Hello fellow enthusiasts,
A couple of months ago the BBC world service came up with a documentary about the allied intervention in Russia in 1918.
As interesting as this 3 hour documentary was it left me with a lot of questions.
A few of them are; a global timeline, what happened when, were there any battles, who was fighting on which side (Red/White), Why did the allies wanted to intervene in the Russian revolution, what was the objective of landing a relatively small force in the northwest of Russia, what did they (the allies) hope to achieve with a small number of soldiers. Did the allies use any tanks, planes or ships (apart from landing the troops)
Does anyone with knowledge of this subject be so kind to respond or perhaps reference some books or other sources with information on this forgotten part of history.
Thank you very much in advance, Matt
You should take a look at some of my previous answers on the subject, I think they will answer most of your questions.
This one looks specifically at America's role in the civil war.
Let me know if there is more to be said. The Allies became involved in Russia during World War One to re-invigorate the eastern front against the Central Powers. The war against the Bolsheviks (chiefly waged by Britain) developed as an unintended side effect, it is a good example of "mission creep" in history. It did not achieve much except make a bloody civil war longer and bloodier, and cement bad blood between Bolshevik Russia and the Allies.
Allied troops did see combat during the Russian Civil War, although not a lot. There was a trench war around Archangel from 1918 to 1919 that pitted a British-led force against the Bolsheviks. British pilots and tank crews served as advisors for the White Volunteer Army in south Russia. And the French had a short-lived intervention in Ukraine. For the most part the Allies' provided money, weapons, and training to anti-Bolshevik forces and did not take a direct role in the war, however. For example, two British battalions served in Siberia, but they were of poor quality and never saw action, while the 70,000 Japanese troops in Siberia were by far the largest Allied contingent but did nothing to help the Whites.