Roman von Ungern-Sternberg

Baron
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg

Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg, in 1921, in a Mongolian deel uniform with Russian Order of St. George 4th Class
Born (1885-12-29)December 29, 1885
Graz, Austria-Hungary
Died September 15, 1921(1921-09-15) (aged 35)
Novosibirsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Allegiance  Russian Empire
Bogd Khaanate of Mongolia
Service/branch
Years of service 1906–1921
Rank Lieutenant general
Commands held Asiatic Cavalry Division
Battles/wars
Awards

Baron Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg (Russian: Барон Ро́берт-Ни́колай-Максими́лиан Рома́н Фёдорович фон У́нгерн-Ште́рнберг)[1][2] (December 29, 1885 NS – September 15, 1921) was an anti-Bolshevik lieutenant general in the Russian Civil War and then an independent warlord whose Asiatic Cavalry Division wrested control of Mongolia from the occupation of Mongolia by the Republic of China in 1921. He was often referred to as Baron Ungern, or simply Ungern.

During the Russian Civil War, Ungern's attraction to Vajrayana Buddhism and his eccentric, often violent treatment of enemies and his own men, earned him the sobriquet "the Mad Baron". He was also an arch conservative pan-monarchist who aspired to restore the Russian monarchy under Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia and to revive the Mongol Empire under the rule of the Bogd Khan. During his five-month occupation of Outer Mongolia, Ungern imposed order on the capital city, Ikh Khüree, through fear, intimidation, and brutal violence against his opponents, particularly Bolshevik supporters.

In June 1921 he went on to invade South Siberia, in support of anti-Bolshevik rebellions and to head off a Red Army-Mongolian partisan invasion, and this action led to his defeat and capture two months later. He was taken prisoner by the Red Army and a month later was put on trial for counterrevolution in Novonikolaevsk. After a six-hour show trial, he was found guilty, and on September 15, 1921 he was executed.

Biography

The Young Officer

Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg as a child

R.F. von Ungern-Sternberg was born in Graz, Austria on December 29, 1885 to a noble Baltic-German family. Ungern-Sternberg liked to boast that he was descended from a long line of "crusaders and privateers" as the Ungern-Sternberg family was an ancient German noble family that settled into what is now Estonia during the Middle Ages.[3] Ungern-Sternberg's first language was German, but he was also fluent in French, Russian, English, and Estonian.[4] His mother was a German noblewoman named Sophie Charlotte von Wimpffen, later Sophie Charlotte von Ungern-Sternberg, and his father was Baron Theodor Leonhard Rudolph von Ungern-Sternberg (1857–1918).

In 1888 his family moved to Reval (Tallinn), the capital of the Governorate of Estonia within the Russian Empire, where his parents divorced three years later in 1891. In 1894 his mother married the Baltic German nobleman Baron Oskar Anselm Herrmann von Hoyningen-Huene.[5] Ungern-Sternberg grew up in the Russian province of Estland (modern Estonia), growing up at the Hoyningen-Huene estate at Jerwakant (modern Järvakandi, Estonia) that was set deep in the forests about forty miles from Reval.[6] In the summer, Ungern-Sternberg lived on the island of Dago (modern Hiiumaa) in the Baltic, which Ungern-Sternberg liked to boost had belonged to his family for over two hundred years.[7] Ungern-Sternberg had an extreme pride in his ancient, aristocratic family, later writing that his family had over the centuries "never taken orders from the working classes" and it was outrageous that "dirty workers who've never had any servants of their own, but still think they can command" should have any say in the ruling of the vast Russian Empire.[8] Alongside Ungern-Sterberg's aristocratic pride was an ardent anti-Slavic racism that led him to view all Slavic peoples as naturally inferior and barbarous to the "superior" volkdeutsche (ethnic Germans) like himself.[8] Ungern-Sternberg believed that it was the volkdeutsche nobility of the Russian empire who were the Herrnvolk ("master race) that kept the empire working, and that if the Slavic Russians were left on their own that they would inevitably fall for the tricks of the Jews, whom the anti-Semitic Ungern-Sterberg saw as his archenemies from his childhood on.[8] The Völkisch ideas so popular amongst certain elements in Germany and Austria in the early 20th century was also popular in the volksdeutsche community in Estland, and the young Ungern-Sternberg was much influenced by völkisch racism which viewed the "German race" were the best examples of the great "Aryan race" who were locked into a battle with the "Jewish race" for world supremacy.[9] At the same time, Ungern-Sternberg, despite his disdain for the Slavic Russians as racially inferior to ethnic Germans like himself identified very strongly with the Russian Empire, believing that Russia had a "special mission" to perform in Asia, and that family had played and would continue to play a great role in expanding the frontiers of Russia into Asia.[10] When asked if his "family had distinguished itself in Russian service", Ungern proudly answered: "Seventy-two killed in wartime!".[11] In the 19th century, many Russians regarded Asia much the same way that Americans regarded "the West" at the same time as a vast land full of the rich bounty of nature inhabited by "savage" peoples whom they were destined to conquer.[11] Many of the Ungern-Sternberg men had served as officers in the Imperial Russian Army starting in the 18th century, fighting in the wars that saw so much of Asia conquered by Russia, and Ungern wished to follow in their footsteps, envisioning himself as winning glory as part of Russia's "special mission" in Asia.[11] Ungern-Sternberg believed not so much in Russian nationalism, but rather in the idea of the Russian Empire as the "combination of peoples" in which different peoples such as Russians, ethnic Germans, the Cossack hosts, Buryats, etc. would come together in a sacred union held together by their common loyalty to a divinely sanctioned monarchy accountable only to God.[12] Ungern-Sternberg was very proud of his family's military record and would tell anyone who would listen how the first Ungern-Sternbergs to come to Estland as conquerors in the Middle Ages had such sobriquets such as "the Axe" and "the brother of Satan", reflecting the fact his family were always great warriors who had covered themselves with the blood of their enemies.[11]

