Foreign intervention
Former WWI Allies reunited and deployed forces to intervene in Russia’s turbulent conflict
The UK, USA, France and Japan headed an international effort to defeat the Bolsheviks
BRITISH EXPEDITION MURMANSK
British marines arrived in Murmansk on 6 March 1918 to protect the millions of tons of military supplies awaiting shipment to Petrograd. French, American, Canadian and Australian troops also landed. Desultory fighting took place later that year between the Allies, along with the their local White Guard supporters, and the Red Army. A similar force landed in Archangel. Expeditions ranged up and down the Northern Dvina River but the extreme environment prevented serious campaigning. The Allies evacuated their forces from both ports by early 1920.
JAPANESE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE VLADIVOSTOK
Japan was the first Allied power to send troops to Siberia as part of a confused plan to both resurrect the front against the Central Powers and support the Czech Legion’s escape. Other forces from Britain, the USA, China and Canada arrived with complicated agendas that coalesced into jealously watching each other’s activities, supplying Kolchak, guarding munitions dumps at Vladivostok and making sure the Czech Legion left safely. By the summer of 1920 only the Japanese remained, staying in the city until June 1922.
MALLESON MISSION ASHKHABAD, TURKMENISTAN
Russia’s province of Turkmenistan was in chaos in 1918. A small Indian army force was sent to support local anti-bolshevik forces from a large group of Red Army troops recruited from Austro-german POWS. Never numbering more than 1,000 men, this group, known as the 'Malleson Mission' after its commander, defeated various
Bolshevik attempts to take power in the area until it was withdrawn in August 1919.
“NEVER NUMBERING MORE THAN 1,000 MEN, THIS GROUP, KNOWN AS THE 'MALLESON MISSION' AFTER ITS COMMANDER, DEFEATED VARIOUS BOLSHEVIK ATTEMPTS TO TAKE POWER IN THE AREA”
“THE CENTRAL POWERS' WITHDRAWAL IN LATE 1918 PROVIDED THE RED ARMY WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO STRIKE AT BOTH OF THESE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY GROUPS”
DUNSTERFORCE BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
British intervention in the southern Caucasus, in the shape of a mobile group called 'Dunsterforce', arrived in Baku from Persia to prevent its occupation by the Ottoman army during the spring of 1918. Economically vital, the region provided the world with half of its oil. Dunsterforce and other British troops arrived in Baku during the summer of 1918 and began to train local forces to defend the city. The British withdrew in mid-september and the Ottomans occupied the city.
FRENCH INTERVENTION ODESSA, UKRAINE
Odessa fell within the French area of interest in Russia and, alongside Greek troops, the French occupied Odessa on 18 December 1918. Their plan was to support Denikin’s forces. However, public opinion in France, coupled with the unwillingness of the French soldiers and sailors to fight, led to their departure in April 1919. As a result of this fiasco, French efforts in south Russia were limited.
ROYAL NAVY IN THE BALTIC BALTIC SEA
To support the Baltic states fighting for their independence from Russia and rogue German units in the area, and to limit Bolshevik expansion, the Royal Navy sent a squadron to the Baltic Sea in December 1918. As well as skirmishing with the Red Baltic Sea Fleet, the British also supported an anti-bolshevik force, the Northwestern Volunteer Army, when it marched on Petrograd in October 1919. This effort failed and the British fleet departed in February 1920, but the Baltic states remained independent until 1940.
THE WHITE CAPITAL OMSK, WHITE RUSSIA
Omsk was the capital of Russia during the period of Kolchak’s rule. The coup that brought Kolchak to power, with Allied support, took place in Omsk in November 1918. It was here that the Allied missions to Kolchak’s regime were based until late 1919, when his government collapsed and was forced to relocate to Irkutsk. Allied military supplies from Vladivostok arrived there for distribution in vast quantities.
AUSTRO-GERMAN OCCUPATION KIEV, UKRAINE
Although not an Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, the Austrogerman occupation of Ukraine and the Donbas industrial region provided a protective shield for the Don Cossacks to the east and the embryonic Volunteer Army under Denikin to the southeast. The Central Powers' withdrawal in late 1918 provided the Red Army with an opportunity to strike at both of these counter-revolutionary groups.