Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg. Mad Baron

Thin, with burning eyes, a penchant for sadism and esotericism, with megalomania - this is how his contemporaries captured and gave the appropriate nicknames: Bloody Baron, Black Baron. He left a dark mark on the fate of his companions, many ended badly, some went crazy. Even fleeting short meetings with the baron had consequences. Such was the meeting of Ungern and Ossendowski in Mongolia. Many years later, after his death, the Black Baron appeared to him...

Descendant of Pirates

Roman Fedorovich Ungern von Sternberg was born on December 29, 1886 in the family of an impoverished aristocrat. The history of his family is mysterious and very interesting. It included adventurers, soldiers, as well as just murderers and robbers.

Ungern's ancestors took part in the Crusades and fought under the walls of Jerusalem. In the 12th century, they are listed in the Order of the Sword, take part in the Battle of Grunwald. In a special way, the knight Heinrich Ungern-Sternberg, nicknamed the Ax, is known. He traveled around Europe and participated in tournaments in France and England, at one of which he died, having met a worthy opponent. Baron Ralph Ungern was a famous pirate in the Baltic Sea. Peter Ungern was also a pirate, he had a castle on the island of Dago - a kind of robber's nest. Considerable attention deserves Wilhelm Ungern, who was called the Brother of Satan for his passion for the occult and the secret sciences. Grandfather of Roman Fedorovich, pirate, robbed in the Indian Ocean. Before the British captured him, he managed to convert to Buddhism in India.

It was a kind of pirate knights, prone to mysticism. One can have different attitudes towards such a biography, trust it or not, but it should be noted that those features that were especially distinguished by the Black Baron are well traced in it. This is a propensity for military life, arbitrariness and an interest in Eastern teachings and the occult.

The Baron believed in reincarnation and believed that he had been traveling since ancient times. And, according to his beliefs, that his ancestor - a warrior and a magician - was embodied in him. For from century to century, this mystic knight Ungern wanders through history.

The first steps

The interests of the young baron lay in line with the aspirations of his ancestors. He decided to devote himself to the war. In 1908 he graduated from the Pavlovsk Military School. Then he participated in the First World War as part of the 34th Don Cossack Regiment and distinguished himself at the front in the most positive way. Commanding a cavalry squadron, he accomplished a number of feats. Everyone noted his courage, composure, endurance - these qualities more than once saved the life of him and fellow soldiers. Baron Wrangel noted that Roman Fedorovich "lived in the war, making as quick as daring raids into the rear of the Germans." For his courage he was awarded a number of orders. Unexpectedly, an unpleasant spot appeared on the career of such a brilliant officer: a fight with a colleague, which the baron arranged while in a state of intoxication. At the same time, it was noted that his vice is constant drunkenness and that he is capable of acts that bring down the honor of an officer's uniform ".

In December 1917, Roman Fedorovich moved to Transbaikalia, where he actively fought with the Red Army. He was successful, and in November 1918 he was appointed major general, and the formed Asian Cavalry Division was placed under his command. But then the Reds stepped up the onslaught, and the baron was forced to retreat into Mongolia.

Liberator of Mongolia

Here he was eagerly awaited, hoping that he would help achieve independence from China. The Mongols praised him so much that they declared him a living god of war, in addition, many Buddhists quite seriously considered Ungern the reincarnation of Genghis Khan - both had blue eyes and a red beard.

For some time, his troops camped in Eastern Mongolia, gaining strength, gathering people under their banners. Both the white detachments and the Mongols willingly joined him.

On February 4, 1921, after long battles, Urga was taken, and the retreating Chinese troops tried to break into China. Baron Ungern finished them off by meeting them near the Tola River. Thus, the expectations of the Mongols were justified - their country became free.

sadist and executioner

In Mongolia, those features of his nature, for which he was nicknamed the Bloody Baron, were fully manifested. The other side of the "god of war" was revealed - he was a sadist.

There are many testimonies about his actions in the captured Urga. Numerous executions, torture - and innocent people suffered. There was no law. Those accused - often of the most ridiculous offenses - were not put on trial. It simply didn't exist. A suspicious or disliked person could immediately be beaten with sticks on the street or hacked to death. In addition, Ungern surrounded his person with similar personalities. Especially among them, Lieutenant Colonel Sipailov, who became the commandant in the city, became famous. He was an executioner, a madman, a rapist and a child molester.

The taken Urga itself presented a terrible picture. Full of razf, corpses everywhere, drunken Cossacks loitered around the streets, looking for victims. Hanged men swayed on poles and lanterns, and once the baron himself hanged a woman.

It was terrible, and many Mongols were already dreaming of the day when the Reds would get to the Bloody Baron.

Soul mates

All this was told in a confidential conversation to Ferdinand Ossendovsky, who stated what he had heard and described his Mongolian adventures in the book “ And animals, and people, and gods.

Baron Ungern's belief in the supernatural sometimes went to extremes. So, not a single preparation for the battle was complete without fortune-telling. The baron's headquarters was always crowded with a mass of soothsayers and soothsayers, lamas and simple gypsies. Also, before the attack, the shaman often performed rituals and cast spells, and this was before the eyes of the entire army. Many chuckled to themselves, but were silent: the baron did not like it when people doubted such things.

Prophecy

Everything that the baron told the Pole, he asked to be made public after his death. Ossendovsky doubted, he was older than Ungern, and it was reasonable to assume that he would die earlier. But Roman Fedorovich assured him that everything would be different. The book contains his words: "Oh no! Another 130 days, and everything will be over, and then ... nirvana!

The fact is that a certain soothsayer told the baron that he had exactly 130 days left to live. On the same day, the two of them went to a Buddhist monastery, where the lama predicted the same 130 days, and also said a few words about the fate of his companion, a Pole. Lama said that "he will die when Ungern reminds him that the time has come to part with his life."

A few days later, the baron said goodbye to the Pole. Each of them went their own way.

Very soon, under the onslaught of the Red Army, Ungern had to leave Urga. He stepped back. By this time, dissatisfaction with the actions of the baron and his executioners had noticeably increased, and a conspiracy was drawn up against Roman Fedorovich. On August 20, 1921, the Mongols tied him up and handed him over red squad.

Baron Ungern was sentenced to death, and on September 15, 1921, the sentence was carried out. This happened exactly 130 days after the prediction.

Herald of death

Ferdinand Ossendowski returned safely to Poland. The words of the lama have long been forgotten, and the events of past years have also lost their vivacity. The Second World War found him in Warsaw, and he had to save himself. He took refuge in the suburbs.

And on the night of January 10, 1945, a car stopped in front of the writer's house, the passenger of which was a certain Lieutenant Dollert from the counterintelligence of the Nazi army. His conversation with Ossendowski lasted a long time, until the very morning. When he left, he took with him a copy of the book "And animals, and people, and gods." The day after his visit, the Pole died.

Shortly after the end of the war, Dollert was desperately searched for, but he seemed to have fallen through the ground. nothing could be found out about him, except that his real name was ... Baron von Ungern.

A terrible figure in the history of the struggle for Soviet power in Transbaikalia and the Far East was Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, the right hand of Ataman Semenov.

Ungern came from an aristocratic family of Baltic barons who made their fortune by sea robbery. The baron himself said that his ancestors "took part in all the legendary crusades."

One of the Ungerns died in Jerusalem, where he fought for the liberation of the tomb of Christ, in the service of King Richard the Lionheart. In the XII century. Ungerns served as monks in the Teutonic Order and spread Christianity among Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians and Slavs with fire and sword.

One of the Ungerns was a famous robber knight, who instilled fear in the merchants whom he robbed on the high roads.

The other was himself a merchant and had ships in the Baltic Sea. “My grandfather became famous as a sea robber who robbed English ships in the Indian Ocean. I myself created an order of Buddhist warrior monks in Transbaikalia to fight the communists” (47).

In 1908, Ungern ended up in Transbaikalia, and then in Mongolia, where he got acquainted with the customs and beliefs of the Mongols. Then he ends up in the Trans-Baikal Cossack Regiment. Here is the “brilliant” description given to him at that time by the commander of this regiment:

“Esaul Baron Ungern Sternberg ... in a state of extreme intoxication is capable of acts that drop the honor of an officer’s uniform, for which he was expelled to the reserve of ranks ...”

Ungern was convicted of a fight and ended up in a fortress, from where he was released in 1917 by the February Revolution. At this time, he became Semenov's assistant in the formation of the Buryat regiments.

A. N. Kislov writes: “.. brutally destroying communists, partisans, Soviet employees and Jews, along with women and children, Ungern was awarded the rank of lieutenant general by ataman Semenov and became the head of the Asian cavalry division in his army in Transbaikalia” (48).

