Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Foreign interventions in Russia between 1918 and 19201925}}

* Allied Powerspowers withdrawal

* WhiteAnti-Bolshevik victory in Finland, Latvia, and Estoniathe Baltic states

| {{flagcountry|KingdomRepublic of RomaniaChina (1912–1949)|1912}}

| {{nowrap| {{flagdeco|Czechoslovakia|1918}} [[SergeiSergey WojciechowskiVoytsekhovsky|Sergej Vojcechovský]]}}

Allied efforts were hampered by divided objectives, [[war-weariness]] after [[World War I]], and a rising discontent among some troops and sailors who were reluctant to fight the world's first [[socialist state]]; this reluctance sometimes led to [[mutiny]].^{[according to who]} These factors, together with the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion in September 1920, led the western Allied powers to end the North Russia and Siberian interventions in 1920, though the [[Japanese intervention in Siberia]] continued until 1922 and the [[Empire of Japan]] continued to {{Interlanguage link|Japanese occupation of Northern Sakhalin|lt=occupy the northern half|ru|Японская оккупация Северного Сахалина}} of [[Sakhalin]] until 1925.<ref name="beyer">{{cite book|last= Beyer|first= Rick|year= 2003|title= The Greatest Stories Never Told|publisher=A&E Television Networks / The History Channel|isbn=0060014016|url-access= registration |url=https://archive.org/details/greateststoriesn00beye |pages=152–53}}</ref>

The Allied Powerspowers had been shipping supplies to Russia since the beginning of the war in 1914 through the ports of [[Arkhangelsk]], [[Murmansk]] (established in 1915), and [[Vladivostok]]. In April 1917 the United States entered the war on the Allied side. U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] dropped his reservations about joining the war with the despotic tsar as an ally, and the [[United States]] began providing economic and technical support to Kerensky's government.<ref name="beyer"/>

Kornilov attempted to set up a military dictatorship by staging [[Kornilov affair|a coup]] ({{OldStyleDate | 10 September | 1917 | 27 August}}). He had the support of the British [[military attaché]] in Petrograd, Brigadier-General [[Alfred Knox]], and Kerensky accused Knox of producing pro-Kornilov [[propaganda]]. Kerensky also claimed that Lord [[Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner|Milner]], a member of the British War Cabinet, 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.<ref>''Intervention and the War'' by Richard Ullman, [[Princeton University Press]], 1961, pp. 11–13</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbxwAwAAQBAJ&dq=general+buchanan%2C+moscow%2C+kornilov&pg=PA285|title=Strategy and Supply (RLE The First World War): The Anglo-Russian Alliance 1914-1917|first=Keith|last=Neilson|date=24 April 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317703457 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_4SGDAAAQBAJ&dq=barter%2C+moscow%2C+kornilov&pg=PA113|title=INSIDE THE ENIGMA: British Officials in Russia, 1900-39|first=Michael|last=Hughes|date=1 July 1997|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781441127907 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The [[October Revolution]] of {{OldStyleDate |7 November| 1917 |25 October}} led to the overthrow of Kerensky's provisional government and to the Bolsheviks assuming power.

In early 1918, forces of the Central Powers invaded Russia, occupying extensive territory,<ref>

In early July 1919, another White unit under British command mutinied and killed its British officers, with 100 men then deserting to the Bolsheviks.{{sfn|Balbirnie|2016|p=136}} Another White mutiny was foiled later in the month by Australian troops.{{sfn|Wright|2017|p=174}} On 20 July, 3,000 White troops in the key city of [[Onega, Russia|Onega]] mutinied and handed over the city to the Bolsheviks. The loss of the city was a significant blow to the Allied forces as it was the only overland route available for the transfer of supplies and men between the Murmansk and Arkhangel theatres.{{sfn|Balbirnie|2016|p=142}} This event led to the British losing all remaining trust for the Whites and contributed to the desire to withdraw.{{sfn|Balbirnie|2016|p=142}} Attempts were soon made to retake the city, but in a failed attack in late July the British had to force detachments of White forces to land at gunpoint in the city, since they were adamant that they would not take part in any fighting.{{sfn|Wright|2017|p=170}} On one Allied ship, 5 Bolshevik prisoners captured in battle even managed to temporarily subdue the 200 White Russians on board and take control of the ship with little resistance.{{sfn|Wright|2017|p=171}} Despite the Allied setbacks, a battalion of marines, the 6th Royal Marine Light Infantry, was sent to assist the British at the end of July.{{sfn|Kinvig|2006|p=255}}

[[File:Russian civil war west.svg|thumb|[[Russian Civil War]] in the west in 1918–191918–1919]]

