. Hours are flexible. At times you will not find any archival personnel around during working hours; at other times, they will let researchers stay over time. 

General working conditions: Acceptable. All archival materials are open to researchers; these include: Plenums of the MPRP Central Committee Plenums, Politburo resolutions, Central Committee departments. Selected Politburo resolutions (and their preparatory materials) are exceptionally useful sources for research on the Sino-Soviet relations. Foreign relations department of the Central Committee contains a good collection of records of conversations with foreign leaders. 

Consultation: Upon arrival researchers are asked to fill a short questionnaire. Documents are distributed across fonduud, dansuud (sing. fond and dans), in units known as khadgalakh negj (same as the Russian fond-opis-delo arrangement). All documents come in folders (bound or loose), there are no microfiche provisions. Ordered documents are brought on the following day, but upon insistent request may be brought right away, as they are stored in a room one door down the corridor.

Policy on technology: Laptops allowed. Other equipment is not allowed, though special arrangements may be negotiated. 

Photocopy policy: Draconian – US$ 5 per page, so no one (as far as I know) makes any copies there, except by special connections. 

Particularities: Keeping on good terms with the reading room personnel is important in giving researchers additional flexibility. 

How to apply for classified files: The archive does not contain classified materials. There is another archive, located across the street in the headquarters of the MPRP, called the “internal archive”. It contains exceptionally usefully materials, including Politburo transcripts, important records of conversations, and personal documents of Yu. Tsedenbal and Kh. Choibalsan. Access is very difficult (I was never able to get to it, though I met with the General Secretary of the MPRP twice to request files). 

Contact name in case of questions regarding classified files: Contact me at: S.S.Radchenko@lse.ac.uk

General Assessment: Good archive, which one cannot afford to neglect in research on the Sino-Soviet relations or Mongolia’s contemporary history. But knowledge of Mongolian is a must.