WEBVTT - The Mad Baron in Mongolia (Part 2) 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:12.240 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. This is 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.000 the second part of our two part episode on Roman 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.919 von ungern Sternberg, so if you haven't listened to part 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:25.759 one yet, please start there. Why Roman von Ungernstenberg went 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:30.760 to Mongolia in October of nineteen twenty remains a mystery. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.400 Historians now call his eight month stint in the area 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:41.599 his Mongolian Campaign, but even that label is controversial. Willard 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:47.080 Sunderland suggests that using the word campaign implies that Roman 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.760 had quote a reason for being there. Instead, the decision 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:57.640 was haphazard. Roman had originally intended to move west rather 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:02.120 than east, to cut off the Red Army advancing on Cheetah, 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.280 according to his military orders, but when he found out 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.440 that the Reds had already taken the city, he had 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.800 to change his plans, so he went rogue, leading what 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.919 remained of the Asiatic Division of the White Army south 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:24.000 across the Mongolian border. His forces included about eight hundred men, 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:29.000 trailed by horses and a train of carts, covered wagons 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.399 and pack animals. He would later tell the Reds that 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.760 his plan was quote a product of happenstance and fate. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.440 It wasn't totally out of the question for him to 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.959 go to Mongolia, since the Whites had an established military 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.640 presence there, But what Roman did next had more to 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:53.440 do with his own personal politics. He decided to conquer Erga, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.880 the capital of Mongolia. He concocted this plan in the 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.440 heat of the moment after learning that the Chinese commander 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.600 in Urga had arrested a group of white officers. Roman 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.480 saw Erga as a quote red town, according to an 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.079 account from Roman's aide de camp, because most of the 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:19.120 Russians that lived there were Bolshevik sympathizers. Moreover, in nineteen nineteen, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:25.200 Chinese Republicans had invaded, holding the city under military occupation 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.880 and putting the Boghda Khan under house arrest. To Roman, 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.640 the Bolsheviks and Chinese Republicans were one and the same. 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.040 He described the Chinese Republican leader Sun Yat Sen as 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:45.320 quote that famous revolutionary Bolshevik. Even though Russia and China 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.440 were often at odds, Roman saw his fight against socialist 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:56.440 revolution as a personal crusade that disregarded borders and nations. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.920 He was going to take matters into his own hands, 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.480 and he didn't care how much force he would need 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:12.400 to use. I'm Danish worts and this is noble blood. 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.919 Roman tried to take over the Mongolian capital Urga three times. 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.400 The first two times in October and November of nineteen 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.400 twenty his army was defeated by the Chinese. Then he 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.000 took a few months over the winter to regroup, stocking 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:35.240 up guns and other supplies from Manchuria and recruiting additional soldiers. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:40.840 There were many disaffected Mongolians who were sympathetic to Roman's cause, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.640 lamas and nobles who wanted to free the Baghda nationalists 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.480 that wanted to kick the Chinese out of the country. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:53.840 There were even some stray white officers and Sarist officials 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:58.000 around the area who were willing to join Roman's forces. 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.640 And I should be clear when I say white in 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.760 this case, I mean the white army as opposed to 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:09.080 the red Bolshevik army, the white anti Bolshevik forces, not 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.960 with any respect to race or nationality. In February nineteen 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:20.440 twenty one, with five thousand men, Roman descended on Erga 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.880 in broad daylight. He rescued the Bogda from house arrest 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.440 and occupied the city. By the end of the month, 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:36.000 the Chinese had withdrawn entirely. Erga was his Roman reinstalled 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.200 the Bogda as the national ruler, and in return, the 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.800 Bogda gave him the title of Great Hero General builder 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.280 of the state, and the privilege of wearing a three 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:53.560 eyed peacock plume in his Manchu style velvet cap, a 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:58.520 symbol of the highest nobility. You have taken Erga, one 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.599 Mongol leader wrote to Rome Roman not long after his 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:06.640 titling ceremony, Your good deed shall shine across the world 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.840 like the rays of the sun. Tacitly, working under the Boghda, 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:18.279 Roman's men repaired roads and bridges, reopening the printing press 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.880 and electric plant. Roman seized gold and valuables from Russian 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:29.960 and Chinese banks and confiscated cars, cannons, rifles, and machine 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.359 guns to shore up his army. But he didn't stop there. 