Did you know the U.S. Army fought against the Bolsheviks 1918-19?

[Lefty48197]

It's not a very well known story. My dad's uncle served in one
of the units that came to be known as the "Polar Bear Expedition".

"The American military intervention at Archangel, Russia, at the end of World War I, nicknamed the "Polar Bear Expedition," is a strange episode in American history. Ostensibly sent to Russia to prevent a German advance and to help reopen the Eastern Front, American soldiers found themselves fighting Bolshevik revolutionaries for months after the Armistice ended fighting in France."

http://www.umich.edu/~bhl/bhl/mhchome/polarb.htm
http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=178&category=life
http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blpeacedaybattle1.htm
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/patotten.htm
http://pages.prodigy.net/mvgrobbel/photos/polarbeararticles.htm

[RoyGBiv]

1. Yes ...

There was a similar "intervention" along the Russian east coast as well.

Russians have an image in the West of being paranoid.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really after you.

[Lefty48197]

3. This may have been the "railroad engineers" in Vladivostok

near where Russia, China, and Korea meet.

[NoPasaran]

4. Two seperate expeditions

One to North Russia---Murmansk and Archangel---joining with the British and assorted other nations. Another to Siberia---Vladivostok---largely to keep an eye on the Japanese, who sent many more troops to occupy the Russian Maritime Province.

[Zuni]

18. Japanese sent 70,000

they expected to use the Civil War to their advantage and seize the Sakhalin islands, parts of siberia and manchuria

They were the one of many nations in Russia

[gold_bug]

2. I remember reading something about it in a history book

If I'm remembering correctly, there was units from about 7 or 8 other countries that also remained and occupied Russian terrirory after the war ended and attempted to hinder the Bolsheviks. The first article you linked to mentions British troops.

[Zuni]

19. There were quite a few

during the period Germany, Britain, France, US, Japan, the 'Czech Legion' all had troops in Russian territory

[David Zephyr]

5. Upton Sinclair Wove This Into His Plot in His Great Novel "Oil"

Lefty48197, thanks for bringing this little know fact to our forum. I was shocked when I read in Sinclair's "Oil" many years ago that the U.S. had stayed on after the War.

To those here who have never read "Oil", you will find it a very informative read about Southern California, the Harding Administration, our unknown involvement in Russia after WWI and the petroleum biz.

:thumbsup:

[orpupilofnature57]

6. My choice for most interesting war between 1860-1940 poll on Du

[bobbieinok]

7. 1st heard of this in 1st yr in grad school in German history course

various German vets returning from defeat in WWI with no jobs .... formed militia groups and some groups went into Russia

in connection with this info on German history, professor lectured about American troops who also fought vs the communists at the end of WWI

really freaked me out....how come we never hear about a half or more of US history in school??????

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. Actually it was mostly Marines... my Grandfather's uncle is

buried there.

[hasbro]

9. There were quite a few casualties on our side

the US had over 100.

The Russian pacific coast was a primarily Japanese affair in terms of international intervention. Plenty of human rights abuses typical of the Japanese military.

The Civil war was a particularly brutal and muddled affair.

[Lefty48197]

11. My Aunt told me that if her Uncle had died over there

then the Army would have denied any knowledge of why he was there, or how he got there.

[leyton]

10. We were ticked that they pulled out of the war.

When the Bolsheviks signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, it allowed the Germans to focus on the western front. Naturally, the Allies were ticked off, and I believe the Americans sent 8000 troups to Siberia and they joined the Greens or the Whites, I'm not sure which. The Japanese sent a contingent as well, I think.

[Xithras]

12. The original goal was to secure weapons

The allies had given the czar a huge amount of weaponry to use against the Germans. In 1918, Russia was still very much in the middle of a civil war, with several different groups using their armies to try and take over the country. When it was realized that the Bolsheviks had control over the donated weaponry, and that the Bolsheviks had signed a treaty with the Germans, panic ensued and a mission was launched to drive the Bolsheviks from the city and retrieve the weapons. There was also the issue of the 40,000 man Czech Army that had been invited into Russia by the czar to help their fight against the Germans, but which was now trapped by the Bolsheviks.

