Russian barons. Family titles of nobility and nicknames in Russia

Baron Ungern. Daurian crusader or Buddhist with a sword Zhukov Andrey Valentinovich

Chapter 1 Pedigree

Pedigree

... When in 1956 the Soviet leader N. S. Khrushchev was informed that the government of the FRG was going to appoint a representative of one of the branches of the ancient Ungern family as the first ambassador of the FRG to the USSR, his answer was categorical: “No! We had one Ungern, and that's enough! This historical semi-apocryphal, semi-anecdote testifies that the ancient and branched family of the Ungerns continues to be part of the political elite of modern Europe, a kind of closed aristocratic club of its most famous families.

However, the history of the family tree of the Ungern barons looks rather confusing and contradictory. Here is how it is stated from the words of Baron R. F. Ungern-Sternberg himself by Ferdinand Ossendovsky in his book “And animals, and people, and gods”, to which we will have to repeatedly refer: “I come from the ancient family of Ungern von Sternberg, in it mixed German and Hungarian - from the Huns of Attila - blood. My warlike ancestors fought in every major European battle. They took part in the Crusades, one of the Ungerns fell near the walls of Jerusalem under the banner of Richard the Lionheart. In a tragic end crusade children, an eleven-year-old boy Ralph Ungern died. When the bravest warriors of the German Empire were called up in the 12th century to protect its eastern borders from the Slavs, my ancestor, Baron Halza Ungern von Sternberg, was among them. There they founded the Teutonic Order, planting Christianity with fire and sword among the pagans - Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians and Slavs. Since then, representatives of my family have always been present among the members of the order. In the battle of Grunwald, which put an end to the existence of the order, two barons Ungern von Sternberg died a heroic death. Our race, which has always been dominated by the military, had a penchant for mysticism and asceticism.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, several generations of barons von Ungern owned castles in the lands of Latvia and Estonia. The legends about them still live on. Heinrich Ungern-Sternberg, nicknamed Ax was a knight-errant. His name and spear, which filled the hearts of opponents with fear, were well known at tournaments in France, England, Spain and Italy. He fell at Cadiz from the sword of a knight, with one blow cut through his helmet and skull. Baron Ralph Ungern was a robber knight who terrified the territory between Riga and Reval. Baron Peter Ungern lived in a castle on the island of Dago in the Baltic Sea, where he was a pirate, controlling the maritime trade of his time. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, there lived the well-known Baron Wilhelm Ungern, who was called "Satan's brother" for his studies in alchemy. My grandfather was a privateer in the Indian Ocean, collecting tribute from English merchant ships. He was hunted by warships for several years, but could not catch him. Finally, grandfather was seized and handed over to the Russian consul, who sent him to Russia, where grandfather was tried and sentenced to exile in the Baikal region ... "

Almost literally, the same version of the history of the Ungern family is given in his book “The God of War - Baron Ungern”, published in 1934 in Shanghai, and A. S. Makeev, who was the adjutant of the baron in Mongolia in 1921. However, many modern historians urge to treat the writings of both F. Ossendovsky and A. Makeev with caution: in his seemingly documentary narrative about real meetings and personal conversations with Baron F. Ossendovsky neatly weaves fiction and his own fantasies. The opinion of the historian of the White movement A.S. Kruchinin, who claims that the writings of Ossendovsky served the memory of Baron Ungern, is absolutely fair. In addition, one should take into account the following fact: Ungern told Ossendovsky the version of his biography that he himself developed for himself, throwing out of the real chain of events individual links that seemed superfluous to him, did not correspond to the formidable image of the “god of war” he created himself. Accordingly, the resulting gaps were filled with their own inserts invented by the baron. “One must think that Ungern deliberately straightened the space of his semi-legendary genealogy,” the modern Russian writer L. A. Yuzefovich. One of such "substitution-inserts" in the family chronicle was the story of the "grandfather-pirate". In fact, Ungern's real paternal grandfather served as the manager of a cloth factory in the town of Kertel on the island of Dago (now the island of Hiiumaa, Estonia) until his death and, of course, never "private" anywhere.

