Speaker 1: This is Danishchwartz, host of Noble Blood. Just a quick
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Speaker 1: and now time for the episode Welcome to Noble Blood,
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion advised. On the morning of January eighteenth, in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, the Mongolian capital city of Urga seemed quiet,
Speaker 1: typical for a snowy morning in negative forty degree weather,
Speaker 1: but out in the distance you could see a series
Speaker 1: of fires had been lit in the hills surrounding the city.
Speaker 1: One witness noticed cavalry moving down the mountain side quote
Speaker 1: like little black doubts against the snow. It turned out
Speaker 1: that the invaders were a ramshackle army of Mongolians, Tibetans,
Speaker 1: and Russians led by Russian baron Roman von ungern Sternberg,
Speaker 1: a man now sometimes referred to as the mad or
Speaker 1: Bloody Baron. A bit of historical context. When the Chinese
Speaker 1: Republican force had occupied Mongolia in nineteen nineteen, they had
Speaker 1: had Bogged Khan, the highest Tibetan Buddhist authority, placed under
Speaker 1: house arrest, but placed under house arrest in his lavish
Speaker 1: European style home surrounded by a sacred nature preserve, where
Speaker 1: animals like cheetahs, tigers, and even allegedly a pet elephant
Speaker 1: lived in cages. Roman von ungern Schernberg had a lofty
Speaker 1: goal in coming to Mongolia. He would rescue the bogged Khan. Soon,
Speaker 1: Tibetan horsemen, fighting alongside the Russian infiltrated the gates of
Speaker 1: the temple, their clothing covered with butter and their faces
Speaker 1: smudged with soot to frighten their enemies. The animals in
Speaker 1: the menagerie yelped and howled, and historian James Palmer even
Speaker 1: alleges that the Khan's elephant was so frightened it broke
Speaker 1: free from its cage and charged trumpeting through the lines
Speaker 1: of battle, only to be quote discovered a week later,
Speaker 1: nearly one hundred miles away. Other historians think that that
Speaker 1: detail strains credulity. How could an elephant survive the Mongolian cold?
Speaker 1: But the anecdote speaks to the chaos of the scene.
Speaker 1: Two Tibetan soldiers carried Khan out of the house and
Speaker 1: brought him to safety. An American merchant who witnessed the
Speaker 1: scene reported quote the entire action consumed exactly one half
Speaker 1: hour and was the prettiest piece of cavalry work that
Speaker 1: one could desire to witness. Apparently, Roman von ungern Sternberg shouted,
Speaker 1: now Erga is ours. He had pulled off an unthinkable feat,
Speaker 1: using his tiny army to take control of the capital
Speaker 1: of Mongolia. From his new base in Erga, Roman would
Speaker 1: install a brutal military dictatorleadership under the ostensible rule of
Speaker 1: the Khan. Roman had come a long way from his
Speaker 1: beginnings as a middling czarist officer with a long history
Speaker 1: of disciplinary problems in Russia. Historians have very little positive
Speaker 1: to say about him. Historian James Palmer called him a
Speaker 1: psychopath who was quote an appalling human being in almost
Speaker 1: every way. The baron believed, like many aristocrats, that commoners
Speaker 1: were in inferior species. And that's just the tip of
Speaker 1: the iceberg when it came to Roman's odious views after
Speaker 1: the Russian Revolution, he believed he had been chosen by
Speaker 1: God to protect the ideals of the monarchy, and he
Speaker 1: was invading Asia to save it from the same fate
Speaker 1: that Russia had suffered. As improbable and feudal as his
Speaker 1: mission would seem, he would do anything to achieve it,
Speaker 1: even putting thousands of lives at risk. I'm Dana Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. To call Roman von ungern
Speaker 1: Sternberg a proud Russian would be an understatement. He constantly
Speaker 1: bragged to anyone who would listen about his connections to
Speaker 1: the Romanovs and other members of the Russian aristocracy. Historian
Speaker 1: James Palmer wrote that Roman's quote sense of attachment to
Speaker 1: the Russian Empire was almost pathologically intense. Roman wrote in
