Psychopath or Visionary? Who was Roman von Ungern-Sternberg-? World War I / Russian Revolution

 

When the Russian Civil War broke out as a direct result of the Bolshevik Revolution in late 1917, several anti-communist commanders took up arms to fight the Red Army.

 Among the stories of all those intriguing commanders, with each one a story as brutal, heroic and tragic as the others, was one Cossack commander who truly stood out in eccentricity.

 Roman von Ungern-Sternberg was of Baltic-German noble origin but fell in love with the far-east, its history and culture. He was convinced he was a descendant of Genghis Khan, adopted a hybrid ideology of combined Buddhism, Christianity, and Samurai influences, and led his clique of merciless Cossacks in brutal battle against the Communists.

 But not before conquering Mongolia, albeit for a brief while, and declaring himself its head of state. He waged a campaign of terror, without any mercy towards his opponents.

 Still, at the same time, according to historians, a modern-day independent Mongolia would not be possible without his activities. He became known as the Mad Baron in history books, an epitaph that is rather fitting for this larger than life character, Early Life

 In 1886 Roman was born into a noble Baltic German family in Graz, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although his mother was German and his father, Theodor Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg, was of Baltic-German descent, the young boy spoke German, English, Estonian, French and Russian.

 When he was just two years old the von Ungern-Sternberg’s moved to Reval, modern-day Tallinn, in the Russian Governorate of Estonia. Roman grew up there, travelling between Reval and his family’s estate situated on the island of Hiiumaa.

 His parents divorced during his childhood, his father was committed to a mental asylum, and his mother remarried the

 Baltic-German Oskar von Hoyningen-Huene.

 Already as a child, Roman was obsessed with romanticised accounts of his ancestors. Teutonic knights conquering the Baltic states, but also of Mongols and their domination under Genghis Khan.

 At the root lay the belief that the Ungern-Sternberg’s were related to a descendant of Genghis Khan, although no conclusive evidence supports this.

 Besides enjoying and losing

 himself in the tales of old,

 he was a nasty kid. Stories reveal he bullied kids, and bullied bullies. He tortured animals, and on more than one occasion, parents forbade their kids to interact with him.

 His grades suffered, although he did excel in sports and physical activity.

 He was expelled from the Gymnasium in Revel, upon which his stepfather enrolled him in the Imperial Naval Academy in Saint Petersburg.

 Roman, who began referring to himself as Ungern von Sternberg, was a dedicated monarchist and patriot, but describing him as an ideal officer would be far from the truth. In fact, he loathed protocol, formalities, and he shunned the elite networks of nobility he had access to. Ungern preferred to spend his time with regular soldiers, enjoying the raw lives and crude humour.

 And when war broke out with Japan in 1904, he eagerly jumped at the opportunity to search for action and adventure in the Far East. He served in the Imperial Russian Army during the Russo-Japanese War, although by the time he arrived at the front most of the fighting was over already, and Russia soon accepted their defeat.

 This was the first time he visited the Far East of Russia and rubbed shoulders with the Mongolian, Chinese and even Japanese cultures. Eight years after the war ended Ungern received the service medal, casting doubt on the generally accepted narrative he did not see action.

 During the Russo-Japanese war, the 1905 Russian revolution spread through Russia. Although not conclusive in dethroning Tsar Nicholas for now, peasants in rural areas did take up arms against the upper classes. The same goes for Estonian peasants, who reportedly burned down Ungern’s family estate. When news reached him, as he himself was still in the far east at this point, he allegedly developed utter contempt for the masses, thinking of them no more than wild animals. This only cemented his ultranationalist and monarchist convictions, having a deep seated hatred against moderate or left-wing movement.

 Clearly, he didn’t fit in with the other Russian officers. Whereas they all attempted to acquire prestigious postings close to Europe, 22-year-old Roman was sent to Transbaikal.

 Translating to ‘Beyond Lake Baikal’, frankly, searching for postings further away from Europe could be pretty challenging.

 Located at the Russian-Mongolian-Chinese border in south Siberia, Roman served as an officer among the Amur Cossacks for the next five years. Having a notoriously short temper, he engaged in at least one duel during this time.

 He thrived there, though, and for the rest of his life, he would both feel a connection with the Cossacks and with the Siberian- and Mongolian regions.

