The Liu Lobby Gallery invites you to Mongolia’s Democracy Revolution. This installment of the Solidarity series tells the story of the 1990 Democratic Revolution, when the Mongolian people came together across lines of difference to organize, protest, and demand change. Among the only known photographs of this time, the exhibition features a rare collection of images by Finnish journalist Irja Halász who was a student at the Mongolian National University when the protests began.
Visit the gallery during its open hours from February 23 – March 27, 2026, and join us for a reception on Tuesday, March 17th from 6-8 PM.
About the Exhibition:
In 1989 to 1990, public democracy movements developed across Eastern Europe, Mongolia, and China. Surrounded by Russia to the north and China to the south, Mongolia’s story is often overlooked. Mongolia’s Democracy Revolution aims to highlight this history and the foundational role of solidarity within it. Starting in 1989, brave protestors staged large, public demonstrations to challenge the monopolistic Communist Partystate and to demand human rights and democratic values. They called for cultural reclamation, self-determination, and economic freedom from the USSR.
Movement organizers were encouraged by the success of protests in Eastern Europe, even as concern grew from China’s violent crackdown in June 1989 and the uncertain reaction of their patron, the Soviet Union. Solidarity across a broad array of Mongolia’s social groups, including students, labour unions and state workers, among others, rapidly expanded the movement. Bridging traditional divides from generation to generation, from urban to rural, their struggle became a unifying call for accountability to the people. The ruling Politburo stepped down in March 1990, ending the 70-year one-party monopoly. Mongolia’s first multi-party, democratic elections were held in July that same year.
The exhibition presents a rare collection of photographs and political posters gathered by Irja Halász. As a Finnish journalist, Halász had access to camera equipment at a time when most did not. She was a student at the Mongolian National University on a prestigious 3-year, government-funded scholarship awarded to her in 1987. Halász was also a close confidant of a professor who was one of the movement’s most central figures, Sanjaasürengiin Zorig. For these reasons, Irja Halász was uniquely well positioned to document the revolution when the protests began.
It is uncommon to see any published images of the 1990 events and very few photographs exist in state archives. Camera equipment was only accessible to a few state-controlled media journalists—perhaps only a dozen—not the general public. Of the few Mongolian photographers who documented the events, many have since died and their work has been lost. Mongolia’s Democracy Revolution came together through Halasz’s persistent efforts to build knowledge of the stand the Mongolian people took that winter.
This story in images offers a small glimpse into Mongolia in 1989 and 1990. The hope is that seeing the determined faces of the people firmly demanding agency over their way of life, will inspire and encourage freedom-fighters even today. In Mongolia, people who had a dream of a free, fair and democratic society, stood up for the whole nation’s future, and won. Despite daunting odds and the brutal cold of winter, the shared goal of the Mongolian people was realized by building solidarity with each other.
About the Artist:
Irja Halász is a Finnish journalist and producer who has lived in Mongolia most of her life. Originally trained as a journalist, she got interested in what was then one of the most isolated socialist countries in the world: Mongolia. To get there, she enrolled in a Hungarian university, to study the language and culture of the country. She visited for the first time in 1985. After majoring in Mongolian studies at the Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (ELTE) in Budapest, Halász received a rare three-year Mongolian government-funded scholarship in 1987, for further studies at the Mongolian National University, in Ulaanbaatar.
There, she met pro-democracy activists—scholars, university instructors, journalists, actors and others, who had secretly met to plan for political change in the country. When the Democratic Revolution started at the end of 1989 and early 1990, Halász was the only Western news reporter living in Mongolia. She was also the only Western journalist who stayed in Mongolia throughout the whole revolution. Halász reported on the early stages and the progress of the Democratic Revolution through international news agencies to a world-wide audience.
At the request of Mongolian organizations and media to publish some of her photographs, Halász felt it was her duty to have this material published and made more widely available. She has published two books, one of photographs and one of revolutionary posters.Her work has been exhibited in Ulaanbaatar, Helsinki and Stockholm. Since 1990, Halász has worked in Mongolia as a news reporter and producer for international news agencies and TV channels, such as Reuters, RTN, APTN, BBC, Al Jazeera English Channel (AJE), and many others, including several UN agencies and other international organizations. She is currently a freelance producer for TV programs and documentaries.
Acknowledgments:
This exhibition was made possible through the support of Irja Halasz, who made her works available to be shown in North America; Dr. Charles Krusekopf, Director of the American Center for Mongolian Studies and Professor at Royal Roads University, Victoria—who facilitated the transportation and set up of the exhibition; and the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), which provided funding to assist the preparation and shipment of materials from Helsinki to Canada.
The exhibition is free and open to the public during regular building hours, 9am – 5pm. It is located in the Lobby on the first floor.
Curated by Ellinee Nelson.
