Rinchingiin Elbegdorj (; , Ėlbek-Dorzhi Rinchino; May 16, 1888 –June 10, 1938) was a Buryat nationalist revolutionary who played leading roles in the Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921 and the early political development of the Mongolian People's Republic. He was an important member of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party representing the Buryats and served as Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Mongolian People's Army. Early life and career Elbegdorj was born on May 16, 1888 into a herding family in Barguzinsky District, Transbaikal. He became a communist around 1910 while studying law at Saint Petersburg State University. He then moved to Troitskosavsk where he wrote for a local newspaper and traveled throughout Mongolia, becoming involved in clandestine Mongolian revolutionary activities. Elbegdorj befriended a young Khorloogiin Choibalsan in Irkutsk between 1914 and 1918 and became a strong early influence on future Mongolian leader. During his time in Buryatia, Elbegdorj was inspired by the moderate (advocating for greater rights for Buryats within the Russian Empire but not independence) Buryat politician Batu-Dalai Ochirov, whom Rinchino wrote an obituary about. Soon after the beginning of the Russian Civil War, Elbegdorj moved his activities to Outer Mongolia. In 1918, Elbegdorj, along with Cossack leader Grigory Semyonov and twelve of Elbegdorj's Russian-educated friends met in Chita, where they decreed that they had made a new pan-Mongol state with support from Japan. Initially hoping they would take this decree to the Paris Peace Conference, their hopes were dashed after the Japanese withdrew their support. Half of the people involved in this decree were invited to a "banquet" by a warlord in Manchuria, who had them executed on the spot. Revolution of 1921 By 1920, Elbegdorj's connection to Mongolian revolutionary groups and his expertise on Mongolian affairs made him an indispensable part of Soviet efforts to steer Mongolia's early revolutionary development. Along with Tsyben Zhamtsarano, another Buryat nationalist who had studied in St. Petersburg University, Elbegdorj turned to the Russian Communists to try to gain favor for the Buryats. When the Russian Politburo published a decree guaranteeing Buryat autonomy from Russia, Elbegdorj stressed it as something with "great significance to Mongolia". In 1920 he organized the first meetings between Mongolian revolutionaries and members of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Fifth Red Army and acted as the group's Russian interpreter. He also accompanied delegates Soliin Danzan and Dambyn Chagdarjav to Moscow where they met Russian communist