Loeb CL posted:

Tbe best book I've read recently:


The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia, by James Palmer.

A really detailed, well-written, and fascinating account of one of history's more eccentric characters, Roman Ungern von Sternberg, an ethnically Baltic German who became a Russian nobleman and became a minor Russian hero of World War I. Being a strict monarchist, he backed the Whites in the Russian Civil War. With the goal of re-establishing the Mongol Empire and the Russian monarchy, Ungern and his fiercely loyal troops fought their way across Russia, killing Jews and Bolsheviks (his two least favorite groups of people), until they reached Mongolia, where he managed to wrest control from the Chinese. In Mongolia, the local peasantry considered Ungern a god-king and reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Ungern invaded Siberia to support the many anti-Bolshevik uprising, but the Reds crushed his army, captured Ungern, and executed him soon after.