Speaker 1: his journals that like his fancy Russian ancestors he had
Speaker 1: quote never taken orders from the working classes, and thought
Speaker 1: it was preposterous that quote dirty workers who've never had
Speaker 1: any servants of their own but still think they can command,
Speaker 1: should influence Russia's rule. But it actually turns out that
Speaker 1: Roman had almost no Russian ancestry. His parents were German,
Speaker 1: and he spent most of his early childhood in Estonia,
Speaker 1: which at that time was called Estland. The reason why
Speaker 1: he considered himself Russian has to do with the complicated
Speaker 1: relationships between Russia and its colonies in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: Roman's German ancestors invaded Estonia way back during the Crusades
Speaker 1: and had been there ever since. Eventually, the Russians began
Speaker 1: to take over the area. German colonists in Estonia, like
Speaker 1: Roman's family, were more aligned with the Russian invaders than
Speaker 1: the native Estonians, who these aristocrats regarded for the most
Speaker 1: part as lowly peasants. On the other hand, the Russians
Speaker 1: were willing to ally with the German aristocracy in their
Speaker 1: quest to expand their tree's eastern frontier. Many of Roman's
Speaker 1: family members benefited from that partnership by pursuing military careers
Speaker 1: in the Russian army. Throughout the eighteen sixties, Russia also
Speaker 1: implemented an intense program of Russification in the border territories
Speaker 1: like Estonia to embed them more deeply into the empire.
Speaker 1: Roman's birth certificate indicates how entwined these two cultures became.
Speaker 1: He has two different birth dates. According to the Western
Speaker 1: Gregorian calendar, he was born on January tenth, eighteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: and according to the Russian Julian calendar, he was born
Speaker 1: on December twenty ninth, eighteen eighty five. Russia's attempt to
Speaker 1: exert greater cultural control over Estonia may have worked a
Speaker 1: little too well on Roman. As a child, he loved
Speaker 1: hearing stories about his warlike Crusader ancestors with names like
Speaker 1: the Axe and the Brother of Satan. He saw the
Speaker 1: powerful Russian Empire as an extension of that military lineage.
Speaker 1: He considered himself Russian because he wanted to be on
Speaker 1: the winning team. His excitement about war and violence made him,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, a terrifying and terrible child. As one
Speaker 1: relative put it, quote, Roman was a terror to his
Speaker 1: fellow pupils and his masters. According to one source, at
Speaker 1: twelve years old, he tried to strangle his cousin's pet owl.
Speaker 1: In class, he had a habit of tossing his books
Speaker 1: out of the window of the classroom in the middle
Speaker 1: of the lesson, running outside to grab them, and never
Speaker 1: coming back. As you might expect, his grades were abysmo.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o two, he was ranked the worst student
Speaker 1: in his class. When he transferred to military school as
Speaker 1: a teenager, he racked up forty two demerits in just
Speaker 1: a year and a half, including oversleeping, skipping class, fighting,
Speaker 1: smoking in bed, keeping his hair too long, and losing
Speaker 1: his homework. He was simply too entitled to care. Once,
Speaker 1: while on watch during military training, he just wandered away.
Speaker 1: He told his supervisor, I'm not some sort of manservant.
Speaker 1: I don't have to stand in one place. In February
Speaker 1: nineteen o five, the head of the school wrote to
Speaker 1: his family asking them to withdraw him from the school
Speaker 1: or he would be expelled. They chose withdrawal, and the
Speaker 1: following year he was sent to war. The Russo Japanese
Speaker 1: War was winding down, and Roman spent a little under
Speaker 1: a year puttering around Manchuria before coming back to Russia.
Speaker 1: But while he was away the peasantry of Estonia rose
Speaker 1: up to demand better conditions through a series of riots.