Beginning in December 1917, at the head of the cavalry division he created, Ungern waged a continuous struggle against the Soviet government.

Having separated from Semenov, at the direction of the latter and with the approval of the Japanese interventionists, Ungern at the end of 1920 moved his “horse-Asian” division, numbering up to 10 thousand people (its core consisted of eight hundred Transbaikal and Orenburg Cossacks), to Mongolia.

There, as a result of the outbreak of civil war, the “kingdom of God of the Bogd-Jebzun-Damba-Khutukhta Khan” began. "Saint" Khutukhta, who exercised both spiritual and secular power, was placed under house arrest, and the local princes and clergy called for help from the White Guards.

Ungern's division, which occupied the region of Borzi and Dauria, entered Mongolia from the zone controlled by Japanese troops. Crossing the border was covered by strong detachments of the Semenovites.

Baron Ungern, who knew the situation in Mongolia well, playing on the national feelings of the Mongolian people, put forward the slogan: “ Liberation of the country and restoration of its autonomy”.

He managed to intimidate the Bogdo-Gegen, whom he forcibly brought to his headquarters, and, having enlisted his support, received direct access to the Bogdo-Gegen.

One day the Bogdo Gegen predicted to him: “You won't die. You will be embodied in a higher being. Remember this, incarnate God of War, Khan of Great Mongolia! » This “prophecy” served as the basis for the “deification” of Ungern by the lamas. He was declared to be the earthly "incarnation" of the god Mahakala (war and destruction).

All this was necessary in order to explain the "exploits" of Ungern by the "commands" of the higher gods. The Bogdo Gegen issued him a special letter, which praised the activities of the baron, and declared all his atrocities and crimes to be manifestations of divine will.

In early February 1921, Ungern captured the Mongolian capital Urga (now Ulaanbaatar) and restored the Bogd Gegen to the throne. In fact, he himself became a dictator in the country.

The Japanese imperialists sought, through the hands of Ungern, not only to seize Mongolia, but also to turn it into a springboard for an attack on Soviet Russia.

While in Urga, the baron establishes contact with the monarchists of Mongolia, Tibet, and China. He gathers the Semenovites and Kolchakites, who have concentrated on the Russian-Chinese-Mongolian border, writes appeals, manifestos.

Ungern swore more than once in disinterestedness, devotion to the ideas of monarchism and readiness to fight to the last drop of blood for the restoration of the defeated royal thrones in any country.

He fiercely hated the revolution and considered it his "duty of an honest warrior" to destroy the revolutionaries, no matter what nation, no matter what state they belong to.

The restoration of the Middle Empire, headed by a representative of the overthrown Manchu dynasty, is one of the most important tasks that Ungern set himself.

In order to successfully solve this problem, he enters into lively relations with the leaders of the Mongol-Chinese reaction, with the monarchist rabble that has survived on the outskirts of the former Tsarist Russia, he tries to impress their imagination with the "greatness" of the undertaking, "destined by heaven itself."

“As soon as I manage to give a strong and decisive impetus to all detachments and individuals who dream of fighting the communists,” he wrote, “and when I see the planned action raised in Russia, and at the head of the movement - loyal and honest people, I will transfer my actions to Mongolia and its allied regions for the final restoration of the Chin dynasty" (4 9}.

Especially cruel was Ungern's reprisal against those whom he considered his political opponents. “Having occupied Urga,” writes D. Batoev, “Ungern gave his soldiers the right to kill all Jews, “suspicious” Russians and Buryats with impunity for three days. Among those killed by the Ungernists were members of the revolutionary committee of Russian citizens in Urga: Kucherenko, Gembarzhevsky and others, as well as the doctor Tsybiktarov. The executioners came up with a terrible execution for them: they were quartered .. "(50 }.

The leader of the Mongolian people Sukhe-Bator said about these wonderful people:

« They did so much for the Arat revolution, they gave their lives for it. It hurts to realize that you will never again see the good-natured smile of Kucherenko, the hot eyes of Gembarzhevsky, you will not shake the thin dark hand of Tsybiktarov ... There remains a feeling of boundless love and respect for the fearless sons of the Russian people. The memory of them will remain forever” (51).

The atrocities of Baron Ungern, this half-mad sadist who loved to personally take part in torture and executions, seemed disgusting even to his drinking companions.

So, one of the officers of his gang wrote: “ With the onset of darkness all around on the hills, only the terrible howl of wolves and feral dogs was heard. The wolves were so impudent that on the days when there were no executions, and therefore food for them, they ran into the barracks ... On these hills, where bones, skulls, skeletons and rotting parts of bodies gnawed by wolves lay everywhere, and he loved to ride for rest Baron Ungern "(52 }.

Roaming with his detachments across the Mongolian steppes, robbing the local population, on May 21, 1921, Baron Ungern issues an order to attack the Red Army in Siberia.

Having thrown Ungern from the borders of the Soviet Republic to Mongolia in June 1921, units of the Red Army, at the request of the Provisional People's Revolutionary Government of Mongolia, set off to liberate Urga.

Meanwhile, Ungern once again crossed the border and sent his forces to the north of Transbaikalia, intending to break through to the Siberian railway, blow up the tunnels and stop communication on this most important highway. The threat of Ungern's breakthrough to Mysovaya became quite real.

In the shortest possible time (from the rear and recovering Red Army soldiers of the 35th Infantry Division and the 5th Kuban Cavalry Brigade), under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky, a combined detachment was formed and well armed (he even had two guns) 500 foot soldiers.

Part of the Red Army managed to place on carts. With this rather mobile detachment, Rokossovsky marches across the Khamar-daban ridge towards the enemy and drives him away from Mysovaya.

Then Ungern turned towards Novoselenginsk and Verkhneudinsk. However, Rokossovsky manages to cover Vsrkhpeudinsk from the south.

Having suffered a defeat in the battles on August 5-6 from the troops of the Red Army returning from Mongolia, Ungern barely escaped from the ring of Soviet units. He ran south again...

Meanwhile, the people's liberation movement in Mongolia was expanding. The army led by Sukhe-Bator led a successful fight against the Chinese militarists and the White Guard gang of Ungern.

The Red Army entered Urga on July 6. Then the Bogdo-Gegen spoke out against Ungern, calling on the people to destroy this "dissolute thief."

The fighters of Rokossovsky and Shchetinkin chased the Ungernites across the Mongolian steppe for two weeks, feeling thirsty and hungry, either repulsing attacks, then attacking, then pursuing the remnants of the Ungern army, and finally, on August 22, 1921, southwest of Mount Urt, they overtook the baron.

The Chekists, under the leadership of the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of Siberia, organized the capture of this executioner: they sent agitators to the Ungern troops, who did a lot of work among the Ungern soldiers.

The Mongolian cyrics, who were part of Ungern's troops, refused to follow him to Western Mongolia, where he intended to go, seized him, disarmed him and took him to Novonikolaevsk.

On September 15, in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), an open hearing of the Extraordinary Revolutionary Tribunal in the Ungern case was held. Yemelyan Yaroslavsky was the prosecutor.

The beginning of Ungern's military career

The biography of Ungern is also full of mysteries and contradictions, like the baron himself.

The baron's ancestors settled in the Baltic in the 13th century and belonged to the Teutonic Order.

Robert-Nikolai-Maximilian Ungern von Sternberg (hereinafter Roman Fedorovich) was born, according to some sources, on January 22, 1886 on the island of Dago (Baltic Sea), according to others - on December 29, 1885 in Graz, Austria.

Father Theodor-Leonhard-Rudolf, Austrian, mother Sophie-Charlotte von Wimpfen, German, a native of Stuttgart.

Roman studied at the Nikolaev Gymnasium in Revel (Talin), but was expelled for misconduct. After that, in 1896, his mother sent him to the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg.

After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the 17-year-old baron dropped out of his studies in the corps and entered the infantry regiment as a volunteer. For bravery in battle he received a light bronze medal "In memory of the Russo-Japanese War" and the rank of corporal.

After the end of the war, the baron's mother died, and he himself entered the Pavlovsk military school in St. Petersburg. In 1908, the baron graduated into the 1st Argun Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army. By order of June 7, 1908, he was awarded the title of "cornet".

In February 1910, Ungern was transferred to the Amur Cossack Regiment in Blagoveshchensk as the commander of a scout team. Participated in three punitive expeditions to suppress riots in Yakutia. He fought many duels.

