Two pages, 8 ¼" x 11 ½", front only, typographically printed. The first page features the rank and full name of the addressee of the greeting, Gen. Vasiliy Gridnev. The second page contains the text of the greeting and Tsedenbal's handwritten signature in blue ink. The document is printed on heavy-stock high-grade glossy paper. The presentation folder measures 9" x 12 ½", and features leatherette-wrapped hard cover, slightly padded on the outside.

The letter is near pristine, showing just miniscule traces of wear, visible only when tilting the paper to reflect a bright light. The

Two pages, 8 ¼" x 11 ½", front only, typographically printed. The first page features the rank and full name of the addressee of the greeting, Gen. Vasiliy Gridnev. The second page contains the text of the greeting and Tsedenbal's handwritten signature in blue ink. The document is printed on heavy-stock high-grade glossy paper. The presentation folder measures 9" x 12 ½", and features leatherette-wrapped hard cover, slightly padded on the outside.

The letter is near pristine, showing just miniscule traces of wear, visible only when tilting the paper to reflect a bright light. The front cover has a tiny rip which looks as if it was made with the tip of a sharp blade. The leatherette is clean on the front but shows some staining on the back. A close inspection reveals minimal scuffing to the corners. The paper of the pastedown shows moderate water stains, mostly at the bottom. None of the wear is too detractive.

Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal (1916 - 1991), the son of nomadic herders, graduated from the Irkutsk Institute of Finance & Economics (USSR) and returned to Mongolia to teach finance. Whether it was due to his personal talents or Soviet higher education, but his political career took off at an incredible pace. He joined the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (now the Mongolian People's Party) in 1939, and was elected First Secretary (leader of the party) the next year. He latched on to the Soviet style of leadership of the Stalin flavor and immediately began building a personality cult around himself. During WW2 he became Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian army. With all this political and military clout secured, Tsedenbal remained head of the party until 1984, not counting the one-time 1954 election glitch which replaced him with Dashiin Damba for four years. He firmly glued Mongolian statehood to the Soviet Union politically, economically and militarily, and even introduced Cyrillic alphabet in the 1940s to replace the original Mongolian script.

KGB Gen. Maj. Vyacheslav Gridnev (Вячеслав Васильевич Гриднев, 1898 - 1991) began his service in the Soviet State Security services from their very inception, and survived and prospered, career-wise, through all their iterations, tribulations and purges: VChK, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB, and, finally, KGB. He served in Mongolia twice, in the 1930s setting up their border guards service but also worked in the Soviet Intelligence doing spy work in Manchuria.

During WW2, Gridnev served in the Special Group of NKVD Troops tasked with sabotage operations behind the enemy lines. In 1943, Gridnev returned to Mongolia as an adviser to the Mongolian Ministry of Internal Affairs. His second Mongolian posting lasted only until 1949 but he must have made a big impression on Tsedenbal to earn him a greeting letter almost 30 years later.

Gridnev's last post was Commander of the Higher Intelligence School at the MGB - KGB of the USSR.

Please note that the photo of Tsedenbal is for illustrative purposes only and does not come with the document.
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