Speaker 1: In just over a week in December nineteen o five,
Speaker 1: one fifth of all German owned property was destroyed, including
Speaker 1: much belonging to the ungern Sternbergs. Even the manor house
Speaker 1: where Roman grew up was left nothing more than quote
Speaker 1: a blackened shell. The ideology of the Russian army helped
Speaker 1: Roman process the destruction of his family home and aristocratic lineage. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it imbued him with an even uglier, more vengeful sense
Speaker 1: of elitism. Much of the Russian nobility believed that peasants
Speaker 1: were a biologically inferior race, with actual black blood that
Speaker 1: distinguished them from the elite. Because of that, imperial rule
Speaker 1: was divine and natural law, making a peasant revolt a
Speaker 1: world shattering crisis. This idea would have galvanized someone like Roman,
Speaker 1: who found almost all of his self worth in his
Speaker 1: proximity to the Russian monarchy. He wrote later that he
Speaker 1: considered these revolutions an omen of quote famine, destruction, the
Speaker 1: death of culture, of glory, of honor, of spirit, the
Speaker 1: death of states, and the death of peoples. Having found
Speaker 1: new moral purpose in the Russian Army. He enrolled in
Speaker 1: a prestigious military academy in Saint Petersburg and began training
Speaker 1: as a cadet. There. Roman transformed from a failing student
Speaker 1: into merely a mediocre one. As James Palmer put it,
Speaker 1: this gave him limited options when he graduated in nineteen
Speaker 1: o eight. Those at the top of the class had
Speaker 1: first paid over where they'd be stationed. Roman, over a
Speaker 1: hundred spots down on the list, decided to set off
Speaker 1: for the Transbical Region, an area of eastern Siberia outpast
Speaker 1: the Urals and bordering Mongolia and China. Why he decided
Speaker 1: to go so far away is still something of a mystery.
Speaker 1: It was an unconventional choice for a new graduate to
Speaker 1: one of the furthest and most unstable parts of the
Speaker 1: Russian Empire, but a photo from around this time gives
Speaker 1: us a clue. Roman was photographed in a uniform with
Speaker 1: what one historian called his quote bullet shaped head and
Speaker 1: stage villain mustache. One of his buddies, a Russian merchant,
Speaker 1: described Roman this way quote a scrawny, ragged, droopy man
Speaker 1: on his face had grown a wispy blonde beard. He
Speaker 1: had faded blank blue eyes, and he looked about thirty
Speaker 1: years old. His military uniform was in abnormally poor condition,
Speaker 1: the trousers being considerably worn and torn at the knees.
Speaker 1: He carried a sword by his hip end quote. This
Speaker 1: wouldn't be just any sword, but a three foot curved
Speaker 1: Cossack saber, a design that originated in Mongolia, which would
Speaker 1: eventually become the site of his biggest military achievements. While
Speaker 1: Roman was a controversial and unsuccessful figure in Europe, out
Speaker 1: in the farthest reaches of the Russian Empire, his career
Speaker 1: was just beginning. Roman stepped off the trans Siberian Railway
Speaker 1: to report for duty in the Siberian city of Cheetah
Speaker 1: on July twenty seventh, nineteen o eight. By the time
Speaker 1: he had arrived, the re Jin was in crisis. Nearby,
Speaker 1: Mongolia had been independent for two years after three centuries
Speaker 1: of Chinese rule. Russia tacitly encouraged Mongolian independence, thinking it
Speaker 1: would help them expand further into Asia. As a Russian
Speaker 1: general put it at the time, quote, in the future,
Speaker 1: a major global war could flare up between Asia and Europe.
Speaker 1: For this purpose, Russia must occupy northern Manchuria and Mongolia.