After the start of the Mongol uprising against China, he applied for permission to volunteer for the Mongolian troops (in July 1913). As a result, he was appointed a supernumerary officer in the Verkhneudinsk Cossack regiment stationed in the city of Kobdo (according to other sources, in the Cossack convoy of the Russian consular mission).

According to Baron Wrangel, in fact, Baron Ungern served in the Mongolian troops. In Mongolia, Ungern studies Buddhism, the Mongolian language and culture, converges with the most prominent lamas.

In July 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Ungern was called up for military service by mobilization, from September 6 he became the commander of a hundred in the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the 10th Ussuri division of the army of General Samsonov. He fought bravely, making sabotage attacks in the rear of the Germans.

He was awarded five orders: St. George 4th class, Order of St. Vladimir 4th class, Order of St. Anna 4th and 3rd class, Order of St. Stanislav 3rd class.

In September 1916 he was promoted to captain.

In October 1916, in the commandant's office of the city of Chernivtsi, the baron, drunk, hit the ensign on duty Zagorsky with a saber. As a result, Ungern was sentenced to 3 months in a fortress, which he never served.

In July 1917, the Provisional Government instructed Yesaul Semyonov (a fellow soldier of the baron) to form volunteer units from the Mongols and Buryats in Transbaikalia. Together with Semyonov, the baron ended up in Transbaikalia. Ungern's further odyssey is partially described below.

And on September 15, 1921, one of the most mysterious and odious leaders of the Civil War was shot in the city of Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) by the verdict of the Siberian Revolutionary Tribunal. The location of the grave of Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg is unknown.

Problematic aspects of the ideology of Baron Ungern

He divided the globe into West and East, and all mankind into white and yellow races.

During the interrogation on August 27, Ungern said: “The East must certainly collide with the West. The culture of the white race, which led the European peoples to revolution, accompanied by centuries of general leveling, the decline of the aristocracy, etc., is subject to disintegration and replacement by the yellow culture, which was formed 3000 years ago and is still preserved in non-grafting"

The notorious yellow danger for the baron did not exist; on the contrary, the danger to the yellow race, in his opinion, came from the white race with its revolutions and decaying culture.

In a letter to the Chinese monarchist general Zhang Kun dated February 16, 1921. Ungern wrote: “My constant conviction is that you can expect light and salvation only from the east, and not from Europeans who are corrupted at the very root even to the youngest generation, to young girls inclusive”

In another letter, the baron stated: “I firmly believe that the light comes from the East, where not all people are still corrupted by the West, where the great principles of goodness and honor sent to people by Heaven are sacred, intact.” It is possible only from the east, and not from Europeans, corrupted at the very root, even to the youngest generation, including young girls"

In another letter, the baron stated: “I firmly believe that the light comes from the East, where not all people are still corrupted by the West, where the great principles of goodness and honor sent to people by Heaven are sacred, intact.”

Ungern was fanatically convinced that in order to save the East, the yellow race, from the revolutionary infection coming from the West, it was necessary to restore the kings on the thrones and create a powerful Middle (Central Asian) state from the Amur to the Caspian Sea, headed by the "Manchu Khan" (emperor) .

The Baron harbored a hatred for any revolutionaries who overthrew the monarchies. Therefore, he decided to devote his life and work to the restoration of the monarchies. In March 1921 he wrote to the Mongolian prince Naiman-van: “My goal is the restoration of the monarchies. It is most profitable to start this great work from the East, the Mongols are the most reliable people for this purpose ... I see that the light comes from the East and will bring happiness to all mankind.

The baron developed this idea more extensively in a letter dated April 27, 1921. Bargut prince-monarchist Tsende-gun:

“Revolutionary participation is beginning to penetrate into the traditional East. Your Excellency, with his deep mind, understands the danger of this teaching that destroys the foundations of mankind and realizes that the only way to protect from this evil is the restoration of kings. The only one who can preserve the truth, goodness, honor and customs, so cruelly trampled on by wicked people-revolutionaries, is the kings. Only they can protect religion and raise faith on earth. Nonhumans are mercenary, impudent, deceitful, they have lost their faith and lost the truth, and there were no kings. And with them there was no happiness, and even people who are looking for death cannot find it. But the truth is true and immutable, and the truth always triumphs; and if the rulers pursue the truth for its sake, and not for the sake of any of their own interests, then, by acting, they will achieve complete success, and heaven will send kings to the earth. The highest incarnation of tsarism is the union of a deity with human power, as was the Bogdykhan in China, the Bogdo Khan in Khalkha, and in the old days the Russian tsars.

So, Ungern was convinced that there would be order on earth, people would be happy only if the highest state power was in the hands of the kings. The power of kings is divine power.

Almost all of Ungern's letters state that "light from the East" flickers over all of humanity. Under the "light of the East" Ungern meant the restoration of the kings.

“I know and believe,” he wrote to the governor of the Altai District, General Li Zhangkui, “that only from the East can light come, the only light for the existence of the state on the basis of truth, this light is the restoration of kings.”

Therefore, Ungern wanted "light from the East" i.e. restoration of kings, spread to all mankind. In the imagination of the baron, the plan is gigantic.

Peculiar, from our point of view, Ungern had a look at the Chinese troops that he would defeat in Mongolia. He considered them revolutionary Bolshevik troops. In fact, it was an ordinary melitaristic army. But the baron had his own explanation on this matter. Here is what he wrote on February 16, 1921. to the governor of Heilongjiae province, General Zhang Kun: “Many Chinese blame me for spilling Chinese blood, but I believe that an honest warrior is obliged to destroy revolutionaries, no matter what nation they belong to, because they are nothing more than unclean spirits in human form, forcing First of all, destroy the kings, and then go brother against brother, son against father, bringing only evil into human life.

Apparently, Ungern believed that if the troops came from a country in which the Qing dynasty was overthrown and it became not a monarchist, but a republican, then, therefore, its troops became revolutionary. The reactionary President of the Republic of China, Xu Shichang, Baron called the "Revolutionary Bolshevik." He also revolutionized the Beiyang generals only because they did not oppose the Republic.

Ungern believed that the highest power, and the state should be in the hands of the king.

“I see it this way,” he said during interrogation on September 1-2 in Irkutsk, “the tsar should be the first democrat in the state. He must stand outside the class, must be the resultant between the class groupings existing in the state ... The tsar must rely on the aristocracy and the peasantry. One class cannot live without the other."

According to Ungern, the kings govern the state, relying on the aristocracy. Workers and peasants should not participate in the administration of the state.

The baron hated the bourgeoisie, in his opinion, she "strangles the aristocrats."

He called financiers and bankers "the greatest evil." But he did not disclose the content of this phrase. The only righteous power, from his point of view, is an absolute monarchy based on the aristocracy.

Adherence to the idea of ​​monarchism led Ungern to fight against the Soviet authorities. During interrogation on August 27, he stated that the idea of ​​monarchism was the main thing that pushed him onto the path of struggle against Soviet Russia.

“Until now, everything has been declining,” he said, “but now it must turn into a profit, and everywhere there will be a monarchy, a monarchy.” He allegedly found his confidence in this in Holy Scripture, in which, in his opinion, there is an indication not that "this time is coming."

Why did Ungern speak so firmly and confidently for the monarchy in Russia? He explained this, and in Order 15 of May 21, 1921. In it, he cites the following thought: Russia for many centuries remained a powerful, tightly-knit empire, until the revolutionaries, together with the socio-political and liberal-bureaucratic intelligentsia, dealt a blow to it, shaking its foundations, and the Bolsheviks brought the destruction to the end. How to restore Russia again and make it a powerful power? It is necessary to restore the rightful owner of the Russian Land to the Emperor of All Russia, which, according to Ungern, should be Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov (he was no longer alive, but the baron apparently did not know about this).

More than once he repeated in his letters that it is impossible to live without kings, because without them the earth will always be in disorder, moral decay, and people will never achieve a happy life.

And what kind of happy life did Ungern offer people?

Workers and peasants should work, but not participate in the administration of the state. The king must govern the state, relying on the aristocracy. During interrogation at the headquarters of the 5th Army (Irkutsk, September 2, 1921), he uttered the following tirade: “I am for the monarchy. It is impossible without obedience, Nicholas I, Pavel I - the ideal of every monarchist. We need to live and manage the way they ruled. Stick, first of all. The people became shoddy, shredded physically and morally. He needs a stick."

Ungern himself was an extremely cruel person. By his personal order, for the slightest fault, or even for nothing, officers, military officials, and doctors were flogged and lost. The punishments were: sitting on the roofs of houses in any weather, on ice, beating with sticks, drowning in water, burning people at the stake. The baron's tashur often walked over the heads, backs and stomachs of officers and soldiers. Even such executioners as Sipailov, Burdukovsky and General Rezukhin experienced his blows. At the same time, he believed fortune-tellers, soothsayers, they were constantly with him. Without their fortune-telling and predictions, he did not start a single campaign, not a single battle.

