Bloody Baron Ungern. Bloody Baron Ungern von Sternberg How did Baron Ungern become a Cossack German surname

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) 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 antidisciplinary 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 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 Asian division invaded Russia, the peasantry had already given a little breath - the surplus appropriation was canceled, replaced by a solid tax in kind, and the New Economic Policy began, which significantly muted 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. Speaking on a campaign to the north, Baron Ungern sent Colonel Ivanovsky to Ataman Semyonov with a request to open a second front and support the offensive of the Asian division, but the former Kolchak commanders refused to obey Semyonov, 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 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 by firing squad 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 weren't for the capture of Urga by the Asiatic 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.

"The white army, the black baron are again preparing the royal throne for us ..." - this is about Ungern. The song is dashing, but, like any agitation, it does not go into shades. In the White Army, not everyone wanted the revival of autocracy, many were in favor of the Constituent Assembly. And the "black baron" coincided with the whites only in anti-Bolshevism, since he went much further than the most convinced monarchist. If they tried to build a world federation of councils, then the baron dreamed of "global absolutism." The restoration of the "royal throne" was for him only part of the plan.

The Bolsheviks tried to raise the Western countries on their hind legs, however, Ungern also wanted to transform Western Europe, the mother of revolutionary ideas.

The communists hoped for the proletariat, the baron - for the restoration of the empire of Genghis Khan. From the Pacific to the Caspian. And then a powerful horde - to the West. As the baron believed, the white peoples had lost their centuries-old foundations, the only hope for Asia, which is able to renew the Old World.

About the chaos that reigned in the head of the mystic baron, who combined Christianity and Buddhism in his soul, his standard speaks: a yellow banner sheathed in red Mongolian ornament with the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. And the black swastika is an ancient symbolism, so it is not very clear what meaning Ungern put into it. Then there was an era of boundless ideas and unbridled fantasies, but they left a mark on history.

The Bolsheviks created the USSR, and without the baron there would be no present-day Mongolia, it would still be in China.

Even at that merciless time, Ungern was especially cruel. What he found justification: “The old foundations of justice have changed. There is no“ truth and mercy ”. Now there must be“ truth and ruthless severity. ”And since he understood the truth in a peculiar way, very many who met on his way became victims. but a “mad baron.” The Kappelites threatened to hang Ungern on the nearest branch for discrediting the white idea and the title of a Russian officer.

Like any purebred baron, you can’t immediately pronounce his full name: Robert-Nikolai-Maximilian (Roman Fedorovich) von Ungern-Sternberg. From an old German-Baltic family. The baron himself added the blood of the Huns to this cocktail, finding his ancestors surrounded by Attila. In various biographies, he is called a Russian general, although he received this title not in the tsarist army and not even from or, but from Ataman Semenov. It is possible that he could have become a general earlier, but his violent temper prevented him. Entered the Naval Cadet Corps - expelled for behavior. After graduating from a military school, he went to the Cossack regiment. After a skirmish with a colleague, the court of honor forced him to transfer to another unit on the Amur.

This move to the Chinese border predetermined the further fate of the baron. A couple of years later, having risen to the rank of centurion, he resigns and goes to Mongolia.

The legends about Ungern of that period are a reflection of later events. In fact, at that time he was only in the convoy of the Russian consulate. Another thing is that these years allowed him to fairly "mongolize" and immerse himself in the turbulent political situation in the region. He later returned here. After a break for .

As it quickly became clear, it was war that was his true element. It is no coincidence that the Mongols later revered Ungern as the god of war and believed that he was invulnerable to a bullet. How else? He was wounded five times - he returned to service undertreated. Five orders for bravery.

However, he progressed slowly. In 1916, he became a captain, not so much - a rank equal to a captain in the infantry. We find an explanation from another well-known baron in our history - Pyotr Wrangel (at one time Ungern served under him): "This is not an officer in the generally accepted sense of the word, this is a type of amateur partisan, hunter-tracker from the novels of Mine Reed ... Undoubtedly original and sharp mind, and next to this, a striking lack of culture and an extremely narrow outlook, amazing shyness and even savagery, and next to this, an insane impulse and unbridled irascibility.

In 1917, on the Caucasian front, fate brought Ungern to Ataman Semyonov, with whom, after February, the baron went back to the Far East.

The task - to form national units for the front in Transbaikalia - the friends did not have time to complete,. But the idea itself - reliance on national formations, but now to fight the revolution - remained.

Ungern's detachments resembled the hunghuz - Manchurian bandits, who then hunted in the Far East. The officers are Russians, the privates are Mongols and Buryats. There is only cavalry in the detachment. The main tactic is raids. in Transbaikalia it was carried out with varying success, but when by 1920 a turning point came and Kolchak was shot, the baron with a thousand horsemen left for Mongolia. However, the departure to the territory occupied by the Chinese was caused not only by the changed situation, but also by the plans that formed in the head of the baron. He decided to start the struggle for world absolutism in Manchuria, restoring the monarchies in Mongolia and China. A year before, Ungern had already been here, found the necessary contacts and married Princess Ji from the overthrown Qing dynasty.

On the second attempt, the baron managed to take the Mongol capital Urga and put the Great Khan of Mongolia, Bogdo Gegen VIII, on the throne. This victory brought him not only popularity among the local population, grateful for the liberation from Chinese occupation. The title of the Mongol Khan was added to the baronial title, and the ataman Semenov awarded Ungern the rank of lieutenant general. Finally, it was during the siege of Urga that an episode occurred that turned the "black baron" into a legend.

