Snow falls in the frigid Siberian Arctic, where an American force shelters in a small village along
the Trans-Siberian railway. Suddenly, an explosion decimates the side of a building. From across the
tracks, a Bolshevik force comes flooding out of the forest. The Russians fire their rifles;
with each bullet, a stream of smoke exits their muzzles and drifts in the freezing air.
The Americans return fire. They are about to be overrun by angry Russian soldiers. No one
wants to die in this frozen wasteland, so a retreat is ordered. The platoon of
Americans covers one another as they run down the railway towards another regiment
stationed to the north. The craziest thing is that the U.S. soldiers aren’t entirely sure why
they invaded Russia in the first place, but now they are paying dearly for it.
About a year before the United States sent troops to invade Russia, Vladimir Lenin,
and Leon Trotsky incited the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The U.S. had just deployed troops in
Europe to help the Allies defeat the Germans in World War I. When the revolution happened,
the new Communist regime pulled Russia out of the conflict and agreed to a tentative
truce with Germany. The Allies continued to fight on, and eventually, the tide of the war turned.
By the following year, the Bolsheviks controlled a large part of western Russia,
but forces identifying themselves as the White Russians fought to take back their country
from the Communists. This group was made up of a motley crew of mostly loyalists and reactionaries
with some democrats sprinkled in, all of which were against Russia becoming a communist state.
At this point, American troops had been engaged in battles across Europe, and the German army
was slowly falling to the Allied forces. On November 11, 1918, World War I came to
an end. But as American soldiers prepared to return home from the brutality of war,
a select group were ordered to remain behind. These soldiers were sent on a mission in northern
Russia to help the White Russians maintain control of important railways that allowed
supplies to be transported to areas where the White and Red armies were engaged in battle.
The United States maintained they were staying out of the internal affairs of Russia, but secretly
President Woodrow Willson and other Allied leaders knew that if the Bolsheviks were victorious and
defeated the White Russian forces, the country would become a full-fledged communist state that
would pose a threat to capitalism and democracy around the world. Two American forces were ordered
to go over the Russian border and help maintain supply lines for the war against the Red Army.
The wording used by Wilson for these missions was vague and had no clear goal. This was
likely because if the United States took a side in the conflict playing out in Russia,
they could be thrown into another war. The invasion needed to remain as covert as possible,
and by having no clear orders or objectives,
the American soldiers within the borders of Russia were given plausible deniability.
Unfortunately, having troops stationed within a country undergoing civil war
can only lead to rising tensions and casualties. The US troops, who were
now technically an invasion force in Russia, found themselves in a
very dangerous situation. The Bolsheviks were becoming more and more powerful. It would only
be a matter of time before American forces and the Red Army met. When this happened,
the United States would have to take a stand or at least make some very difficult decisions.
The invasion of Russia technically began in July, 1918. The war in Europe still could have
gone either way, but the Allies seemed to be losing. Since Germany no longer needed to worry
about protecting their eastern front due to their newly formed peace with the Bolshevik government,
German forces were able to focus on pushing west. They advanced further and further into France,
leaving a wake of destruction in their path. The only way the German advance
could be stopped was if the Allies somehow reopened the Eastern Front.
British and French expeditionary forces were already in northern
Russia where they were working to open up this new front. At the same time,
they hoped to supply the White Russian forces with resources that would allow them to defeat
the Bolsheviks and rejoin the war. The other Allied leaders convinced Woodrow Wilson to send
13,000 troops across the Russian border to help with this effort. President Wilson agreed,
and when American troops crossed into Russia, the invasion had officially begun.
Since the United States wanted to maintain some form of deniability that what they were doing
was not actually an invasion, Woodrow Wilson wrote a vaguely-worded memo. The American
expeditionary forces being sent to Russia had three main objectives. The first guarding large
caches of Allied weapons and supplies that were housed in Archangel and Vladivostok.
These supplies were sent to the Russian cities before the country left the war, and therefore
Allied command wanted to make sure that they did not fall into the hands of the Red Army.
The second objective was to support the 70,000 soldiers in the Czechoslovak
Legion who were still a part of Allied forces in World War I. The Czech Legion
was fighting the Red Army in Siberia, and since they were part of the Allies,
the United States soldiers were to support them in any way they could.