In fact, Ungern's great-great-grandfather, Otto Reingold-Ludwig Ungern-Sternberg, visited India, but by no means as a pirate, but as a simple traveler. In his younger years, he reached the Indian port of Madras, where he was arrested by the British as a "suspicious foreigner" - the Seven Years' War was going on ... Interesting details about the biography of his great-great-grandfather, who received the nickname Bloody, are given in the book we mentioned by L. A. Yuzefovich.

The historical Otto-Reingold-Ludwig von Sternberg was born in 1744 in Livonia. He received a very good education - he graduated from the University of Leipzig, traveled, labored at the court of the Polish king Stanislav Poniatowski. Later he moved to St. Petersburg, and in 1781 he acquired the Hohenholm estate on Dago Island from his school friend Count Stenbock. Here the baron lived until 1802, when he was taken to Revel, tried and exiled to Siberia - Tobolsk, where he died ten years later. Terrible legends circulated about the baron, rumors spread throughout Europe about the trial of the “pirate chamberlain”. The echoes of these rumors and legends continued to sound almost half a century later. The famous French traveler, Marquis A. de Custine, who left rather scandalous notes about his trip to Russia in 1839, recounts one of the stories that have come down to him: “I remind you that I am retelling the story I heard from Prince K ***:

“Baron Ungern von Sternberg was a man of sharp mind who traveled all over Europe; his character was formed under the influence of these travels, which enriched him with knowledge and experience. Returning to St. Petersburg under Emperor Paul, he fell out of favor for some unknown reason and decided to retire from the court. He settled in a wild land, on the island of Dago, which belonged to him undividedly, and, offended by the emperor, a man who seemed to him the embodiment of humanity, began to hate the whole human race.

It happened during our childhood. Having shut up on the island, the baron suddenly began to show an extraordinary passion for science and, in order to indulge in calm studies, attached a very high tower to the castle, the walls of which you can now see with binoculars. Here the prince fell silent for a while, and we began to examine the tower of Dago Island.

“This tower,” the prince continued, “called the baron his library, and on top of it he arranged a lantern glazed on all sides - a belvedere - either an observatory or a lighthouse. According to him, he could only work at night and only in this secluded place. There he found peace conducive to reflection. The only living creatures that the baron allowed into the tower were his son, still a child at that time, and his son's tutor. Around midnight, making sure that both of them were already asleep, the baron shut himself up in the laboratory; then the glass lantern lit up with such a bright light that it could be seen from afar. This false lighthouse easily misled the captains of foreign ships, who did not firmly remember the outlines of the formidable shores of the Gulf of Finland. It was this error that the perfidious baron was counting on. The ominous tower, erected on a rock in the middle of a terrible sea, seemed to inexperienced navigators a guiding star; relying on a false lighthouse, the unfortunate met death where they hoped to find protection from the storm, from which you can conclude that at that time the naval police in Russia were inactive. a boat, along with several dexterous and bold servants, whom he kept on purpose for such sorties; they picked up foreign sailors who were floundering in the water, not to save, but to finish off in the shade of night, and then plundered the ship; all this the baron did not so much out of greed, but out of pure love for evil, out of a disinterested craving for destruction.

Not believing in anything, least of all in justice, he considered moral and social chaos to be the only state worthy of human earthly existence, while he saw in civil and political virtues harmful chimeras that contradicted nature, but were powerless to tame it. Ruling the fate of his own kind, he intended, in his own words, to come to the aid of Providence, which controls the life and death of people.

One autumn evening, the baron, as was his wont, exterminated the crew of another ship; this time it was a Dutch merchant ship. The robbers, who lived in the castle under the guise of servants, transported the remains of the cargo to land from the sinking ship for several hours in a row, not noticing that the captain of the ship and several sailors survived and, climbing into the boat, managed to leave the fatal place under cover of darkness. It was already dawn when the baron and his henchmen, not yet completing their dark work, noticed a boat in the distance; the robbers immediately closed the doors to the cellars where the loot was stored, and lowered the drawbridge in front of the strangers. With refined, purely Russian hospitality, the owner of the castle hurries to meet the captain; with complete equanimity, he receives him in the hall located near the bedroom of his son; the boy's tutor was at that time seriously ill and did not get out of bed. The door to his room, which also led into the hall, remained open. The captain behaved extremely imprudently.

