Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj

His father, Mongolyn Tsakhia, was a veteran of Mongolia's border conflict with the Empire of Japan that resulted in the 1939 Battle of Khalkhyn Gol.

Elbegdorj Tsakhia (Цахиагийн Элбэгдорж; born 30 March 1963) is a Mongolian politician and journalist who served as President of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017.

Elbegdorj was born into a nomadic herding family in Zereg sum, Khovd province, on 30 March 1963.

He was the youngest of eight sons.

Elbegdorj spent most of his early childhood herding livestock through the high mountains of Zereg sum.

Elbegdorj finished the sum's eight-year school (Primary & middle school) in 1979.

Afterwards, his family moved to Erdenet City, and he finished Erdenet's No. 1 ten-year school (High school) in 1981.

In 1981–82, Elbegdorj worked in copper ore mining and processing plant Erdenet Concern (currently Erdenet Mining Corporation) as a machinist.

In 1982, he was drafted into military service.

For submitting poems to the army newspaper Ulaan Od (Red Star), which impressed army authorities, and heading a Revolutionary Youth Unit in the army, he was awarded with the possibility to study military journalism and Marxism–Leninism at the USSR's Military Political Institute (present day - Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy) under the umbrella of Lviv Polytechnic National University in Lviv, Ukraine from 1983 on.

He graduated from the academy in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and then began working for the newspaper Ulaan Od.

After his first term as prime minister, he spent a year at the University of Colorado Boulder's Economic Institute.

At the end of a speech at the Young Artists' Second National Congress on 28 November 1989, Elbegdorj said that Mongolia needed democracy and appealed to youth to collaborate to create democracy in Mongolia.

He told the audience "We consider that Perestroika is a timely and brave step. Youth's contribution to this revolutionary matter is not by supportive talks but by certain work. Our contribution is our objectives to be fulfilled. Our objectives are: ... following democracy and transparency and contributing to glasnost, ... and supporting fair progressive power ... These are the objectives of an initiatives' group-an organization that shall work. After the congress I hope we will gather and discuss with you about it in this (newly forming group). The organization shall be based on public, voluntary and democratic principles."

The chairman of the congress stopped Elbegdorj's speech and warned him not to say such things.

It was 1989 and Mongolia had been a communist country for 68 years.

At that time, it was alleged that every other person was an unofficial communist party spy who would report people who expressed opinions other than socialism and communism.

During the break of the congress, two young individuals met Elbegdorj and the three agreed to found a democratic movement and to secretly spread the news to other young people.

Later the three met and united with ten other individuals and they are known as the Thirteen Leaders of Mongolia's Democratic Revolution.

On his return from the congress, his boss at the newspaper Ulaan Od warned Elbegdorj that he would be fired if he participated further in any activities out of work or engaged in any conduct inconsistent with communist and socialist ideology.

Despite the warning, Elbegdorj and his friends met secretly with other young people in the circle auditorium of the National University of Mongolia and discussed democracy, free market economic policy, and other prohibited subjects of the time, and began to draft a plan to organize a democratic movement.

They met many times and brought new friends and new supporters to join them secretly.

One night they placed ads of their open demonstration in streets.

On the morning of 10 December 1989, the first open pro-democracy demonstration met in front of the Youth Cultural Center in Ulaanbaatar.

There, Elbegdorj announced the creation of the Mongolian Democratic Union.

The Mongolian Democratic Union founders publicly petitioned the government for a real implementation of perestroika, including allowing a multi-party system, the total implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all party and government affairs.

In subsequent months activists led by Elbegdorj and others continued to organize demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, as well as teachers' and workers' strikes.

Activists had growing support from Mongolians, both in the capital and the countryside and the union's activities led to other calls for democracy all over the country.

After numerous demonstrations of many thousands of people in the capital city as well as provincial centers, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party's Politburo – the authority of the government – eventually gave way to the pressure and entered negotiations with the leaders of the democratic movement.

Elbegdorj was one of the key leaders of the 1990 Mongolian democratic revolution that ended 70 years of communist rule in Mongolia, and co-drafted the country's 1992 constitution that guaranteed democracy and a free market economy.

Elbegdorj has been labeled by his supporters as a "freedom fighter" and the "Golden Sparrow of Democracy," alluding to a bird that comes with spring sunshine after a long, harsh winter.

Elbegdorj is the founder of the Ardchilal (English: Democracy) newspaper – the country's first independent newspaper – and helped to establish the first independent television station in Mongolia.

He previously served as prime minister in 1998 and again from 2004 to 2006.

Then Elbegdorj studied with a full scholarship at Harvard University and graduated from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government with a Master of Public Administration (MPA) in 2002.

During his studies in the USSR, Elbegdorj learned about Glasnost, the concepts such as freedom of speech and economic liberties.

After returning to Mongolia, he met other like-minded people and tried to present those ideas to a wider audience, despite attempts of repression from the Politburo-authority of the government, and threats by his employer to lose his job.

Currently, Elbegdorj is a member of The Elders – established by Nelson Mandela in 2007 – that works for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet.

Moreover, he is a member of Club de Madrid which commits to advancing democracy worldwide.

In addition, Elbegdorj is a commissioner of International Commission Against Death Penalty.

His tenure has focused on fighting corruption, environmental protection, women's rights, judicial reform, civic engagement, economic liberalization and privatization, property rights, and the abolition of the death penalty.