Fighting Without a War: An Account of Military Intervention in North RussiaAlbertson, Ralph
History
Fighting Without a War: An Account of Military Intervention in North Russia
Albertson, Ralph
World War, 1914-1918 -- Soviet Union
The women work in the fields with the men
Russians love their homes and their villages devotedly
*FIGHTING WITHOUT A WAR*
*I*
*THE EXPEDITION*
The North Russian Expeditionary Force consisted of men from America,
England, Canada, France, Italy, and Serbia. England sent the largest
number of men, America the second largest, the other countries being
represented by only a few companies each.
The expedition was under the command of the British War Office, which
sent out a large number of unattached British officers to take charge of
the Russian armies that were to be formed and to supervise all American
and other officers that had been attached to the expedition.
The first landing of troops of the North Russian Expeditionary Force was
in August, 1918. The German armistice was signed November 11. Fighting
continued all winter. The American troops were withdrawn in June, 1919.
A much larger British army landed in June. Our Russian conscripts
mutinied against the English in July, making it impossible for the
English to remain. The last man of the North Russian Expeditionary
Force was withdrawn in September, 1919. The "washout" was complete.
England had spent five hundred million dollars and lost thousands of
men. The cost to America and the other countries had been less in men
and money, but considerable in other ways. The cost to Russia in every
way had been incalculable.
When this expedition was sent to Russia the Allies were at war with
Germany. Russia was not. She had signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty. We
did not declare war on Russia, nor on any section of Russians. We went,
it was reasonable to suppose, to guard the military stores we had
shipped to Archangel and save them from falling into German hands, and
to prevent the Germans from establishing a submarine base at Murmansk.
When we got there, however, the Bolshevik Russians, viewing the
expedition as one of enmity to them, had removed practically all of the
millions of dollars’ worth of stores to points far south of Archangel
and had themselves left for points of from one to two hundred miles
south. We pursued them and war began,—war with the de facto government
of Russia, whom indeed we had not recognized and against whom we had
made no declaration.
There was no war technically speaking in North Russia. There surely was
no legal basis of war. But there was plenty of fighting. News of this
fighting does not seem to have reached America very freely. The double
English and American censorship was very effective.
First we had declared we would not engage in a military intervention in
Russia, then having gotten into it we declared we were not doing it,
then we depended on the censorship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account