Mr. Baron, - he said to the owner of the castle, - you know me, but you cannot recognize me, because you saw me only once, and moreover, in the dark. I am the captain of a ship whose crew was almost entirely lost off the coast of your island; I regret that I have to cross the threshold of your house, but I am obliged to tell you what I know: among those who killed my sailors this night were your servants, and you yourself killed one of my people with your own hand.

The baron, without answering, goes to the door to the tutor's bedroom and silently closes it.

The stranger continues:

If I speak to you about this, it is only because I do not intend to destroy you; I only want to prove to you that you are in my power. Give me back the cargo and the ship; although it is broken, I can sail on it to St. Petersburg; I am ready to swear that I will keep everything that happened a secret. If I wished to take revenge on you, I would have rushed to the nearest village and betrayed you to the police. But I want to save you, and therefore I warn you of the danger to which you expose yourself by committing a crime.

The Baron still doesn't say a word; he listens to the guest with a serious, but by no means sinister air; he asks to give him a little time to think and leaves, promising the guest to give an answer in a quarter of an hour. A few minutes before the appointed time, he suddenly enters the hall through a secret door, pounces on a brave stranger and stabs him!.. At the same time, on his orders, faithful servants kill all the surviving sailors, and silence reigns again in the lair, stained with the blood of so many victims. However, the tutor heard everything; he continues to listen ... and does not distinguish anything except the steps of the baron and the snoring of the corsairs, who, wrapped in sheepskin coats, sleep on the stairs. The baron, filled with anxiety and suspicion, returns to the tutor's bedroom and looks at him for a long time with the greatest attention; standing near the bed with a bloody dagger in his hands, he watches the sleeper, trying to make sure that this dream is not feigned; finally, considering that there is nothing to be afraid of, he decides to save the tutor's life.

In crime, perfection is as rare as in all other areas, - added Prince K ***, interrupting the narration. We were silent, for we were eager to know the end of the story. The prince continued: - “The tutor's suspicions arose a long time ago; at the very first words of the Dutch captain, he woke up and became a witness to the murder, all the details of which he saw through a crack in the door locked by the baron. A moment later, he was back in bed, and thanks to his composure, he survived. As soon as the baron left, the tutor immediately, despite the fever that was shaking him, got up, dressed and, sitting in a boat that was standing at the pier, set off; he safely reached the continent and in the nearest city told about the atrocities of the baron of police. The absence of the patient was soon noticed by the inhabitants of the castle; however, blinded by previous successes, the criminal baron did not at first think of fleeing; deciding that the tutor in a fit of delirium tremens threw himself into the sea, he tried to find his body in the waves. Meanwhile, the rope descending from the window, as well as the disappeared boat, irrefutably testified to the flight of the tutor. When, belatedly recognizing this obvious fact, the murderer set out to escape, he saw that the castle was surrounded by troops sent to arrest him. Only one day had passed since the next massacre; at first, the offender tried to deny his guilt, but his accomplices betrayed him. The baron was seized and taken to St. Petersburg, where Emperor Paul sentenced him to life hard labor. He died in Siberia. So sadly ended his days a man who, thanks to the brilliance of his mind and the easy elegance of manner, served as an adornment of the most brilliant European salons.

Thus, the family of barons Ungernov entered the annals of world literature. But that is literature. In real life, as usual, things were much more prosaic. The ancestors of the baron, who lived on the island of Dago, off the coast of which ships really often crashed, were peaceful and law-abiding people. This is also evidenced by the entry that on May 21, 1853, the notorious Leonty Vasilyevich Dubelt, the chief of staff of the gendarme corps, made in his diary: “On May 14, the English steamer Neptune, which set off from Kronstadt to London, crashed on an underwater rock near Dago Island. Passengers and cargo, including 50,000 semi-imperials belonging to Baron Stiglitz, are saved. The passengers were received in the most hospitable way by the landowner Baron Ungern-Sternberg.