Speaker 1: Only then will Mongolia be harmless end quote. Russia had
Speaker 1: increased its presence in the newly independent Siberia. Administrators from
Speaker 1: the Resettlement Administration, the Russian State's new Colonization Agency were
Speaker 1: stationed throughout the country, administering land, handing out cheap guide books,
Speaker 1: and managing quote settler relay camps. Away from the rigid
Speaker 1: hierarchies and forced decorum of his life in Europe, Roman
Speaker 1: was finally in an environment that rewarded his let's say, toughness, independence,
Speaker 1: and viciousness. But there wasn't much for him to do.
Speaker 1: Aside from trapesing around the mountains of eastern Siberia and
Speaker 1: Mongolia with few actual duties, he spent his time scribbling
Speaker 1: new Mongolian words into his notebook. One witness recalled that
Speaker 1: he would sit alone in silence before suddenly becoming animated
Speaker 1: enough to ride his horse across the plains in quote
Speaker 1: wild charges towards nowhere, in particular at the Mongolian border.
Speaker 1: Roman also had an opportunity to deepen a burgeoning interest
Speaker 1: in Buddhism. Back in Europe, Roman had developed an extracurricular
Speaker 1: interest in Eastern religion and the occult. This wasn't entirely unpressed.
Speaker 1: Roman's cousin wrote that even as a tween, Roman had
Speaker 1: always had an interest in Tibetan and Hindu philosophy, and
Speaker 1: called Roman quote one of the most metaphysically and occultly
Speaker 1: gifted men I had ever met. His cousin apparently believed
Speaker 1: that Roman could actually read minds. At the time, many
Speaker 1: Russian intellectuals were entertaining what they considered quote exotic ideas
Speaker 1: encapsulating both spiritualism and Eastern philosophy. Roman may have walked
Speaker 1: by bookstores with occult or spiritualist titles on display, or
Speaker 1: encountered fringe religious groups in Saint Petersburg. Palmer alleges that
Speaker 1: Roman would have resonated with the quote elitism baked into
Speaker 1: occult religious ideas. He suggests that occultism rests on the
Speaker 1: principle that there is secret none that only a few
Speaker 1: worthy people can understand, appealing to Roman's belief in hierarchy
Speaker 1: and innate sense of superiority. The historian also hypothesizes that
Speaker 1: Roman's unwavering belief in the tsar's inherent right to rule
Speaker 1: had a mystical element that would have aligned with more
Speaker 1: fringe religious beliefs. However, all of that doesn't explain Roman's
Speaker 1: interest in Buddhism specifically. Historian William Sunderland argues that Roman
Speaker 1: was quote spiritually restless and a self styled iconoclast, making
Speaker 1: an unfamiliar religion like Buddhism particularly appealing. However, Sunderland hedges
Speaker 1: that we don't have any proof of Roman's motivation's only possibilities.
Speaker 1: In any case, Roman was able to spend his idle
Speaker 1: hours talking to the blamas and monks who dominated Mongolian
Speaker 1: society after the country's independence. Roman took a particular interest
Speaker 1: in the Bogged Khan or Holy Emperor, who ruled over
Speaker 1: the country. While the two had never met, the Bog
Speaker 1: Khan was an infamous political figure and celebrity. He was
Speaker 1: the head of Mongolian Buddhism, and much like the Dali Lama,
Speaker 1: he was considered a living Badhisattva. All that said, rumor
Speaker 1: had it that the Bog Khan wasn't the most pious man.
Speaker 1: He was apparently a binge drinker, and members of his
Speaker 1: cabinet reported meetings turning into night long bacchanals. He was
Speaker 1: going blind either from drinking or from having contracted syphilis
Speaker 1: after sleeping with one of the monks at his court.
Speaker 1: He was also said to be cruel and violent. Apparently,
Speaker 1: he would toss an electrified rope over the wall of
Speaker 1: his palace, and when passers by would touch it, they'd
Speaker 1: get shocked and believe they had received a spiritual blessing.