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.919 Upon taking over Urga, Roman launched a pogrom, giving his 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:45.320 men three days to quote eliminate any Jews and Reds 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.640 they found in Erga. The whites already had lists of 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:55.760 Jewish families and others they determined to be Bolshevik quote sympathizers. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.599 While some Jewish people managed to hide or escape the city, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.480 over three hundred people were killed during Roman's three day rampage. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.240 One person who managed to escape Urga gave an interview 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:15.920 to a Bolshevik newspaper describing how Romans men hunted down 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.880 entire Jewish households, slaughtering even their farm animals. By the 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:26.719 end of Romans campaign, Erga's tiny Jewish community essentially ceased 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.880 to exist. Roman's anti Semitism was deeply rooted in his 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.960 time in the Russian Army, going back to his teenage years, 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.239 when he witnessed the Estonian riots of nineteen o five. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:47.160 Aristocrats dismissed the legitimate grievances that fueled various early twentieth 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:53.360 century rebellions by blaming them on Jewish manipulation. In nineteen 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.880 o three, a tract called the Protocols of the Elders 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:01.719 of Zion was published in Imperial Russia before spreading throughout 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.599 Europe in the nineteen twenties and thirties. The pamphlet is 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:10.000 a fabricated document that purported to lay out a Jewish 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:15.520 plot for world domination by steering hapless peasants toward revolution. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:22.120 Roman believed this conspiracy wholeheartedly. Like other anti Semites in 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.640 white military leadership, he saw socialists and Jews as one 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.400 and the same. When asked later why he hated Jewish 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.400 people so much, he replied, simply, they caused the revolution. 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.040 He wrote that quote in their hearts, the people remained 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.280 loyal to the Czar, faith and fatherland, but the Jewish 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:50.040 menace had led them astray. Roman's reign of terror continued 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.480 beyond that three day rampage. He set up a security 0:07:54.520 --> 0:08:00.240 office to find quote, unreliables and eventually executed them at 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.640 what was considered one of the worst white torture chambers 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.080 in the Russian Empire, which James Palmer wrote, quote was 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.960 a considerable achievement in the brutal environment of the Civil War. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:21.840 This reputation attracted more sadistic officers, as Roman tacitly allowed 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.520 his men to murder whoever they wanted without reproach. One 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.920 official bludgeoned and drowned thirty one hostages in Lake Baikal 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:37.320 and later earned the nickname quote the Strangler of trans Bacalia. 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:45.200 Roman enforced military discipline with the utmost brutality for minor infractions, 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:50.280 The most common punishment was a beating with a bamboo lash, 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.960 and for serious infractions he sentenced his men to the 0:08:55.040 --> 0:09:00.920 death penalty. Roman imagined himself as a new Genghis. He 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.760 wanted to unite the ethnic and religious groups of the 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.679 region into a quote central Mongolian state, one that would 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.520 stretch over most of the steppe region of central Eurasia 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.680 from roughly the western edges of Manchuria to the Caspian Sea. 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.480 This had almost nothing to do with Russia. In nineteen fifteen, 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.080 the Russians had agreed to leave Mongolia alone, and the 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:35.480 newly ascendant Bolsheviks had other priorities instead. This idea seemed 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:40.199 like a relic from Roman's childhood, where he believed that 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.959 native Estonians and Germans, like his own family, should submit 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.280 to the ideals of whoever showed the strongest force, which 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:54.640 just so happened to be Russia, but curiously diverging from 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.080 the rest of the White Army. He also felt that 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.920 those on the outskirts of the U Empire were superior 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.680 to the Russians themselves. Roman believed that people like him 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.800 who had grown up on the Imperial frontier, whether they 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:15.800 were Mongols Cossacks or members of the nomadic step societies 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.720 preserved a strength and purity that the center of Russia 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.840 had lost. He figured that while Mongolia would be a 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.960 mostly politically independent state, Russia would serve as a kind 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.839 of feudal overlord, like a king ruling over his vassals. 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.520 It's hard to imagine how this plan would have actually 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.800 worked in practice, but that was no problem for Roman. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:51.040 Most of his plans were pretty fuzzy and abstract anyway. Nevertheless, 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:56.600 Roman wanted to extend his territory by invading Kiakhta, a 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:02.280 strategically placed town en route back to Siberia, creating a 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:08.640 white stronghold in the region. He told a Chinese ally quote, 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.720 all my efforts are directed to the north, where I 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:17.199 shall move to break through to Russia as soon as possible. 