On 18 December 1918, a month after the armistice, the French landed in [[Odessa]] and [[Sevastopol]]. In Odessa, a 7-hour battle ensued between the French and the forces of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] before they gained full control of the city.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kenez|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdVoAAAAMAAJ|title=Civil War in South Russia, 1919–1920: The Defeat of the Whites|date=1977|publisher=Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace|page=182|isbn=978-0520033467|language=en}}</ref> The landings began the intervention in southern Russia (later Ukraine) which was to aid and supply General [[Denikin]]'s White Army forces, the [[Volunteer Army]], fighting the Bolsheviks there. The campaign involved mainly French, Greek and Polish troops. The morale of the French troops and the sailors of their fleet in the Black Sea was always low, and most wanted to be demobilised and sent home. The morale of the Greek and Polish interventionist forces was no better.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shmelev|first=Anatol|date=2003-06-01|title=The allies in Russia, 1917–20: Intervention as seen by the whites|journal=Revolutionary Russia|volume=16|issue=1|pages=93–94|doi=10.1080/09546540308575766|s2cid=145442425|issn=0954-6545}}</ref> A local warlord, [[Ataman|Otaman]] [[Nykyfor Hryhoriv]], aligned himself with the Bolsheviks on 18 February 1919 and advanced his army against the foreign invaders. With his army of 10–12,000 men, he first attacked allied-held [[Kherson]] on 2 March which was occupied by just 150 French, 700 Greek and a few hundred Volunteersvolunteers of questionable reliability. After heavy fighting, the city was taken on 9 March. The French lost 4 killed and 22 wounded, while the Greeks had some 250 casualties. Local Greek residents were also killed in the aftermath. After the conquest of Kherson, Hryhoriv turned his forces against [[Mykolaiv|Nikolaev]], where there were even less allied troops present. There were still 12,000 well equipped German troops in the city, but they had no intention to participate in the fighting.

Historian John M. Thompson arguesargued that while the intervention failed to stop the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, it did preventprevented its spread to central Europe. He wrote:<ref>John M. Thompson, "Allied and American Intervention in Russia, 1918–1921," in ''Rewriting Russian History: Soviet Interpretations of Russia's Past,'' ed. Cyril E. Black (New York, 1962), pp. 319–380. [https://archive.org/details/rewritingrussian0000blac online], at p. 325.</ref>

According to Sheldon M. Stern, [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] propaganda later portrayed the Allied intervention as a U.S. military invasion of Russia while denying or minimizing the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922#Relief effort|American famine relief effort]] that saved millions of Russian lives during 1921–1923.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stern|first=Sheldon M.|url=https://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2008/07/cold-war-origins.html|title=Cold War Origins|work=[[Washington Decoded]]|date=July 11, 2008|accessdate=March 22, 2022}}</ref>

Winston Churchill, who had been the most prominent supporter of a campaign to remove the Bolsheviks from power, long lamented the Allies' failure to crush the Soviet state in its infancy. This was especially the case during the breakdown of western-Soviet relations in the aftermath of [[World War II]] and the start of the [[Cold War]]. In 1949, Churchill stated to the British parliamentParliament:

In a further speech at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]], [[Washington D.C.]], in June 1954, Churchill lamented:

{{blockquote|If I had been properly supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle, but everybody turned up their hands and said, ‘How"How shocking!’"<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-03-11|title=Bolshevism: "Foul baboonery...Strangle at Birth"|url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/bolshevism/|access-date=2020-08-27|website=The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College|language=en-US}}</ref>}}

* {{Citecite journal|last=Balbirnie|first=Steven|date=2016-07-02|title='A Bad Business': British Responses to Mutinies Among Local Forces in Northern Russia|journal=Revolutionary Russia|volume=29|issue=2 |pages=129–148|doi=10.1080/09546545.2016.1243613|s2cid=152050937|issn=0954-6545}}

* {{cite book |last=Kinvig |first=Clifford |year=2006 |title=Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920 |publisher=Hambledon Continuum |location= London |isbn=1852854774}}

* {{cite book|last=Mawdsley|first=Evan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnwRMQAACAAJ |title=The Russian Civil War |date=2007 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1933648156 |language=en}}

* {{Citecite book |last=Moffat |first=Ian C. D. |title=The allied intervention in Russia, 1918–1920: the diplomacy of chaos|isbn=978-1137435736|location=Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire |oclc=909398151|date =2015}}

* {{cite book |first=Michael |last=Sargent |title=British Military Involvement in Transcaspia: 1918–1919 |url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/87659/04_apr.pdf |publisher= Conflict Studies Research Centre, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom |location= Camberley|date= April 2004}}

* {{cite book|last=Winegard |first=Timothy C.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctv1005dpz|title=The First World Oil War|date=2016|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1487522582 |jstor=10.3138/j.ctv1005dpz}}

* {{cite book |last=Wright |first=Damien |date=2017 |title=Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–20 |url=https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/churchills-secret-war-with-lenin-british-and-commonwealth-military-intervention-in-the-russian-civil-war-1918-20.php |location=Solihull |publisher=Helion |isbn=978-1911512103}}

*{{cite journal |last1=Head |first1=Michael, S. J.|title=The Caspian Campaign, Part I: First Phase – 1918 |journal=Warship International |date=2016 |volume=LIII |issue=1 |pages=69–81 |issn=0043-0374}}

[[Category:ForeignMilitary intervention]]