materials litigation on Otto-Reingold-Ludwig Ungern-Sternberg were studied more than two hundred years later, in the 1920s, by the Hungarian researcher Chekeyi, who discovered that the reason for the baron's exile to Siberia was a quarrel with a classmate who sold Hohenholm to the baron, at that time already Estonian governor general. In the book “The Autocrat of the Desert”, L. A. Yuzefovich cites an excerpt from Chekey’s research: “The baron was a man of excellent education, well-read and educated ... He was a fearless sailor, a knowledgeable and hardworking farmer, an excellent father ... He was famous for his generosity and took care of his people. In addition, he built a church. He suffered from nostalgia for his former life and was distinguished by his unsociableness. The local nobility could not appreciate the extraordinary personality of the baron. Almost everything that the Hungarian researcher wrote about in the twenties of the last century about one of the ancestors of R. F. von Ungern Sternberg could rightfully be attributed to his descendant. Our hero had enough misunderstanding and loneliness during his lifetime, misunderstanding continues decades after his death. But first things first. In the meantime, we have to return to the baron's genealogy.

M. G. Tornovsky, an officer who fought in the division of Lieutenant General R. F. Ungern-Sternberg during civil wars s, who personally knew the baron and left the most interesting memoirs “Events in Mongolia-Khalkha in 1920-1921”, written in Shanghai in 1942, in particular, spoke about the works of A. S. Makeev and F. Ossendovsky: “I read 5 -6 biographies about General Ungern, but all of them basically did not correspond to the truth. Solid fiction in the presentation of F. Ossendovsky and written off from him by Yesaul Makeev ... ”The information that M. G. Tornovsky sets out in his“ Memoirs ... ”obviously should be recognized as the most reliable. True, Tornovsky was very self-critical about his work: “The biography in the following variation is correct to some extent,” he wrote, “but it suffers from a number of “gaps” that could not be filled due to lack of sources or inconsistency of those.” While in exile in Shanghai, Tornovsky had a chance to meet with a distant relative of Baron R. F. Ungern, chamber junker Baron Renaud Leonardovich von Ungern-Sternberg, who was second secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Empire in Washington before the revolution. This meeting took place, most likely, at the very end of 1940 or in 1941.

Renault Leonardovich von Ungern-Sternberg spent several hours talking with Tornovsky. Their conversation turned out to be very fruitful and was able to clarify many obscure places related to the history of the Ungern family and the biography of Roman Fedorovich himself. Of particular value to this conversation was the fact that Renault Ungern von Sternberg turned out to be the holder of the most complete genealogy of the entire Ungern house - "Ungaria", published in Riga in 1940. The cover of "Ungaria" was decorated with the family coat of arms of the von Ungern-Sternbergs: a shield with lilies and a six-pointed star in the center, crowned with a crown and the motto: "Their star does not know sunset." The information that M. G. Tornovsky gathered from the family chronicle of the Ungaria house became the basis for writing the most reliable biography of Lieutenant General Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg. So, let's turn to the genealogy of the house of von Ungern Sternberg, set out in "Memoirs ..." by M. G. Tornovsky.

“About the beginning of the twelfth century, two brothers de Ungaria moved from Hungary to Galicia. Both married the sisters of the Slavic prince Liv. From here came the two oldest families of the Ungerns and the Livins (obviously, more correctly than the Livens. - Note. A. Zh.), later the most illustrious princes. From Galicia, de Ungaria and his family moved to the Baltic. During the possession of the Baltic states by the Livonian Order, de Ungaria become barons Ungerns (“Hungarians”), and during the rule of the Swedes in the Baltic states, a helpful historian who wrote a family chronicle added “Starnberg” to the surname, finding some relationship of the Ungaria clan with the Czech count Starnberg " . Consequently, M. G. Tornovsky concluded, “the main blood of the Ungern clan is Hungarian-Slavic. Over time, German and Scandinavian blood was mixed with it in a large proportion.

