scale purges that Choibalsan and NKVD advisers embedded within the interior ministry unleashed on the country from 1937 to 1939. At the first show trial, staged at the Central Theater from October 18 to 20, 1937, Amar openly wept as close friends were sentenced to death. Purged Because of Amar's continued popularity among Mongolians, Stalin was eager to eliminate him. He instructed Choibalsan to have party leader Dorjjavyn Luvsansharav launch a propaganda campaign against the popular prime minister. On March 6, 1939, Luvsansharav denounced Amar at an enlarged meeting of the MPRP Central Committee saying he “had helped anti-government plotters, opposed their arrest, and neglected the defense of the borders. He betrayed his own country and was a traitor to the revolution." Once Choibalsan seconded the condemnation, opinions within the Central Committee rapidly turned against Amar. When Amar took the floor in his own defense he said: “Although I believe in religion, the one thing that I believe in even more is that Mongolia should stand firmly on her feet to become an independent country. I love my country. I have shown this with my work. I have been among the first to devote myself to the cause of my country’s development, and my heart is breaking to finally witness myself being called a traitor and being subjected to castigation” Amar was found guilty at the end of the one-day trial. He was removed from the office of prime minister, expelled from the MPRP, and then arrested by Ministry of Internal Affairs. In July 1939 Amar’s case passed to the NKVD, and Amar was sent to Siberian town of Chita and then on to Moscow. With Amar’s removal, Choibalsan was named prime minister and became Mongolia’s uncontested leader, simultaneously holding the office of prime minister, minister for internal affairs, minister of war, and Commander in Chief of the Mongolian armed forces. Trial and execution Ironically, while awaiting trial in Moscow Amar was jailed with Luvsansharav, the very same person who had arrested him and who had also fallen victim to Choibalsan's purges shortly thereafter. On July 10, 1941, Amar was tried by a Soviet troika and sentenced to death. Throughout the trial Amar insisted that, if the Mongolian People’s Republic were really an independent nation, he should be tried by a Mongolian court. His last recorded words were “it is typical that when a big power colonizes a small country,