Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg: numbers of the beast

1885: Born in Graz, Austria to a German mother and an Estonian father of noble German blood. They move to modern day Tallinn, Estonia within a few years of birth.

1897: Tries to strangle a neighbour's pet owl, aged 12.

1906: Enrols in the Paul 1 Military Academy where he develops his interest in the occult; later recalls creating an "Order of Military Buddhists" during his first posting in Manchuria.

1913: Travels to Mongolia after being discharged from active service; by now notorious among his fellow officers for drunkenly firing at the patrons of cafés and taverns to improve his marksmanship.

1914: Mobilised at the beginning of the Great War, Ungern serves with distinction on the Eastern Front.

1917: Following the October Revolution, Ungern travels to Manchuria with his friend Captain Semenov where they raise an anti-Bolshevik army.

1918-20: Ungern and Semenov lead White forces in south-eastern Siberia during the Russian Civil War.

August 1920: As White resistance crumbles, Ungern crosses into Mongolia where he expels the Chinese occupiers and exercises a bloody personal tyranny before attempting to reinvade Russia the following year where his remaining forces are routed.

15 September 1921: Ungern is shot by firing squad in Novonikolayevsk after a rapid, widely-publicised show trial. He remains a hero in the eyes of some Mongolians.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times