In 1898, his father was briefly imprisoned for fraud and in 1899 committed to the local insane asylum.[13] From 1900 to 1902 Ungern attended the Nicholas I Gymnasium in Reval. As a student, Ungern-Sternberg was regarded as an intelligent, but extremely difficult young man who was forever getting into brawls with his fellow students and whose grades were terrible as Ungern took the view that as an nobleman he had nothing to learn from his teachers, who were all mere commoners.[14] In 1903 he enrolled in Marine Officers Cadet School in Saint Petersburg. As a cadet, Ungern-Sternberg did well only with physical exercises and his grades with the other subjects were all extremely bad as he refused to study.[15] When one of Ungern's teachers complained that a paper he written on naval architecture was so muddled and unclear that nobody could understand what exactly he was trying to argue and that if he did not try to explain the said paper, he would fail the class, Ungern replied: "Oh, what a shame!".[15] Ungern's biographer, the British writer James Palmer wrote that remark was "...typical of his sense of humour, which even as an adult remained limited to brutal sarcasm".[15] Ungern's school records show that he was an unruly, bad-tempered young man who was constantly into trouble with his teachers owing to frequent fights with the other cadets and breaking other school rules, like smoking in bed, growing long hair, leaving without permission, etc., which finally led to the schoolmaster writing a letter in February 1905 to his stepfather and mother asking them to withdraw their son from the school as otherwise Ungern would be expelled.[15] In 1905 he left the school to join the fighting in Eastern Russia during the Russo-Japanese War, but it is unclear whether he participated in operations against the Japanese, or if all military operations had ceased before his arrival in Manchuria.[16]

In 1905 Russia exploded into revolution, and in the province of Estland, the Estonian peasants went on a bloody jacquerie against the Baltic-German nobility who owned most of the land in Estland, lynching the aristocrats and burning down their estates.[17] One of the estates burned down was the one at Jerwakant where Ungern-Sternberg had grown up.[18] The revolution of 1905 and the destruction of the Jerwakant estate were huge traumas to Ungern-Sternberg, who saw the jacquerie as confirming his belief that the Estonian peasants who worked on his family's lands were all "rough, untutored, wild and constantly angry, hating everybody and everything without understanding why".[18] More broadly, Ungern-Sternberg believed the revolution of 1905 was all the work of the Jews, calling the revolution "the horrible harvest of the seed sowed by revolutionaries" and that "in their hearts, the people remained loyal to Tsar, Faith and Fatherland", but had been tricked by the "degenerate" Russian intelligentsia and the Jews into rebelling against the natural order of things.[18] The ultra-conservative Ungern-Sternberg viewed the October Manifesto promising a democratically elected Duma and basic civil rights to the empire's subjects issued by the Emperor Nicholas II in October 1905 as a "betrayal" of the sacred principles of the Russian monarchy and the beginning of the end of the House of Romanov.[19] Even the limited concessions to democracy in the October Manifesto were too much for Ungern-Sternberg, who believed in a Russian monarchy that was an autocracy, and as such Ungern believed that Nicholas II had set the monarchy on the road to ruin with the October Manifesto.[19]

In 1906 Ungern was transferred to service in Pavlovskoe Military School in Saint Petersburg as a cadet of ordinary rank.[20] As an army cadet, Ungern proved to be a better student than he ever was as a naval cadet, and he actually studied his course material, through in the words of Palmer Ungern was only a "mediocre student" at best.[19] During the same period, Ungern-Sternberg become obsessed with the occult and was especially interested in the more esoteric and mystical strains of Buddhism.[21] Ungern-Sternberg had become interested in "Eastern mysticism" via Theosophy which was very popular with the Russian upper classes at the time.[22] Ungern-Sternberg's cousin, Count Hermann von Keyserling who knew him well later wrote that the baron was very curious from his teenage years onwards with "Tibetan and Hindu philosophy" and often spoke of the mystical powers possessed by "geometrical symbols".[23] Keyserling called Ungern-Sternberg "one of the most metaphysically and occultly gifted man I have ever met" and believed that the baron was a clairvoyant who could read the minds of the people around him.[23] People who met Ungern-Sternberg always described as an unforgettable character with such intense, piecing eyes (that depending upon the account were either blue or grey-the exact color of Ungern's eyes remains a mystery) that many felt he had psychic powers.[23] Palmer described Ungern as a man with "...the classic traits of an intelligent, but narrow-minded autodidact: contempt for the intelligentsia, a fervent belief in his own findings and reasoning, and a dangerous credulity for unusual fringe beliefs."[19]

