Проанализированы политические взаимоотношения России и Монголии в годы Первой мировой войны, основанные на материалах Государственного архива Иркутской области. Исследованы архивные документы, ранее не освещавшиеся в печати. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что в связи с сокращением дотаций в пользу Монголии, к началу Февральской революции 1917 г. Россия теряет столь значимую ранее сферу влияния в данном регионе, что позволило Китаю, напротив, укрепить свои позиции и возобновить экономически выгодные торговые отношения с Монголией.

The article analyses the political relations between Russia and Mongolia during the First World War. This study presents documents from the State Archive of Irkutsk Oblast that has not been covered earlier. It is evident that the weakening of Russian influence over Mongolia is noticed because of funding cutbacks. Therefore, China firms its role in Mongolia in terms of dynamic economic collaboration. Previously China repeatedly maintained its position in this region not only in foreign affairs, but also in the field of internal management such as post, railway, etc. However, Russian subsidies over Mongolia paralyzed all the movements of Beijing. The authors pay attention to the dynamics of the processes of the foreign policy in this area. They cite historical documents that have been examined during the work; analyse the causes and circumstances that lead to the change of the sphere of influence in the region; identify the positive and negative aspects of all processes to adopt the previous historical practices in the modern period of the development of our state. So, this study presents the secret documents of correspondence between the government agencies of Russia and China, Mongolia and China, Mongolia and Russia, and gives solutions to questions raised earlier. Thus, the detailed study of archival documents led to a conclusion that the power, not the financial instrument gradually became the main policy in the spread of Russian influence in Mongolia: the reduction of Russian subsidies led to the fact that the Autonomous Government of Mongolia decided to abolish the expensive Office of the Chairman of the Board of Superiors in 1916, to limit the number of Mongolian officials. In addition, the decrease in the exchange rate during the First World War made the Russian satellite, Mongolia, wish to resume trade relations with the former suzerain, China. Instead of "soft power", on the eve of the revolutionary period Russian influence in Urga was based mainly on the established light horse brigade subordinate to Russian instructors. The study of the topic shows one more side of the foreign policy of the Russian state during the First World War that was previously incompetently disclosed in the media.