Mongolian Democratic Union

During the unravelling of the 1989 Revolutions in Eastern Europe, a group of 300 young Mongolian intellectuals gathered and held the first open pro-democracy demonstrations in front of the Youth Cultural Center in Ulaanbaatar on 10 December. It announced the foundation of the Mongolian Democratic Union, the first opposition political force to challenge the country's socialist one-party system, which had ruled since the 1921 People's Revolution.^[1]

At the same meeting, the newly formed MDU presented 13 demands to the communist regime, which included ceding political power, allowing a democratic multi-party system of government, granting citizens civil rights, and enforcing freedom of the press. This demonstration is widely seen as the start of the 1990 Democratic Revolution. Sanjaasürengiin Zorig became the MDU's founding chairperson and a key figure during the revolution.^[2]

On 18 February 1990, the MDU convened its first conference and announced the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Party (MDP), the first opposition political party advocating political and economic reform. The resignation of the Politburo in March paved the way to Mongolia's first free and fair election on 22 July 1990, in which the MDP won 23 seats in the People's Great Khural and 13 seats in the newly established lower chamber, State Little Khural.^[3] The MDP would merge into the Mongolian National Democratic Party in 1992 and later the Democratic Party in 2000.^[4][5]

The MDU was awarded Hero of Mongolia by President Khaltmaagiin Battulga on 24 June 2021.^[6][7]