The final objective that Woodrow Wilson put into his memo was that the U.S. soldiers were to avoid
interfering with internal Russian affairs. However, they were also supposed to aid the
Russians in “self-government or self-defense.” Basically, Wilson was saying that the American
soldiers should be helping the White Russians defeat the Bolsheviks by any means necessary,
but they were not to let the Communists find out that that was what they were doing.
The reason that Wilson couldn’t just outright say that the U.S. forces entered Russia
to try and defeat the Bolsheviks was that it would have looked like they were declaring war
against a previous ally. But the lack of clarity around what the troops were
actually doing in Russia ended up causing all sorts of confusion. This resulted in
a very different mission evolving and the loss of hundreds of American lives.
The U.S. soldiers who were deployed to Russia were a part of the 339th regiment. This group
of soldiers was mostly from Michigan, which military strategists decided would make them
ideal for the extreme cold that they would face in northern Russia. Before the invasion
force left for their mission, they were trained in England by Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton to
give them additional skills to survive in the brutal environment they were about to enter.
After their training, the 339th packed up their bags,
boarded a plane, and flew to the Archangel, which sat just below the Arctic Circle. The
men nicknamed their regiment the Polar Bear Expedition, which wouldn’t be too far from
the truth. As they approached Archangel, the temperature plummeted, and the wind picked up.
The soldiers looked out of the plane windows at the frozen landscape below. This mission
was going to be brutal, and they weren’t even entirely sure why they were there.
Once the planes landed, the U.S. soldiers were debriefed by the British commanders stationed
at Archangel. Although their orders were to defend the cache of Allied supplies in the city,
this turned out to be a very small part of what they would actually end up doing. The British
told the Americans to suit up as they were about to leave Archangel and head southeast
towards Kotlas. This was not what they had been instructed to do, but at the same time,
the vagueness of their orders also meant they could pretty much do anything they wanted.
The 339th deployed with the British soldiers to Kotlas. Their goal was
to secure a railroad crossing that they could then use to connect supply lines
to the Czechoslovak Legion fighting the Red Army to the east. British officer Lieutenant
General Frederick Poole ordered the Polar Bear Expedition force to sweep south along
a critical railroad track and remove any Bolshevik forces that stood in their way.
The Polar Bears moved down the railroad towards Kotlas. They encountered small
bands of Bolshevik soldiers who they easily dispatched. The weather conditions were brutal,
but the men had been well trained. They pushed the Bolsheviks away from
the railway and secured long stretches of it to aid in the movement of troops and
supplies to the other forces fighting the Red Army in the Siberian region.
Unfortunately, the Polar Bears would never make it all the way to Kotlas. On November 11, 1918,
the same day that World War I ended in Europe, the American soldiers found themselves in a
bloody battle against Bolshevik forces. The Polar Bear Expedition along with Canadian and
Scottish troops, were making their way south when they encountered a large Red Army force.
Bullets pelted the snow all around them as the Polar Bears dove for cover. The Red Army
had captured a town along the railway and still had a large number of men stationed
there. Grenades blew craters around the tracks. The Allied forces returned fire
but were unable to break the Bolshevik line. They had to retreat back into the dense forest
and regroup. When they reached safety, the soldiers heard the news that Armistice Day
had been celebrated in France. They couldn’t believe that while they were being shot at
and killed by Russian soldiers, the boys in Europe were being sent home.
This was demoralizing and made no sense to the soldiers still stationed in Siberia.
If the war was over, why were they still fighting? The soldiers started to complain
to their superiors and question what their actual orders in Russia were. Many Allied
soldiers had once believed that the Bolsheviks were secretly on the side of the Germans,
which made fighting them a worthwhile cause. But now that Germany had been defeated,
the American soldiers were freezing their butts off for no apparent reason.
At this time, Major William Graves commanded another American expeditionary force that invaded
Russia from Vladivostok. This regiment had been deployed to protect the Allied supplies housed in
the city. But like the Polar Bear Expedition in Archangel, these soldiers also had vague orders
and would end up pushing further into Siberia than originally planned. Graves wrote later
that at the time of deployment, he was given “no information as to the military, political,
social, economic, or financial situation in Russia.” This shows just how little the American
soldiers who found themselves in the middle of a Civil War in Russia actually had to go on.