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:23.120 He distributed a formal manifesto known as Order Number fifteen, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:28.080 in which he expressed his desire to destroy communism and 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:33.200 restore the Russian monarchy by appointing Czar Nicholas the Second's brother, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.920 the Grand Duke Michael, as the new ruler of the empire. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:43.320 A campaign against Siberia also made sense because Roman was 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.640 vulnerable to attack in Erga, either by the Reds or 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:53.080 the Chinese Kaki. From his victory in Erga, Roman thought 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.520 that his next steps would be easy. He believed that 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:01.640 anti Bolshevik sentiment in Siberia remained strong and that his 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:07.040 invasion could inspire other uprisings across the area. Later, he 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.200 said that his impending attack on the Reds would ignite 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.080 a quote powder keg of popular resentment in Siberia that 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.800 would gather these scattered White units still operating there into 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:26.640 a single, unstoppable force. But by nineteen twenty one, the 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:31.440 Red Army was much stronger than he had anticipated. The 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:36.080 Whites had lost control of the trans Siberian Railway and 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:43.280 dispersed east. Only a few stragglers remained. Roman's monarchist ambitions 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:48.520 and sadistic reputation did not land well with the Russians 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:53.680 still living in Siberia. Meanwhile, after Roman took over Erga, 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:59.240 at least eight thousand Chinese soldiers and refugees had fled 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.320 to Kiyakti, meaning he had even more opponents there than 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:09.800 just the Russians. The Kalkas, the largest Mongolian subgroup, refused 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:14.640 to work with Roman. Even the nobles of Erga feared 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.400 Roman's threats to their privileges and were not entirely committed 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:24.280 to his cause. Roman was aware of these obstacles. The 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.720 daughter of a former Tsarist official recalled how her father 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:33.320 tried to dissuade him from going to Kiakta by saying, quote, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.600 here you have fodder for the horses everything, whereas out 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.960 there they will destroy you. But despite the warning, Roman 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.719 went anyway. He had internalized his role in World War One, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.960 where the best soldiers went into battle even when the 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.960 odds were stacked against them. His attack on Kiacta in 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.400 May nineteen twenty one failed. His force was too small 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.120 and poorly organized, and he couldn't get very far without 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.840 local support. Roman spent the next three months on the 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:13.079 road with his regiment, wandering aimlessly through Siberia and Mongolia. 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.680 Even worse, the Red Army was closing in on him. 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:22.000 They partnered with an army of Mongols and took over 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.960 Ergo while Roman was away. The rest of Roman's men 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.000 had already fled the capital by the time the Reds 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:34.080 had arrived with no pushback. The invaders established a pro 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.479 communist government while keeping the Bogda Khan on as a figurehead. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.320 As one Red Army writer put it, quote, Roman wanted 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:48.320 to move against us, but the opposite occurred. We moved 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:54.400 against him. By August, Roman's army was still wearily marching 0:14:54.560 --> 0:15:00.040 through Siberia. Resentments had been building. As Roman's plan it 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:05.160 seemed harder and harder to grasp, let alone execute. Roman's 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:11.360 brutality towards his own army, including regular beatings and executions, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.200 no longer inspired the same fear and discipline that it 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.080 had back in Erga. Finally, one night, a few of 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.480 Roman's officers snuck into his camp. They fired shots and 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:30.520 tossed grenades at what they believed was his tent, but 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.360 they had picked the wrong one and killed one of 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:38.520 his orderlies instead. Hearing the commotion, Roman managed to escape. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.200 He hopped on his horse and rode into the woods. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.640 By mourning, he had run into his Mongol unit, and 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:51.960 together they began marching west. But it turns out the 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:57.240 Mongols were in on the assassination plan. After they lulled 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.080 him into a false sense of security, they jumped him 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:06.600 and tied him up. One Mongol soldier, perhaps exaggerating his 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.280 role in deposing Roman, said that he distracted Roman by 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.680 asking him for a light as they were riding. While 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.080 Roman looked for a match. The soldier says he tackled 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:23.120 Roman off his horse. In any case, Roman's once loyal 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.440 army turned on him, capturing him and turning him in 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:32.520 to the Reds. Roman expected that he would be executed 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.040 rather than