During the reign of the Livonian Order in the Baltic states, many of the Ungern family moved to Prussia. During the Swedish rule, a number of Ungerns also moved to Sweden. Thus, in the history of Prussia and Sweden in the thirteenth-seventeenth centuries, the surname Ungern-Sternberg is found. All people from the house of Ungern belonged to the upper strata of Prussian and Swedish societies and occupied very high posts in these countries. The baronial dignity was granted to the Ungern-Sternbergs by the Swedish Queen Christina in 1653. (Interestingly, according to the same Swedish royal charter of 1653, representatives of the Wrangel family were also raised to the baronial dignity, whose descendant, General Baron P. N. Wrangel, was the commander of Baron Ungern during the First World War.) vassal of the monarch In Russia, the title of baron was introduced by Peter I. After the inclusion of the Baltic region into the Russian Empire, the same Peter I issued a decree recognizing the rights of the Baltic nobility and "on classifying it as Russian."

“The founder of the Russian house of barons Ungern-Sternberg was Baron Renault,” Tornovsky writes further. - During the conquest of the Baltic States by Tsar Peter, Baron Reno Ungern provided the Tsar with great assistance in the development of the newly conquered region by the Russians. On the other hand, Baron Renaud Ungern negotiated with Tsar Peter many privileges for the region, especially for the nobility. He (Baron Renault Ungern. - Note. A. Zh.) was the first leader of the nobility of the Baltic region. Baron Renault had many sons, from where the large house of the Ungern barons came from. All of them owned significant land in the Baltics and even islands in the Baltic. Thus, Dago Island belonged to one of the branches of the Ungern barons. All the barons of Ungern enjoyed full confidence and stood close to the throne of the Russian emperors for two centuries, until the very end of 1917. The barons of Ungern never held high posts in Russia. They preferred to stay in their Baltic countries - on their own land, holding all sorts of posts by election, but some of the Ungern barons served in the army and in the diplomatic corps. It should also be added that the barons Ungern-Sternberg owned numerous castles in Estland and Livonia, and their family was included in the noble matricules (genealogical books) of all three Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire.

In 1910, a major two-volume work by the famous Russian genealogist S. V. Lyubimov, titled clans of the Russian Empire, was published in St. Petersburg. The books contained information about more than 800 noble families in Russia. Small separate reference articles contained a lot of interesting and important information on the genealogy and history of representatives of various titled noble families. When writing this work, S. V. Lyubimov made the most of the most valuable sources and literature on the genealogy of the Russian nobility. This original reference book is valuable primarily because it contains general information about the most famous noble families, collected shortly before 1917, when the history of the Russian nobility ceased to exist for almost many decades.

“The family of the barons von Ungern-Sternberg comes from Johann Sternberg, who moved from Hungary to Livonia in 1211,” says S. V. Lyubimov in the book. Lyubimov has no mention of either Galicia or the daughters of the legendary Prince Liv. The following is said about the baronial dignity of the Ungerns: “By a charter of the Roman emperor Ferdinand I dated February 7, 1534, Georg von Ungern-Sternberg was elevated, with his descendants, to the baronial dignity of the Roman Empire.

By a charter of the Swedish Queen Christina dated October 2 (17), 1653, Voldemar, Otto and Reingold von Ungern-Sternberg were confirmed in baronial dignity.

The highest opinion approved on December 20, 1865 State Council the title of baron is recognized for the noble family von Ungern-Sternberg. This is the opinion of Russian genealogical science about the origin of the Ungern family. We especially note that in the literature there are different spellings of the full title name of the Ungerns: Ungern von Sternberg, von Ungern-Sternberg or simply Ungern-Sternberg. In accordance with the spelling given in the reference book "Titled families of the Russian Empire", we stop at the full name of the baron as von Ungern-Sternberg. For convenience, we will also simply refer to him by the first part of the surname Ungern or Ungern-Sternberg - in this version, the surname of the baron was mentioned in the official track records.

Here we need to make some digression in order, on the one hand, to tell the reader about the role played by the German-Swedish nobility in the history of the Russian Empire, and on the other hand, to try to understand the spirit and atmosphere of the society in which Roman Fedorovich grew up and was brought up. von Ungern-Sternberg.

