Salchak Toka
Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich Toka (, – 11 May 1973) was a Tuvan and later, Soviet politician. He was General Secretary of the Tuvinian department of the CPSU from 1944 to 1973; previously, he was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party and was the supreme ruler of the Tuvan People's Republic from 1932 until its annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944. Biography Salchak Toka was a member of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (, Kommunisticheskiy universitet trudyashchikhsya Vostoka) in Moscow and Kyzyl. In 1929, the Soviets arrested the head of state Donduk Kuular. 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 6 March 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 the ruler of Tannu Tuva. He introduced a communist ideology after the Soviet model, the nomad agriculture was