 World War I

 But when in 1914 the First War Broke out, he was sent to the European front.

 Ungern served in multiple Cossack units at the Eastern European and Southern Caucasus front, fighting against Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. From 1914, he spent two years fighting in Galicia, current-day Ukraine and Poland.

 Now, something you should know about the Eastern Front in the First World War is that it saw just as much, if not more, senseless slaughter as the Western Front. Infantry and cavalry charged into machine guns without much regard for human life, and Cossack casualties were exceptionally high. Sometimes even quadruple the number of regular units.

 Ungern commanded the Zabaikal Cossacks regiment and quickly made a name for himself because he tended to volunteer

 for the most dangerous charges.

 And when charges were taking place, he rode at the head of the cavalry unit charging into barbed wire, machine guns and the general horror you would expect trench warfare to bring.

 Throughout the war, Ungern received every possible order an officer of his rank could receive, including the Order of Saint George, the highest military decoration for commissioned officers.

 Another Baltic German officer of the Imperial Russian Army, Pyotr Wrangl, also known as the Black Baron, wrote about Ungern in a rather revealing manner.

 He lauded his heroism and self-sacrifice, describing his natural state as that of war.

 Yet he also criticised him, writing that among officers and other noblemen, he acted out. He simply could not properly participate in more sophisticated circles and adhere to etiquette, resulting in constant reprimands, fights and disciplinary measures.

 This came to a head in 1916 when a fight with another officer escalated into a duel.

 The fight was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Ungern’s superiors were fed up with the recalcitrant horseman and threw him in military prison. When they released him in December that year, he was transferred to the Caucasus, where the war against the Ottomans was waging on.

 Here, Ungern served under Captain Grigory Semyonov. This moustached Cossack Captain had part Buryat ancestry and spoke both Mongolian and Buryat fluently.

 These languages and cultures weren’t especially popular among certain elites, but the raw Cossack cavalrymen proved a welcome asset against the Ottomans.

 Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg hit it off thanks to their shared appreciation for Mongolian culture and the fact both men weren’t exactly popular among their peers. Contemporaries and historians alike credit them with brutal personalities both to enemies and their own soldiers. By 1917 Ungern reached the rank of Voyskovoy starshina, the equivalent of Lieutenant colonel for Cossacks.

 Around that time, the two men attempted to organise an Assyrian Christian regiment to take up arms against the Ottomans. But during the fighting in the Caucasus and recruiting troops in modern-day Iran, developments behind the frontlines steered Russia’s history in a wildly different direction.

 Revolution 1917-1920

 The Russian Empire was one of the great empires that collapsed as

 a result of the First World War. In 1917 the February Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II, and later that year the Bolshevik revolution marked the beginning of what would become the Soviet Union. But not before many different war parties fought an incredibly bloody, brutal and gruesome civil war, where both the Bolsheviks and the so-called Whites spared nobody opposing them.

 These loosely organised White military units consisted of monarchists, conservatives, but even liberals. As long as they opposed communism. In the Caucasus, the lieutenant-general Anton Denikin commanded an anti-communist volunteer force.

 In the south-west, the ‘Black Baron’, Pyotr Wrangl, commanded the Caucasus Volunteer Army.

 The fair-moustached Nikolai

 Yudenich lead troops in the Baltics and in the far east, Admiral Alexandr Kolchak declared himself Supreme Leader and commander-in-Chief of All

 Russian Land and Sea Forces.

 Ungern, a convinced Monarchist, bloodthirsty and ready as ever for war, joined the White Army together with Semyonov, who assumed command of the Baikal Cossacks and became their Ataman.

 Although the White Army sounds like a unified front against the Bolsheviks, it in fact consisted of a wide variety of groups and stakeholders. Due to the vast size of the former Russian Empire, many of these groups weren’t even in contact with each other although they fought on the same side.

 Ungern’s goal for the next few years was to restore the Romanov monarchy, preferably by putting Grand Duke

 Michael on the throne. It is widely assumed he never became aware of Grand Duke Michael’s execution, which took place in June 1918.

 Ungern had always been a strange fellow at any rate, I’m sure you agree, but around this time he supposedly had a spiritual revelation from Buddha.

