Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War

Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
Part of the Russian Civil War
Allied troops parading in Vladivostok, 1918.
Date 1918–20; 1922 Japanese withdrawal from Siberia Location North Russia, Siberia Result Allied withdrawal from Russia Bolshevik victory over White Army
Belligerents
British Empire Australia Canada British India United Kingdom Czechoslovakia Finland France Greece Italy Japan Poland Romania Serbia United States Supported By Republic of China	Soviet Russia Far Eastern Republic
Commanders and leaders
Various commanders	Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Fedor Raskolnikov Joseph Stalin Dmitry Zhloba Pavel Dybenko
Strength
~155,560; see below for a detailed breakdown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
	Unknown

The Allied intervention was a multi-national military expedition launched in 1918 during World War I which continued into the Russian Civil War. Its operations included forces from 14 nations and were conducted over a vast territory. The initial stated goals were to rescue the Czechoslovak Legion, secure supplies of munitions and armaments in Russian ports, and re-establish the Eastern front. After winning the war in Europe, the Allied powers militarily backed the pro-Tsarist, anti-Bolshevik White forces in Russia. Allied efforts were hampered by divided objectives, lack of an overarching strategy, and a lack of home front public support. These factors, together with the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion and the deteriorating situation compelled the Allies to withdraw from North Russia and Siberia in 1920, though Japanese forces occupied parts of Siberia until 1922, and the northern half of Sakhalin until 1925.

With the end of Allied support, the Red Army was able to inflict defeats on the remaining White government forces, leading to their eventual collapse. During the Allied intervention, the presence of foreign troops was effectively used for propaganda by the Bolsheviks who eventually established the Soviet Union.

Prologue to the Allied intervention

Revolution

In 1917, Russia was in a state of political strife, support for the World War I and the tsar was dwindling — Russia was on the brink of revolution. The February Revolution changed the course of the war: under intense political pressure, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a provisional Russian government was formed under Georgy Lvov. (then Alexander Kerensky became the prime minister). The provisional government pledged to continue fighting the Germans on the Eastern Front.

The Allies had been shipping supplies to Russia since the beginning of the war in 1914 through the ports of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, and Vladivostok. In 1917, the U.S. entered the war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson dropped his reservations about joining the war with a tyrannical monarch as an ally, and the U.S. began providing economic and technical support to Kerensky's government.

The war became unpopular with the Russian populace. Political and social unrest increased, with the revolutionary Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin gaining widespread support. Large numbers of common soldiers either mutinied or deserted the Russian army. During the June 18 offensive, the Russian Army was defeated by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces as a result of a counter-attack. This led to the collapse of the Eastern Front. The demoralised Russian Army was on the verge of mutiny and most soldiers had deserted the front lines. Kerensky replaced Aleksei Brusilov with Lavr Kornilov as Commander in Chief of the Army.

Kornilov attempted to set up a military dictatorship by staging a coup in late August 1917. He had the support of the British military attaché Brigadier-General Alfred Knox, and Kerensky accused Knox of producing pro-Kornilov propaganda. Kerensky also claimed Lord Milner wrote him a letter expressing support for Kornilov. A British armoured car squadron commanded by Oliver Locker-Lampson and dressed in Russian uniforms participated in the failed coup. In November 1917, the October Revolution led to the overthrow of Kerensky's provisional government, and the Bolsheviks coming into power.

Russia exits the war

Main article: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Five months later, on March 3, the newly-formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Imperial Germany, which formally ended the war on the Eastern Front. This permitted the redeployment of German soldiers to the Western Front, where the British and French armies were awaiting U.S. reinforcements.

Czechoslovak Legion

Main article: Czechoslovak Legion

The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ensured that prisoners-of-war (POW) would be transferred to and from each country. Austro-Hungarian prisoners were of a number of various nationalities. Czechoslovak POWs were conscripted to fight with the Austro-Hungarian army and had been captured by the Russians. However, they had long desired to create their own independent state and special Czechoslovak units were established by the Russians to fight the Central Powers. In 1917, the Bolsheviks stated that if the Czechoslovak Legion remained neutral and agreed to leave Russia, they would be granted safe passage through Siberia en route to France via Vladivostok, to fight with the Allied forces on the Western Front. The Czechoslovak Legion travelled via the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok. However, only half arrived before the agreement collapsed and fighting between them and the Bolsheviks erupted in May 1918.

Allied concerns

Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force, 1919

The Allies became concerned at the collapse of the Eastern front and their Russian ally, and there was also the question of the large amounts of supplies and equipment in Russian ports, which the Allies feared might be commandeered by the Germans or the Bolsheviks. Also worrisome to the Allies was the April 1918 landing of a division of German troops in Finland, increasing speculation they might attempt to capture the Murmansk-Petrograd railroad, and subsequently the strategic port of Murmansk and possibly Arkhangelsk. Other concerns were that the Czechoslovak Legion might be destroyed and the threat of Bolshevism, the nature of which worried many Allied governments. Meanwhile, Allied matériel in transit quickly accumulated in the warehouses in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.

