Birthday of the Mad Baron

The Patrons of 'Musings' are St James the Moorslayer and St Louis IX, Crusader King, but for MM, von Ungern-Starnberg is a great choice!

From The Mad Monarchist (29 December 2011)

It was today in 1885 that our blog mascot, my deranged hero, Baron Roman Fyodorovich Ungern von Sternberg was born. Readers are invited to take a look back on the many past posts dealing with the White Russian crusader and Mad Monarchist of Mongolia. And how is this for raising an eyebrow or two: it was also on this day in 1911 that Mongolia first declared independence from China as a theocratic Buddhist monarchy under the Bogd Khan -whom the Baron would one day liberate from Chinese captivity and restore to his throne. This declaration of independence was done in conjunction with the "Great 13th" Dalai Lama of Tibet as the Qing Empire was collapsing in China. But, getting back to the 'man of the hour' the Baron was born in Graz, in what was then the Dual Empire of Austria-Hungary. He was an ethnic German (as were many in the Baltic where his family was from and where he grew up) but of course was also an ardent defender of Imperial Russia and who would one day command an army made up mostly of Asians. His aim? Far-fetched but oh so glorious, to force a pan-monarchist coalition that would stretch across Eurasia, covering all the lands of the great Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan to create an imperial, religious-monarchist bulwark against the revolutionary tide. Here is something like what he had in mind:

Ultimately, it didn't quite work out, but what a glorious vision it was...