The Bloody White Baron

Few people will have heard of Baron Ungern-Sternberg, a violent, anti-Semitic fanatic who took over Mongolia in 1919 with a ragtag force of White Russians, Siberians, Japanese and native Mongolians, but few will forget him after reading James Palmer’s full-blooded biography.

The Baron’s beliefs were a cocktail of the mystical and esoteric, combined with the vengefulness of Mongolian Buddhism. After the war, in which he fought with reckless bravery, Ungern spiralled into ever darker obsessions and treated his enemies ever more cruelly. In the end, Trotsky had to send the Red Army after his desperate band.