In order to reconnoiter the situation in Urga, Ungern, dressed in a Mongolian robe with epaulets and the Order of George on his chest, entered the city gates in broad daylight with a leisurely gait.

I looked around the streets, looked into the palace of one of the Chinese dignitaries, and just as slowly left the city. And on the road he taught a lesson to the sleeping sentry: whipping him with a whip for negligence, he ordered to tell the authorities that Baron Ungern had punished him. It was after this that they started talking about the supernatural abilities of the "black baron", and the dubious garrison fell into deep despondency. And although there were many more Chinese, when Ungern's detachment re-attacked, they fled.

Urga was robbed for a long time and thoughtfully, destroying everything Chinese and Jews, whom the baron considered responsible for the spread of revolutionary ideas. Thus, Outer Mongolia, in the smoke of fires and among the mountains of corpses, gained independence. In the end, the result turned out to be, however, the opposite of what the baron had hoped for. After the unsuccessful campaign of Ungern in 1921, the Reds occupied Urga. "Sovietization of Mongolia was not the result of a consistent, thoughtful and organized plan. If it were not for Ungern ... we would not have Sovietized Mongolia," wrote the Bolshevik and diplomat Ioffe.

Versions of how the baron fell into the hands of the Reds are contradictory, but it seems that when Ungern decided to take his defeated detachment to Tibet, the rest did not like it very much.

The officers were shot, and the baron himself, who "did not take a bullet", was tied up and left in the steppe. Where he was found by one of the red partisan detachments.

Upon learning of the baron's arrest, he recommended "arranging a public trial, conducting it as quickly as possible and shooting him." The recommendation was followed exactly. The demonstration process took place in the summer theater of the Sosnovka park in the city of Novo-Nikolaevsk. And it only took five hours and twenty minutes. The sentence is to shoot.

But the legend lives on. Someone is still sure that the baron fled and took refuge in one of the Buddhist monasteries.

And some pessimists believe that the god of war cannot be shot at all. Evil is indestructible.

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, the 35th rifle division and the 5th Kuban Cavalry Brigade) under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky, a consolidated detachment was formed and well armed (he even had two guns at his disposal) - about 200 cavalry and 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.

On December 29 (17th century) 1885, Roman Fedorovich Ungern von Sternberg was born - one of the most odious leaders of the White movement, a participant in the Civil War in the Far East, who earned himself the fame of a merciless fighter against Bolshevism, the liberator of Mongolia from the Chinese invaders, "the bloody ruler Urgi". He was hated and feared by both Reds and Whites. Some considered him a holy righteous man, others considered him a crazy sadist. Many were ready to follow him to his death, but even more people wished for his speedy death. Even during the life of Baron Ungern-Sternberg, his name was overgrown with so many myths and legends that historians cannot figure out where is the truth and where is outright fiction, to this day.

early years

The initial period of the life of Roman Fedorovich Ungern-Sternberg and his family tree are well known to biographers.

R.F. Ungern-Sternberg came from an old German-Baltic (Ostsee) count-baronial family. The most ancient branch of the Ungerns had an admixture of Hungarian blood. In Sweden and Prussia, representatives of the clan belonged to the strata of high society, for many centuries they occupied high posts in these countries.

The baronial dignity was granted to the Ungern-Sternbergs by the Swedish Queen Christina in 1653. Baron Renault Ungern was the first marshal of the nobility of the Baltic region after its annexation to Russia, assisted Peter I in the development of the Baltic. Renault Ungern demanded from the king many privileges for the Baltic nobility. The Ungernov clan was included in the noble matriculae of all three Baltic provinces of Russia. In 1865, by the opinion of the State Council, the title of baron was recognized for the noble family von Ungern-Sternberg.

In the literature, there are different spellings of the full title name of the Ungerns: Ungern von Sternberg, von Ungern-Sternberg and simply Ungern-Sternberg. It was in this version that the name of our hero was used in official service records.

Almost all the ancestors and relatives of R.F. Ungern-Sternberg were military, served either in the guards cavalry or in the navy. Many of them took part in the events of the First World War and the Civil War in Russia.

However, Father R.F. Ungern-Sternberg - Theodore-Leonhard-Rudolf Ungern-Sternberg had a very peaceful profession. After graduating from the philosophy course at the University of Leipzig, he served in the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of State Property, studied the issues of winemaking in the Crimea, and traveled extensively in Europe.

Mother - Sophia-Charlotte von Wimpfen, German from Stuttgart.

Roman Fedorovich Ungern was born in Herz (Austria-Hungary) during one of his parents' trips abroad. In 1891 they divorced, the father soon fell ill with mental illness and did not take part in the fate of his son. He died in 1918 in Petrograd, in a hospital for the insane.

Mother remarried a naval officer, Baron Oskar Fedorovich von Goinigen-Hühne. In a new marriage, she had other children (half-brother and sister of Roman). No one was involved in the upbringing of the firstborn. The family lived in Reval, where Roman Fedorovich attended the Nikolaev gymnasium, but did not finish the course, was expelled for bad behavior.

