Dokshit White movement
If Baron Ungern had carried out his plans, in Russia now, perhaps, there would have been no regions, but aimags
December 29 - 124 since the birth of Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg (1885 – 1921) - Russian officer, famous participant of the White movement. Historians evaluate its activities in different ways, often negatively. But no one doubts - the life of the baron is a wonderful example of the “complacency” of the Russian character, which Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881) spoke about. But the writer had in mind the possibility of synthesizing Russian patriarchal values with the spiritual achievements of Western culture, and Ungern proposed an eastern alternative.
Savior of the Eighth Bogd Gegen
On one of the last days of January 1921, the unusual rider rode into Urga, the capital of Mongolia (present-day Ulan Bator). The purebred white mare carried a European in herself in a bright cherry Mongolian robe and a white fur cap with a royal army badge. The guest was in no hurry, he slowly moved along deserted, as if extinct streets, strewn with gray rubble. Two months ago, the Chinese expeditionary corps of General Xu Shuzheng entered the city - a curfew was introduced, arrests and executions began. Among the prisoners was the Mongolian high priest, Jabzun-Damba-Khutuhta, the eighth Bogd Gegen, who was considered the reincarnation of the Buddha himself. Such was Beijing’s revenge on the Mongols, who dared to proclaim autonomy from the Middle Kingdom.
As is often the case in the Chinese army, soldiers stationed in the city for a long time did not pay salaries, and the soldiers of Xu Shuzheng regularly organized looting and confiscation. The frightened Mongols could only be hammered deep into their homes, away from the doors and windows, just to not attract the attention of Chinese patrols. But the rider on the white horse seemed not to be bothered at all. He drove to the house of the city governor, Cheng Yi, dismounted, carefully examined the courtyard and, as if nothing had happened, drove back. Driving past the prison, he stumbled upon a sleeping sentinel. “Oh, you dog! How dare you sleep at the post! ”He shouted in Chinese, bringing the unfortunate blows of his tashur, a half-cane reed cane, over his head. The poor man for a long time could not move away from the shock, and when he raised the alarm, the rider disappeared long ago.
Uninvited guest was just Baron Ungern. The Asian horse division led by him surrounded the Mongolian capital, wishing to dislodge the Chinese who overthrew their emperor. It was also necessary to release the Russian émigrés arrested by soldiers of Xu Shuzheng. 31 January 1921, the surrounding hills heard a loud “Hooray!”. The fight went on for several days. Having spread to the streets of the city, it turned into a real death mill: grenades, bayonets and sabers went into action. The spaces between the houses were flooded with pools of blood in which chopped or torn bodies lay. But luck, no doubt, was on the side of Ungern: the number of his division barely exceeded one and a half thousand people, and yet its fighters managed to break the resistance of eight thousand Chinese.
3 February the city was taken, and Dzhebtszun-Damba-Khutuhta released. Ungern summoned Mongol princes and high lamas to Urga in order to conduct an official ceremony to restore Mongol autonomy. 22 February 1921, the eighth Bogd Gegen, was crowned as Bogd Khan (Khan of all Mongols) with great pomp, and his savior delivered an inspired speech in Genghis Khan’s language (approx. 1155 – 1227) and his descendants, in which he remembered the best times of Great Mongolia and assured the audience that after the establishment of a theocracy in the country, fame would certainly return to this land again. Ungern himself was granted the highest princely title of tsin-wang, prince of the first degree, with the title "The great hero-commander giving development to the state." Since then, the baron did not take off his yellow princely robe with the epaulettes of the Russian general sewn onto him. Of course, the whole ceremony could be viewed as a medieval performance or a farce of the Brezhnev era (1906 – 1982), but in fact, for Ungern and the Mongols, everything that happened was very serious ...