After graduating he served as an officer in East Siberia in the 1st Argunsky and the 1st Amursky Cossack regiments, where he became enthralled with the lifestyle of nomadic peoples such as the Mongols and Buryats. Ungern had specifically asked that he been stationed with a Cossack regiment in Asia as he wanted to learn more about Asian culture, a request that was granted[24] About 12% of the men of the Amursky Cossack host were Buryats, who taught Ungern their language and further his interest in Buddhism.[25] During this period, Ungern-Sternberg was notorious for his heavy drinking and exceptionally cantankerous moods, spending a disproportionate amount of his time feuding with other officers in the daytime when not fighting duels and engaging in drunken brawls with his fellow officers in the evenings.[13] During one such brawl, Ungern-Sternberg's face was scarred when the officer he was fighting with struck his visage with his sword, leaving him with a distinctive facial scar.[13] It was much to the relief of his superiors when Ungern-Sternberg decided to forsake alcohol and took to spending his days studying Buddhism, learning Mongol and Buryat and generally spending as much time as possible with the nomads.[13] Those who knew Ungern-Sternberg well described him as very drawn towards "Eastern culture" as he was fascinated by Asian cultures, especially that of the Mongols and the Buryats.[26] At the same time, Ungern was an excellent horseman who earned the respect of the Mongols and the Buryats due to his skill at riding and fighting from a horse, being equally adept at using both a gun and his sword.[27] In 1913, at his request, he transferred to the reserves. Ungern moved to Outer Mongolia to assist Mongols in their struggle for independence from China, but Russian officials prevented him from fighting with Mongolian troops. He arrived in the town of Khovd in western Mongolia and served as out-of-staff officer in the Cossack guard detachment at the Russian consulate. A Russian merchant living in Urga named Aleksei Burdukov described Ungern-Sternberg at this time as "a scrawny, ragged, droopy man; on his face had grown a wispy blond beard, he had faded, blank blue eyes, and he looked about thirty years old. His military uniform was in abnormally poor condition, the trousers being considerably worn and torn at the knees. He carried a sword by his hip and a gun in his belt".[28]

First World War

On July 19, 1914 Ungern joined front-line forces as part of the second-turn 34th regiment of Cossack troops stationed on the Austrian frontier in Galicia. Ungern took part in the Russian offensive in East Prussia and from 1915-1916 he also participated in rear-action raids on German troops by the L.N. Punin Cavalry Special Task Force.[29] Throughout the war on the Eastern Front, Ungern gained a reputation as an extremely brave, but somewhat reckless and mentally unstable officer, a man with no fear of death who seemed most happy leading cavalry charges or being in the thick of combat, in short a man who thoroughly enjoyed killing people.[30] Much to his joy, Ungern won the St. George's Cross, Imperial Russia's highest decoration for his bravery in combat.[30] Although decorated with several military awards, he was eventually discharged from one of his command positions for attacking another officer with his sword, which led to him being court-martialed and given two months in prison.[31] General Wrangel mentions Ungern's determination in his memoirs.

After his release from prison in January 1917, Ungern was transferred to the Caucasian theatre of the conflict, where Russia was fighting against the Ottoman Empire.[32] The February Revolution which ended the rule of the House of Romanov was an extremely bitter blow to the monarchist Ungern-Sternberg, who saw the revolution as the beginning of the end of Russia.[33] Ungern-Sternberg regarded the new government, which was soon dominated by the Right-Socialist Revolutionary Alexander Kerensky as a "total mess", but for the want of a better alternative, Ungern accepted the authority of the new republic.[33] In the Caucasus, Ungern-Sternberg first met the Cossack Captain Grigory Semyonov, a Eurasian man who was the product of the union between a Russian father and a Buryat mother, who despite having "Asiatic" facial features had managed to become an officer in the Imperial Army.[34] Ungern-Sternberg and Semyonov bonded, becoming best friends as the two were very much outsiders in the Russian Army as Semyonov was unpopular for being Eurasian while Ungern-Sternberg was unpopular for being a volksdeutsche with a nasty temper at a time when Russia was at war with Germany.[35] Additionally, both Ungern-Sternberg and Semyonov were ambitious men with burning desires to be successful as soldiers and both had a keen interest in Asia, especially Mongolia.[35] In April 1917 near Urmia, Iran, Ungern, together with Grigory Semyonov, started to organize a volunteer military unit composed of local Assyrian Christians. The Ottoman government had waged the Assyrian Genocide, attempting to exterminate the Assyrian minority, which led to thousands of Assyrians fleeing to the Russian lines.[36] Ungern and Semyonov conceived of a scheme under which the two would organize and lead the Assyrians against the Ottomans.[37] Under Ungern's command, they went on to score some minor victories over the Turks, but their total contribution to Russia's war effort was limited.[38] Afterwards, the Assyrian scheme led Semyonov to the idea of a Buryat regiment in the Russian Army as he become convinced that with the ethnic Russian units taking enormous losses that the key to victory laid with enlisting the Asian peoples of Russia into the war (the Buryats like the other Asians were not subject to conscription).[37] The Kerensky government gave its approval to Semyonov's plans, and Ungern-Sternberg soon headed east to join his friend in trying to raise a Buryat regiment.[39]

Bolshevik Revolution, 1917

After the Bolshevik-led October Revolution of 1917, Semyonov and Ungern declared their allegiance to the Romanovs and vowed to fight the revolutionaries. Semyonov, backed by the Japanese, appointed Ungern governor of Dauria, the large area to the east-southeast of Lake Baikal. In the months that followed, Ungern distinguished himself by his exceedingly eccentric behavior, which lead many who knew of him to dub him the "Mad Baron" or in a reference to his love of war to call him "the god of war".[40] Semyonov and Ungern, though fervently anti-Bolshevik, were not part of the White movement and Semyonov refused to recognize the authority of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, the nominal leader of the Whites in Siberia. Instead he acted independently, supported by the Japanese with arms and money. For White leaders like Kolchak and Denikin, who believed in a "Russia strong and indivisible", this represented high treason. Ungern was nominally subordinated to Semyonov but he too often acted independently.[41] Admiral Kolchak was a conservative, but not a monarchist who promised that after the victory of the Whites, he would reconvene the Constituent Assembly disbanded by the Bolsheviks in January 1918, which would then decide the future of Russia, including the question of whatever to restore the monarchy or not.[42] For the ultra-conservative monarchist Ungern-Sternberg, Admiral Kolchak's politics were far too moderate for his taste, and the idea that the future of Russia would be decided by a Constituent Assembly democratically elected by universal suffrage was an outrage as Ungern believed in the divine right of kings.[42] Ungern believed that emperors were accountable only to God, and the monarchy was the political system that God had chosen for Russia, so it was self-evident that the monarchy should be restored back to the way it had existed before the October Manifesto of 1905. For Ungern, the opinions of the people of Russia were irrelevant as monarchs were not accountable to the people.

Because of his successful military operations in Hailar and Dauria, Ungern received the rank of Major-General. Semyonov appointed him commandant of the Dauria railway station and entrusted him with forming military units to battle Bolshevik forces. In Dauria, Ungern formed the volunteer Asiatic Cavalry Division (Russian: Азиатская конная дивизия), a mix of Russians, Buryats, Tatars, Bashkirs, Mongols from different tribes, Chinese, Manchu, Japanese, Polish exiles and many others.[41] Ungern's unit was known as "The Savage Division" (Russian: Дикая дивизия), a term properly referring to the military unit consisting of mountain peoples from the Caucasus or Mongolic Kalmyks in the Russian Imperial Army, which fought in World War I and later, after the Russian Revolution, against Bolsheviks. Ungern reinforced his military station at Dauria, creating a kind of fortress from where his troops launched attacks on Red forces. Under his rule, Dauria was a well known "torture center" filled with the bones of hundreds of Ungern's victims while Ungern transformed the surrounding countryside into a wasteland full of burned villages with the silence only being broken by the cries of the women his men raped.[43] Hundreds of Ungern's officers and soldiers objected to his violence against civilians and consequently were executed for treason and mutiny.[30]

Like many other White units, Ungern's troops employed plundering as source of their supply. They plundered trains passing through Dauria to Manchuria. While these confiscations did not significantly diminish the supplies of Kolchak's forces, private Russian and Chinese merchants lost considerable property.[44]

Ungern believed that monarchy was the only social system which could save Western civilisation from corruption and self-destruction. A fanatical monarchist and anti-Semite who genuinely believed in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, Ungern-Sternberg saw the world as threatened by an insidious Jewish conspiracy that required the most sternest countermeasures and led him to order the executions of all Jews his men encountered as all Jews were "Judaeo-Bolsheviks".[40] During a discussion with another White office General Molchanov about what to do with the Jews, Ungern-Sternberg stated that it was necessary to "exterminate the Jews, so that neither men nor women, nor even the seed of this people remain".[45] A man with an iron will and a harsh disciplinarian who punished any hint of insubordination with ferocious violence, Ungern-Sternerg was much feared by his men with one of soldiers recalling: "All ranks of the division feared Ungern more than death itself".[46] Ungern had a habit of striking those officers who angered him even in the slightest with his shaska while his ordinary soldiers were kept in line with a regime of bloody floggings.[46] He began to pursue the idea of restoring Genghis Khan's Mongolian Empire - with the Qing Dynasty providing the most appropriate candidate for the throne. Ungern sought to organize a military expedition to Mongolia, at that time occupied by the Chinese troops formerly led by General Xu Shuzheng, a member of the pro-Japanese Anhui clique in the Chinese government, to restore the rule of the Bogd Khan as part of his plan to re-establish monarchies from the Far East to Europe.[47]

The Japanese ordered the pro-Japanese Chinese warlords to occupy Mongolia in order to halt a possibly revolutionary spillover from the Russian revolutionaries into Mongolia and Northern China.[48] After the fall of the Anhui Clique, Chinese soldiers in Mongolia found themselves effectively abandoned. They rebelled against their commanders, and plundered and killed Mongols and foreigners.[49]

Many of the Chinese troops during the occupation were Tsahar (Chahar) Mongols from Inner Mongolia, which has been a major cause for animosity between Outer Mongols (Khalkhas) and Inner Mongols.[50]

As part of his plans, Ungern traveled to Manchuria and China proper (February through September 1919). There he established contacts with monarchistic circles, and also made preparations for Semyonov to meet with the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin. In July 1919 Ungern married the Manchurian princess Ji in an Orthodox ceremony. The princess was given the name Elena Pavlovna Ungern-Sternberg. They communicated in English. This marriage had a political aim, as Ji was a princess and a relative of General Zhang Kuiwu, commander of Chinese troops at the western end of the Chinese-Manchurian Railway (in Russian: KVZhD), and governor of Hailar.[41]

Restoring the independence of Outer Mongolia

von Ungern-Sternberg

After Kolchak's defeat at the hands of the Red Army and the subsequent decision of Japan to withdraw its expeditionary troops from the Transbaikal, Semyonov, unable to withstand the pressure of Bolshevik forces, planned a retreat to Manchuria. Ungern, however, saw this as an opportunity to implement his monarchistic plan. On 7 August 1920, he broke his allegiance to Semyonov and transformed his Asiatic Cavalry Division into a guerrilla detachment.[1] Ungern's army marched under the banner of a yellow swastika, a symbol Ungern had chosen as the swastika was an ancient Buddhist symbol of good luck and already been co-opted in the early 20th century by anti-Semitic volkische groups in Germany as an ancient Aryan symbol. The anti-Semitic and Buddhist associations of the swastika appealed to the baron.

Ungern's troops crossed the northern border of Outer Mongolia on October 1, 1920 and moved south-westwards.[51] Ever since the 17th century, there had been prophecies circulating around Mongolia that a messianic figure known as the Shambhala, the "Hidden King" who ruled a vast and fabulous kingdom inside of the earth would take human form as a great warrior who gave no mercy in battle who would ride a white horse and invade Mongolia from the north. The Shambhala would not only expel the much hated Chinese from Mongolia, but also restore the mighty Mongol Empire, which at its height in the 13th century stretched across Eurasia from Hungary to Korea and from the Mediterranean to the Pacific. As Ungern-Sternberg rode a white horse, invaded Mongolia from the north, spoke fluent Mongol, worshiped at Buddhist shrines and spoke of his desire to restore the Mongol empire, the rumors spread all over Mongolia that the Shambhala had at long last arrived to free Mongolia from the Chinese yoke and Mongol princes followed by their bannerman rallied to the baron's army.

Ungern entered into negotiations with Chinese occupying forces. All of his demands, including disarmament of the Chinese troops were rejected. On October 26–27 and again on November 2–4, 1920 Ungern's troops assaulted Mongolia's capital, Urga (officially Niislel Khuree; now Ulaanbaatar) but suffered tremendous losses. After the defeat, Ungern's troops retreated to the upper currents of the Kherlen River in Setsen-Khan Aimag (district ruled by princes with the title Setsen Khan) in eastern Outer Mongolia. He was supported by Mongols who sought independence from Chinese occupation, especially the Bogd Khan, who secretly sent Ungern his blessing for expelling Chinese from Mongolia. The Chinese had tightened their control of Outer Mongolia by this time, strictly regulating Buddhist services in monasteries and imprisoning Russians and Mongols whom they considered "separatists". According to memoirs by M.G. Tornovsky, the Asiatic Division numbered 1460 men, while the Chinese garrison was seven thousand men strong. The Chinese had the advantage in artillery and machine guns, and had built a network of trenches in and around Urga.[51]

On February 1, 1921, Ungern's detachment, led by B.P. Rezukhin, captured Chinese front-line fortifications. Other troops moved to Urga and to the Manjusri Monastery on Bogd Khan Uul mountain south of Urga. On February 2, Ungern's troops battled for control of Chinese front lines and secured parts of Urga.[51] During the battle Ungern's special detachment of Tibetans, Mongols, Buryats and Russians rescued the Bogd Gegeen from house-arrest and transported him through the Bogd Uul to Manjusri Monastery. On February 3, Ungern gave his soldiers a respite. Borrowing a tactic from Genghis Khan, Ungern ordered his troops to light a large number of camp fires in the hills surrounding Urga, using them as reference points for Rezukhin's detachment. This also made the town appear to be surrounded by an overwhelming force.[52] On February 4, Ungern launched a major assault on the remaining Chinese positions in Urga from the east, capturing the most fortified positions at the barracks and the Chinese trade settlement (Chinese: 買賣城, Maimaicheng) during a fierce blizzard. The entire capital was finally taken after several fierce battles, although a part of Chinese troops had abandoned the town earlier. Nevertheless, small battles continued through February 5.

Between March 11 and 13 Ungern captured a fortified Chinese base at Choir south of Urga; while Chinese soldiers abandoned Zamyn-Üüd without a battle.[51]

When remaining Chinese troops, having retreated to northern Mongolia near Kyakhta, then attempted to round Urga to the west in order to reach China, Russians and Mongols feared an attempt to re-capture Urga. Several hundred Cossack and Mongol units were dispatched to meet the Chinese troops of several thousand strength in the area of Urga - Uliastai road near the Tuul river in central Mongolia. There battles raged from March 30 to April 2, the Chinese troops were routed and pursued to the southern border of the country. Thus Chinese forces left Outer Mongolia.[53]

Mongolia before the entry of Bolsheviks, 1921

The Bogd Khan (1869–1924) of Mongolia

Ungern, Mongolian lamas and princes brought the Bogd Khan from Manjusri Monastery to Urga on February 21, 1921. On February 22, a solemn ceremony took place, restoring the Bogd Khan to the throne.[54][55] As a reward for ousting the Chinese from Urga, the Bogd Khan granted Ungern the high hereditary title darkhan khoshoi chin wang in the degree of khan, and other privileges. Other officers, lamas and princes who had participated in these events also received high titles and awards.[56] For seizing Urga, Ungern received from Semyonov the rank of Lieutenant-General. Mongolia was proclaimed an independent monarchy under the theocratic power of Bogd Khan, or the 8th Bogd Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu.

On March 13, 1921, Mongolia was proclaimed an independent monarchy, under Ungern as a dictator. A mystic who was fascinated by beliefs and religions of the Far East such as Buddhism and who believed himself to be as the successor to Genghis Khan, Ungern von Sternberg's philosophy was an exceptionally muddled mixture of Russian nationalism with Chinese and Mongol beliefs. His traditionalism and orientalism, quite atypical for Western culture at that time, contributed to his reputation as the "Mad Baron". Ungern-Sternberg inverted Western fears of the "Yellow Peril", arguing that the West was morally corrupt and degenerate with the forces of "mad revolution" controlled by the Jews were running amok while the East had mostly maintained its moral purity, and he would lead a pan-Asian army to cleanse the West of its sickness via a bloodbath.[57] The insane, anti-Semitic fanatic Ungern-Sternberg had conquered Mongolia in 1921 with the aim of using it as a base for the conquest of the Soviet Union, after which he would "exterminate" all of the Jews and Communists in Russia.[58] Ungern-Sternberg intended to revive the Mongol Empire as he believed that West was corrupt and degenerate, and needed to be destroyed by a pan-Asian army under his leadership.[59] The exceptionally sadistic Ungern-Sternberg regarded extreme violence as spiritually cleansing based on his understanding of Buddhism, and believed the world needed a bloodbath to undergo a spiritual regeneration.[60] The Buddhist hell differs from the Christian hell in that Buddhists believe in reincarnation. Thus in the Buddhist view of things the violence inflicted by demons on the sinners sent to hell is essentially redemptive and therapeutic, and in a certain sense the demons are agents of good as once the sinners repent, they will be reborn in a new life in this world to be given a new chance at redemption. Buddhist scrolls and monasteries often feature "hell galleries" showing how various sinners-almost always naked or nearly naked nubile young women-being graphically tortured and torn to pieces by demons.[61] Ungern-Sternberg had seen the pictures of the "hell galleries" showing scenes of sinners suffering at the hands of the demons, which inspired him with the idea that in a depraved, sinful world falling pray to the forces of "mad revolution" that what the world needed was to bring to life the scenes from the "hell galleries", and as such Ungern spent much of his time having people tortured to death in a variety of gruesome ways directly inspired by visions of hell.[62]

Historians note that Ungern was viewed as the incarnation of the "God of War" (the figure of Jamsaran in Tibetan and Mongol folklore). The Mongols always referred to Ungern as the "God of War", a title of great respect given the militaristic nature of Mongol society, but it is not clear just what god Ungern was supposed to be as the Mongols have dozens of war gods as the Red Horseman, the hero turned god Geser Khan, the combative Begtse who carried fifty served heads with him, the pre-Buddhist god Pehar who had been forced by monks to become a defender of Buddhism, and the most fearsome of them all, the tamed demon Makakala who devoured the enemies of Buddhism alive.[63] Regardless about just god Ungern was supposed to be, it is clear that Ungern was seen as one of the dhamapala ("defenders of the faith"), the fierce demons forced by the magic of the lamas to become defenders of Buddhism, a type of god very popular in both Tibet and Mongolia.[64] Alternatively, Palmer suggested that the Mongol word Bogd which translates as "holy" or "sacred" may had been misunderstood by Ungern's Russian troops as the word sounds similar to the Russian word bog (god).[64] The Russian term bog voiny ("god of war") for Ungern may had been a mistranslation of the Mongol term "holy warrior".[65] Although many Mongols may have believed him to be a deity, or at the very least an incarnation of Genghis Khan, Ungern was never officially proclaimed to be any of these incarnations.[1] Civil power over Mongolia formally belonged to the Bogd Khan.[1] According to some eyewitnesses (his engineer and officer Kamil Giżycki, and the Polish adventurer and writer Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, etc.), Ungern was the first to institute order in Urga; imposing street cleaning and sanitation, and promoting religious life and tolerance in the capital, and attempting to reform the economy. Ossendowkski, one of the most popular Polish writers in his lifetime (at the time of his death in 1945, Ossendowski's overseas sales were the second-highest of the all writers of Poland) had served as an official in Admiral Kolchak's government and its collapse, fled to Mongolia.[66] Despite his distaste for the kolchakovec, Ossendowski managed to persuade Ungern not to execute him as Ossendowski shared Ungern's interests in the occult, Asia and mysticism.[67] The previous man and the next man summoned to Ungern's ger were not so lucky as both were beheaded on the spot for having "secret Bolshevik codes" on them.[68] Ossendowski become one of Ungern's very few friends and in 1922 published a bestselling book Men, Beasts and Gods about his adventures in Siberia and Mongolia, which remains the book by which the Ungern story is best known in the English-speaking world.[69] Palmer wrote this is somewhat unfortunate as Ossendowski had a habit of inventing things, most notably the two chapters in Men, Beasts and Gods which describe his visit to the kingdom of Shambhala inside the earth, which is not only obviously not true, but also plagiarised from the 1886 book Mission de l'Inde by the French occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre.[69]

His Asiatic Cavalry Division consisted of national detachments, such as the Chinese regiment, Japanese unit, various Cossack regiments, Mongol, Buryat, Tatar and other peoples' units. Ungern said that 16 nationalities served in his division. Dozens of Tibetans also served as part of his troops. They might have been sent by 13th Dalai Lama, with whom Ungern communicated, or these Tibetans may have belonged to the Tibetan colony in Urga.[1] A staunch anti-semite, Ungern ordered the execution of 38 Jews in Urga, while the total number of executions was approximately 846.[1] Many of Ungern's Russian soldiers were kolchakovec as followers of Admiral Kolchak who had fled east after the collapse of Kolchak's regime in early 1920 and been drafted into Ungern's army when they reached the Far East.[70] The lingering dispute between the followers of Ungern and Admiral Kolchak led to Ungern to treat the kolchakovec with a great deal of paranoia and harshness.[70] One of the kolchakovec recalled:

"The attitude of the Baron to everyone who was not connected with Semenov during the Civil War, and who had not been linked to the Transbaikalian torture chambers, was one of offensive suspicion and distrust. Among the gang of criminals, degenerate and bastards which Ungern brought from Dauria to take part in his Mongolian adventure, the word kolchakovec was a perjoratve nickname, a curse".[70]

However, even Ungern's loyal followers were not safe and at various times, Ungern publicly beaten and flogged his most loyal officers like Colonel Rezuhin aka "the Cutter", Captain Sipailov the sexual sadist who served as his chief executioner and the sinister Dr. Klingenberg, his chief poisoner.[71] Dr. Klingenberg, a fellow Baltic German and Ungern's chief medical officer was a Social Darwinist who believed in the "survival of the fittest" suggested to Ungern that he be allowed to poison those wounded and sick soldiers who were "unfit", an idea that Ungern gave his approval to.[72]

The Kalmyk Oirat Mongol leader Ja Lama murdered all the members of a delegation sent by Ungern to Lhasa in 1920.[73] Ja-lama was apparently found to be a dissillusionment by Ungern who had been an admirer, only to allude to him by insults after actually entering Mongolia.[74]

Defeat, capture, and execution, 1921

Ungern von Sternberg in 1921

The Bolsheviks started infiltrating Mongolia shortly after the October revolution 1917, i.e. long before they took control of the Russian Transbaikal. In 1921, various Red Army units belonging to Soviet Russia and to its satellite state, the Far Eastern Republic, invaded newly independent Mongolia to defeat Ungern. These forces included the Red Mongolian leader and independence hero Damdin Sükhbaatar. Spies and various smaller diversionary units went ahead to spread terror and betrayal to weaken Ungern's forces. Ungern organized an expedition to meet these forces in Siberia and to support ongoing anti-Bolshevik rebellions. Believing he had the unwavering popular support of locals in Siberia and Mongolia, Ungern failed to properly strengthen his troops despite being vastly outnumbered and out-gunned by the Red forces. However, unbeknownst to Ungern, the Reds had successfully crushed uprisings in Siberia, and the Soviet economic policies had temporarily softened in Lenin's NEP. Upon Ungern's arrival, few local peasants and Cossacks volunteered to join him.

In the spring the Asiatic Cavalry Division was divided into two brigades: one under the command of Lieutenant-general Ungern and the second under Major-General Rezukhin. In May, Rezukhin's brigade launched a raid beyond the Russian border to the west of the Selenge River. Ungern's brigade left Urga and slowly moved to the Russian town of Troitskosavsk (present-day Kyakhta in Buryatia). Meanwhile, the Reds moved large forces towards Mongolia from different directions. They had a tremendous advantage in equipment (armored cars, airplanes, rail, gunboats, ammunition, human reserves, etc.) and in numbers of troops. As a result, Ungern was defeated in battles that took place between June 11 and 13 and failed to capture Troitskosavsk. Then the combined Bolshevik and Red Mongol forces entered Mongolia and captured Urga after a few small skirmishes with Ungern's guard detachments.[1]

Having captured Urga on July 6, 1921, the Red forces failed to defeat the main forces of the Asiatic Division (Ungern's and Rezukhin's brigades). Ungern regrouped and attempted to invade Transbaikal across the Russo-Mongolian border. To rally his soldiers and local people, Ungern quoted an agreement with Grigory Semyonov and pointed to a supposed Japanese offensive which was to support their drive, although neither Semyonov, nor Japanese were eager to assist him. After several days rest, on July 18, the Asiatic Division started its raid into Soviet territory. Eyewitnesses Kamil Giżycki and Mikhail Tornovsky gave similar estimates of their numbers: about three thousand men in total.[75] Ungern's troops penetrated deep into Russian territory. The Soviets declared martial law in areas where the Whites were expected, including Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia). Ungern's troops captured many settlements; the northernmost being Novoselenginsk, occupied by them on August 1. By this time, Ungern understood that his offensive was ill-prepared; he also heard about the approach of large forces of the Reds. On August 2, 1921 he began his retreat to Mongolia, where he declared his determination to fight Communism. While Ungern's troops wanted to abandon the war-effort and to head towards Manchuria to join with other Russian émigrés, it soon became clear that Ungern had other ideas. He wanted to retreat to Tuva, then to Tibet. Troops under both Ungern and Rezukhin effectively mutinied and hatched plots to kill their respective commanders. On August 17, Rezukhin was killed. A day later conspirators unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Ungern. His command then collapsed as his brigade broke apart. On 20 August Ungern was captured by the Soviet detachment led by the famous guerrilla commander P.E. Shchetinkin (later a member of the Cheka).[76]

After a show trial of 6 hours and 15 minutes on 15 September 1921, prosecuted by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, the Baron was sentenced to execution by firing squad. The sentence was carried out that very evening or night in Novonikolaevsk.

"When he learnt of his death, the Bogd Khan ordered prayers for his soul to be read throughout Mongolia. They were undoubtedly needed." [77]

See also

External links

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kuzmin, S.L. The History of Baron Ungern. An Experience of Reconstruction. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, 2011, ISBN 978-5-87317-692-2
  2. ↑ adopted Russian name: Роман Фёдорович фон Унгерн-Штернберг, which transliterates as Roman Fyodorovich fon Ungern-Shternberg
  3. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2008 pages 16-17
  4. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 200p page 18.
  5. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 22-23
  6. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 17.
  7. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 19.
  8. 1 2 3 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 24.
  9. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 15.
  10. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 15-16.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 16.
  12. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 35.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Smith, Canfield "The Ungernovščina - How and Why?" pages 590-595 from Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Volume 28, Issue #4, 1980 page 591.
  14. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 19-20.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 20.
  16. ↑ Tornovsky, M.G. (2004) p. 190
  17. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 24-25.
  18. 1 2 3 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 25.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 26.
  20. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 27-30
  21. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 26-28.
  22. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 28-29.
  23. 1 2 3 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 28.
  24. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 32-33.
  25. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 34.
  26. ↑ Sunderland, Willard The Baron’s Cloak: A History of the Russian Empire in War and Revolution, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014 page 57.
  27. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 37.
  28. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 43.
  29. ↑ Khoroshilova, O. Voiskovye Partizany Velikoi Voiny. St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii Dom Publ.
  30. 1 2 3 Smith, Canfield "The Ungernovščina - How and Why?" pages 590-595 from Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Volume 28, Issue #4, 1980 page 592.
  31. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 74-75.
  32. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 75.
  33. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 79.
  34. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 77-77.
  35. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 77.
  36. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 77-78
  37. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 78.
  38. ↑ Ataman Semenov. O sebe. Vospominaniya, Mysli i Vyvody. Moscow: AST Publ., 2002
  39. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 78-81.
  40. 1 2 Smith, Canfield "The Ungernovščina - How and Why?" pages 590-595 from Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Volume 28, Issue #4, 1980 page 594.
  41. 1 2 3 Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 94-96
  42. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 87.
  43. ↑ Smith, Canfield "The Ungernovščina - How and Why?" pages 590-595 from Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Volume 28, Issue #4, 1980 pages 592 & 594.
  44. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 91-92
  45. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 98.
  46. 1 2 Smith, Canfield "The Ungernovščina - How and Why?" pages 590-595 from Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Volume 28, Issue #4, 1980 page 595.
  47. ↑
  48. ↑ John S. Major (1990). The land and people of Mongolia. Harper and Row. p. 119. ISBN 0-397-32386-7. in 1919, a Japanese influenced faction in the Chinese government mounted an invasion of Outer Mongolia and forced its leaders to sign a "request" to be taken over by the government of China. Japan's aim was to protect its own economic, political, and military interests in North China by keeping the Russian Revolution from influencing Mongolia.
  49. ↑ Pershin, D.P. Baron Ungern, Urga and Altan Bulak. Samara: Agni, 1999
  50. ↑ Bulag, Uradyn Erden (1998). Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia (illustrated ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 139. ISBN 0198233574. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  51. 1 2 3 4 Tornovsky, M.G. Events in Mongolia-Khalkha in 1920-1921 in Legendarnyi Baron: Neizvestnye Stranitsy Grazhdanskoi Voiny. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, 2004, ISBN 5-87317-175-0
  52. ↑ Pershin, D.P. 1999. Baron ungern, Urga and Altan Bulak. Samara: Agni, 1999
  53. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 156-199
  54. ↑ Knyazev, N.N. 2004. The Legendary Baron. - In: Legendarnyi Baron: Neizvestnye Stranitsy Grazhdanskoi Voiny. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, 2004, ISBN 5-87317-175-0 p. 67-69
  55. ↑ Tornovsky, M.G. (2004) pp. 231-233
  56. ↑ Facsimile of the original and translations of the Bogd Khan edict see in: Kuzmin, S.L. (compiler) Baron Ungern v Dokumentakh i Memuarakh. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, 2004, ISBN 5-87317-164-5, p.90-92; Kuzmin, S.L. 2011. The History of Baron Ungern. An Experience of Reconstruction. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, ISBN 978-5-87317-692-2, p. 433-436
  57. ↑ Sunderland, Willard The Baron’s Cloak: A History of the Russian Empire in War and Revolution, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014 page 4.
  58. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 203.
  59. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 187–189.
  60. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 141–142 & 185–186
  61. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 141.
  62. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 67 & 141.
  63. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 144-145.
  64. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 145.
  65. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 146.
  66. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 182-183.
  67. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 pages 183-184.
  68. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 183
  69. 1 2 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 184.
  70. 1 2 3 Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 139.
  71. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 137.
  72. ↑ Palmer, James The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, New York: Basic Books, 2009 page 136.
  73. ↑ Andreyev, Alexandre (2003). Soviet Russia and Tibet: The Debarcle of Secret Diplomacy, 1918-1930s. Volume 4 of Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, V.4 (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 150. ISBN 9004129529. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  74. ↑ Palmer, James (2011). The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia (reprint ed.). Basic Books. p. 60. ISBN 0465022073. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  75. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (compiler) Baron Ungern v Dokumentakh i Memuarakh. Moscow: KMK Sci. Press, 2004, ISBN 5-87317-164-5
  76. ↑ Kuzmin, S.L. (2011) pp. 228-372
  77. ↑ James Palmer (2008) pp. 229 ff.
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