Speaker 1: When he got bored, he'd fire a pair of guns
Speaker 1: that had been given to him by a Russian visitor
Speaker 1: at random targets. He had a vast collection of taxid army,
Speaker 1: from pufferfish and penguins to elephant, seals, and a zoo
Speaker 1: with giraffes, tigers, chimpanzees and more who were left to
Speaker 1: weather the cold in outdoor cages. These sensational stories may
Speaker 1: be mostly apocryphal, especially given that so many of these
Speaker 1: reports come from Europeans, who justified their own colonial interests
Speaker 1: by making Mongolia seem exotic and brutal. That said, even
Speaker 1: more measured accounts portray the bag Khan as a mercurial
Speaker 1: and violent figure, not entirely unlike Roman, who angered quickly
Speaker 1: and had no difficulty executing anyone who got in his way.
Speaker 1: After Roman spent a few years in eastern Siberia, he
Speaker 1: was reassigned in nineteen thirteen. It was a routine move,
Speaker 1: but Roman was disappointed. He hadn't accomplished much, and he
Speaker 1: returned to Estonia unemployed and aimless. In peacetime, he struggled.
Speaker 1: As Palmer put it, quote, he was a loser, albeit
Speaker 1: an upperclass one who would always be sheltered from the
Speaker 1: consequences of his own actions. But a loser. Nonetheless. Luckily
Speaker 1: for Roman, if not for anyone else, peace would not
Speaker 1: last long. World War One had broken out, giving him
Speaker 1: a new opportunity to prove himself in battle. He was
Speaker 1: mobilized on July nineteenth, nineteen fourteen, and for the next
Speaker 1: two years he bounced around from us Ukraine to southern
Speaker 1: Lithuania and eventually back to Siberia for the first time.
Speaker 1: In Roman's life. He was apparently a quote exemplar to
Speaker 1: the other officers and soldiers, according to one of his supervisors.
Speaker 1: One officer described his wartime service as quote a feat
Speaker 1: of uninterrupted heroism performed for the glory of Russia. Apparently,
Speaker 1: he would go first in every charge, even in dangerous missions,
Speaker 1: and hyped up his fellow soldiers. He wrote later that quote,
Speaker 1: life is the result of war and society is the
Speaker 1: instrument of war. To refuse war means to refuse an
Speaker 1: epic life. However, on October twenty second, nineteen sixteen, Roman
Speaker 1: would get in trouble yet again. He got drunk with
Speaker 1: another officer in Ukraine while they were both on regimental leave,
Speaker 1: and when they went back to a hotel at the
Speaker 1: u s end of the night, the receptionist wouldn't let
Speaker 1: Roman book a room without a certificate from his commander,
Speaker 1: which he didn't have. Roman tried to swing at the
Speaker 1: receptionist and broke a glass window. Instead. Roman called his
Speaker 1: commander and tried to convince him to approve the hotel
Speaker 1: s day, but the commander refused. Furious, Roman yelled, whose
Speaker 1: face do I have to mess up? He turned toward
Speaker 1: the officer he got drunk with, who was still with
Speaker 1: him in the lobby, called him a swine and scratched
Speaker 1: his face with his sword. With that, Roman was discharged
Speaker 1: and put in military prison until January nineteen seventeen. After
Speaker 1: his release, Roman returned to the Eastern Front in Siberia,
Speaker 1: but by then there was little left to return to.
Speaker 1: No more than a month After he was out of prison,
Speaker 1: the monarchy that Roman had been so devoted to in
Speaker 1: Russia collapsed. Russia suffered thousands of casualties on the battlefield
Speaker 1: and rampant food shortages on the home front. Workers protested
Speaker 1: rising prices for scanty provisions. Even soldiers joined the riots
Speaker 1: they had been ordered to suppress. In February nineteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: Zar Nicholas the Second abdicated the throne, ending three hundred
Speaker 1: years of Romanov rule. Later that year, Lenin seized the
Speaker 1: Winter Palace and took over the government. The Bolsheviks attacked
Speaker 1: everything that Roman had stood for, religion, elitism, and the monarchy.
