Today, exploring Ulaanbaatar's streets reveals its breakneck development and newfound prosperity, but not without insights into their social and environmental costs.  The collapse of the Soviet Union, which established Mongolia as its first satellite state in the early 20th century, ushered in a peaceful democratic revolution. The results were both a rapid transition to a market economy and a new constitution in 1992. The post-Soviet era has been a grand developmental experiment, and nowhere else is this more apparent than the capital city.