This is a tightly told account of the last Khan of Mongolia, Baron Ungern-sternberg, portrayed by Mr. Palmer as a tortured soul who wound up inflicting as many cruelties upon the Mongolians he claimed to command than he did the Chinese he hoped to drive off, or the Bolsheviks he clearly despises. It is difficult to imagine a life more drenched in blood. And yet as we learn more and more about what drives humanity, Sternberg's barbarism can start to be understood.
Our formative experiences set the tone for the rest of our lives. If we experience cruelty at the hands of those from whom we are meant to receive love and tenderness, then the empathy that helps us to live in society is never nurtured, never allowed to flourish. What is a human without empathy? Someone who never feels the pain of inflicting pain. And people who do not feel pain when they inflict pain are people who, sadly, will never find their way to compassion. Though Sternberg's nobleman's upbringing in Russia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was infinitely more comfortable than that experienced by most of his countrymen, his isolation was so profound, his household so cold, that he turned to historical figures for companionship and purpose. Having discovered a link between his family and that of Genghis Khan, and having steeled himself in the Imperial Russian army's fight against the Reds, Sternberg was a disaster waiting to happen. His alienating upbringing having never taught him kindness and having felt the sting of military defeat at the hands of his enemies, he seems to have drawn on this historical link to one of history's greatest generals and used it to fuel a second chapter in his life, fleeing to Mongolia where his attempts to thrust out the Chinese from Genghis Khan's homeland rallied the Mongolians to his banner, at aleast for a little while. But eventually, Sternberg's flawed personality and the insurmountable odds he and his people faced would tell and his movement would die right around the time the Bolshevik firing squad finished off the last Khan of Mongolia.
This is an excellent book about a difficult subject. Mr. Palmer faced a particularly difficult challenge, trying to explain the actions of a madman who seems to have gone out of his way to be ruthless and cruel. And though Mr. Palmer only partially succeeds, these are flaws attributable more to the inscrutability of his subject, not to any failing on the part of Sternberg's biographer. For how dark the story, this is an oddly powerful book which conveys the bleakness of a life lived without the nourishment of love. (3/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment