Beasts, Men and Gods - Ferdynand Ossendowski

Published as an audiobook by Librivox. Accessed via Fabuly.
Narrated by Mark F Smith.
Originally published 1922.

I recently (the end of last year) got a new audiobook app, which (like Librivox, on which it is based) is made up of mostly public domain audiobooks, making it free to listen to. With a limited range of books to choose from, I've had to be a bit more creative in my choices (this is the app I listened to The Age of Innocence on), and, without knowing much about it, I decided to give this book a go.

What a weird book!

It is supposedly a biographical account of the author, Ferdynand Ossendowski, who travels from Russia, across Siberia to Mongolia, attempting to avoid the Communist takeover of the area. In his journeys he has many narrow escapes, and encounters a number of prominent (to that area and at that time) historical figures, often becoming quite close to them, regardless of whether they are friend or foe. 

I say supposedly because parts of the account seem incredibly far-fetched, and if Ossendowski did in fact live through the sorts of things he claims to have, I am amazed that he is not more well-known. Then again, those were violent times, and people have to survive in order to be able to write biographical accounts...

Ossendowski also encounters a few figures obsessed with mysticism, Buddhism, and reincarnation, including someone called Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, a violent and unpredictable Russian warlord who had conquered much of Mongolia. By the end of the book, Ossendowski has dropped the narrative almost entirely, to instead focus on various prophecies and beliefs held by figures like Ungern-Sternberg or 'the Living Buddha,' whom Ossendowski has also encountered.

It's all super weird. Interesting. Different. A glimpse into a world I knew nothing about.

But overall, weird.

Completed 11 September 2026.

Previous Book ~ Next Book

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