submit to the same kind of torture he 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.800 perpetrated on his political enemies. He tried to take his 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.000 own life multiple times while in captivity. He tried to 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.360 drink the poison he always kept in his uniform pocket, 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:49.960 but it fell to the ground out of his reach 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.240 before he could grab it. He later tried to hang 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.280 himself with a pair of horses reins, but they were 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.760 too thick to budge. The Bolsheviks did not immediately call 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.600 for Roman's execution. Instead, they brought him back to the 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:09.760 western Siberian city of Nova Sybrisk for a trial. There 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.719 was no doubt that he would be found guilty, and 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.360 he had already admitted his guilt in their initial interrogation. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.760 His death seemed so inevitable that, citing a Soviet news bulletin, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.840 the New York Times reported his execution four days before 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:30.240 his trial. Still, the Soviet government wanted to use Roman, 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:35.160 who represented the most extreme version of the White cause, 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:40.679 as an example. Thousands of onlookers filled the Summer Pine 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:45.200 Theater on September fifteenth, nineteen twenty one to watch his trial. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.480 He arrived on stage in an embellished yellow kaftan, the 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.480 same one he had worn when he had first invaded Mongolia. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.040 Because he had already admitted guilt, the prosecution did not 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.520 spend much time grilling him about his military career. Instead, 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.160 they attacked him personally. The prosecution asked if his family 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.760 owned large estates in the Baltic to which Roman responded, 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:17.439 probably not anymore. He then asked how long Roman's family 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.959 had held its noble status, and Roman replied one thousand years. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:27.320 The prosecutor's closing argument extended this line of questioning. He 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.520 said to the crowd, this trial of former Baron Ungern 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.280 is not only a trial of the person of Baron Ungern, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.000 but a trial of an entire class of society that 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.080 is accustomed to ruling and would not give up its 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.439 power even if it were to mean the destruction of 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.560 half of humanity. Baron Ungern, who sits here on the 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:54.479 defendant's bench, is the main inspiration of countless others who 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:58.080 are tearing to pieces not only the body of the 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.560 Russian people, but of the peace peoples of the whole world. 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:07.680 He ended his speech with his preferred verdict, the death penalty. Quote. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.560 This verdict must resound as a verdict of death on 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.280 all noblemen who tried to raise their hands against the 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:20.359 power of the workers and peasants, said the prosecutor. In 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.760 the face of such an impassioned political speech, and given 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.840 that Roman already pled guilty to the charges, the defense 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.080 didn't have much to work with. They mounted a flimsy 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:38.520 attempt to plead Roman's insanity, which Roman himself denied. Changing tactics, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.439 the defense suggested that Roman had never been a great 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.440 danger to Soviet power in the first place. His attorney 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:51.880 dismissed Roman's ambitions as quote chaos, the products of quote 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.159 a sick imagination. But even the defense was resigned to 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.280 Roman's execution, saying it would be the easiest way to 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.399 end his sufferings, resembling the sympathy that we would show 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:09.000 for a sick animal end quote. The judge gave Roman 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:14.080 the last word before the verdict would be announced. He stated, simply, 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.720 I cannot say anything more. Roman was sentenced to death 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.040 by firing squad, and he was shot the next morning. 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:29.480 Although both the prosecution and defense were ostensibly positioned against 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:34.160 each other, their accounts of Roman's life work well together. 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:39.600 Historians broadly agree with the defense's portrait of Roman, as 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:45.080 to put it, mildly, a chaotic person. His poorly thought 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.399 out plan in Mongolia was doomed from the start. He 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:55.680 was neither a particularly dangerous threat to Bolshevik Soviets nor 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.959 an asset to the Tsar. He was never a great tactics, 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.520 a great leader, or even a great soldier. The only 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.760 quality that his officers commended him for was his willingness 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:15.080 to dive headfirst into seemingly fruitless missions, which overall didn't 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.919 bode well for a long term military career. In the 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:24.400 face of his apparent mediocrity, Roman clutched onto his aristocratic 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.040 lineage for meaning. In every battle he fought in from 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.080 World War One to his disastrous campaign in Mongolia, he 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.280 believed that he was defending the monarchy. In his mind, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:42.040 hierarchy was the only thing preventing the world from devolving 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:47.159 into utter disorder. This was certainly true for Roman himself. 