A wide influx of foreigners, in particular Germans and Swedes, into the Russian service began, as is known, with Peter I. At the same time, the lands of the Baltic region, inhabited by Germans and Swedes, became part of the Russian Empire. Soviet historical science, guided by the "only true and correct teaching" of Marxism-Leninism, chose the so-called class approach as the main research tool and criterion for evaluating a particular historical event. In accordance with the "class approach" method, the role of the German-Swedish, "Ostsee" aristocracy in Russian history was also determined.

The vast majority of Germans and Swedes who swore in the 18th century to serve the new fatherland - the Russian Empire, were noblemen. And the nobility, in full accordance with the theory of the "class approach", is a class of oppressors, a purely reactionary class. Among other things, the assessment of the role of the Ostsee Germans in Russian history was undoubtedly affected by the difficult Russian-German relations that left their mark on the entire 20th century. As a result, the role of the Ostsee Germans (in addition to the Germans themselves, they also included Swedish, Scottish and Swiss surnames who were in the Russian service) in the development of Russian society, the army, science, culture, etc. was regarded by Soviet historians as extremely negative. "German dominance", "Prussian orders", "stick system" - these are just a small part of the definitions used by Soviet historians who examined Russian-German relations.

Only in recent years has a different, more fair assessment of the role of the German-Swedish factor in the development of Russian society, in particular the army and navy, appeared in modern historical literature. Why did Russian emperors so willingly accept Germans and Swedes into military service? This tradition was characteristic of both the 18th century and the 19th century, and it was preserved in the first decades of the 20th century. Contemporary historian Sergei Volkov explains such a pro-German policy high professionalism, the diligence and discipline of the German and Swedish elements: "They were distinguished by high discipline, relatively rarely retired during their service, they were quite united, moreover, many of them had a higher military education." Former descendants of members of knightly orders were true professionals who deeply absorbed the spirit of many generations of medieval soldiers of Christ.

It should also be noted that the Protestant part of the German and Swedish elements in the Russian army were distinguished by high morality, therefore there were practically no scandals associated with their names, especially on the basis of the “women's issue”. The Germans and Swedes differed from other officers in the so-called Ostsee type: restraint, good breeding, coldness, sometimes turning into stiffness, the ability to conduct small talk and at the same time "keep a distance." At the same time, it should be noted that, contrary to the popular belief about the “rich German exploiters”, who allegedly “shamelessly profited from the suffering of the Baltic and Russian peasants”, most of the Baltic barons were, despite all their magnificent titles, as a rule, in very cramped material circumstances. .

The Ostseians took the place of the Russian nobles who did not want to serve, who actively used the privileges granted to them in accordance with the first paragraph of the “Manifesto on Liberty to the Nobility” (1762): according to this paragraph, the nobles, at will, could be removed from public service or even leave the borders of Russia (point 4). The pre-revolutionary Russian historian A. E. Presnyakov assessed the role and place of the Baltic nobles in state system Russian Empire: "The environment of the Baltic nobility - with its archaic and monarchical traditions - became especially close to the royal family during the period of fluctuations in the entire political European world."

Here is how the famous artist Alexei Benois describes in his memoirs two typical Ostsee officers: “Both (Baron K. Delingshausen and Count N. Fersen) were typical Ostsee, both strongly blond, both spoke Russian correctly, but with light German accent, both were well-mannered and exquisitely polite ... Count Fersen always maintained a distance, which corresponded to his characteristically Germanic, absolutely straight posture, his high growth and "Apollonian" build. Extremely curious is also the remark of A. Benois about his comrades that "they never fell into gossip."

It is also necessary to note the high devotion of the representatives of the Baltic families to the ruling Romanov dynasty in Russia. The royal dynasty was for them the personification of their own moral and moral ideals. The officer of the Life Guards of the Semenovsky regiment, later Major General A. A. von Lampe, who belonged to the same specific circle as the family of the barons Ungern-Sternberg, wrote after the fall of the monarchy, in 1917: “The country that sheltered my ancestors, has become a real Motherland for me, and so much so that I, like a dying gladiator, perish, but I send her last greetings and feed on one hope - my curse on the winner will lead him to defeat, and thus, dying, I will achieve the goal - I will liberate the Motherland ... I gave everything to the motherland ... "