Ungern's program was based on an ideology that took him far beyond the White movement. It is close to Japanese Pan-Asianism or, according to Vladimir Solovyov, Pan-Mongolism, but is not identical to it. The doctrine of "Asia for Asians" assumed the elimination of European influence on the continent and the subsequent hegemony of Tokyo from India to Mongolia, and Ungern pinned his hopes on the nomads, who, in his sincere conviction, preserved the original spiritual values ​​and therefore, they must become the pillar of the future world order.

When Ungern spoke of the “yellow culture”, which “was formed three thousand years ago and is still intact”, he meant not so much the traditional culture of China and Japan, but rather the elemental nomadic life. Its norms went back to the deepest antiquity, which seemed to be indisputable evidence of their divine origin. As Ungern wrote to Prince Naidan-van, in terms of Confucian concepts, only in the East are there still "great principles of goodness and honor sent down by Heaven itself."

The nomadic way of life was for Ungern an ideal by no means abstract. Kharachins, Khalkhas, Chahars did not disappoint the baron, did not repel him with their primitive rudeness.

In his system of values, literacy or hygiene meant incomparably less than militancy, religiosity, ingenuous honesty and respect for the aristocracy. Finally, it was important that throughout the world only the Mongols remained faithful not just to the monarchy, but to its highest form - theocracy. He was not false when he declared that "in general, the whole way of eastern life is extremely sympathetic to him in all details." Ungern preferred to live in a yurt, set up in the courtyard of one of the Chinese estates. There he ate, slept, received the people closest to him.

Of course, Ungern played the role he chose for himself purely as an actor, but it was the role of a protagonist in a historical drama, and not a participant in a masquerade. He himself, albeit not quite consciously, had to feel his native style of life as something like asceticism, helping to comprehend the meaning of being.

The idea of ​​creating a Central Asian state

During interrogations, Ungern said that the purpose of his campaign in Mongolia, in addition to the expulsion of Chinese troops from there, was the unification of all Mongolian tribes into a single state and, on its basis, the creation of a powerful

Middle (Central - Asian) state. At the basis of the plan to create such a state, he put the idea of ​​​​the inevitability of a collision between East and West, from where the danger of the white race to the yellow race came.

The idea of ​​uniting the Mongolian tribes into one state was not new. It was put forward by the Khalkha spiritual and secular feudal lords in 1911, when Khalkha actually separated from China and wanted to annex Inner Mongolia, Western Mongolia Barga and the Uryankhai region (Tuva) to Khalkha and asked tsarist Russia to help them in this enterprise.

But tsarist Russia was unable to assist in this enterprise. Ungern also wanted to unite the same Mongolian lands into a single state.

Judging by his letters, he paid special attention to Inner Mongolia and, above all, to the annexation of Inner Mongolia. These are Yugutszur-khutukhta, the princes of Naiman-vanu and Naiden-gun.

In a letter to Yugutszur-Khutukhta, Ungern called him "the most energetic figure in Mongolia" and placed the greatest hope on him as a unifier of Mongolia.

In another letter, Ungern referred to Yugutszur Khutukht as the "main connecting bridge" between the Khalkha Mongols and the Inner Mongols. But Ungern believed that the uprising should be led by Naiden-gun.

Found-gunu Ungern wrote that he "tried with all his might to win over Inner Mongolia to his side." He hoped that the princes and lamas of Inner Mongolia would raise the uprising, Ungern promised to help the inner Mongols with weapons.

Ungern's idea was not only to unite all the Mongolian lands, but a single state, but also provided for the creation of a wider and more powerful state in Central Asia. Archival materials show that, in addition to the Mongolian lands, it should have included Xinjiang, Tibet, Kazakhstan, the nomadic peoples of Siberia, and the Central Asian possessions.

The newly created state - Ungern called it the Middle State - was supposed to oppose the "evil" that the West brings and protect the great culture of the East.

Under the "evil of the West" Ungern meant revolutionaries, socialists, communists, anarchists and its decaying culture with its "unbelief, immorality, betrayal, denial of the truth of good"

However, all these promises turned into empty words, because in fact Xu and his bureaucratic entourage pursued a completely different course. For example, most of the trade duties went to the Chinese treasury. In Urga, a Chinese state bank was opened, which ensured the monopoly position of the Chinese currency in the domestic market. The Chinese authorities demanded that the Mongols pay their debts.

Since Chinese merchants sold goods to the Mongols on credit at high interest rates, by 1911 many arats were indebted to them. The Mongolian princes took money from the Urga branch of the Daiqing Bank and also found themselves in debt. The total debt of the Outer Mongols to the Chinese in 1911 was about 20 million Mexican dollars. Outer Mongolia was effectively an independent country and, of course, did not pay its debts.

The Mongols did not pay their debts even after the Kyakhta Agreement of 1915, because the autonomous status of Outer Mongolia gave them such an opportunity. But now the Chinese administration in Outer Mongolia, relying on military force, began to collect debts. Moreover, Chinese merchants-usurers added to the main debt interest accruals for 1912-1919, the size of the debt, thus, increased fantastically.

The supply of food to the Chinese troops was a heavy burden on the Mongols. Due to their poverty, they were not always able to provide food for the Chinese troops. The latter resorted to looting and robbery of the civilian population.

Chinese soldiers were paid irregularly, which also encouraged them to plunder. Not receiving a salary for several months, the soldiers of the Urga garrison on September 25, 1920, wanted to raise a riot. There was a big robbery. To prevent it, Chinese merchants and the Russian colony collected 16,000 dollars and 800 sheep for Chinese soldiers.

D.P. Pershin gives the following description of the Chinese soldiers of the Urga garrison: “The Chinese soldiers were human scum, scum, capable of any violence, for which honor, conscience, pity were only empty sounds.

Perhaps Pershin is unnecessarily hardening the characterization of the Chinese soldiers, but the essence of it is captured correctly. Indeed, the soldiers of the troops of the Chinese militarists for the most part consisted of lumpen proletarians. It was not necessary to expect from them good military training, strong discipline. And this factor played an important role in the battles of Ungern for Urga with the Chinese troops several times superior in number.

The Chinese military behaved shamelessly politically. Xu Shuzheng forced the Jebzong Damba-hutukhta in the main monastery of Urga Ikh-Khure to bow three times to the portrait of Chinese President Xu Shichang (January 1920). This humiliating ceremony offended the national and religious feelings of the Mongolian people. Before leaving for China, General Xu carried out repressions against a number of prominent political and military figures. The heroes of the fight against the Chinese troops in 1912, Khatan-Bator Maksarzhav and Manlai-Bator Damdinsuren, were arrested and imprisoned. The latter died in prison.

The idea of ​​expelling the Chinese troops matured in the most diverse layers of the outer Mongols. However, they understood that they would not achieve this goal on their own, and therefore they pinned their hopes on outside help. Mongolian princes and lamas sent letters and petitions to the American and Japanese governments to help them overthrow the Chinese yoke, but received no response.

On March 19, 1920, the princes and lamas sent a letter to the Plenipotentiary of the Russian government. It talked about how the Outer Mongols achieved independence in 1911, about the Kyakhta Agreement of 1915, about the abolition of the autonomy of Outer Mongolia in 1919 and the difficult situation of the people under the yoke of General Xu Shuzheng, opposing not only the brutal military regime , which was established in Outer Mongolia, but also against the Kyakhta agreement, which eliminated its de facto independence.

However, apparently realizing that Soviet Russia would not agree to the status of Outer Mongolia independent of China, the authors at the end of the letter propose to "restore the autonomous administration" of Khalkha and the Kobdo district. this letter was actually a letter from the Urga government.

In the summer of 1920, a struggle broke out in China between various groups of Beiyang militarists. In July, the Anfuist group to which Xu Shuzheng belonged was defeated by the Zhili group. Xu Shuzheng was recalled to Beijing. After Xu's departure, power in Khalkha was taken over by the head of the Urga garrison, General Guo Sung-lin. The Chinese military behaved even more unbridled, looted, robbed and imprisoned the Mongols. Guo Songling arrested Jebzong-Damba-Khutuhtu for anti-Chinese sentiments, who spent 50 days in a separate (not palace) room. The soldiers wanted to frighten the Mongols by arresting the Khutukhta, to show their strength in front of them. But it was stupidity on their part. The arrest of the head of the Mongolian lamaist church caused a new wave of discontent and hatred of the Mongols towards the Chinese.