In 1902 (at the age of 16), at the insistence of his mother, he was sent by his stepfather to the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. He studied poorly, because he did not receive a proper education and did not have the slightest desire to become a naval officer. The young man gave the impression of a savage to the teachers: he did not know how to behave in society, he was intellectually completely undeveloped, he constantly violated discipline, and the exact sciences (geometry, astronomy) were not given to Cadet Ungern at all. In 1904, after spending two years in the primary class, R.F. was expelled from the Naval Corps again "for bad behavior" and poor academic performance.

Soviet historians, who studied the characteristics of the cadet Ungern in the archives of the Naval Corps, made very hasty conclusions about the mental retardation and nearness of the future white commander.

Meanwhile, people who really knew the baron (P.N. Wrangel, Renault and Arvid Ungern-Sternberg, ataman G.M. Semyonov, Lieutenant General V.A. Kislitsyn and others), in their memoirs claim that Roman Fedorovich, on the contrary, he was a very gifted man. He had a sharp mind, an excellent memory, was fluent in German, French and a little English, understood the philosophy and history of religions. Ungern's desire to make a bad impression on others was just a pose. In his youth - the pose of an unloved, neglected child, in his mature years - the pose of an oppositionist who is not satisfied with the modern social order and the way of life imposed on him.

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, R.F. Ungern was enrolled as a volunteer in the 91st Dvina Infantry Regiment, but by the time the regiment arrived in Manchuria, hostilities had already ended.

Without a doubt, at this stage, his grandmother's cousin, General P.K., took part in his fate. Rennenkampf. With his assistance, the young baron received an excellent performance report and a light bronze medal, was promoted to corporal, and in 1906 he entered the Pavlovsk Infantry School in St. Petersburg.

Baron Ungern graduated from the school (with great difficulty) in the 2nd category, but did not want to serve in the infantry. He filed a petition to be sent to the Far East and enroll himself in the Cossack Transbaikal army. Far Eastern nature made an indelible impression on the young Ungern. From June 1908 to February 1911, Roman Fedorovich served in the 1st Argun regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack army with the rank of cornet.

Here an unpleasant incident happened to him: while drunk in the officers' meeting, the baron insulted one of the young officers of the regiment. He did not challenge him to a duel, but simply hit him on the head with a sword in response. Ungern's scar remained for life. A court of honor took place, the offended officer resigned, and Ungern-Sternberg was transferred to the Amur Cossack Count Muravyov-Amursky Regiment. This regiment was stationed 1200 km from the baron's former duty station. He went there alone, without any supplies, accompanied only by his hunting dog and falcon. Having passed the survival test arranged for himself, Ungern safely reached the location of the military unit through the wildest places, taiga and off-road.

In July 1913, Roman Fedorovich was dismissed from the Amur Regiment and sent to Kobdo (Mongolia) to take part in the Mongol-Chinese war as a volunteer. However, the Russian consul did not understand such a strange desire of the officer and did not let him go to war. Ungern remained to serve as a supernumerary officer in the escort hundred of Yesaul Komarovsky.

World War I

With the outbreak of World War I, Ungern-Sternberg immediately joined the 34th Don Cossack Regiment, fought bravely in intelligence, and was one of the first to receive the officer order of St. George, 4th degree. At the end of 1914, the baron was transferred to the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment - under the command of P.N. Wrangel.

In his Notes, Wrangel gave extremely contradictory characteristics of his subordinate. On the one hand, an excellent brave officer, with chivalrous concepts of honor, which he constantly tried to put into practice, on the other hand, a man of a very sharp mind, but not having an elementary outlook, ill-mannered, not temperate in the use of alcoholic beverages, extremely sloppy, experiencing all sorts of contempt for domestic comfort and flaunts this:

“Ragged and dirty, he always sleeps on the floor among the Cossacks of his hundred, eats from a common cauldron and, being brought up in conditions of cultural prosperity, gives the impression of a person completely detached from them. An original, sharp mind, and next to it a striking lack of culture and an extremely narrow outlook. Amazing shyness, unbounded extravagance…”

Ungern, indeed, did not know how to behave in an officer's society, and indeed among people who, it seems to them, know how to live. With the soldiers and the lower ranks, he felt much freer, treated them well. The baron received rather large sums of money from his mother, and spent almost everything on buying food for his subordinates. The soldiers in his company were always well fed, better dressed, had tobacco and warm clothes.

In 1916, Ungern was removed from the Nerchinsk regiment due to a disciplinary offense (he beat the adjutant of the military commandant of Chernivtsi while drunk). The regiment had just received a new chief - the heir to the crown prince. Wrangel, as the Emperor's aide-de-camp with the Knights of St. George, traveled to St. Petersburg to introduce himself to the heir. Ungern, like St. George Cavalier, also had to go, but remained in the regiment under arrest. Wrangel suggested that the baron deliberately staged this fight in order to avoid receiving the emperor (this was quite in his nature).

In 1917, Ungern was sent to the Caucasian Front to the 3rd Verkhneudinsk Regiment, where he met his friend and colleague, G.M. Semyonov, also removed by Wrangel for embezzlement from the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment.

In the fight against the Bolsheviks

Summer 1917 R.F. Ungern-Sternberg spent in Reval with his parents, and in August, together with his half-brother Maximilian, he makes an attempt to participate in the events of the Kornilov speech - he goes to Petrograd with the corps of General Krymov. The failure of the uprising forces Ungern to accept the proposal of G.M. Semyonov and go to the Far East.