Many representatives of the German-Swedish nobility entered into mixed marriages, converted to Orthodoxy and gradually finally "Russified". In 1913, 1,543 generals were in the service of the Russian Imperial Army. Of these, 270 people had German surnames. Interestingly, among the generals of German origin, there were even more Orthodox than Protestants: 154 and 113 people, respectively. Among them were such Germans and Swedes, “outspoken in their origin”, as Baron P. N. Wrangel (a surname of Danish origin, XII century), whom we have already mentioned above, a general, the future commander-in-chief of the Russian army in 1920; Duke G. N. Leuchtenberg, who became one of the leaders of the monarchist movement in exile; Count F. A. Keller (of Swedish origin, 17th century), “the first checker of the Russian army”, hero of the First World War, a convinced monarchist, shot by the Petliurists in Kiev in the winter of 1918; Count A.P. Bennigsen, commander of the Cuirassier Regiment in the Volunteer Army; Minister of the Court Count S. K. Fredericks; the commander of the Semenovsky regiment, Colonel G. A. Min, who suppressed the Moscow rebellion with his regiment in December 1905, and later died at the hands of terrorists, and many others. The transition to Orthodoxy was one of the signs of unity and consolidation of the officer corps. However, regardless of religion, the vast majority of officers felt Russian "by oath and duty."

It was in this “Ostsee environment”, in which the medieval knightly values ​​of duty, honor, devotion to one’s overlord were cultivated, that the views and character of Baron R. F. von Ungern-Sternberg were formed. Chivalry, in his view, was, as it were, transformed into officers who inherited medieval knightly traditions and psychology. Many representatives of the Baltic aristocracy who served in the best guard units of the Russian Imperial Army had ancient Teutonic roots. For example, the count and baronial family of Mengden, one of the founders of which, John von Mengden, was even the master of the Teutonic Order in Livonia; one of the ancestors of the baronial family of Rosenov, Voldemar, was among the knights of the order, and the other - Georg - was the head of the order; representatives of the count family of Tsege von Manteuffel were associated with the Livonian Order - a branch of the Teutonic Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Baltics. As we remember, one of the baron's ancestors, Khalza Ungern-Sternberg, was directly related to the Teutonic Order.

It is known that the baron himself was extremely interested in his genealogy. Almost all the officers of the Asian Cavalry Division who served under Ungern (A.S. Makeev, M.G. Tornovsky, V.I. Shaiditsky, H.N. Knyazev and a number of others) were, to one degree or another, informed about the family tree of the Ungern house. The baron often recalled his ancestors even in conversations with random interlocutors, trying to comprehend his own place and role in the Ungern family tree. September 15, 1921, during a meeting of the revolutionary tribunal in Novonikolaevsk, which considered the "Case of Citizen Ungern", to the question of the chairman of the court Oparin, "How did your family distinguish themselves in the Russian service?" - Ungern replied: "72 killed in the war." Ungern's ancestors, like representatives of other Baltic families, honestly served the Russian Empire. For their nobility and the privileges associated with it, they paid with the hardest currency - their own blood and life itself.

One of the ancestors of Roman Fedorovich - Baron Karl Karlovich Ungern-Sternberg - served in the Russian army under the command of the famous commander P. A. Rumyantsev, fought under him in the Seven Years' War (1755-1762). After the accession to the throne of Emperor Peter III, he was appointed his adjutant general. K. K. Ungern-Sternberg was one of the persons closest to the emperor. After the death of Peter III as a result of a conspiracy organized by Count N. Panin and the Orlov brothers, K. K. Ungern-Sternberg was dismissed from the court and went to serve in the army. In 1773 he stormed Varna, was wounded and retired. In 1796, the new Emperor Paul I again called on the service of a close friend of his late father, Emperor Peter III, and promoted him to the rank of infantry general. It is no coincidence that our hero, Roman Fedorovich Ungern-Sternberg, extremely appreciated Emperor Paul I and honored his memory.

