during wwii, the soviet-mongolian joint army entered inner mongolia to fight the japanese. it us claimed that inner mongolians gave allegiance to the communists to fight the japanese in hopes of attaining their independence after the war. however, this was not the case. on may 1, 1947 the inner mongolian autonomous region (imar) (mongolian: öbür mongγol-un öbertegen zasaqu orun, chinese: 内蒙古自治区， pinyin: nèi měnggǔ zìzhìqū) was established. imar also had close ties with the ussr through the mongolian people’s republic. the inner mongolians hoped that communist rule would be better than the previous nationalist rulers.