Former colleague of Baron Ungern Yesaul G.M. Immediately after the July events in Petrograd, Semyonov submitted to Kerensky a project for the formation of shock cavalry units in Transbaikalia from the nomads of Eastern Siberia - the Buryats, Mongols, Koreans and other nationalities. By order of the Supreme Commander A.A. Brusilov Semyonov was appointed High Commissioner of the Far East and commander of the still defunct Mongol-Buryat cavalry regiment. The parking lot for this regiment was assigned at the Berezovka station of the Trans-Baikal Railway (near the city of Verkhneudinsk). In September 1917, Ungern traveled across the country to the territory of the CER, where Semyonov launched his activities.

After the Bolshevik coup, all the powers of Semenov, given to him by the Provisional Government, turned into nothing. The regiment was not formed; in Irkutsk, Chita and other large cities, local Bolshevik soviets took power.

At the Dauria station, the last border station of the CER, a detachment of 10 people gathered who rebelled against the Bolsheviks. In his memoirs, ataman G.M. Semyonov lists them all by name. Among them was Baron Ungern-Sternberg.

The Bolsheviks in Verkhneudinsk soon realized that Semyonov was forming anti-Bolshevik detachments and on December 1, 1917, they tried to arrest him and disband the detachment. However, Semyonov offered armed resistance. The Reds declared these events "an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Verkhneudinsk." Then Semyonov went to Chita, took by force from the Chita Sovdep the money allocated for his detachment by the Provisional Government, after which he left for Manchuria.

In Harbin, with the help of their small detachment and personal courage (rather, arrogance), Semenov and Ungern managed to disarm numerous detachments of the CER military guard, which fell under the influence of Bolshevik agitators. Some detachments went over to the side of Semyonov. Having replenished and well-armed their detachment of 559 people, on January 29, 1918, the Semenovites invaded Transbaikalia, occupying its Eastern part, Dauria. Soon, Transbaikal Cossacks who rebelled against the Bolsheviks joined Semyonov. In August 1918, the Semyonovites took Chita, where in 1920, after the death of Kolchak, Semyonov formed the PRVO (Government of the Russian Eastern Outskirts). Semyonov, as a local native, had considerable authority among the Cossacks. The Cossacks did not know Ungern, so Semyonov instructed the baron to form foreign battalions.

In the summer of 1918, in Dauria, Ungern began to create his famous Foreign (Asian) cavalry division. It was based on Buryat and Mongol horsemen.

Divisional Commander Ungern

By and large, the activities of Semyonov and Ungern in Transbaikalia had no effect on the course of the Civil War. Nevertheless, it greatly moderated the appetites of the Chinese, who, with the weakening of Russia's power in the Far East, sought to seize not only the territory of the CER, but also a significant part of Primorye.

Ungern decided that the white formations needed to make friends with the Mongols in order to use their long-standing enmity with the Chinese and prevent the rapid expansion of the Republic of China into Russian territories. Under the threat of the most cruel measures, he forced all the Russian officers of his division to learn the Mongolian language. The commanders of the native units were either representatives of the local nobility, or Russian officers, who enjoyed the greatest respect among foreigners.

In 1918-1920. The main task of the Foreign (Asian) division of Ungern was to protect the railway from the Olovyannaya station to the Manchuria station, as well as to restore order on the Russian territory of the CER. In fact, Ungern took over the functions of the former tsarist administration in the territories entrusted to him: he paid salaries to workers and employees of the CER, benefits to families of military personnel, etc.

Soviet propaganda lamented for a long time about the cruelty of the regime introduced by Ungern. In the territories controlled by the baron, all those caught in sympathy for the Bolsheviks were persecuted, a tough requisitioning policy was carried out, and punitive measures were taken against deserters and traitors of all stripes. Do not forget that R.F. Ungern in his actions was accountable to G.M. Semyonov, he actually provided his rear, was engaged in the supply of the entire Transbaikal army.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Semyonov found himself in the hands of very significant amounts requisitioned in the Far Eastern branches of large Russian banks. In 1919, Semyonov's Cossacks detained and "requisitioned" one of the five echelons with the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, en route from Omsk to Vladivostok. Part of the gold (different amounts are called in the literature - from 7 to 20 million gold rubles) was issued by Semyonov to Baron Ungern. Being himself a completely unselfish and honest person, Ungern treated this money only as a means to achieve a common goal - the salvation of Russia from Bolshevism. He demanded the same not only from his subordinates, but also from all persons, one way or another connected with the supply of the army. Ungern was especially merciless towards thieves, bribe-takers, persons convicted of corruption crimes. He shot and hanged officers caught stealing without mercy, regardless of rank, title and previous merits.

Discipline in the division of Ungern was ironclad. Eyewitnesses recalled that Ungern ordered the culprit to be put in a horse box for stealing fodder; for any minor offense, he could personally beat the officer with a tashur - a stick with which the Mongols drive horses. During these years, the baron completely abandoned the use of alcohol, severely punished his subordinates for drunkenness, especially during periods of hostilities. It must be said that all the eccentric antics of the baron in the Daurian period concerned exclusively Russian officers. With the rank and file, especially the Mongols, Buryats and representatives of other local peoples, Ungern behaved very tolerantly. There is a known case when the division commander, Baron Ungern, trying to teach his Buryat orderly to cleanliness, washed his clothes in front of his subordinates.