As 1918 turned into 1919, the Czechoslovak Legion controlled much of Siberia,
including the Trans-Siberian Railway. In order to fulfill the ambiguous orders he was given,
Graves ordered troops to be deployed along the railway and at the coal mines,
which powered the whole thing. This meant American forces would be moving further and
further into Russia. Although no one wanted to say it, America had now invaded Russia on two fronts.
The Trans-Siberian Railway was a vital lifeline for both the Czechs and the White Russians that
were fighting against the Bolsheviks. Without the railway, supplies could not reach the
forces spread throughout the country. But as the Americans worked to secure and maintain
control of the railway, the White Russians did something drastic. In November of 1918,
a White Russian Admiral named Alexander Kolchak overthrew a Czech-supported government in Siberia.
This caused panic among the Czechoslovak Legion. Rather than continuing their fight
against the Red Army in northern Russia, they focused their attention on returning back home.
This put Graves in a precarious position. It was now his sole responsibility to maintain control of
the Trans-Siberian Railway and secretly move supplies to the Polar Bears and other forces
who were trying to capture Kolchak. In January of 1919, the Bolsheviks launched
attacks along the Trans-Siberian Railway and deeper into Siberia, where American
forces were positioned. It all started one freezing day 500 miles north of Moscow.
Lieutenant Harry Mead and his platoon of 47 Polar Bears were held up in a small Russian village.
They lit fires within the snow-covered homes as the temperature dipped to 45 degrees below
zero. They had received word that the Red Army may be advancing on their position but wouldn’t
reach them for several more days, at which point they would be long gone, or so they believed.
Lookouts had been posted, and the soldiers took shifts digging trenches into the frozen
permafrost that surrounded the small village just in case they needed to defend themselves.
The sun rose on January 19, 1919, casting a pink hue across the freshly fallen snow
that made it look like cotton candy. One of the lookouts rubbed his eyes and stretched.
He had been up all night keeping an eye out for the enemy. It had been quiet,
and his shift was about to end when he saw something move in the trees out of
the corner of his eye. The sun was still low, and the trees from the forest cast long shadows
across the railway. The darkness from the densely packed pine trees kept anything within it hidden.
The lookout grabbed his binoculars and stared at the forest. He could have sworn something
moved just on the edge of the trees. Perhaps it was a deer or a lone wolf. He put the binoculars
down and rubbed his eyes, chalking whatever he thought he saw up to exhaustion. Suddenly,
dozens of rifles fired simultaneously from the treeline. Rockets flashed
as they ejected from their launchers and slammed into the buildings of the
villages. The men started screaming as wood and rocks flew everywhere.
Mead awoke his troops and ordered them to return fire. A wall of screaming Bolshevik
soldiers ran out from the cover of the forest; the sunlight glinted off the bayonets attached
to their rifles. The Americans continued firing, but there were just too many of them. Mead ordered
his men to fall back and seek shelter. The Red Army soldiers shot at the retreating Polar Bears,
killing several men in the ambush before they could scramble behind cover.
Mead and his men took shelter in buildings on the far side of the village just as shells began to
fall from the sky. The Bolsheviks had set up mortars on the outskirts of the town and were
unleashing a barrage of explosives that decimated the structures the Americans had taken shelter
in. When the iron rain stopped falling, Mead peered out the window and saw a terrifying sight.
Bolshevik soldiers had moved to the flanks and were now closing in on three sides. They
wore white uniforms and jackets that allowed them to blend in with the snowy landscape.
The enemy looked more like ghosts than men. Mead ordered the machine guns to be mounted
in the windows to keep the Bolsheviks at bay. But every time the Polar Bears would slow the
Bolshevik advance on one side, the other two would move closer. It was a hopeless
situation. The waves of Bolshevik soldiers never seemed to end. It was only a matter
of time before Mead and his men’s position was overrun, and the Red Army slaughtered them all.
Mead ordered a full retreat. The American soldiers exited the houses they were taking shelter in and
headed for the edge of town. Every time they stepped out from behind cover, someone else
was gunned down. The Bolsheviks were unrelenting and ruthless. If a Polar Bear fell, their body
had to be left behind. Twenty-five Americans died in the battle; their bodies lie where
they fell so that the rest of the expeditionary force could make it out of the village alive and
retreat further up the railway. When Mead and his men met up with another American platoon, they had
lost over half of their force and had 15 injured soldiers who desperately needed medical attention.
