99 years ago, on September 15, 1921, in Novonikolaevsk, the Russian military leader of German descent, Lieutenant General and prominent figure of the White movement in the Far East, Knight of St. George and monarchist, Baron Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg was executed.

The young general met his death with dignity. At the trial, he answered questions with icy calm and listened to the verdict.

Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg was born on December 29, 1885, in Graz, Austria-Hungary. He came from an ancient German-Baltic noble family, included in the noble registers of all three Russian Baltic provinces. His lineage traces back to Hans von Ungern, who was a vassal of the Archbishop of Riga in 1269.

His father, Theodor-Leonhard-Rudolf, was born on April 1, 1857, and died in 1918 in Petrograd. His mother, Sophie-Charlotte von Wimpfen, was a German from Stuttgart, born on July 13, 1861, and passed away on November 4, 1907. The parents traveled extensively across Europe, and in the sixth year of their marriage, a son was born in Austria, named with the triple name Nikolai-Robert-Maximilian.

On September 15, 1921, in Novonikolaevsk, a show trial against Ungern took place at the summer theater in the Sosnovka park. The main prosecutor was Emelyan Yaroslavsky (Miney Izrailevich Gubelmann). The hearing lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes. Ungern emphasized his negative attitude towards Bolshevism and Soviet power.

The prosecutor, trying to play on the national feelings of the audience, presented Ungern as a descendant of the Baltic barons who allegedly "sucked the blood from Russia" while simultaneously "selling Russia to Germany." He mockingly asked: "What has your family distinguished itself in Russian service?" To which Baron Ungern calmly replied: "Seventy-two killed in the war."