Salchak Toka

Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich Toka (Russian: Салчак Калбакхорекович Тока, December 15 [O.S. December 2] 1901 – May 11, 1973) was a Tuvan politician. He was for many years the communist ruler of Tuva, and as well the Second Prime Minister of the Tuvan People's Republic.

Salchak Toka was a member of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (Russian: Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока, Kommunističeskij universitet trudjaçichśa Vostoka) in Moscow and Kyzyl. In 1929 the current head of state Donduk Kuular was removed from power and arrested by the Soviets. Meanwhile, five Tuvan graduates of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East were appointed commissars extraordinary to Tuva. Their loyalty to Stalin ensured that they would pursue policies, such as collectivization, that Donduk had ignored. A coup was launched in 1929. On March 6, 1932 Salchak Toka replaced Donduk as General Secretary of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party.

Salchak Toka established close contacts with Joseph Stalin. After the execution of Donduk Kuular in 1932, Salchak Toka became absolute ruler of Tannu Tuva. He introduced a communist ideology after the Soviet model, the nomad agriculture was collectivized and the traditional religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Shamanism) was suppressed. He introduced a bizarre personal cult around himself, and was awarded numerous of Soviet prizes for his literary works.

In 1940 he married Khertek Anchimaa, who was Chairwoman of the Little Khural. In 1944 he requested that Tannu Tuva should be annexed by the Soviet Union. The event took place on October 30, 1944 de jure via Mikhail Kalinin. Tuva was initially an autonomous oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and starting from October 10, 1961 as the Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tuva ASSR). Salchak Toka remained up to his death in 1973 the General Secretary of the Tuvinian department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.