Instead of Xu Shuzheng, Beijing sent General Chen Yi to Outer Mongolia, who was amban in Urga from 1917 until the autumn of 1919. Tola at the foot of the mountain Bogdo-ula, considered sacred by the Mongols. However, now the palace was guarded not by Mongolian cyrics, but by Chinese soldiers.

In essence, the Hutuhta was under house arrest.

Guo Songling did not want to obey Chen Yi, ignoring the latter, considering himself the master of Mongolia. The contradictions between the two chief commanders weakened Chinese power in Khalkha.

At this time, the hatred of the Mongols towards the Chinese Amiens reached a high level, which created favorable conditions for Ungern's campaign in Mongolia.

Ungern von Sternberg Roman Fedorovich - was born on 01/22/1885. Baron, Lutheran. From an old German-Baltic (Ostsee) count and baronial family, included in the noble matricules (lists) of all three Russian Baltic provinces. The main blood of the Ungern family is Hungarian-Slavic. The baron grew up in Reval with his stepfather, Baron Oskar Fedorovich von Goyningen-Hühne. In 1896, by decision of his mother, he was sent to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps, upon admission to which the baron changes his name to Russian and becomes Roman Fedorovich; a year before his end, during the Russo-Japanese War, he leaves his studies and goes to the front as a volunteer of the 1st category in the 91st Dvina Infantry Regiment. However, when Ungern's regiment arrived at the theater of operations in Manchuria, the war had already ended. For participation in the campaign against Japan, the baron was awarded a light bronze medal and in November 1905 he was promoted to corporal. In 1906 he entered and in 1908 graduated from the Pavlovsk military school in the 2nd category. From June 1908 he served in the 1st Argun regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army with the rank of cornet. At the end of February 1911 he was transferred to the Amur Cossack Count Muravyov-Amursky Regiment. In July 1913, he resigned and left for Kobdo, Mongolia, where he served in the hundred of Yesaul Komarovsky (future white general) as a supernumerary officer; then returned to his family in Revel (now Tallinn, Estonia).

With the outbreak of World War I, he entered the 34th Don Cossack Regiment. During the war he was wounded five times. For exploits, courage and courage during the war, the baron was awarded a number of orders. So in the fall of 1914, on the outskirts of East Prussia, Baron Ungern accomplished a feat, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. During the battle on September 22, 1914, he, being at the Podborek manor, 400-500 steps from the enemy trenches, under real rifle and artillery fire, gave accurate and correct information about the location of the enemy and his movements, as a result of which measures were taken that led to represents the success of subsequent actions. At the end of 1914, the baron transferred to the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment, during his service in which he was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree, with the inscription "For Courage". In September 1915, the baron was seconded to the detachment of special importance of the Northern Front of Ataman Punin, whose task was partisan operations behind enemy lines. During his further service in a special detachment, Baron Ungern received two more orders: the Order of St. Stanislav, 3rd degree, and the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree. Baron Ungern returned to the Nerchinsk regiment in August 1916. During this period, he was promoted to podsauls, as well as to captains - "for military distinctions"! In September 1916 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class. However, for the excess that occurred later - disobedience and an anti-disciplinary act - he was the commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment, Colonel Baron P.N. regiment G. M. Semyonov. After the February Revolution, Semyonov sends War Minister Kerensky a plan for “using the nomads of Eastern Siberia to form parts of a“ natural ”(born) irregular cavalry from them ...”, which was approved by Kerensky. In July 1917, Semyonov left Petrograd for Transbaikalia, where he arrived on August 1 with the appointment of the Commissioner of the Provisional Government in the Far East for the formation of national units. Following him in August 1917, his friend, the military foreman Baron Ungern, was also sent to Transbaikalia, where together they actually began to prepare for the upcoming civil war with the Bolsheviks.

After the beginning of the formation in Manchuria by Semyonov of the Special Manchu detachment, Baron Ungern was appointed commandant of the Hailar station with the task of putting in order the infantry units located there, decomposed by Bolshevik agitation. The baron is initially engaged in the disarmament of pro-Bolshevik-minded units. Both Semyonov and Ungern at that time earned themselves a dark reputation for repressions against the civilian population, which very often had nothing to do with the Bolsheviks. After the appearance in the winter-spring of 1918 in Transbaikalia of numerous echelons with pro-Bolshevik soldiers returning from the collapsed German front, the Semenov detachment was forced to retreat to Manchuria, leaving behind only a small piece of Russian land in the region of the Onon River.

In the Civil War, he took part on the side of the White movement, commanding the Foreign Cavalry Division (later - the Native Cavalry Corps, the Asian Cavalry Division) in the troops of Ataman Semyonov in Transbaikalia. In October 1918 he was promoted to major general. On December 9, 1918, Baron Ungern was appointed commander of the Native Cavalry Corps (later transformed into the Asian Division). Ungern is in fact the absolute ruler of Dauria and the adjacent section of the Trans-Baikal Railway. During the campaign, in the absence of Ungern, he was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel L. Sipailov, and order was maintained by a small contingent of Cossacks and Japanese. The forces of Semyonov and Ungern did not actually affect the overall outcome of the Civil War in any way. In November 1919, the Red troops approached Transbaikalia. In March 1920, the Reds take Verkhneudinsk and the Semyonovites retreat to Chita. In August 1920, the Asian division of Baron Ungern leaves Dauria and goes to Mongolia in order to storm Urga, the capital of Outer Mongolia (now the city of Ulan Bator), occupied by Chinese Republican troops. There is a version that Ungern's division in this movement was to become the vanguard, followed by Semyonov himself, according to the plan.

The first assault on Urga began on October 26, 1920 and ended in failure - among the Chinese there were several decisive commanders who managed to keep units from fleeing, after which the Chinese advantage in firepower and numbers appeared. The fighting lasted until November 7, and during the second assault, the Ungernists were very close to success, but the position of the Chinese was saved by the courage of one of their officers, who managed to lure the retreating Chinese into a counterattack. Ungern lost about a hundred people killed and was forced to retreat to the Kerulen River, where the baron began to restore discipline, shaken after the defeat, with harsh measures. In December 1920, Ungern again approaches Urga, having replenished his forces with a hundred Tibetans under the command of the cornet Tubanov. This time, the baron finally heeded the advice of other senior commanders of the Asian division, including an experienced career officer, Colonel Ivanovsky, who arrived from Semyonov, and for the first time the plan for the third assault was developed by the only meeting of the commanders of individual units in the history of the detachment.

Ungern's troops were replenished with Mongolian and Buryat detachments that joined him, and when in January 1921 two Chinese regiments were defeated on the outskirts of Urga, this opened the way for the baron to the coveted capital. Ungern's troops before the third assault were determined by the size of the Asiatic division itself - 1,460 people. The Chinese garrison numbered 10 thousand fighters. The spiritual and secular ruler of Outer Mongolia, the Bogdo-gegen, was in the hands of the Chinese as a hostage. Ungern, inspired to take a bold step by the Mongol princes, who wanted to restore the monarchy in the country and put an end to the strife, sent a special detachment to save him, which stole the prisoner from the city, occupied by the enemy’s ten thousandth army. After that, the Asian division carried out an assault, which ended with the capture of Urga on February 3, 1921. Urga met the Asiatic Division and Ungern as liberators. However, at first the city was given to the troops for plunder, after which the baron severely suppresses all the robberies and violence of the Chinese against the Mongols in the city. The baron took part in the solemn coronation of Bogdo-Gegen in February 1921. For services to the ruler, Ungern was granted the title of “tsin-wang” (radiant prince) and khan (usually available only to Genghisides by blood) with the words “Great bator, who revived the state, commander ”, many subordinates of the baron received the posts of Mongolian officials.

Ungern equips the city and the local Mongolian government (the "revolutionary with experience" Damdinbazar was appointed prime minister of the puppet government) and manifests himself as a cruel despotic ruler, starting his rule with a massacre directed against the Chinese and Jewish population of the Mongolian capital, as well as persons suspected of " leftist sentiments. The Jewish pogrom that took place in Urga resulted in the wholesale extermination of Jews. Despite this, the baron carried out a number of progressive measures: he opened a military school in Urga, strengthened the Mongolian economy (opened the National Bank), and improved healthcare. Realizing that in Mongolia few people consider him a welcome guest and that the country's leadership is constantly looking towards the Bolsheviks (in 1921 it was already clear that the White Cause was lost in Russia and that Urga should start building relations with Bolshevik Russia), Baron Ungern is trying to start contacts with the Chinese monarchist generals in order to restore the Qing dynasty with the help of their troops.