Faced with these events, the British and French governments decided upon an Allied military intervention in Russia. They had three objectives:

1. prevent the German or Bolshevik capture of Allied matériel stockpiles in Arkhangelsk
2. mount an attack rescuing the Czechoslovak Legion stranded on the Trans-Siberian Railroad
3. resurrect the Eastern Front by defeating the Bolshevik army with help from the Czechoslovak Legion and an expanded anti-Bolshevik force of local citizens — and, in the process, stop the spread of communism and the Bolshevik cause in Russia

U.S. troops in Vladivostok, August 1918

Severely short of troops to spare, the British and French requested that President Wilson provide U.S. soldiers for the campaign. In July 1918, against the advice of the U.S. War Department, Wilson agreed to the limited participation of 5,000 U.S. Army soldiers in the campaign as the "American North Russia Expeditionary Force" (a.k.a. the Polar Bear Expedition), who were sent to Arkhangelsk, while another 8,000 soldiers, organised as the American Expeditionary Force Siberia, were shipped to Vladivostok from the Philippines and from Camp Fremont in California. That same month, the Canadian government agreed to the British government's request to command and to provide most of the soldiers for a combined British Empire force, which included Australians and colonial Indian troops.

The Japanese, concerned about their northern border, sent the largest military force, numbering about 70,000. They desired the establishment of a buffer state in Siberia, and the Imperial Japanese army general staff viewed the situation in Russia as an opportunity for settling Japan's national security "northern problem". The Japanese government were also intensely hostile to communism.

The Italians created the special "Corpo di Spedizione" with Alpini troops sent from Italy and ex-POWs of Italian ethnicity from the former Austro-Hungarian army who were recruited to the Italian Legione Redenta. They were initially based in the Italian Concession in Tientsin and numbered about 2,500.

Romania, Greece, Poland, China and Serbia also sent small contingents in support of the intervention.

Russian Civil War

Main article: Russian Civil War

After the end of the war in Europe and the defeat of the Central Powers, the Allies openly supported the anti-Bolshevik White forces.

Foreign forces throughout Russia

The positions of the Allied expeditionary forces and of the White Armies in European Russia, 1919

Numbers of foreign soldiers who occupied the indicated regions of Russia:

• 50,000 Czechoslovaks (along the Trans-Siberian railway)
• 28,000 Japanese, later increased to 70,000 (in the Vladivostok region and north)
• 24,000 Greeks (in the Crimea)
• 40,000 British (in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions)
• 13,000 Americans (in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions)
• 12,000 French and French colonial (mostly in the Arkhangelsk and Odessa regions)
• 12,000 Poles (mostly on Siberia)
• 4,000 Canadians (in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions)
• 4,000 Serbs (in the Arkhangelsk region)
• 4,000 Romanians (in the Arkhangelsk region)
• 2,500 Italians (in the Arkhangelsk region and Siberia)
• 2,000 Chinese (in the Vladivostok region)
• 150 Australians (mostly in the Arkhangelsk regions)

Campaigns

Northern Russia

Main article: North Russia Campaign

Captured British Mark V tank in Arkhangelsk

File:Murmansk Intervention.jpg

Memorial to the victims of the intervention in Murmansk

• British Army (6th Yorkshire Regiment, 2/10th Royal Scots, some Royal Dublin Fusiliers 52 Bn Manchester Regt., others?)
• Royal Navy (plus a detachment of 53 U.S. Navy sailors — including Harold Gunnes - from the cruiser USS Olympia during August and September 1918 only)
• Royal Air Force (Fairey Campania and Sopwith Baby seaplanes along with a single Sopwith Camel fighter)[1]
• French Army (21st Colonial Battalion)
• Canadian Field Artillery (67th and 68th Batteries of the 16th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery)
• Slavo-British Allied Legion (aka SBAL, anti-Bolshevik forces, included Dyer's Battalion, British-trained and led)
• White Russian Army (previously the army of Alexander Kerensky's provisional Russian government, anti-Bolshevik, led by General Evgenii Miller)
• U.S. Army, American North Russia Expeditionary Force (a.k.a. Polar Bear Expedition, 310th Engineers, 339th Infantry, 337th Field Hospital, and 337th Ambulance Company)
• U.S. Army, 167th and 168th Railroad Companies (sent to Murmansk to operate the Murmansk to Petrograd line)
• Miscellaneous Allied troops from Poland, Serbia and Italy
• British North Russian Relief Force (arrived in late May 1919 to cover the withdrawal of US and Allied troops)

Southern Russia and Ukraine

Main article: Southern Front of the Russian Civil War

On 18 December 1918, a month after the Armistice, the French occupied Odessa. This began the intervention in Ukraine and Southern Russia which was to aid and supply General Denikin's White Army forces, the Volunteer Army, fighting the Bolsheviks there. The campaign involved French, Polish and Greek troops (I Army Corps, ca. 24,000 men under Major Gen. Konstantinos Nider). By April 1919, they were withdrawn before the defeat of the White Army's march against Moscow. General Wrangel reorganized his army in the Crimea; however, with the deteriorating situation, he and his soldiers fled Russia aboard Allied ships on 14 November 1920.

Siberia

Main article: Siberian Intervention

A Japanese lithograph showing troops occupying Blagoveschensk.

