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
Date12 January 1918[3] – 20 May 1925[4]
(7 years, 4 months, 1 week and 1 day)
Location
Former Russian Empire
Result

Bolshevik victory

  • Allied powers withdrawal
  • Defeat and collapse of the Russian White movement
  • Anti-Bolshevik victory in Finland and the Baltic states
Belligerents
Allied Powers:
 Bolsheviks:
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • 50,000–70,000 troops
  • 15,600 troops
  • 30,000 troops[5]
  • 12,950 troops
  • 11,300 troops
  • 70,000 troops
  • 59,150 troops[6][7][8][9]
  • 4,700+ troops
  • 2,500 troops
  • 2,000 troops
  • 150 troops
 Unknown
Casualties and losses
 Unknown
1 landing craft captured by Romanians[17]

The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions that began in 1918. The initial impetus behind the interventions was to secure munitions and supply depots from falling into the German Empire's hands, particularly after the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and to rescue the Allied forces that had become trapped within Russia after the 1917 October Revolution.[18] After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the Allied plan changed to helping the White forces in the Russian Civil War. After the Whites collapsed, the Allies withdrew their forces from Russia by 1925.[19]

Allied troops landed in Arkhangelsk (the North Russia intervention of 1918–1919) and in Vladivostok (as part of the Siberian intervention of 1918–1922). The British also intervened in the Baltic theatre (1918–1919) and in the Caucasus (1917–1919). French-led Allied forces participated in the Southern Russia intervention (1918–1919).

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 whom?] 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 occupy the northern half [ru] of Sakhalin until 1925.[20]

  1. ^ Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 15, Nr 4, 1985, pp. 46–48. Accessed January 24, 2016.
  2. ^ cf. Jamie Bisher, White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian, Routledge 2006, ISBN 1135765952, p.378, footnote 28
  3. ^ "The March of the Japanese Army at Vladivostok City". 1919.
  4. ^ "Japan and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – Convention embodying basic rules of the Relations between Japan and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, together with Protocols a and B, Declaration, Exchange of Notes, Annexed Note and Protocol of Signature. Peking, January 20, 1925 [1925] LNTSer 69; 34 LNTS 31".
  5. ^ Wright 2017, p. 302.
  6. ^ Kinvig 2006, pp. 297, 304.
  7. ^ Sargent 2004, p. 33.
  8. ^ Winegard 2016, p. 229.
  9. ^ Wright 2017, pp. 305–306, 394, 526–528, 530–535.
  10. ^ Bradley, Czechoslovak Legion, 156.
  11. ^ Kinvig 2006, pp. 289, 315.
  12. ^ Wright 2017, pp. 490–492, 498–500, 504.
  13. ^ Winegard 2016, p. 208.
  14. ^ See also Malleson Mission – Casualties
  15. ^ Robert L. Willett, "Russian Sideshow" (Washington, D.C., Brassey's Inc., 2003), p. 267
  16. ^ Greek army document [dead link‍]
  17. ^ Siegfried Breyer, Soviet Warship Development: 1917–1937, Conway Maritime Press, 1992, p. 98 [ISBN missing]
  18. ^ Mawdsley 2007, pp. 54–55.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Beyer, Rick (2003). The Greatest Stories Never Told. A&E Television Networks / The History Channel. pp. 152–53. ISBN 0060014016.