Contrary to Ungern's expectations, the Chinese were in no hurry to restore either the dynasty or to implement Ungern's plan - and the baron had no choice but to move to the Soviet Transbaikalia, because the Mongols, in turn, seeing that Ungern was no longer going to fight with China, had already begun to change their relation to the Asian division. Baron Ungern was prompted to leave Mongolia as soon as possible by the impending end of the stocks he had captured in Urga in a very short time. Immediately before the campaign, Ungern made an attempt to contact the white Primorye. He wrote to General V. M. Molchanov, but he did not answer the baron.

On May 21, 1921, Lieutenant General Ungern issued Order No. 15 to "Russian detachments on the territory of Soviet Siberia", which announced the start of a campaign on Soviet territory. The order was written by the famous Polish-Russian journalist and writer Ferdinand Ossendowski. The order said:

... among the people we see disappointment, distrust of people. He needs names, names known to all, dear and honored. There is only one such name - the rightful owner of the Earth, the Russian Emperor All-Russian Mikhail Alexandrovich ... In the fight against the criminal destroyers and defilers of Russia, remember that as the morals in Russia completely decline and the depravity of mind and body is complete, one cannot be guided by the old assessment. There can be only one measure of punishment - the death penalty of various degrees. The old foundations of justice have changed. There is no "truth and mercy". "Truth and ruthless severity" must now exist. The evil that came to earth to destroy the Divine principle in the human soul must be rooted out...

The purpose of Baron Ungern's campaign in Soviet Russia lay in the context of the revival of the empire of Genghis Khan: Russia was supposed to unanimously revolt, and the Middle Empire was supposed to help her get rid of the revolution. However, by the time the Asiatic Division invaded Russia, the peasantry had already given a little breath - the surplus appropriation was canceled, replaced by a hard tax in kind, and the New Economic Policy began, which significantly muffled the discontent of the peasants. And one of the largest peasant uprisings - Tambov - was already suppressed by the Bolsheviks. As a result of mass support, Ungern failed to receive, which was the main reason for the failure of the Northern Expedition of the Asian Division. And the Mongols themselves, who were ready to fight with Baron Ungern against the Chinese, were not at all interested in a campaign against Soviet Russia. Coming out on a campaign to the north, Baron Ungern sent Colonel Ivanovsky to Ataman Semenov with a request to open a second front and support the offensive of the Asian division, but the former Kolchak commanders refused to obey Semenov, although this performance significantly increased the chances of occupying the white parts of the Far East. In Urga, Lieutenant Colonel Sipailov was left with a commandant's team and a small contingent of the Mongolian military school, and a barrier consisting of 300 riders of the Buryat division with a Russian machine-gun team attached to it was placed directly in front of the city.

Ungern planned to cut the Trans-Siberian with his blow, blowing up the tunnels on the most vulnerable section of the Baikal highway. The implementation of this plan could lead to the termination of communication between the Far East and the rest of Bolshevik Russia and would significantly alleviate the position of the white units in Primorye. At the end of May 1921, the Asian division headed for the border of Soviet Russia. Before the campaign, Baron Ungern gathered the greatest forces that he had ever had: the 1st and 4th cavalry regiments of the captains Parygin and Makov, two artillery batteries, a machine gun team, the 1st Mongolian, Separate Tibetan, Chinese, Chakhar divisions were 1- th brigade under the direct command of General Baron Ungern, numbering 2,100 fighters with 8 guns and 20 machine guns. The brigade attacked Troitskosavsk, Selenginsk and Verkhneudinsk.

The 2nd brigade under the command of Major General B.P. Rezukhin consisted of the 2nd and 3rd cavalry regiments under the command of Colonel Khobotov and centurion Yankov, an artillery battery, a machine gun team, the 2nd Mongolian division and a Japanese company. The strength of the brigade is 1,510 fighters. The 2nd brigade had 4 guns and 10 machine guns at its disposal. The brigade was tasked with crossing the border in the area of ​​the village of Tsezhinskaya and, acting on the left bank of the Selenga, go to Mysovsk and Tataurovo along the red rear, blowing up bridges and tunnels along the way.

Three partisan detachments were also subordinate to the baron: - a detachment under the command of the regiment. Kazangardi - consisting of 510 fighters, 2 guns, 4 machine guns; - a detachment under the command of the ataman of the Yenisei Cossack army Yesaul Kazantsev - 340 fighters with 4 machine guns; - a detachment under the command of Yesaul Kaygorodov, consisting of 500 fighters with 4 machine guns. The addition of these detachments to the main forces of the Asiatic division would make it possible to neutralize the numerical superiority of the Reds, who fielded more than 10,000 bayonets against Baron Ungern in the main direction. However, this did not happen and the baron attacked the numerically superior enemy troops.

The campaign began with some success: the 2nd brigade of General Rezukhin managed to defeat several Bolshevik detachments, but at the same time the 1st brigade under the command of Baron Ungern himself was defeated, lost its convoy and almost all of the artillery. For this victory over the Ungern brigade, the commander of the 35th Red Cavalry Regiment K.K. Rokossovsky (future Marshal of the USSR), seriously wounded in battle, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The position of the Asian division was aggravated by the fact that Ungern, who believed in the predictions of the lamas, did not begin to storm Troitskosavsk in time, occupied by the then still weak red garrison of only 400 bayonets, due to the negative result of divination. Subsequently, at the time of the beginning of the assault, the Bolshevik garrison was already almost 2,000 people.

Nevertheless, Baron Ungern managed to withdraw his troops from Troitskosavsk - the Reds did not dare to pursue the 1st brigade, fearing the approach of the gene. Rezukhin and his 2nd brigade. The losses of the baron's brigade amounted to about 440 people. At this time, the Soviet troops, in turn, undertook a campaign against Urga and, having easily knocked down the barriers of Ungern near the city, on July 6, 1921, they entered the capital of Mongolia without a fight - General Baron Ungern underestimated the forces of the Reds, which were enough to repel the invasion of the Asian division into Siberia, and for the simultaneous dispatch of troops to Mongolia.

Ungern, having given his brigade a little rest on the Iro River, led it to join Rezukhin, whose brigade, unlike Ungern's troops, not only did not suffer losses, but was even replenished with captured Red Army soldiers. The connection of the brigades took place on July 8, 1921 on the banks of the Selenga. And on July 18, the Asian division had already moved on its new and last campaign - to Mysovsk and Verkhneudinsk, taking which the baron would have been able to fulfill one of his main tasks - to cut the Trans-Siberian.

The forces of the Asiatic Division by the time they entered the 2nd campaign amounted to 3,250 fighters with 6 guns and 36 machine guns. On August 1, 1921, Baron Ungern wins a major victory at the Gusinoozersky datsan, capturing 300 Red Army soldiers (a third of whom Ungern shot at random, determining "by the eyes" which of them sympathizes with the Bolsheviks), 2 guns, 6 machine guns and 500 rifles, however, during the battle at Novodmitrievka on August 4, the initial success of the Ungernists was nullified by a detachment of armored cars that approached the Reds, which the artillery of the Asiatic Division could not cope with. The last battle of the Asian division took place on August 12, 1921 near the village of Ataman-Nikolskaya, when the Bolsheviks suffered significant losses from the artillery and machine-gun units of Baron Ungern - then no more than 600 people left the 2000 Red detachment. After that, the baron decided to retreat back to Mongolia, in order to subsequently attack the Uryankhai region with new forces. The Asian Cavalry Division inflicted very sensitive losses on the Reds - in all the battles taken together, they lost at least 2,000-2,500 people killed. The Reds suffered especially heavy losses on the Khaike River and at the Gusinoozersky datsan.

The baron's idea, according to which the division was to be sent to Uryankhai for the winter, did not receive support from the division's ranks: the soldiers and officers were sure that this plan would doom them to death. As a result, a conspiracy arose in both brigades against Baron Ungern, and no one came out in defense of the commander: neither from the officers, nor from the Cossacks.

On August 16, 1921, the commander of the 2nd brigade, General Rezukhin, refuses to lead the brigade to Manchuria and, because of this, dies at the hands of his subordinates. And on the night of August 18-19, the conspirators fire at the tent of General Baron Ungern himself, but by this time the latter manages to hide in the direction of the location of the Mongolian division (commander Prince Sundui-gun). The conspirators deal with several executioners close to Ungern, after which both rebellious brigades leave in an easterly direction in order to reach Manchuria through the territory of Mongolia, and from there - to Primorye - to Ataman Semyonov. Baron Ungern makes an attempt to return the fugitives, threatens them with execution, but they drive away Ungern with shots. The baron returns to the Mongolian division, which eventually arrests him and extradites him to the red volunteer partisan detachment, commanded by the former staff captain, cavalier of the full bow of the soldiers Georgiev P. E. Shchetinkin.

