Beasts, Men, and Gods

Ossendowski joined a group of Poles and White Russians trying to escape from communist-controlled Siberia to India through Mongolia, China and Tibet. After a journey of several thousand miles the group reached Chinese-controlled Mongolia, only to be stopped there by the take-over of the country led by mysterious Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg. The Baron was a mystic who was fascinated by the beliefs and religions of the Far East such as Buddhism and Lamaism, and who believed himself to be a reincarnation of Kangchendzönga, the Mongolian god of war. Ossendowski wrote Beasts, Men, and Gods as a description of his travels during the Russian Civil War and the wars led by the Bloody Baron, it rapidly became a striking success and a best-seller