Repeatedly, Ungern released the Red Army prisoners captured in battle to all four sides, and offered good horsemen to serve in his division. Many accepted this offer and stayed with Baron Ungern until the very end.

By their own political views Ungern was a staunch monarchist. Ataman G.M. Semyonov did not share his monarchical sympathies, leaning rather towards the nationally oriented military dictatorship of the Social Revolutionary persuasion, but there were no political disagreements between the boss and the subordinate. Semyonov condescendingly treated the "eccentricities" of the baron, appreciated his honesty and disinterestedness, and gave him almost complete freedom of action. another person capable of short time to create combat-ready military formations from wild nomads, Semenov did not have in stock. After all, Ungern, on the territory entrusted to him, successfully implemented his own, Semenov's project of 1917.

At the end of the Civil War, when the remnants of Kolchak's armies moved to the Far East, ideological differences within the white camp often developed into armed conflicts and clashes between representatives of various political movements. A sad example of such a confrontation in the Far East was the split of the white forces into the Kappel and Semyonovites. After the tragic death of V.O. Kappel S.N. Voitsekhovsky, who took command, withdrew the remaining forces to the territory subject to G.M. Semyonov. Formally, he submitted to the ruler of the Trans-Baikal Territory, although the majority of the Kappelites insisted on maintaining their army as a separate combat unit.

The composition of the Kappel troops for the most part was too heterogeneous. Among the Kappelites there were many liberal intelligentsia, as well as workers who shared socialist views. In the army of Semyonov, the liberals were unequivocally considered accomplices of the Bolsheviks, and the officers who served in the People's Army of Komuch were treated with great suspicion.

Voitsekhovsky did not immediately have a relationship with either Semyonov or Ungern. Coordinated actions of the command of the Far Eastern Army did not work. Among the Kappel officers, the eccentric Ungern was referred to only as the "crazy baron."

Today it is quite obvious that there is no reason to talk about some special, sophisticated cruelty of Baron Ungern in the Dahurian period. Bloody and inevitable reprisals against prisoners became the norm on all fronts of the civil war. It was not necessary to count on mercy for the Reds, who appeared before the divisional court-martial.

The Kappelites refused to serve with the monarchist Ungern, and Ungern, for his part, also did not have any respect or trust in the officers who once stood in the service of the "Samara Constituent Assembly".

In order not to aggravate further contradictions, in May 1920 Voitsekhovsky transferred his post to General Lokhvitsky, who demanded that G.M. Semenov remove Ungern from the army. In the end, Lokhvitsky himself left, and the white forces in the Far East suffered defeat after defeat.

"Pan-Mongolism" Ungern

In the summer-autumn of 1920, the white armies, under the onslaught of the red troops, retreated further and further east. It was impossible to conduct combat operations without a reliable rear base. Under these conditions, Ungern began to establish contacts with the military and aristocratic elites of Mongolia and China, hoping with their help to get a reliable rear base and draw reserves from there for further struggle.

In the literature dedicated to Baron Ungern, his desire to the east is very often associated with certain mystical moods inherent in the baron, with his passion for Buddhism, in particular Cittamatra, a doctrine that considers objective reality only a figment of the subject's imagination. Some of Ungern's biographers seriously argue about who from the greats of this world could be his spiritual mentor, speak of Ungern's pan-Mongol plans as "restoring the empire of Genghis Khan", commemorate Ungern's planned "crusade" of the yellow race against the white race mired in debauchery and idleness Europe, etc.

In fact, everything was much simpler. Relying on the political elites of Mongolia and China, the staunch monarchist Ungern tried to oppose the monarchism of the eastern rulers to the communist "red" Europe. Only in the idea of ​​strong monarchical power did he see the salvation of not only Russia, but the whole world from the power of the communists. In communism itself, Ungern saw not just a political or economic doctrine. In his understanding, it was a militant religion, a religion of conquerors who would stop at nothing. He sought to oppose the religion of communism with the religion of national self-consciousness, based on patriotism, faith and the authority of the ruling monarch, the vicar of God on earth. Ungern was not going to restore the "empire of Genghis Khan" from sea to sea. In reality, he considered it necessary to create just a kind of autonomous "buffer state" - Great Mongolia, which over time could become a base for rallying all anti-Bolshevik forces in the Far East.

In 1919-1920, Ungern sent several dozen letters to Mongolian princes, lamas, and Chinese monarchist generals outlining his ideas. There were only a few responses. Despite all the efforts of the baron, monarchical unity did not work.

In the summer of 1919, Ungern-Sternberg made a trip to China in order to establish contacts with the monarchist groups existing there. The first result of his trip was a scandal in the old Russian embassy in Beijing, and the second was the marriage of Ungern to the Chinese princess Ji from the Zhangkui clan. The princess had a European education, spoke English well, after being baptized into Orthodoxy, she received the name Elena Pavlovna.

The modern historian A.S. Kruchinin believes that Ungern’s marriage was purely formal and was subordinated to the sole purpose of legalizing cash payments to the princess’s relatives, who held high positions in the Chinese army and made plans to restore the monarchy. Thus, Ungern tried to win supporters in the monarchist party of China, and the princess and her relatives tried to improve their shaky financial situation.

