ROMAN FEDOROVICH UNGERN-STERNBERG
A RUTHLESS SOLDIER, MYSTIC, ADVENTURER, MONARCHIST AND LIBERATOR OF MONGOLIA
Ungern-sternberg was born into a Baltic German noble family that had served the Russian monarchy for centuries. But from an early age he displayed bizarre and cruel behaviour, which made his education problematic. Serving as a volunteer infantryman during the Russo-japanese
War seemed to convince him that the army was the life for him, despite not seeing active service. On graduation from military school he joined a Cossack regiment that hailed from the Transbaikal region next to the Chinese border. Despite a distinguished record during World War I Ungernsternberg’s unorthodox behaviour led to him transferred first to the Caucasian Front and then to Tranbaikal, where he was to recruit local tribesmen for service in the Russian army. However, news of the Bolshevik takeover in 1917 convinced him that such a force should be used to fight for the restoration of the monarchy.
For the next two years his forces operated under the command of Ataman Semenov, a subordinate of Kolchak, fighting Bolshevik partisans across Transbaikal. When Kolchak’s regime collapsed Ungern-sternberg embarked on his next, remarkable adventure. In six months of campaigning from October 1920-April 1921 his forces drove the Chinese army and authorities out of Mongolia. But by this time the Russian Civil War was almost over. Disagreements over the future of his command provoked his men into desertion, and he was captured by a Red Army detachment. On the orders of Lenin himself he was executed after a brief trial.