From corporal to generalBaron Roman Fedorovich Ungern was born in the family of an Estland landowner. According to family traditions, his family came from Hungary and was very ancient: the first Ungerns took part in the crusades. The prefix Sternberg appeared later, when the Ungerns moved to the north of Europe. Naturally, all men from such a glorious family chose a military career. It was the same with Roman. In 17 years he was assigned to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. But then the Russian-Japanese war began, and the young man volunteered for the front. Soon for his bravery in battle, he was promoted to the corporal. After returning home, the young baron entered the Pavlovsk military school, after which (1908) he was asked to serve in the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. The choice was not random. According to Roman, he always had an interest in Buddhism and Buddhist culture. Allegedly, this hobby he took over from his father, and he, in turn, from his grandfather. Baron argued that the latter had piracy in the Indian Ocean for many years and adopted a religion founded by Prince Shakyamuni (623 – 544 BC).
However, due to a number of circumstances, the Baron met the First World War not with Transbaikalians, but in the 34 Don Cossack Regiment. Having shown exceptional courage, for three years of fighting, Ungern was awarded five orders, including officer Georgy, whom he was most proud of. It was his first award received for the battle at the Podborek farm (Poland) 22 August 1914, at a time when the Russian troops defeated in East Prussia were hastily retreating. On that day, under cross-artillery and machine-gun fire from both sides, Ungern managed to crawl to the German positions for four hundred steps and within a few hours to adjust the fire of the Russian batteries, transferring data on the enemy's redeployment.
At the end of the first military year, Ungern was transferred to the 1 th Nerchinsky Cossack regiment with a rise, in submission to the famous Peter Wrangel (1878 – 1928) (by the way, the song “White Guard Black Baron” is not about Wrangel, but about Ungern).
The October Revolution 1917 of the year found Ungern already in Transbaikalia, where he was sent along with his close friend Esaul Gregory Semenov (1890 – 1946) to create volunteer parts from the Buryats. Ungern immediately actively involved in the fighting against the Reds. Soon Semenov, who became the ataman of the Transbaikalian Cossacks, made him a general and made commander of the Foreign Horse Division, stationed at Dauria station, near the border with Mongolia. The task of the Baron was to control the railway from Russia to China. According to Mikhail Tornovsky, one of the officers of Ungern,
the general in the Daurian region was almost a full-fledged master, doing many dark deeds [...] Hardly anyone of the Bolsheviks safely passed through the Dauria station, but, unfortunately, many peaceful Russian people also died. From the point of view of universal morality, the Dauria station is a black spot on the White movement, but in the worldview of General Ungern this was justified by those lofty ideas that the Baron’s head was full of.
This went on for two years - 1918 and 1919. But 1920 was unlucky for the whites: the army of Alexander Kolchak (1874 – 1920) was defeated, and its remnants retreated to the east. In the autumn of the same year, Semenov left for Manchuria, and Ungern, renaming his army into the Asian Equestrian Division, into Eastern Mongolia, into Tsetshenkhanovsky Aimak (region). To the delight of the general, many Mongolian princes were glad of his arrival. In Russian, they saw the only salvation from the arbitrariness of Chinese soldiers. The Asian division of Ungern immediately received replenishment and food. In total, representatives of sixteen nationalities fought in it: Russian Cossacks, Buryats, Mongols, Tatars, Bashkirs, Chinese, and even Japanese. All volunteers. In October, 1920-th baron moved on Urga.
How the operation ended - we already know, as well as the fact that the capture of the Mongolian capital was perceived by General Ungern as something more than an ordinary tactical victory. In fact, it was about the very goals that Tornovsky casually mentioned, forcing the baron to deal cruelly in Dauria with everyone in whom he guessed sympathy for red.
When the Mongols will save the world
The scale of Ungern’s plans is quite comparable to those of Genghis Khan. He had been nurturing the idea of creating a Middle or Central Asian state, which would include Outer Mongolia, or Khalkha (modern Mongolia), Western and Inner Mongolia, Uryankhaysky Krai (Tuva), Xinjiang, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Manchuria and Southern Siberia is a vast territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian. According to the Baron, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which lost the Chinese throne ten years ago, should rule it. To realize this goal, Ungern tried to establish contact with the Chinese aristocrats, devotees to the ex-emperor of the Middle Kingdom Pu Yi (1906 – 1967), who lived in those years in his Peking palace as a foreign monarch. It is probably for this purpose that in the summer of 1919, the baron, who could not bear the sorority of women, played a wedding in Harbin with the Manchurian princess Ji Zhankuy, who became Elena Pavlovna Ungern-Sternberg, in the Christian rite. But together spouses almost did not live. Two years later, they divorced.