 Since that moment he was convinced he was Buddha’s reincarnation, tasked with restoring Ghenghis Khan’s Mongol Empire. Historians noted Ungern fused strains of Christianity and Buddhism together with other spiritual influences such as asceticism and Japanese Samurai customs.

 That didn’t mean he lived an entirely pure life as prescribed by Christianity because his own form of spiritual belief system allowed for the generous consumption of alcohol and prolific bloodshed.

 Ungern and Semyonov, together with their cavalry unit, trekked eastward towards outer-Mongolia and Eastern Siberia, basically the Transbaikal region Ungern was stationed in a decade before.

 In February 1919 Ungern formed his multi-ethnic Asiatic Cavalry Division, operating under Semyonov’s command. He became a robber baron, terrorising the local population with indiscriminate killings and theft, leading many locals to side with the Red Army, often just as bloodthirsty as Ungern’s Cossack unit.

 In late summer 1920, Ungern and his cavalry unit invaded Mongolia, embroiled in its own war of independence against Chinese troops. About 7000 Chinese troops held Mongolia’s capital, Urga (modern-day Ulaanbataar).

 Enjoying support from Mongolian clergy, the Imperial Japanese Army and the 8th Bogd Gegeen (the great Khan), Ungern made plans to capture Urga. His first besiegement failed. But the second time, together with 1500-odd men, he managed to capture the city, defeating the Chinese troops.

 They restored the 8th Bogd Khan who awarded Ungern the title of ‘hereditary grand duke Darkhan Khoshoi Chin Wang in the dignity of Khan.’ Semyonov promoted Ungern to Lieutenant General.

 The small Jewish population living in Urga was massacred. Any (suspected) communist they caught was subject to torture before execution.

 Ungern also established his own secret police, which became notorious for its

 disregard for human lives.

 Yet when Ungern’s power was somewhat… consolidated, although by no means do I mean it was a stable situation, did he introduce oddly progressive policy. He founded a library for the people, established schools for the youth, attempted to reform the economy, issued religious tolerance edicts (excluding Jews) and appointed offices for public sanitation, and keeping the streets clean. When it came to prisoners, Ungern allowed the Mongolian populace to ‘buy’ the freedom of those arrested in order to improve their karma.

 Still, Ungern’s unpredictable behaviour led to issues among the higher ranks.

 Not to mention that his officers misbehaved and were described by contemporaries as a bunch of brutal warriors, taking pleasure in the execution of enemies and sometimes even ordinary citizens.

 The Demise.

 Pursuing his goal of establishing a great Mongol Khanate with himself at its head, Ungern made many enemies. In the north, the tide of the war was rapidly shifting in the Bolshevik’s favour, with many White Army commanders surrendering and fleeing or being captured and executed.

 When Ungern captured Urga and took control, many Mongol nationalist and communist sympathisers fled over the border into Russian territory.

 They formed the Mongol government in exile and received support from the Red Army. These revolutionaries rejected the 8th Bogd Khan and Ungern’s presence. In March 1921, they launched an invasion into Mongolia.

 Not aware of the Reds having conquered the majority of the Siberian territory, Ungern was convinced he enjoyed support from Mongol and Siberian locals. He agreed to meet a Red Army envoy in Siberia, but he barely received locals’ support when he arrived.

 Leading a severely weakened cavalry unit, Ungern engaged in multiple battles against the better-equipped and numerically superior Red Army throughout the summer. In July, Urga was captured by the Red Army.

 Realising he wouldn’t be able to recapture Urga, Ungern travelled to Transbaikal in an attempt to replenish his forces. Penetrating deep into Russian territory, he had to retreat when he realised large Red Army units chased him.

 Fleeing to Mongolia again, he made plans to cross the Gobi desert and reach Tibet. Having barely any supplies, his near-suicide mission to Tibet, led to his demise. Fed up with his exceedingly erratic behaviour, even his most loyal officers mutinied, at this point. In August, following a failed assassination attempt, his men tied him up and sold him to a guerrilla Red army detachment.

 After a six-hour show trial, 35-year-old Ungern was executed by a firing squad.

 These eery images are photographs of the moment right before his execution. And like that the life of the Mad Baron ended, a moving and tumultuous life. He supposedly swallowed his order of St George and other military medals, to prevent them from falling in ‘godless communist hands.’ Although this is based on hearsay, I think the fact it is plausible he did just that proves how much of an unconventional person he was.