MM Video: Baron von Ungern

General Order No. 15: A Past Monarchist Manifesto

ORDER

To Russian detachments in the territory of Soviet Siberia

No 15 given at Urga, May 21st, 1921

I, Lieutenant General Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, commanding the Asiatic Cavalry Division, bring the following to the notice of all Russian units ready to fight the Reds in Russia.

Russia was formed gradually out of various elements, few in number, which were welded together by unity in faith, by racial relationship, and, later, by similarity in government. So long as she was untouched by the principles of revolutionary thought, which are inapplicable to her owing to her composition and her character, Russia remained a powerful, indissoluble empire.

The revolutionary storm in the West profoundly undermined the mechanism of the State by detaching the intellectuals from the mainstream of national ideas and aspirations. Led by the intelligentsia, both political-social and liberal-bureaucratic, the people -though in the depths of their hearts they remained loyal to Tsar, Faith and Fatherland- started straying from the narrow path laid down by the whole development of national thought and life…revolutionary thought flattered the vanity of the mob, but it did not teach the people the first principles of freedom or construction…the crowd is a barbarian, and acts as such on every occasion. As soon as the mob has secured freedom it speedily turns into anarchy, in itself the height of barbarism…

First the year of 1905, and afterwards 1916-1917, witnessed the criminal, horrible harvest of the seed sown by the revolutionaries…Three months of revolutionary license sufficed to destroy what many centuries had achieved…The people feel the need of a man whose name is familiar to them, whom they can love and respect. Only one such man exists; the man who is by right lord of the Russian earth, THE EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS, MICHAEL ALEXANDEROVICH…In the course of the struggle against the criminals who have destroyed and profaned Russia, it must be remembered that, on account of the complete depravation of morals and the absolute licentiousness, intellectual and physical, which now prevail in Russia, it is no longer possible to retain our old standard of values. ‘Truth and mercy’ are no longer admissible. Henceforth there can only be ‘truth and merciless hardness’. The evil which has fallen upon the land, with the object of destroying the divine principle in the human soul, must be extirpated root and branch. Fury against the heads of the revolution, its devoted followers, must know no boundaries.

The Holy Prophet Daniel foretold of the cruel time when the corrupt and the unclean would be defeated and the days of peace would come: ‘And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. And from that time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waited, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days’.

Monarchist Profile: Baron Ungern von Sternberg

The White Russian general, pan monarchist and last Khan of Mongolia, Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg was born in Austria but grew up in Estonia as part of the Baltic-German aristocracy of the Russian Empire. He joined the Russian army in the war with Japan and was enthralled with the Far East. He served with great distinction in World War I and rose to the rank of major general. He fought with the White Russian forces in the civil war, particularly with General Grigory Semyonov, before going rogue with his Asiatic Cavalry Division of Trans-Baikal Cossacks, Buriats, various Mongols, Manchus and some Japanese gunners. He fought in Siberia with some support from Japan until 1920 and gained an increasing hatred of communist, revolutionary and republican factions and believed that their victory would mean the end of the world as he knew it. Monarchy was the answer and he dreamed of building a monarchist bulwark in the Far East by restoring the Mongol Khanate as well as the Qing dynasty in China from which he could strike out and destroy the Communist regimes and restore traditional monarchies.

In early 1921 the Baron invaded Mongolia and drove out the Chinese republican forces, liberating the Bogd Khan from captivity and restoring him to the throne. He then set his troops to work cleaning up Urga, installing modern lights, telephones, sanitation and so on. He sent letters to the exiled Emperor of China and to the Emperor of Japan asking for their support in his pan-monarchist coalition. He defeated several republican and communist incursions into Mongolia but was hampered by a lack of an industrial base and a steady reserve of manpower. By the summer he took his forces to attack Kiatkha which Soviet-backed Mongol communists had seized that spring. Unlike his earlier victory in Urga his forces were soundly defeated and barely managed to escape. His plan had been to rally traditionalists to his banner in Siberia, overthrow the Marxists and place the Grand Duke Michael on the throne as Tsar of Russia (he did not know the Grand Duke was already dead). That plan was dashed and while on his way to take refuge in Tibet a group of his soldiers mutinied but did not kill him. He was captured by the Soviets whose propaganda had portrayed him as the most vile criminal imaginable and after a show-trial he was executed on September 15, 1921.