... On April 11, 1762, three months before her accession to the Russian throne, the future Empress Catherine II gave birth to a son, Alexei, from Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov. The illegitimate son of the great empress was granted hereditary possession of the village of Bobriky and the town of Bogoroditsk - both in the Tula province. According to the name of the village, the child was given a surname - Bobrinsky. Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky studied at cadet corps, served in the cavalry, traveled. Having retired with the rank of brigadier, he settled in Revel. Imperial Decree of November 12, 1796 to the foreman of the AG. Bobrinsky was awarded the title of Count of the Russian Empire. The decree was signed by Emperor Paul I, the half-brother of A. G. Bobrinsky, six days after the death of their mother Catherine II. Count Bobrinsky returned to service, was appointed commander of the 4th squadron of the Horse Guards, and a year later received the rank of major general. Bobrinsky was married to Anna Dorothea (Anna Vladimirovna), the daughter of Voldemar Konrad Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg, one of the representatives of the branched Ostsee family About Countess A. V. Bobrinsky, nee von Ungern-Sternberg, there are many notes in the diaries of the AS. Pushkin, and, in particular, this: "The old woman Bobrinskaya always lies for me and takes me out of trouble."

Another of R.F. von Ungern-Sternberg's relatives is O.K. von Ungern-Sternberg, hero Patriotic War 1812, lieutenant, later captain of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. He took part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814, was wounded in the "Battle of the Nations" (Leipzig, 1813). After the war, he commanded the Izyum Hussars and Alexandria Hussars.

Two collections-martyrology "Officers of the Russian Guard" and "Officers of the Russian Cavalry", compiled by the historian Sergei Volkov, contain the names of members of the von Ungern-Sternberg house - participants in the First World War and the Civil War. Let's look at this list:

“Baron Ungern von Sternberg, Mikhail Leonardovich, was born on September 12, 1870. From the nobility ... the son of an officer ... Colonel, commander of his own E. I. V. convoy. In the Volunteer Army since 1917. Member of the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign, then in the administration of the Kuban Territory. In exile in France. He died on January 15, 1931 in Cannes ... "

"Baron Ungern von Sternberg, Rudolf Alexandrovich. Colonel of the Life Guards of the 3rd Artillery Brigade. In exile in Latvia…”

Baron Ungern von Sternberg Eduard Rudolfovich. Captain of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment. Evacuated ... from Novorossiysk on the ship "Rus". In exile in Germany ... "

“Baron Ungern von Sternberg (Mikhail Leonardovich?). Colonel. In the Don Army, VSYUR and the Russian Army in the Life Guards Ataman Regiment before the evacuation of Crimea. Evacuated on the ship "Tsarevich George".

"Baron Ungern von Sternberg. Headquarters Captain of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. In the Northwestern Army; in May 1919 - commander of the 1st battalion of the Ostrovsky regiment.

Baron Ungern von Sternberg Alexander Alexandrovich. Officer of the 11th Hussars. In exile ... "

"Baron Ungern von Sternberg Vasily Vladimirovich. Cornet. In the VSYUR and the Russian army before the evacuation of the Crimea. On December 18, 1920, as part of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Gallipoli.

We see that many relatives and distant relatives R. F. Ungern took the most active and direct part in the White movement, fighting in its ranks until November 1920, when the remnants of the Russian army under the command of General P. N. Wrangel were evacuated from the Crimea by sea.

... Among the 72 relatives of the baron who fell on the battlefield for "faith, the tsar and the Fatherland", the last in a row was Ungern's cousin, also Baron Friedrich von Ungern-Sternberg. After the announcement of mobilization, he joined, together with his cousin, the 2nd Army under the command of General Samsonov, which in August 1914 crossed the Russian-German border and fought in East Prussia. A few weeks later, after grueling battles, Samsonov's army found itself in a German encirclement near the East Prussian city of Soldau. Not wanting to survive the defeat and captivity, Baron Friedrich Ungern von Sternberg chose to share the fate of his dead comrades and went alone (!) In a suicidal attack under the fire of German machine guns.

Chapter I. Pedigree. years of study ... Emperor Alexander III, wishing that military prowess would bind the army and fleet with common remembrances, he ordered the Vityaz corvette to continue to be called Skobelev. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. T. 59. St. Petersburg, 1900, p. 216. Mikhail Dmitrievich