Although, it must be said that the nationality of the ruler of the Middle State was not so important for Ungern. Pu And just turned out to be at the right time in the right place. The baron monarchy was necessary as a general principle of the organization of society, and it can be quite called a monarchist internationalist, burning with fierce hatred for all who represented a danger to the autocracy, whatever country it may be. In his eyes, the revolution appeared to be the result of the mercenary plans of people steeped in vice, seeking to destroy culture and morality.
The only one who can preserve the truth, good, honor and customs, so cruelly trampled on by ungodly people - revolutionaries, - the baron told during interrogation with the Reds, - these are kings. Only they can guard religion and exalt faith on earth. [After all] people are selfish, arrogant, deceitful, they have lost faith and lost truth, and there are no kings. And happiness did not come with them [...] The highest incarnation of tsarism is the union of deity with human power, as Bogdykhan in China was, Bogd Khan in Khalkha and in the old days Russian tsars.
Baron was convinced that the monarch should be outside of any class or group, acting as a resultant force, relying on the aristocracy and the peasantry. But, perhaps, there was no conservative in Russia, beginning in the 18th century, who would not burn incense to save society by returning to the traditional values kept by the Russian peasants - “the God-bearing people”. However, Ungern can be called anyone, but not an epigone. Speaking of peasantry, the baron did not mean Russian peasants. According to the general, “for the most part, they are rude, ignorant, wild and angry - they hate everyone and everything, they themselves don’t understand why, they are suspicious and materialistic, and even without holy ideals.” No, the light must come from the East! During the interrogation, the Baron's speech was quiet, but confident, almost harsh:
East must certainly face the West. The culture of the white race, which led the people to the revolution, accompanied by centuries of universal leveling [...] is subject to disintegration and replacement by the yellow culture that formed 3000 years ago and is still intact.
In the eyes of Ungern, the Mongols were just the people who happily combined in themselves and loyalty to the traditions of their ancestors, and fortitude, not corrupted by the temptations of industrial society.
Karma of the "Angry Executioner"
However, the baron was far from thinking of building the ideology of the new state exclusively on Buddhism - the possibility of religious synthesis did not bother him at all. But in the baron, almost nothing remained of the religion of Christ: neither humility, nor love, nor the fear of God. Yes, and he perceived himself as a North Buddhist dokshit (“angry executioner” in Tibetan). There is a class of such creatures in Lamaism - angry defenders of the truth, ruthlessly destroying all its opponents. They are honored as saints, as well as bodhisattvas. They, too, until the departure to Nirvana, have only one rebirth, but they do not go to the kingdom of eternal peace, but remain on earth, amidst suffering, and try to help those who are completely entangled in the networks of this illusory world. It is believed that dokshity appear when the compassion of bodhisattvas is powerless. Ungern was one of those. And this is not a metaphor, the Mongols really considered the Baron as the embodiment of a destructive force, called to protect the good. The general liked it. And not only because he was a mystic by nature, but also because his bestial brutality was justified in this way. The Baron had no doubt that after his death, he was in for the bliss prepared by the Buddhist saints.
To give an order to hang, shoot or slaughter a man cost him nothing. Sometimes it was enough to get under the hot hand. But even if the punishment turned out to be deserved, his cruelty clearly indicated the psychic pathology of the baron. So, the quartermaster, wetted several bags of flour, was drowned. Warrant officer Chernov, who shot two Cossacks drunk, was kept on the ice for a day, then they gave 200 tashurov and finally burned alive. The story about the “sweet habit” of Ungern of Dahurian times has been preserved. Then all the shot were taken to the nearest hills and thrown without burial. According to the memoirs of one of the officers of Ungern,
with the onset of darkness, a horrible howl of wolves and feral dogs was only heard on the hills. And so on these hills, where skulls, skeletons and rotting parts of the bodies were scattered everywhere, Baron Ungern loved to ride for rest.
