Warfare Through The Ages: The Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War

Allied intervention arrived in a variety of forms and at different times. In September 1917, the beleaguered Kerensky provisional government requested U.S. assistance to maintain control of the Trans-Siberian Railway; 280 American transportation experts were given military commissions and were sent to Russia. Japanese forces moved into Vladivostok in December after Kerensky's fall. French soldiers made a brief appearance in the Ukraine in a confusing struggle among Communists, Whites and Ukrainian nationalists. The British concentrated their efforts in the north in Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk, but gave up the venture in the fall of 1919. Regular American forces under the command of General William S. Graves made an appearance in August 1918 with one segment of the command sent to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, and the other to Vladivostok. The American leadership had been reluctant to become involved in this venture, but were urged on by the British, who hoped the Bolsheviks' grip could be loosened. The U.S. also was motivated by its growing rivalry with Japan, which had dispatched more than 70,000 soldiers to Russia; the American force would number about 9,000. Graves was successful with his prime assignment to aid the Czechs, but the relationship with the other Allies was difficult. The British lobbied hard for direct intervention on behalf of the Whites against the Bolsheviks. The Japanese government became increasingly unhappy with Woodrow Wilson, who had initially indicated a willingness to support a Japanese plea for a statement on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The British opposed such a statement, fearing that an endorsement of equality might spell trouble for their worldwide empire. In the end, Wilson caved in to British pressure and withdrew his support, which deeply offended the Japanese. American forces in Russia were not fully withdrawn until April 1920. Japanese soldiers, which sustained heavy losses in Russia, remained until October 1922; some Japanese political and military leaders had lobbied for the outright annexation of Siberia, but were overruled. The American adventure in Russia did not go unnoticed at home. Newspapers openly questioned the venture, wondering why soldiers should be fighting in a foreign war long after the armistice was signed. Wilson remained firm in his refusal to extend diplomatic recognition to the new Soviet government, but he pressured Britain and France to give up their interventionist forays into Russia. At the Paris Peace Conference, Russian issues and the status quo in the Pacific were largely ignored.

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Education

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• warfare through the ages
• allied intervention
• russian civil war

[RedGoblinus]

Great pictures in this video particularly @ 0:33 seconds where the American Stars and Stripes, French tricolour?, British naval ensign and the Japanese Imperial flag are lined up together. I've never seen those flags lined up together before for a military parade - extremely unusual !!!!!

[RevBillyRayCollins]

@RedGoblinus Yeah it is a neat picture.

[XXGDUBSXX]

It's Interesting how you don't hear much about this seeing as how so many countries were involved like the Boxer rebellion years earlier. Though I did hear of the Boxer rebellion in School. I found out about the Allies trying to help the "White" Russians, in a book I got from the Library.

[RevBillyRayCollins]

@XXGDUBSXX Yeah a lot of this stuff is white washed from history classes in school.

[Faxe90Swe]

Ahh, yes. Thought I recognized it, it's played during the scenes of the Andersonville POW camp and at the bridge.

[RevBillyRayCollins]

@Faxe90Swe Honestly its been many years since Ive seen the film so Ive forgotten where exactly it is myself.

[RedGoblinus]

@RevBillyRayCollins Writing of the Royal Navy ensign, it's my favourite flag. The St George cross of England is rather plain with its red cross on the white background, the Union flag is a bit too busy with colours , the naval ensign with the St George flag with union jack in top left quarter is just right. I might now go out and buy one to drape outside my house for when England next win the football world cup - ha ha ha - I'll dream on because that probably wont happen again in my lifetime ;-)

[RedGoblinus]

The Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War led to the Soviets being totally distrustful of the Western powers for almost the whole life of the Soviet Union. Joe Stalin himself even mentioned the amount of Western powers ranged against the fledgling Red Army and how they overcame them in the early years of the USSR. This great speech delivered by Stalin in Red Square in November 1941 must have been a massive morale boost for the Reds because they then drove the Germans from Moscow.

[RevBillyRayCollins]

@Faxe90Swe It's called "The Carriage of the Spirits," an Italian piece by Ennio Morricone from the film "The Good the Bad and the Ugly."

[Faxe90Swe]

What's the name of the music?