Sanjaasürengiin Zorig
| Санжаасүрэнгийн Зориг | |
|---|---|
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| Member of Parliament | |
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In office 1992–1998 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 20, 1962 Mongolia |
| Died | October 2, 1998 (aged 36) Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | Lomonosov Moscow State University |
| Profession | Politician |
Zorig Sanjaasuren (Mongolian: Санжаасүрэнгийн Зориг, 20 April 1962 – 2 October 1998) was a prominent Mongolian politician and leader of the country's 1990 democratic revolution. He is called the "Golden Swallow of Democracy" (Mongolian: Ардчиллын алтан хараацай, Ardchillyn altan kharaatsai). His murder remains unsolved. After his death, his sister Oyuun entered politics and founded the Civic Will Party.
Zorig's grandfather was a Russian geographer who had come to Mongolia as part of an expedition headed by Pyotr Kozlov. Zorig's grandfather was a victim of Marshal Choibalsan's purges, leaving his daughter Dorjpalam, Zorig's mother, an orphan. Dorjpalam starred in a popular Mongolian movie before marrying Sanjaasüren, Mongolian State University professor and a Buryat (a Mongolian ethnic minority). Zorig was the second of their three children.
From 1970 on, Zorig attended middle school No. 23 in Ulaanbaatar, one of the city's Russian-language schools. From 1980 to 1985 he studied philosophy at Moscow's Lomonosov Moscow State University. Afterwards, he worked for a year as an instructor for the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League in Ulaanbaatar, and in 1986 became lecturer for scientific communism at the Mongolian State University. He became an accomplished chess player, later serving as president of the Mongolian Chess Federation. In 1988 he founded the "New Generation" group of young dissidents dedicated to spreading democracy in Mongolia.
In 1989 and 1990, S. Zorig played a leading role in the events that led to Mongolia's adoption of a multi-party system. On December 10, 1989, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zorig led a group of 200 activists in a public protest demanding a free-market economy and free elections. In January 1990 Zorig and his fellow Mongolian Democrat dissidents began staging weekend protests in Sükhbaatar Square, the center of Ulaanbaatar. The protests started small but grew into large crowds as January passed into February. Tensions increased as the crowds swelled and the Communist government debated crushing them with force. At one point when protesters were scuffling with soldiers and an outbreak of violence seemed likely, Zorig took a megaphone, sat atop a friend's shoulders to make himself visible to the crowd, and called for calm. Violence was averted. The picture of Zorig addressing the protesters became a famous symbol of Mongolia's peaceful revolution. In March, the Mongolian Politburo resigned and one-party rule in Mongolia ended.
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