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:52.600 He had spent his entire life coasting on his elite status, 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.440 refusing to do anything that seemed beneath him, even elementary 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.560 school homework, any political eye, ideology or religion. He entertained 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:08.119 worked downstream from his fundamental belief in his own superiority. 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.719 Fitting then that the prosecution convicted him not for his 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:20.080 actions as an individual, but as a symbol of his class. Ironically, 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:24.800 the very thing that animated his life, his devotion to 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:33.359 representing and defending his noble status, ultimately ended it. That's 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:37.520 the story of the brutal Roman Ungern von Stenberg. But 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:41.280 stick around to hear how Roman may have used fortune 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:59.520 tellers to guide his military decisions. Roman Ungern von Stenberg was, 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:04.160 by all accounts a superstitious person. A number of memoirs 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:09.720 from his orderlies and contemporaries tell anecdotes about drawing playing 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.720 cards and meeting with psychics in order to determine his 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:17.359 next moves. He was even said to have included a 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:22.000 number of fortune tellers and prophets in his retinue during 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:28.480 his Mongolian campaign. Polish writer Ferdinand Osandowski, who traveled with 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:33.679 Roman throughout Mongolia, wrote that Roman left Urga for Siberia 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:38.040 in nineteen twenty one, in part because of the interference 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:43.880 of fortune tellers. Osandowski apparently accompanied Roman to see one 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:48.040 fortune teller in Erga. According to him, quote, the fortune 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.840 teller was a little woman of middle years who squatted 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:56.080 down Eastern style before the brazier, bowed low and began 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:00.320 to stare at baron Ungern. She drew a small bag 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:04.320 very slowly from her girdle and took from it some 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.919 small bird bones and a handful of dry grass. She 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:15.120 began whispering at interval's unintelligible words as she threw occasional 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:19.040 handfuls of grass into the fire, which gradually filled the 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:23.560 tent with a soft fragrance. After the fortune teller had 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:27.280 burned all of her grass, she placed the bird bones 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.359 on the charcoal and turned them over again and again 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:36.480 with a small pair of bronze pincers. As the bones blackened, 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:40.080 she began to examine them, and then suddenly her face 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:43.920 took on an expression of fear and pain. She said 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:48.760 in fragments quote, I see, I see the god of war. 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:53.280 His life runs out. And it was at that point 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:56.600 that she fainted and was carried out by two of 0:24:56.640 --> 0:25:02.600 her assistants. A long silence followed. Apparently Roman got up 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:06.560 and paced around the tent, saying to himself quote, I 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:09.679 shall die. I shall die, but no matter, no matter, 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:13.080 the cause has been launched and will not die. Nobody 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:17.520 will extinguish the fire in the heart of the Mongols. Finally, 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:22.320 apparently Roman raised his hand above his head, shouting, my 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:26.400 time has come. In a little while, I shall leave Erga. 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:30.800 With that, he exited the tent, slamming the irth door, 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:36.680 and Osandowshka wrote that he never saw Roman again. It's 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:40.280 hard to know what to make of this story. The 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:44.199 memoir that we're citing is a dubious source full of 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:51.720 sensational details and exaggerations. Historian James Palmer adds further ambiguity, 0:25:52.160 --> 0:25:56.400 floating the idea that the fortune teller in Osandowska's story 0:25:56.800 --> 0:26:01.920 may have been purposely trying to manipulate Rome. He wrote, quote, 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:07.680 it's possible that the Mongolians played Ungern's own suspicions against him. 0:26:07.960 --> 0:26:11.159 Eager to see the city rid of his men, it 0:26:11.240 --> 0:26:15.639 would have been relatively simple and with some precedent, to 0:26:15.880 --> 0:26:19.760 influence the oracles to push him in a certain direction. 0:26:20.480 --> 0:26:25.480 End quote. Regardless of whether the story is true or 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:30.400 whether the fortune teller was purposefuly manipulating him. The story 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:35.960 aligns with how Roman viewed his military ambitions in extreme, 0:26:36.520 --> 0:26:41.159 almost religious terms. He believed he was fighting a holy 0:26:41.280 --> 0:26:45.920 war on behalf of the Czar, describing himself as someone 0:26:45.960 --> 0:26:59.000 who quote strongly trusts in destiny. Noble Blood is a 0:26:59.040 --> 0:27:02.560 production of Eye, iHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:06.600 Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz. 0:27:07.080 --> 0:27:11.440 Writers for Noble Blood are Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Paul Jaffey, 0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:16.000 Natasha Laski, and me Dana Schwartz. The show is edited 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:20.440 and produced by Jesse Funk and Nomes Griffin, with supervising 0:27:20.480 --> 0:27:26.080 producer rima il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:30.600 and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 0:27:30.680 --> 0:27:34.800 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:27:34.840 --> 0:27:35.600 favorite shows.