Leonid Yuzefovich

Samoderzhets pustyni. Fenomen sudby Barona R.F. Ungern-Sternberg.

Sovereign of the Steppe. Baron Roman Ungern-Sternberg. Popular non-fiction. Ad Marginem. Moscow 2010. 670 pages. (revised version with newly researched historic documents)

Foreign rights: Estonia/ Postimees

Of German-Baltic extraction, Baron Ungern von Sternberg was a Czarist officer stationed in Siberia. After the Revolution he found himself back in the ranks of the White Army which had been formed in opposition to the Bolsheviks. While the soldiers of the White Army suffered defeat in the European part of Russia, Baron Ungern-Sternberg, with the help of the Japanese, managed to defect from Siberia to Mongolia where the Cossack regiments under his command ousted the inept Chinese occupiers before taking the capital Da Huree - now Ulan Bator.
For a short time in 1920 this was where the converted Buddhist Baron was able to set up his own autocratic empire. His reckless endeavours were inspired by his vision of bringing Ghingis Khan’s Golden Horde back to life. In the end, however, the Bolsheviks managed to defeat his cavalier army too. He was put on trial and finally executed in Nowonikolajewsk, now Nowosibirsk.