This was the beginning of the Bolshevik’s offensive into northern Russia in January
of 1919. The Red Army had the Polar Bear Expedition outnumbered eight to one. They
pushed the Americans further and further north. It seemed that if something wasn’t
done to immediately bring the men home, they would either be driven all the way to the Arctic
or killed by the Bolsheviks. Politicians and military leaders worked tirelessly to try and
get the U.S. soldiers home, but there were still those in the government who believed
the Polar Bears needed to be kept in Russia to keep the country from falling to the Bolsheviks.
The Polar Bear Expedition was pushed all the way back to Archangel, where they held out until May
when the ice began to thaw and the White Sea became passable. As the men loaded up
everything of importance onto the ships leaving the city to head back to Europe, the Bolsheviks
began to siege Archangel. Battles broke out on the outskirts of the city, but eventually,
the Red Army gained the upper hand and the Bolsheviks pushed into Archangel. Fights broke
out in the streets as the Polar Bears desperately tried to hold the Bolsheviks at bay for as long as
possible. The ships were finally loaded, and the Allied forces still in Russia managed to escaped.
On June 15, 1919, the last of the Polar Bear Expedition left Archangel and headed
back home. In all, around 235 Americans died on the western front of the invasion of Russia and
not a single man could explain exactly why they had been there in the first place. As
the Polar Bears were headed home, the American soldiers who had been launched from Vladivostok
continued to fight in Siberia. Even though the Polar Bear Expedition had been a disaster,
Woodrow Wilson still wanted American troops in Russia to maintain control
of the Trans-Siberian Railway and to keep the White Russian forces supplied.
However, there was a new threat looming on the horizon. Japan had been a former
ally during World War I but had quickly become aggressive as the Emporer dreamed of expanding
his country’s borders and influence. 72,000 Japanese soldiers were launched across the
sea and landed in Siberia. They advanced toward Major William Graves and the American forces
that held the railway. Even though they had once been allies the Japanese soldiers no
longer were considered friendlies. Their expansion into Asia and Siberia posed a
serious threat to the White Russians and the American men who were still there.
As all of this was happening, Graves’ worst nightmare came true. The very army they
were trying to help turned on them. The White Russians wanted the Americans to either formally
fight with them or get out. They were tired of American forces being in their country without
choosing a side. The Japanese troops shared the same sentiment but wanted the Americans
out of the region for their own reasons. Without the Americans there, the Japanese would be able
to advance further into Siberia and claim the Trans-Siberian Railway for themselves.
White Russian forces began to work with Japanese forces as they swept through Siberia,
causing unprecedented amounts of carnage and chaos. Innocent people were executed
and tortured. Cossack generals Grigori Semenov and Ivan Kalmikov roamed the frozen regions of
the country killing anyone they thought was sympathetic to the Bolshevik cause
and taking whatever they wanted with the support of Japanese troops. Eventually,
these forces turned their attention toward the Americans.
It seemed that fighting would break out between the U.S. soldiers still stationed
along the Trans-Siberian Railway and the White Russians at any moment. If this
happened the United States would have no choice but to openly declare war and either
send more troops to Russia or risk the lives of the Americans stuck in Siberia.
As tensions rose, the Bolsheviks became stronger and stronger. They secured more
cities and transportation routes while growing in numbers. The White Russians were losing badly
on all fronts. Admiral Alexander Kolchak pleaded with the Czech Legion for help,
but he had already burnt that bridge when the White Russians invaded Czechlasovakian territory
and committed countless crimes against the people in the region. Rather than helping Kolchak,
the Czechlasovakians turned him over to the Red Army in return for safe passage home.
In January of 1920, Woodrow Wilson and his advisors decided that the secret war
in Russia had failed. They ordered all U.S. troops out of the country as the
Trans-Siberian Railway was all but lost to the Bolsheviks. By April 1,
1920, the last of the American invasion force was withdrawn from Russian borders. 189 men were lost
in Siberia. Each one only had a very vague idea of what they were doing there in the first place.
Woodrow Wilson’s decision to invade and keep troops in Russia in order to
influence its internal affairs foreshadowed future endeavors by the United States to do
similar things in other countries. The U.S. had no business being in Russia after World War I,
just as it had no business being in other countries later in the century.
Now watch “What's Wrong With Russia's Military.” Or check
out “These Countries Are Impossible to Invade.”