Roman Ungern von Sternberg
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Baron Roman Nicolaus von Ungern-Sternberg (Роман Фёдорович Унгерн фон Штернберг in Russian, which transliterates as Roman Fyodorovich Ungern fon Shternberg, also known as the Bloody Baron (January 22, 1886, new style — September 15, 1921) was a Russian lieutenant-general, one of the military commanders on the side of the White movement during the Russian Civil War, later an independent warlord in pursuit of pan-monarchist goals in Mongolia and territories east of Lake Baikal. Although born with the name von Ungern-Sternberg, he later used the "incorrect" form Ungern von Sternberg.
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[edit] Biography
Ungern von Sternberg was born in Graz, Austria to a Baltic German family, and raised in Tallinn (Reval), Estonia (then part of the Russian Empire) by his stepfather Oscar von Hoyningen-Huene. After graduating from Pavlovsk Military School in Saint Petersburg, he served in Siberia where he was enthralled with the life-style of nomadic peoples such as the Mongols and Buryats. During World War I, Ungern von Sternberg fought in Galicia. During the war, he was considered a very brave, but a somewhat reckless and mentally unstable officer. General Wrangel mentioned in his memoirs that he was afraid to promote Ungern-Sternberg. After the February Revolution in 1917 he was sent by the Provisional Government to the Russian Far East under command of Grigori Semenov to establish a loyal military presence there.
After the Bolshevik-led October Revolution of 1917, Semenov and his right-hand man, Ungern von Sternberg raised their banners against them. In the following months Ungern von Sternberg distinguished himself by extreme cruelty to the local population and to his own subordinates. He earned the nickname Bloody Baron. Ungern von Sternberg was also known as the "Mad Baron" because of his exceedingly eccentric behaviour. Semenov and Ungern von Sternberg, though anti-Bolshevik, were not part of the White movement, and declined to recognise the authority of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, the nominal leader of the Whites. Instead, they were supported by the Japanese with arms and money. The Japanese intention was to found a puppet state in the Russian Far East headed by Semenov. For the White leaders, who believed in "Russia strong and indivisible", this was high treason. Ungern von Sternberg’s army comprised a mixture of Russian troops, the Transbaikal Cossack Host, and Buryat tribesmen who plundered the Whites' supply trains as often as those of the Reds. Because Admiral Kolchak had his base of operations in central Siberia, and Semenov and Ungern von Sternberg operated to the east of Kolchak in Transbaikal area, their attacks on supply trains travelling west from Vladivostok on the Trans-Siberian Railroad did much to hinder Kolchak's operations in the Urals.
In 1920, Ungern von Sternberg split from Semenov and became an independent warlord. He believed that monarchy was the only social system which could save Western civilisation from corruption and self-destruction. He began to pursue an idea of restoring the Qing Dynasty to the Chinese throne, then uniting Far-Eastern nations under it. A fanatical anti-Semite, he proclaimed in a 1918 Manifesto, his intention "...to exterminate all of the Jews and Commissars of Russia" and to restore Grand Duke Mikhail, the younger brother of Nicholas II to the Russian throne. Because of the disruptions caused by World War One, many Jews from the Pale of Settlement (where they had been forced to live prior to the war) fled eastwards to escape the fighting. Ungern von Sternberg's troops, however, slaughtered Jews whenever they encountered them.[citation needed]
Since 1919, Mongolia was occupied by Chinese republican forces. In late 1920-early 1921 Ungern von Sternberg's troops entered Mongolia at the invitation of the displaced Bogd Khan, Mongolia's civil and religious ruler. In January 1921, Ungern von Sternberg's army assaulted the capital town, Urga (now Ulaanbaatar), several times, but were repelled with heavy losses. Ungern von Sternberg ordered his troops to burn a large number of camp fires in the hills around Urga, making an appearance that the town was surrounded by an overwhelming force. In February 1921, without fighting a battle, he drove the Chinese out of town.
On March 13, 1921, Mongolia was proclaimed an independent monarchy, and Ungern von Sternberg became Mongolian dictator. A mystic who was fascinated by beliefs and religions of the Far East such as Buddhism and who believed himself to be a reincarnation of Genghis Khan, Ungern von Sternberg's philosophy was an exceptionally muddled mixture of Russian nationalism with Chinese and Mongol beliefs. In real life, his brief rule of Mongolia was characterised by looting and a reign of terror by his army.
A Red Army force sent to deal with Ungern von Sternberg (Pro-Soviet Mongolian leader Damdin Sühbaatar) defeated Ungern von Sternberg's forces in Mongolia. In May, Ungern von Sternberg attempted to invade Soviet territory near Troitskosavsk (now Kyakhta, Buryatia). After initial successes in May and June, Ungern von Sternberg was defeated in a July-August counteroffensive, captured by his own soldiers, and handed over to the Red Army on August 21, 1921.
After a quick military tribunal held by a Cheka troika, Ungern von Sternberg was executed by a firing squad in Novonikolayevsk (now Novosibirsk, Russia). Before his execution, Ungern von Sternberg was said to have chewed up his Cross of St. George medal in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the sacrilegious communists.
Ungern von Sternberg was declared to be a Mahakala incarnation by the Dalai Lama XIII.
[edit] Literature
- Alioshin, Dimitri: Asian Odyssey, New York 1941.
- Hopkirk, Peter: Setting the East Ablaze : On Secret Service in Bolshevik Asia, Don Mills 1986.
- Ossendowski, Ferdynand: Beasts, Men And Gods, New York 1922.
[edit] Popular culture
Roman Ungern von Sternberg is the prototype for the central villain, "Baron Ugenberg", in the alternate history game Iron Storm, where he ruled a Pan Russo-Mongolian Empire during a Great War that stretched into the 1960s.
Roman Ungern von Sternberg appears in Hugo Pratt's graphic novel Corto Maltese in Siberia (the original Italian title: Corte sconta detta Arcana), a part of famed comics serial Corto Maltese.
Baron Ungern is also a character in the novel of a modern Russian writer Victor Pelevin "Chapayev and Void" (aka Clay Machine-Gun). He was depictured as the sovereign of the "Inner Mongolia".
