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This is the second part of our two-part episode on Roman von Ungernsternberg.

So if you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, please start there.

Why Roman von Ungernsternberg went to Mongolia in October of 1920 remains a mystery.

Historians now call his eight-month stint in the area his Mongolian campaign,

but even that label is controversial.

Willard Sunderland suggests that using the word campaign implies that Roman had, quote,

a reason for being there. Instead, the decision was haphazard.

Roman had originally intended to move west rather than east to cut off the Red Army advancing on

Cheetah, according to his military orders. But when he found out that the Reds had already taken the city,

he had to change his plans. So he went rogue, leading what remained of the Asiatic division of the

White Army south across the Mongolian border. His forces included about 800 men trailed by horses and a train of

carts, covered wagons, and pack animals. He would later tell the Reds that his plan was, quote,

a product of happenstance and fate. It wasn't totally out of the question for him to go to Mongolia,

since the whites had an established military presence there. But what Roman did next had more

to do with his own personal politics. He decided to conquer Urga, the capital of Mongolia.

He concocted this plan in the heat of the moment,

after learning that the Chinese commander in Urga had arrested a group of white officers.

Roman saw Urga as a, quote, red town, according to an account from Roman's aide-de-camp.

Because most of the Russians that lived there were Bolshevik sympathizers.

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