 In the 20th century, when Mongolia had close ties to the Soviet Union, Mongols were sometimes given Russian names like "Alexander" or "Sasha", or mixed ones like "Ivaanjav" consisting of the Russian "Ivan" and the Tibetan "-jav".Politically active parents may have chosen "Oktyabr" (October), "Seseer" (USSR), "Mart" (March) and even "Molotov" as names for their offspring.One such example is "Melschoi", composed of the first letters of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Choibalsan.