Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum

This little-known museum houses a series of haunting displays that chronicle the communist

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purges of the 1930s – an aggressive campaign to eliminate ‘counter-revolutionaries’. During the campaign, intellectuals were arrested and put on trial, sent to Siberian labour camps or shot. Mongolia lost its top writers, scientists and thinkers. The neglected building that houses the museum is one of the oldest in Ulaanbaatar. It was once the home of former prime minister P Genden, who was executed in Moscow by the KGB in 1937 for refusing Stalin’s orders to carry out the purge. Stalin found a more willing puppet in Marshall Choibalsan, whose purge ended in the deaths of more than 27,000 Mongolians, mostly lamas. On the ground floor of the museum is a replica of Genden's office, with his desk and other personal effects.

The descriptions are only in Mongolian so it's a good idea to bring a guide who can make sense of it all. The guard who keeps the key to the place sometimes disappears for several days so you may find it closed during normal hours.