The reason for the arrest of the baron by the Mongols was the desire of the latter to return home, their unwillingness to fight outside their territory. The division commander tried, at the cost of the head of Baron Ungern, to earn for himself the forgiveness of the Reds. The prince's plan subsequently really succeeded: both Sundui-gun himself and his people, after the extradition of General Baron Ungern, were released by the Bolsheviks back to Mongolia. On September 15, 1921, an open show trial of Ungern took place in Novonikolaevsk in the building of the Novonikolaevsky Theater. E. M. Yaroslavsky was appointed the chief prosecutor at the trial. The whole thing took 5 hours and 20 minutes. Ungern was charged on three counts: firstly, actions in the interests of Japan, which was expressed in plans to create a "Central Asian state"; secondly, an armed struggle against the Soviet regime with the aim of restoring the Romanov dynasty; thirdly, terror and atrocities. Baron Ungern during the entire trial and investigation behaved with great dignity and all the time emphasized his negative attitude towards Bolshevism and the Bolsheviks, especially towards the Jewish Bolsheviks. At the trial, Ungern did not admit his guilt and did not express the slightest remorse. The baron was sentenced to death and executed on the same day. Bogdo Gegen, after receiving the news of the execution of Ungern, ordered to serve a prayer service for him in all datsans and temples of Mongolia.

Baron Ungern left a significant mark on history, albeit not the one he had hoped for: it was thanks to the baron, with his complete disregard for danger, who was able to captivate a handful of soldiers into what seemed to his contemporaries insane campaign against Urga, today's Mongolia is a state independent of China - if it were not for the capture of Urga by the Asian division, then both Outer and Inner Mongolia would remain today just one of the many Chinese provinces - since the Chinese troops would not have been expelled from Urga and there would have been no reason to bring units of the Red Army into Mongolian territory in response to the attack of Transbaikalia by Ungern during his Northern campaign. Baron Ungern posed a real danger to Bolshevism in that almost the only leader of the White movement openly proclaimed as his goal not the vague and indefinite idea of ​​the Constituent Assembly, but the restoration of the monarchy.

Baron Robert-Nikolai-Maximilian (Roman Fedorovich) von Ungern-Sternberg was born on December 29, 1885 (old style). He came from an old German-Baltic (Ostsee) count and baronial family, included in the noble matriculae of all three Russian Baltic provinces. The baron grew up in Reval with his stepfather Baron Oskar Fedorovich von Heuningen-Hühne. In 1896, by decision of his mother, he was sent to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps, upon admission to which the baron changed his name to Russian and became Roman Fedorovich. A year before graduation, during the Russo-Japanese War, von Ungern went to the front as a volunteer of the 1st category in the 91st Dvina Infantry Regiment. However, when Ungern's regiment arrived at the theater of operations in Manchuria, the war was already over. For participation in the campaign against Japan, the baron was awarded a light bronze medal and in November 1905 he was promoted to corporal. In 1906 he entered and in 1908 graduated from the Pavlovsk military school in the 2nd category. From June 1908 he served in the 1st Argun regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army with the rank of cornet. At the end of February 1911 he was transferred to the Amur Cossack Count Muravyov-Amursky Regiment. In July 1913, he resigned and left for Kobdo (Mongolia), where he served in the hundred of Yesaul Komarovsky as a supernumerary officer.

With the outbreak of World War I, Roman Fedorovich entered the 34th Don Cossack Regiment. During the war he was wounded five times. For exploits, courage and courage during the war, the baron was awarded a number of orders. At the end of 1914, the baron moved to the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment. In September 1916, he was promoted from centurions to sub-sauls, and then to yesauls. In October 1916, he was removed from the regiment for breach of discipline. In 1917, Ungern went to Vladivostok, and from there he ended up on the Caucasian front in the 3rd Verkhneudinsky regiment, where he ended up again with his friend from the previous regiment, G. M. Semenov.

In July 1917, Semyonov left Petrograd for Transbaikalia. He was appointed commissar of the Provisional Government in the Far East for the formation of national units. Baron Ungern followed him to Transbaikalia. In Irkutsk, Ungern joined Semenov. Having learned about the October Revolution, Semyonov, Ungern and 6 other people left for Chita, from there - to the Dauria station in Transbaikalia, where it was decided to form a regiment.

2 Civil war

In December 1917, Semyonov, Ungern and 5 other Cossacks disarmed the demoralized Russian garrison at Manchuria Station. Here Semyonov began to form a Special Manchurian detachment to fight the Reds. At the beginning of 1918, Ungern was appointed commandant of Art. Hailar. The baron disarmed the pro-Bolshevik units stationed there. Successful operations inspired Semyonov and Ungern to expand their operations. They took up the formation of national detachments, including representatives of the Mongols and Buryats. After the appearance in the winter-spring of 1918 in Transbaikalia of numerous echelons with pro-Bolshevik soldiers returning from the collapsed German front, the Semenov detachment was forced to retreat to Manchuria, leaving behind only a small piece of Russian land in the region of the Onon River. In the spring and summer of the year, on the Daurian Front, the Manchurian detachment fought protracted battles with the Reds, in which Ungern participated. After the Soviet power in Transbaikalia fell, Semenov approved his headquarters in Chita in September 1918. Ungern received the rank of major general. He moved from Hailar to Dauria.

On September 1, 1918, a Separate Cavalry Native Brigade was formed in Dauria, on the basis of which the Native Cavalry Corps was later formed, then transformed into the Asian Cavalry Division under the command of Ungern. From Dauria, Ungern made raids against the red partisans of Transbaikalia.

In November 1919, the Red troops approached Transbaikalia. In January-February 1920, they launched a broad offensive. In March, the Reds took Verkhneudinsk, the Semenovites retreated to Chita. In June-July, the Whites launched the last broad offensive in Transbaikalia. Ungern acted in directions to the Alexander and Nerchinsk plants in coordination with the troops of General Molchanov. But the Whites could not withstand the pressure of the superior forces of the Reds. Ungern began to prepare a withdrawal to Mongolia. On August 7, 1920, the Asian division was transformed into a partisan detachment.

3 Trip to Mongolia

In August 1920, the Asian division left Dauria and went in the direction of Mongolia, occupied by Chinese troops. Ungern's army crossed the border with Mongolia on October 1 near the village of Ust-Bukukun and headed southwest. Approaching the capital of Mongolia, Niislel-Khure, the baron entered into negotiations with the Chinese command. All his demands, including the disarmament of the Chinese troops, were rejected. On October 26-27 and November 2-4, 1920, the Ungernists stormed the city, but were defeated, having suffered significant losses. The Chinese tightened the regime in Urga, establishing control over religious services in Buddhist monasteries, engaging in robberies and arrests of Russians and Mongols.

After the defeat, Ungern's army withdrew to the headwaters of the Kerulen River in the Setsen Khan aimag in eastern Mongolia. Here Ungern received moral and material support from all sections of the Mongolian population. The financial situation of the division improved, including through the capture of caravans heading from China to supply the Chinese garrison of Urga. The division was replenished by separate groups of whites who penetrated from Transbaikalia. Mongolian princes organized the mobilization of the Mongols. The division was dominated by strict cane discipline. The theocratic monarch of Mongolia, Bogdo Gegen VIII, who was under Chinese arrest, secretly sent Ungern his blessing for the expulsion of the Chinese from the country.

4 Assault on Urga

In the two months that have passed since the previous assault, the Asiatic Division has grown to 1,460 men. She had 12 machine guns and 4 guns. The Mongolian population spread rumors that Ungern was forming a large Mongolian army of up to 5 thousand people. This became known to the Chinese command, which during the entire period of occupation did not carry out any fortification work, and could not confirm the accuracy of this information due to the lack of established intelligence.

The very personality of Baron Ungern had a demoralizing effect on the Chinese. One day, when preparations were underway for the assault, he visited the besieged Urga. The baron, dressed in his usual Mongolian attire - in a red-cherry robe, white hat, with a tashur in his hands - simply drove into Urga along the main road, at a medium gait. He visited the palace of the chief Chinese dignitary in Urga, Chen Yi, then returned to his camp past the consular town. On the way back, passing by the prison, he noticed that a Chinese sentry here was sleeping peacefully at his post. This violation of discipline angered the baron. He got off his horse and rewarded the sleeping sentry with several lashes. Ungern explained to the awakened and terribly frightened soldier that it was impossible for the sentry to sleep on guard and that he, Baron Ungern, punished him for this. Then he got back on his horse and calmly rode on. This appearance of Ungern in Urga created a sensation among the population of the city, and plunged the Chinese soldiers into fear and despondency, instilling in them the confidence that some supernatural forces were behind the baron and helping him.