In the eyes of the baron, his lads could tear their babies apart - he had nothing against it. He generally liked being present during torture. In particular, he enjoyed watching how another victim sacrificed on a slow fire, who did not want to tell you kindly where gold or food was hidden. Therefore, when the Mongolian odyssey of the baron was already coming to an end and the death sentences were handed down to them to the right and left, some officers, having received the order to appear in the headquarters of the “grandfather” (as Ungern was called among themselves), hastily saddled his horse and disappeared in an unknown direction. Those who were bypassed by this cup were happy, who for a small offense “only” had to swim the river in clothes and spend the night on the other side, not lighting a fire, or spend a day on a tree in a blizzard.Sacrifice of the soothsayers
In the spring of 1921, the baron, confident of supporting the peasants of Southern Siberia, gathered to continue the fight against the Reds. May 20 Speakers: 7 thousand sabers, 20 machine guns and 12 light guns. Two days later the division split. Ungern himself commanded a squadron of 2100 fighters with 8 guns and 20 machine guns. His task was to take Troitskosavsk - a town on the territory of the RSFSR (modern Kyakhta, two hundred kilometers south of Ulan-Ude).
The assault began on June 6. Red entrenched on the hills around the city, using machine guns trying to put a fire barrier in front of the attackers. But the spirit of the Asian division, encouraged by the success in Mongolia, was as high as ever. The baron personally walked to the full length under the bullets stretched chains of his fighters. He was not ashamed of them. Hills took "with a bang." Helpless Troitskosavsk lay in the valley. But the baron did not develop success. It was a big mistake: the city garrison did not exceed five hundred fighters. It is said that the superstitious general obeyed the lama soothsayers, who were always at the rate, who advised him to refrain from decisive action. Whatever it was, the division retreated to a hollow to rest.
The next evening the Reds launched a counterattack and shot down the Asian divisions' patrols from the hills. The Baron again led his fighters, and the Red Army fled. At 4 in the morning it was all over. It was possible to continue the offensive, but Ungern felt sorry for the people: leaving the Chinese on the hills, he gave the order to everyone else to return to the hollow and sleep. An hour has passed. She fell asleep hollow, fell asleep Chinese, put in combat guard. At this time, the Red Army climbed the hills again. From the first shots, the yellow-faced guard scattered, who went where.
Immediately on the mountains rolled out machine guns, and the beating of the sleeping army began. Those who, an hour and a half ago, fearlessly walked into the bayonet, now rushed in the dark, shouting helplessly, crushing each other and falling under the hooves of horses, frightened by flashes thrown from the hills in a dell of grenades. More than four hundred people died, all weapons were lost. The baron detachment hastily retreated. Two weeks later, he joined up with the rest of the division. The month passed in minor clashes with the Reds, from which the Ungernovites invariably emerged victorious. This continued until August 8, when, near Novodmitriyevka, the Asian division encountered armored vehicles. Without artillery, they could not do anything. The situation has become critical. Urga, in which only a hundred and two Ungernovtsevs remained, by that time occupied parts of the Red Army, and it was impossible to return there for the winter. Baron was going to go to Tibet. But this decision did not appeal to everyone. The division began to fall apart in a matter of days, fled by whole troops. In the end, a conspiracy matured against the Baron. He was captured on the night of August 22 1921. What they wanted to do with him is unknown. The Mongol detachment, escorting a captive general, ran into the Reds, and the Baron "got" them. 15 September 1921 was publicly tried in Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) and was shot the same day.
So the Russian finished his days. And Mongolia became the first stronghold of socialism in Asia. Although, if it were not for the baron, she probably would have remained a Chinese province: the Reds did not have the strength to resist eight thousand Chinese.
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