The mission plan was simple...invade at Archangel, secure the supplies, aid the White Army when possible, and get the Czechs out.

Like all military plans though, it didn't survive first contact with the enemy (or the Russian winter).

[Zuni]

20. The French and British also had forces

as well as former Austro-Hungarian POWs who fought across Russia known as the 'Czech Legion'

[lenidog]

25. The Japanese also landed troops in Siberia

around Vladivostok.

[Darranar]

13. Yes, I knew that. It's an interesting precedent to years of...

anti-communist (or anti-possibly resembling communist) interventions.

[The Magistrate]

14. It Should Be Better Known, Sir

There is an excellent old book on the Archangel affray titled "The Ignorant Armies". Somewhere in my scattered books is a long piece prepared by a survivor's association: most of the soldiers came from Michigan, and one of the leading commanders was heir to the Cudahy meat-packing fortune.

U.S. troops saw little action in the Siberian venture, but there was a tremendous Japanese presence in that expedition, and Imperial Japan made a serious effort to seize Trans-Baikal Siberia at that time.

[Lefty48197]

17. Here's a link to some books about the subject, including the one you

mentioned:

http://pages.prodigy.net/mvgrobbel/photos/polarbearbooks.htm

Cudahy's book is mentioned on the link too.

[WMliberal]

15. yes.

There's a monument to the regiment somewhere in Michigan. The poor sods were put under British command. Stuck there for a winter until the ice packs thawed. The French fought in southern Russia as well. There was even a grand scheme to rescue encircled Whites if they could punch through and reach the Black Sea.

We had a lecture about it, given by a Ph.D. candidate writing on it when I took Modern Russian History.

[Lefty48197]

16. Here's some info on the memorial:

Pretty touching poem. We're lucky our family member came home. Dad says I'm just like his Uncle.

[Yupster]

21. Strangle Communism

In Its Cradle is how I learned it.

[Vogon_Glory]

22. My Great Uncle Nearly Got To Go To Siberia

My great-uncle (Let's call him Monty) nearly got to participate in this mess. Monty was in officer's training during World War One and on Armistice Day found himself in front of the commandant.

"Monty," said the commandant, "You have two choices. You can either get discharged now or you can stay in the program, get commissioned, and join the American Expeditionary Force to Siberia."

"Siberia?" said Monty. "Brrrrrrr!"

Uncle Monty chose to accept a discharge and went back to law school.

[Vogon_Glory]

23. Vladivostok...

I think I remember reading that that while the US Expeditionary Force to Siberia did fight the Bolsheviks, towards the end of their stay in Siberia, the AEF's relations with Lenin and Trotsky's Red Army had warmed to the point that after Admiral Kolchak's White government had collapsed, the Bolsheviks asked the AEF to maintain order in Vladivostok until the Bolsheviks could secure control of the city for themselves. I believe that this was about 1920.

This is not to say that the US Army was buddy-buddy with the Bolsheviks or that it wasn't subsequently used for ostensibly "anti-Red" campaigns in the 1920's and early 1930's, just that enough folks in the Executive Branch in Washington, DC had realized that our Siberian expedition had turned into a mess and that it was time to implement an exit.

[ProgressiveConn]

24. Our troops in Vladivostok

were there first and foremost as a tripwire against a Japanese invasion. =)

[hasbro]

27. The Siberian AEF commander

Lost his zeal for the affair having to deal with Adm Kolchak's army.

[hasbro]

26. A couple of books that deal in part with the subject

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081297302X/qid=1122166253/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-5429203-9808750>Reds : McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014024364X/qid=1122167901/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5429203-9808750>A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924


People's Tragedy is particularly brilliant. 900 pages that reads like it was only 600.

I also have another book dealing with the Polar Bears exclusively, I found it used and don't have it with me now.