On the night of February 1, 1921, a detachment of Tibetans, Mongols and Buryats headed for the southwestern slope of the Bogdo-ula mountain (south of Urga), where the Bogdo Gegen was under arrest. The main forces of the whites moved to Urga. On the same day, a detachment under the command of Rezukhin captured the advanced positions of the Chinese south of Urga. Two hundred under the command of Khobotov and Neiman approached the city from the southeast. On February 2, Ungern's troops, after fighting, captured the rest of the advanced positions of the Chinese and part of Urga. During these battles, Bogdo-gegen was released from arrest, he was taken to the Manjushri-khiid monastery. This news further demoralized the Chinese.

On February 3, Ungern gave his troops a rest. On the hills around Urga, the whites lit large fires at night, along which Rezukhin's detachment was guided, preparing for a decisive assault. The fires also gave the impression that Ungern was approached by reinforcements that surround the city. On February 4, the baron launched a decisive assault on the capital from the east, first capturing the Chinese barracks and the Maimachen trading settlement. After fierce fighting, the city was captured. Part of the Chinese troops left Urga before and during the fighting. However, small battles took place as early as 5 February.

On March 11-13, Ungern captured the Chinese fortified military base in Choiryn in southern Mongolia; another base, at Zamyn-Uude somewhat to the south, was left without a fight by the Chinese soldiers. The remaining Chinese troops, who retreated from Urga to the north of Mongolia, tried to bypass the capital and make their way to China. In addition, a large number of Chinese soldiers moved in the same direction from Maimachen (near the Russian border near the town of Kyakhta). The Russians and Mongols took this as an attempt to recapture Urga. Several hundred Cossacks and Mongols met several thousand Chinese soldiers in the area of ​​Talyn-Ulan-Khad in the area of ​​the Urga-Ulyasutai tract near the Tola River in central Mongolia. The fighting went from March 30 to April 2. The Chinese were defeated, some surrendered, and some broke south into China. Now all of Outer Mongolia was free.

Urga met the whites as liberators. At first, robberies took place in the city, but soon Ungern severely suppressed them. On February 22, 1921, a solemn ceremony was held for the re-ascension of Bogdo Gegen VIII to the throne of the Great Khan of Mongolia. For his services to Mongolia, Ungern was awarded the title of Darkhan-Khoshoi-Chin-Van in the degree of Khan. It is often mistakenly believed that Ungern became the dictator or khan of Mongolia, and the monarchical government was puppet. This is not so: Bogdo Gegen VIII and his government exercised full power. The baron acted with the sanction of the monarch. Ungern received one of the highest titles in Mongolia, but not power.

5 Campaign in Siberia in 1921

Realizing that the White Cause in Russia was lost, Ungern tried to use the dissatisfaction of the people with Soviet power to restore the monarchy in Russia. He also hoped to use the actions of other white units, the monarchists of Mongolia, Manchuria, China and East Turkestan, as well as the Japanese.

On May 21, Ungern issued order No. 15 to “Russian detachments on the territory of Soviet Siberia”, which announced the start of a campaign on Soviet territory. The order specifically stated:
“... among the people we see disappointment, distrust of people. He needs names, names known to all, dear and honored. There is only one such name - the rightful owner of the Land of the Russian Emperor All-Russian Mikhail Alexandrovich ... In the fight against the criminal destroyers and defilers of Russia, remember that as the morals in Russia completely decline and the depravity of mind and body is complete, one cannot be guided by the old assessment. There can be only one measure of punishment - the death penalty of various degrees. The old foundations of justice have changed. There is no "truth and mercy". "Truth and ruthless severity" must now exist. The evil that came to earth to destroy the Divine principle in the human soul must be uprooted ... "

It should be noted that Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov was killed in Perm in the summer of 1918. But Ungern did not believe in his death.

In the spring of 1921, the Asiatic Division was divided into two brigades: one under the command of Lieutenant General Ungern, the other under Major General Rezukhin. The latter was supposed to cross the border in the area of ​​​​the village of Tsezhinskaya and, acting on the left bank of the Selenga, go to Mysovsk and Tataurovo along the red rear, blowing up bridges and tunnels along the way. Ungern's brigade attacked Troitskosavsk, Selenginsk and Verkhneudinsk. Ungern's brigade included 2100 fighters, 20 machine guns and 8 guns, Rezukhin's brigade - 1510 fighters, 10 machine guns and 4 guns, parts left in the Urga area - 520 people.

In May, Rezukhin's brigade launched a raid across the border with Russia to the west of the river. Selenga. Ungern's brigade set out from Urga on May 21 and slowly moved north. By this time, the Reds were already moving troops from different directions to the border with Mongolia.

Rezukhin's brigade in Transbaikalia managed to defeat several red detachments. In one of these battles, on June 2, near the village of Zhelturinskaya, K.K. Rokossovsky distinguished himself, who received the second Order of the Red Banner for this. Rezukhin had no connection with the Ungern brigade, as a result of the actions of the Reds, a threat of encirclement was created. On June 8, he began to retreat and with battles went to Mongolia.

Ungern's brigade was defeated in the battles for Troitskosavsk on June 11-13. Then the combined forces of the Bolsheviks and the Red Mongols, after minor battles with the rearguards of Ungern, on July 6 entered Urga, left by the Whites.

Ungern, giving a little rest to his brigade on the river. Iro, led her to connect with Rezukhin. Ungern's brigade approached Rezukhin's brigade on July 7 or 8, but they managed to cross the Selenga and join forces only after 4-5 days. On July 18, the Asiatic division had already moved on its last campaign - to Mysovsk and Verkhneudinsk. The forces of the Asian division at the time of the start of the 2nd campaign were 3250 fighters with 6 guns and 36 machine guns.

On August 1, 1921, Baron Ungern won a victory at the Gusinoozersky datsan, capturing 300 Red Army soldiers, 2 guns, 6 machine guns, 500 rifles and a convoy. The offensive of the whites caused great concern to the authorities of the Far East. Vast territories around Verkhneudinsk were declared under a state of siege, troops were regrouped, and reinforcements arrived. Probably, Ungern realized that his hopes for an uprising of the population did not come true. There was a threat of encirclement by the Reds. On August 3, the Asian division began to leave for Mongolia.

On August 11, the baron divided the division into two brigades. Ungern's brigade went forward, and Rezukhin's brigade came out a little later in the rearguard, repulsing the attacks of the pressing Reds. On August 14-15, the Ungernovites crossed the Modonkul char and went to Mongolia.

6 Captivity and execution

Ungern decided to lead the division to the west - to Uryankhai for the winter, in order to subsequently start the fight again. But then he decided to leave for Tibet. Soldiers and officers did not like these plans. There was a conspiracy.

On the night of August 17-18, 1921, Rezukhin died at the hands of his subordinates. On the night of August 18-19, the conspirators fired at the tent of Ungern himself, but the latter managed to escape. The rebellious brigades left in an easterly direction in order to reach Manchuria through the territory of Mongolia.

On the morning of August 19, Ungern met his Mongolian division. The Mongols did not want to continue the fight. On the morning of August 20, they tied Ungern and took him to the whites. However, they were soon stumbled upon by a reconnaissance group of the Reds. Baron von Ungern was taken prisoner.

The fate of the baron was predetermined even before the start of the trial by Lenin's telegram: “I advise you to pay more attention to this case, to check the solidity of the accusation, and if the proof is complete, which, apparently, there is no doubt, then arrange a public trial, conduct it with maximum speed and shoot.

On September 15, 1921, a show trial of Ungern took place in Novonikolaevsk. E. M. Yaroslavsky was appointed the chief prosecutor at the trial. The whole thing took 5 hours and 20 minutes. Ungern was charged on three counts: first, actions in the interests of Japan, which was expressed in plans to create a "Central Asian state"; secondly, the armed struggle against the Soviet regime with the aim of restoring the Romanov dynasty; thirdly, terror and atrocities. A number of accusations of the court are based on facts: in relations with the monarchists, an attempt to create a Central Asian state, in sending out letters and appeals, gathering an army to overthrow the Soviet regime and restore the monarchy, an attack on the RSFSR and the Far East, reprisals against those suspected of being close to Bolshevism, and torture.

Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg was shot on the same day in the building of the Novonikolaevsky GPU.