As for the scandal at the embassy, ​​most likely it was connected with the position taken by the Russian diplomats who were in China at that time. Most of them cared only about their own well-being, but not about the interests of Russia. Until 1917, the Russian government was the guarantor of the autonomy of Outer Mongolia, which was formed after the collapse of the Qing Empire. But since the summer of 1919, Chinese troops have been in charge on the territory of a recognized independent state. The Russian envoy in Beijing, Prince N.V. Kudashev, did not even express a formal protest against the Chinese invasion of the territory of Outer Mongolia. The agile Chinese, under the guise of Russian unrest, simply “squeezed” Mongolia from Russia, dreaming of taking possession of other Russian territories with impunity. Then Ungern decided to correct the situation on his own.

Hike to Urga

In the summer of 1920, the White forces launched the last broad offensive in Transbaikalia. In August, under the pressure of the Red forces, the troops of Ataman Semyonov, abandoned by the Japanese allies, were forced to retreat. In these difficult conditions, on October 1, 1920, Ungern crossed the border with his division and headed straight for the capital of Mongolia - Urga (the Mongols called the city Niislel h?ree, which translates as "capital (main) monastery").

Urga was occupied by a well-armed Chinese garrison of more than 7 thousand people. R.F. Ungern, having only 1,500 men of his Asian division behind him, entered into negotiations with the Chinese command, offering to surrender the city voluntarily. Naturally, all his proposals were rejected with laughter.

On October 26-27 and November 2-4, the Ungernists unsuccessfully stormed Urga, suffered heavy losses, and retreated to the upper reaches of the Kerulen River.

Wintering conditions in the Mongolian steppe turned out to be the most severe. But Ungern's division successfully attacked the Chinese caravans going to Urga. The baron generously shared his trophies with the Mongol nobility, so his army was replenished not only by Russian volunteers retreating from Transbaikalia. The Mongol princes also organized mobilization among the local tribes. Ungern was supported by the widest sections of the local population, because they saw him as a liberator from Chinese rule. The theocratic monarch of Mongolia, Bogdo Gegen VIII, who was under Chinese arrest in his residence near Urga, secretly sent Ungern a blessing to expel the Chinese from the country.

Bribed by Ungern, Buddhist priests spread rumors around Urga that all the Mongols were praying and demanding the punishment of the Chinese for sacrilege, that everyone would die here. On the night of February 1, 1921, a sabotage detachment of the Ungernists freed the Bogdo Gegen from arrest, which completely demoralized the Chinese. Simultaneously with this daring action, Ungern's troops approached Urga and surrounded the city from all sides.

There were legends that Ungern, a few days before the decisive assault, he alone visited the besieged Urga. In his usual attire - a crimson Mongolian robe and a white hat - he entered the city unarmed, through the main gate. Ungern drove through Urga, examined all the local sights, scolded and beat a Chinese soldier who was sleeping at a post near the prison with a stick, after which he calmly returned to his camp. When the Chinese found out about this, their morale was finally broken, and they were ready to surrender to Ungern without a fight ...

In fact, it wasn't without a fight. The battle for Urga lasted from February 1 to February 5, 1921. First, the Ungernists broke through the defensive positions of the Chinese on the outskirts of the city. On February 3, in order to create the appearance of reinforcements, Ungern ordered numerous bonfires to be lit on the hills around Urga. These fires guided the reserve detachments in preparation for the decisive assault on February 4th.

The Chinese garrison left Urga on 5 February. In March-April, Ungern's troops, having destroyed all Chinese military bases, finally drove the invaders out of the former territory of Outer Mongolia.

On February 22, 1921, a solemn ceremony was held in Urga for the re-ascension of Bogdo Gegen VIII to the throne of the Great Khan of Mongolia. For services to Mongolia, Ungern was awarded the title of Darkhan-Khoshoi-Chin-Van in the degree of Khan; many subordinates of the baron received the titles of Mongol princes. Mongolian lamas began to call Ungern Mahakala, meaning "god of war" or "war god". If we translate these honors into the category of Christianity, then we can say that Roman Fedorovich Ungern-Sternberg was canonized during his lifetime.

From his immediate superior - G.M. Semyonov Ungern also received approval and the rank of major general.

However, a brilliant victory in Mongolia did not justify the hopes of the newly minted khan to create a rear base in this country for a new wave of the white movement. Ungern did not receive real power. Mongolia continued to be ruled by the former Mongolian nobility. Her gratitude for the liberation from the conquerors could not be too generous in such a poor steppe country. Roman Fedorovich was a brave warrior, a talented commander, perhaps a good teacher and psychologist, but he was not given the exact sciences, and he did not know how to count money. The gold received from Semyonov had long been spent on supplying troops, bribes to Mongolian lamas and Chinese monarchists, and the resources of Mongolia did not allow for the long-term maintenance of the Asian division in Urga. In addition, the Mongols have long been accustomed to treating Russians and Russia as givers, and not as takers. For the majority of the Mongol nobility there was no difference between "white" and "red" Russians. When the whites ran out of material goods, the Mongols began to take them from the reds. Even before the capture of Urga by Ungern, Bogdo Gegen VIII sent a delegation to Soviet Russia and established contacts with the Reds. Many influential Mongolian lamas did not hesitate to take money from Ungern and cooperate with the Bolsheviks at the same time. Among the military emigrants and civilian refugees arriving in Mongolia from Transbaikalia there were many Bolshevik agents, agitators, and other persons directly interested in the decomposition of the Ungern division. The baron's "counterintelligence", which terrified the former Kappel officers, was powerless to do anything. Further "standing" in Urga threatened to disintegrate the division already in April-May 1921.