Speaker 1: The revolution threatened to strip him of his regiment and
Speaker 1: his authority. To Roman, it seemed like the Estonian riot
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh five had spread to the rest of
Speaker 1: the country, upending life as he knew it. Over in Siberia,
Speaker 1: morale was low. Soldiers had defected en mass exhausted by
Speaker 1: years of war, trudging through the snow far away from home.
Speaker 1: As civil war took hold across the country, Russia split
Speaker 1: into shifting zones of control. The Bolsheviks the Reds held
Speaker 1: the central heartland, while anti Bolshevik forces. The White occupied
Speaker 1: the peripheries, including Siberia. Roman aligned himself with the anti
Speaker 1: Bolshevik White forces and viewed the Civil War as an
Speaker 1: extension of World War One, where he had to quote
Speaker 1: defend the motherland. But this was a guerrilla war consisting
Speaker 1: of quote identity chechs, detentions, beatings, executions, and occasional raids
Speaker 1: and skirmishes on suspected dissidents as opposed to formal battles
Speaker 1: between two opposing forces. These tactics befitted chaotic, anti authoritarian
Speaker 1: figures like Roman. From nineteen seven to nineteen twenty, Roman
Speaker 1: enacted his sadistic reign of terror, overseeing beatings and interrogations
Speaker 1: of suspected Bolsheviks in a Siberian detention center to the hills.
Speaker 1: He would shout as he sent prisoners away to be executed.
Speaker 1: When he wasn't terrorizing prisoners, he traveled through Siberia to
Speaker 1: Manchuria and Mongolia, buying horses or checking in on gold mines.
Speaker 1: Even those more banal routine missions required brutality from Roman.
Speaker 1: To fund these excursions, he stole money and jewelry from travelers,
Speaker 1: and grain, livestock, and other goods from warehouses and cargo trains.
Speaker 1: But by nineteen twenty Roman's coalition among the Whites was
Speaker 1: falling apart. The Bolsheviks pressed the Whites even further and
Speaker 1: further east, and they lost control of the Trans Siberian Railway.
Speaker 1: In October of that year, the Reds marched into Cheetah,
Speaker 1: the White Siberian stronghold and Roman's home base, taking over
Speaker 1: the city. But by the time the Reds arrived, Roman
Speaker 1: was already gone. He was off to Mongolia, about to
Speaker 1: embark on the most ambitious military campaign of his life.
Speaker 1: This time he wasn't fighting under Russia. He was on
Speaker 1: his own. This is the end of part one of
Speaker 1: our two part episode on Roman von ungern Sternberg. But
Speaker 1: keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a
Speaker 1: little bit about one of his most colorful modern descendants.
Speaker 1: Whatever legacy Roman von ungern Sternberg had imagined for himself,
Speaker 1: he almost certainly could not have imagined where his name
Speaker 1: would end up. In twenty twenty six TikTok over on TikTok,
Speaker 1: his distant descendant Leonie von ungern Sternberg, makes content about
Speaker 1: her daily life in videos she calls the modern Baroness Diaries.
Speaker 1: She's an NBA student, and it seems like her content
Speaker 1: is fairly typical for wealthy influencers, videos about travel, skincare,
Speaker 1: and fashion. But then there are also videos where she
Speaker 1: acknowledges that yes, her ancestor was in fact the bloody Baron,
Speaker 1: but no, she does not want the far right edge
Speaker 1: lord to have reappropriated his ideology to think that she
Speaker 1: agrees with them. In fact, she had family killed by
Speaker 1: the Nazis for trying to protect Jews. In her own words,
Speaker 1: quote all these people telling me I should reclaim the
Speaker 1: throne to Mongolia, But I'm literally just a girl who
Speaker 1: drinks Macha. Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: hosted by me Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are
Speaker 1: Hannah Johnston, Hannah 'swick, Paul Jaffey, Natasha Laski, and me
Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz. The show is edited and produced by Jesse
Speaker 1: Funk and Nomes Griffin, with supervising producer rima Ill Kali
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.