The joint Allied intervention began in August 1918. The Japanese entered through Vladivostok and points along the Manchurian border with more than 70,000 troops eventually being deployed. The Japanese were joined by British and later American, Canadian, French, and Italian troops. Elements of the Czechoslovak Legion that had reached Vladivostok, greeted the allied forces. The Americans deployed the 27th Infantry and 31st Infantry regiments out of the Philippines, plus elements of the 12th, 13th and 62nd Infantry Regiments out of Camp Fremont.

The Japanese were expected to send only around 7,000 troops for the expedition, but by the end of their involvement in Siberia had deployed 70,000. The deployment of such a large force for a rescue operation made the Allies wary of Japanese intentions. On September 5, the Japanese linked up with the vanguard of the Czech Legion, a few days later the British, Italian and French contingents joined the Czechs in an effort to re-establish the Eastern Front beyond the Urals; as a result the European allies trekked westwards. The Japanese, with their own objectives in mind, refused to proceed west of Lake Baikal. The Americans, suspicious of Japanese intentions, also stayed behind to keep an eye on them. By November, the Japanese occupied all ports and major towns in the Russian Maritime Provinces and Siberia east of the city of Chita.

The Allies lent their support to White Russian elements from the summer of 1918. There were tensions between the two anti-Bolshevik factions; the White Russian government led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak and the Cossacks led by Grigory Semyonov and Ivan Kalmykov which also hampered efforts.

All allied forces were evacuated by 1920, apart from the Japanese who stayed until 1922.

Caucasus

In 1917, Dunsterforce, an Allied military mission of under 1,000 Australian, British, and Canadian troops (drawn from the Mesopotamian and Western Fronts), accompanied by armoured cars, deployed from Hamadan some 350 km across Qajar Persia. It was named after its commander General Lionel Dunsterville. Its mission was to gather information, train and command local forces, and prevent the spread of German propaganda.

Later on, Dunsterville was told to take and protect the Baku oil fields. The force was initially delayed by 3,000 Russian Bolshevik troops at Enzeli but then proceeded by ship to the port of Baku on the Caspian Sea. This was the primary target for the advancing Turkish forces and Dunsterforce endured a short, brutal siege in September 1918 before being forced to withdraw.

However, having been defeated in World War I, Turkey had to withdraw its forces from the borders of Azerbaijan in the middle of November 1918. Headed by General William Thomson, the British troops of 5,000 soldiers arrived in Baku on November 17, and martial law was implemented on the capital of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic until "the civil power would be strong enough to release the forces from the responsibility to maintain the public order".

Trans Caspian Campaign

The first instance of allied mediation occurred on 11 August 1918, when General Malleson intervened in support of the Ashkhabad Executive Committee, who had ousted the Tashkent Soviet Bolsheviks from the western end of the Trans-Caspian Railway in July 1918. He sent the Machine Gun Section of the 19th Punjabi Rifles to Baraim Ali located on the Trans-Caspian Railway. After combat at Merv, they were joined by the rest of the regiment. There was further action at Kaka on 28 August, 11 and 18 September. They were reinforced on 25 September by two squadrons of the 28th Light Cavalry. Fighting alongside Trans Caspian troops, they subsequently fought at Arman Sagad (between 9 and 11 October) and Dushak (14 October).

By 1 November, they had re-occupied Merv and on instructions of the British government, halted their advance and took up defensive positions at Bairam Ali. The Trans-Caspian forces continued to attack the Bolsheviks to the north. After the Trans-Caspian forces were routed at Uch Aji, their commander Colonel Knollys sent the 28th Cavalry to their support at Annenkovo. In January 1919, one company of the 19th Punjabi Rifles was sent to reinforce the position at Annenkovo, where a second battle took place on 16 January. The British Government decided on 21 January to withdraw the force, and the last troops left for Persia on 5 April.

Allied withdrawal

The allies withdrew in 1920. The Japanese stayed in the Maritime Provinces of the Russian Far East until 1922 and in northern Sakhalin until 1925, when U.S. economic and diplomatic pressure, internal Japanese politics and the Red Army's military success forced Japan’s withdrawal from Russia.

See also

• Arthur Percy Sullivan
• Australian contribution to the Allied Intervention in Russia 1918–1919
• British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19
• Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force
• Cold War
• Eight-Nation Alliance
• Italian Legione Redenta
• Polar Bear Expedition

References

• Beyer, Rick (2003). The Greatest Stories Never Told. A&E Television Networks / The History Channel. ISBN 0-06-001401-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Humphreys, Leonard A. (1996). The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920’s. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2375-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Willett, Robert L. (2003). Russian Sideshow: America’s Undeclared War, 1918–1920. Washington D.C: Brassey’s. ISBN 1-57488-429-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Benjamin Isitt (2010). "From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada's Siberian Expedition, 1917-19". University of British Columbia Press. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
• Benjamin Isitt. ""Mutiny from Victoria to Vladivostok, December 1918," Canadian Historical Review, 87:2 (June 2006)". Retrieved 2009-10-11.
• "Siberian Expedition". Retrieved 2009-10-11.