Northern campaign of Ungern

In the spring of 1921 Siberia was covered by a wave of anti-Bolshevik peasant uprisings. The scale of the peasant uprisings in Siberia in many respects exceeded the performances of the Tambov peasants ("Antonov movement"). But if the Tambov people had their own undoubted leader and a relatively small territory, then the Siberian uprisings took place extremely scattered throughout the vast expanses of the Trans-Ural part of the country. The performances of poorly armed and equally poorly organized peasant detachments were quickly suppressed by the regular units of the Red Army and red partisans drawn into Siberia. Ungern decided that his division had a chance to become a unifying and leading center of peasant uprisings in Eastern Siberia. He was especially inspired by the fact that many local uprisings of the peasants took place under the slogans of the restoration of the monarchy.

In May 1921, Ungern undertook a campaign on the territory of Soviet Siberia. He announced the restoration of the power of the legitimate monarch Mikhail II Romanov as the goal of the campaign, since his death was not yet widely known at that time.

The Asian division was divided into two brigades. The first (under the command of Ungern) advanced on Verkhneudinsk, Troitskosavsk and Selenginsk. The second brigade under the command of Major General Rezukhin was supposed to go to Tataurovo, making a raid on the red rear, blowing up bridges and tunnels. By this time, the Reds had already transferred regular units from European Russia to the border with Mongolia. They were joined by the army of the DVR (Far Eastern Republic). A significant preponderance of forces was on the side of the Reds. The large-scale popular uprising against the Bolsheviks, which Ungern had hoped for, did not happen. There was practically no communication between the two brigades of the division. Rezukhin, having suffered a series of defeats, was forced to retreat to Mongolia under the threat of encirclement. Ungern's brigade was also unable to take Troitskosavsk, turned back to join Rezukhin. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks undertook a campaign on the territory of Outer Mongolia, the combined forces of the Bolsheviks and the Red Mongols occupied Urga.

On August 1, 1921, the Ungernists won at the Gusinoozersky datsan, but there was no talk of further advance deep into Soviet territory. The Asian division was opposed by numerous units of the regular Red Army, hardened in battles. They were armed with armored cars, heavy artillery, airplanes. Ungern could only oppose their arsenal with the Mongol cavalry and a dozen machine guns. There was a threat of encirclement, and Ungern again went to Mongolia.

Conspiracy and captivity

A series of defeats, the loss of Urga, the prospect of wintering in the Mongolian steppes, as well as the crazy plans of Ungern-Sternberg to transfer his troops to Tibet, quickly did their job. In both brigades a conspiracy arose against the baron.

On the night of August 17-18, 1921, Major General Rezukhin was killed by his subordinates. In Ungern's brigade, all the officers loyal to the baron were killed, even his Buryat orderly; Cossacks fired at Ungern's tent. According to eyewitnesses, in addition to rifle shots, two grenades were thrown at her, but Ungern, as if by magic, remained unharmed. He did not immediately understand that absolutely everyone had betrayed him, for some time he rushed around the camp, trying to restore order, but after repeated shots in his direction, he preferred to hide in the steppe.

On August 19, both rebellious brigades headed east to make their way through the territory of Mongolia to Manchuria, where their families remained.

There are several versions of the capture of Baron Ungern. According to one of them, the most common, on the morning of August 19, Roman Fedorovich left for the location of the Mongolian battalion, which left the camp during the night's confusion. He continued to believe in the selfless devotion of the Mongol horsemen to him, so he did not expect betrayal on their part. Ungern himself offered the Russian instructor officers a choice: stay with him or follow the brigade to Manchuria. Almost all the officers decided to leave. As soon as they left their commander, the Mongols tied up Ungern and killed all the Russian instructors (including the lower ranks) who remained in the detachment. The next day, the Mongolian detachment was attacked by a small red partisan unit under the command of military commissar Shchetinkin. The Mongolian detachment significantly outnumbered the partisans in numbers and could have put up decent resistance, but, despite Ungern's commands and shouts, the Mongols fled, leaving their bound commander at the mercy of the winners.

Death sentence R.F. Ungern was actually carried out in Moscow, personally by Lenin. In a telephone conversation on August 26, 1921, Lenin conveyed his opinion on the baron's case:

“I advise you to pay more attention to this case, to achieve a check on the solidity of the accusation, and if the proof is complete, which, apparently, cannot be doubted, then arrange a public trial, conduct it as quickly as possible and shoot.”

The next day, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) adopted a decision on Baron Ungern in a wording that completely coincided with this directive of Lenin.

Judging by the surviving protocols of Ungern's interrogations, during the investigation the baron did not extradite anyone, did not slander anyone, did not answer any of the specific questions about the whereabouts of his former associates. He fully agreed with almost all the charges against him. The captive Ungern did not hide his monarchical views, he took full responsibility for the punitive policy in the territories subject to him, without attributing anything to his subordinates.

Modern historians consider half of the accusations against Ungern of extrajudicial executions, unimaginable atrocities, Jewish pogroms and mass executions to be fiction. Nevertheless, at the trial, Ungern behaved very worthily, did not deny or justify anything presented to him.

The comedy of the public process took place on September 15, 1921 in Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) in the Sosnovka summer park. The hearing of the case of Baron Roman Fedorovich Ungern von Sternberg took 5 hours and 20 minutes. The accused was found guilty on all counts and shot on the same day in the evening in the building of the Novonikolaevsky GPU.

After the news of the execution of the baron, the ruler of Mongolia, Bogdo-gegen, gave the order to hold services for Ungern in all Mongolian churches. True, not everyone believed that the baron was dead. Local Buddhist lamas directly laughed at the news of the execution: is it possible to kill Mahakala (the god of war) with an ordinary bullet? So, there were rumors that the Reds caught a completely different person, similar to Ungern-Sternberg, and the liberator of Mongolia himself went to one of the Tibetan monasteries, where he meditates and reads the so-called secret mantra leading to nirvana. And some said that Ungern found a way to the mysterious country of Agharti and went there with the most devoted comrades-in-arms - to serve the "king of the world." The day will come when evil will finally reign in the world, and at that moment the cavalry division of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg will enter the scene to deal a mortal blow to the forces of evil.

If we discard all the mythology that surrounds the figure of Roman Fedorovich Ungern-Sternberg to this day, then we can say that this extraordinary person left a significant mark on history.

Thanks to Ungern, who was able to captivate a handful of Cossacks and soldiers on a campaign against Urga, which seemed crazy to his contemporaries, today's Mongolia is an independent state from China. If the Asian division had not taken Urga in 1921 and had not expelled Chinese troops from the territory of outer Mongolia, then 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. Outer Mongolia, which gained independence after the collapse of the Qing Empire, could be annexed by China and become the same Chinese province as Inner Mongolia. Not a single country, once captured by the Manchurian Empire, was able to restore its independence from China, except for Mongolia, to which Baron Ungern came to restore historical justice.

Elena Shirokova

Literature:

Belov E. Baron Ungern von Sternberg: Biography. Ideology. Military campaigns. 1920-1921 - M., 2003.

Zhukov A. V. Baron Ungern. - M .: Veche, 2013.

Kuzmin S.L. History of Baron Ungern. Reconstruction experience. - M., 2011.

Yuzefovich L.A. Autocrat of the desert. The phenomenon of the fate of Baron R.F. Ungern-Sternberg.- M., 1993.

Works of art:

Markov S.N. Red Buddha. - M., 1992.

Sokolov B.V. Baron Ungern. Black horseman. - M., 2007.

Yuzefovich L.A. Sand Riders. - M., 2005

Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg is perhaps the most extraordinary personality in the entire White movement. He belonged to an ancient militant family of knights, mystics and pirates, dating back to the time of the Crusades. However, family legends say that the roots of this family go back much further, to the time of the Nibegungs and Attila.
His parents often traveled around Europe, something constantly beckoned them to their historical homeland. During one of these trips, in 1885, in the city of Graz, Austria, the future irreconcilable fighter against the revolution was born. The contradictory nature of the boy did not allow him to become a good schoolboy. For countless misdeeds, he was expelled from the gymnasium. The mother, desperate to get normal behavior from her son, sends him to the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. He was only one year away from graduation when the Russo-Japanese War began. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg drops out of training and joins an infantry regiment as a private. However, he did not get into the active army, he was forced to return to St. Petersburg and enter the elite Pavlovsk Infantry School. Upon completion, von Ungern-Sternber is credited to the Cossack estate and begins serving as an officer of the Transbaikal Cossack army. He again finds himself in the Far East. There are legends about this period in the life of a desperate baron. His perseverance, cruelty and flair surrounded his name with a mystical halo. A dashing rider, a desperate duelist, he did not have faithful comrades.
The culture of the East has long attracted a well-born Teuton. He retires and leaves for Mongolia, where at that time the detachments of the robber Ja-Lama were conducting military operations. But even here the proud baron failed to achieve military glory.
The baron greeted the First World War with enthusiasm. He again finds himself in the army. Fighting with desperate courage, he was even awarded the George Cross. But his commanders did not seek to promote him. The desperate nature of the baron caused fear. Soon expelled from the army for beating the adjutant, he joins the Kornilov rebellion, and then goes to Baikal. Here he was caught first by the February and then by the October Revolution. An ardent monarchist, he falls into the close circle of Ataman Semenov, who became his only friend and like-minded person. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg calls for an Asian campaign against Europe, which he considered the cradle of all revolutions.
The "wild baron", whom Semyonov promoted to major general, creates his own Asiatic division and "with fire and sword" imposes a cruel feudal order. Roman Fedorovich's dream of a Great Asian power was relegated to the background. The hatred for Bolshevism turned out to be stronger. He begins active hostilities, however, the forces of his division were already weakened. Ungern hides in the Mongolian steppes and gathers a new army. Now he is busy conquering Urga, over which the Chinese held power. Fierce battles went on with varying success, as a result, the city was captured. The baron again announces a campaign against Soviet Russia.
In the summer of 1922, as a result of a conspiracy, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg fell into the hands of a red patrol. On September 15, 1922, the trial took place. The baron was found guilty on all counts of the charge. The death sentence was pronounced, which was carried out in the evening of the same day. The last knight of the Middle Ages, an irreconcilable fighter against the revolution, a controversial personality, but a very cruel person, has passed away.