In 1919, 13 different countries and numerous other independent armies came together for one of the
strangest military interventions the world has ever seen. Invading Russia from the frigid north,
the war-ravaged south, and the far-eastern port of Vladivostok,
the impromptu Allies sought to destroy the Soviet Union at its inception. In this video,
we take a look at the far-eastern campaign and the strange bedfellows it brought together.
At the heart of this story is the Czechoslovak Legion, a formidable army of around 60,000
Czech and Slovak patriots. Theirs is an amazing story, and we’ve done a video on them before,
but the short version is this: a heavily-armed and battle-hardened army needed to travel from
Ukraine to Central Europe without crossing the trenches of World War One’s Eastern Front.
Instead of travelling 1,200 kilometres west, they went 9,700 kilometres east,
to Vladivostok, Russia’s easternmost city. Along the way, the Legion got involved in the Russian
Civil War, seized a state gold reserve, and captured most of the trans-Siberian railway.
While they made this epic journey, Russia was in turmoil. Lenin’s Bolsheviks had taken
over after the collapse of the Tsar’s regime in November 1917, but their conquest didn’t last.
Opposing factions appeared across the country, the largest of which was a loose
confederation of democrats, capitalists, and conservatives lead by Admiral Kolchak.
From Siberia, Kolchak established a Russian state and protected it with his White Army.
He relied heavily on local Cossack and steppe warlords to keep the peace within his territory
but refused to grant them autonomy. He also refused to compromise when dealing with
independent armies like the Czechoslovak Legion and Polish Siberian Division.
Hearing horror stories from Russian emigres and fearing an upheaval in the European
political order, several countries united to intervene in the Civil War.
Soldiers from Czechoslovakia, Britain, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, the United States,
France, Japan, Greece, Estonia, Serbia, and Italy marched into Russia. In the east,
their objective was to safeguard the Czechoslovak Legion. This fell apart as soon as the Allied
force actually met the Czechs and Slovaks, who were clearly able to look after themselves.
The mission then morphed into providing military support for Kolchak,
whose reliance on eastern warlords for internal security was turning the many locals against
him. But all was not what it seemed. The intervening Allies hadn’t come together
out of concern for ordinary Russian citizens, but to further their own objectives instead.
Japan initially declared it would only send a force of 7,000 soldiers to safeguard the
Czechoslovaks and maintain security in Eastern Russia. However, in August 1918, they deployed
70,000. This massive expeditionary force also comprised heavy artillery, a naval contingent,
and aircraft. The planners in Tokyo had concerns over possible Soviet expansion into their eastern
sphere of influence. Their solution, championed by expansionist Japanese politician and commander
Tanaka Giichi, was to establish a buffer state in eastern Siberia. The 70,000-strong troop
surge was insurance against attacks from local warlords, the Bolsheviks, and, if it came to it,
their allies. Tanaka’s goal was to install a puppet government led by local Cossacks and expand
the borders of this state from Vladivostok to Lake Baikal. Incidentally, this would also give Japan
control over a large portion of Siberia’s mineral wealth—pleasing the Japanese industrial tycoons.
Right from the planning phase, US President Woodrow Wilson was skeptical of Japan’s
intentions. The US had watched keenly as the Japanese made forays into China and flexed
their military muscles in the Pacific. Expecting only 7,000 Japanese soldiers to be deployed,
Wilson signed off on an American Expeditionary Force of 8,000 to work in partnership with them.
For the press, Wilson claimed he just wanted to make sure the Czechoslovaks got home alright,
but in private, he admitted he was concerned about Japanese intentions. When the Imperial
Japanese Army turned up with ten times the number of agreed troops, he was proven right.
After meeting up with the Czechoslovaks, the British, French, and Italian contingents that
had arrived in Vladivostok marched westward. They didn’t care what the Japanese were up to;
they just wanted to get into a scrap with the Bolsheviks.
The Japanese claimed they were doing the same but unexpectedly stopped at Lake Baikal. They
then arranged themselves along a north-south line that looked suspiciously like a border.
Next, they brought some local Cossack warlords onside and
started importing Japanese civilians to set up industry.
The Americans were unnerved. From their perspective, it looked less
like than Japanese were fighting communism and more like they were
about to colonise the place. Major General Graves, the expeditionary force commander,
took it upon himself to shadow the Japanese and report on their actions.
But both the Japanese and Americans were in a hostile country.
Even though they hadn’t gone looking for a fight, like the Brits, French, and Italians,
they frequently found themselves in one. Siberia’s vast expanse meant Bolshevik agents could easily
sneak around the lines into rear settlements. With some big talk about equality and progress,
they brought villages, communities, and sometimes whole regions over to communism.
Peasants who had toiled under White Russian Cossacks their whole lives weren’t keen to replace
them with Japanese-aligned Cossacks and willingly took up arms against the foreign invaders.
The Japanese, followed everywhere by watchful Americans, fought small battles and skirmishes
against these scattered Bolshevik uprisings. Local Cossacks often fought on both sides,
depending on their family connections and who was paying. In many of these engagements,
Japanese and American infantry fought side-by-side. But things weren’t always so chummy.
On one occasion, the Japanese and Americans nearly fought a battle against each other.
On August 4th 1919, the US 27th Infantry Regiment, known as the Wolfhounds, was guarding a train
station at the Evgenevka settlement. A Japanese unit passing through the area disembarked at the
station, and one of the soldiers tried to enter an area deemed off-limits by the American guards.
When stopped by the guard, a Private Smith, the Japanese soldier slapped him with his canteen
strap. Making the logical choice, Smith shouldered his rifle to shoot the offending soldier,
but in the freezing temperatures, it jammed. Acting quickly,
Smith bayoneted the man in the neck instead, dropping him to the ground.
Smith was soon disarmed by other Japanese soldiers and hauled in front of their officer,
who threatened to shoot him in revenge. Other Japanese soldiers secured the station platform,
but not before some Americans barricaded themselves into the guardroom.
On hearing of the incident, the US commander, Major Allderdice,
sounded the call to arms and marched to the station with his entire 250-man garrison.
His machine-gun company set up so they could cover the entire platform. Restricted by the
platform’s size, the Japanese couldn’t deploy all 3,000 of their troops from the train.
As the two forces faced each other, Allderdice and his Officer of the Day shouted:
“If you shoot an American soldier tonight, you’ll have to annihilate
my command … we are outnumbered 20 to one, but we’ll sell our lives dearly.”
Perhaps seeing an obvious loophole in his threat, the Japanese commander’s aid, a captain,
drew his sword and raised it to decapitate Smith. In response, Allderdice drew his revolver and,
pointing it squarely at the captain, declared: “If you want war you’ll get it!”
The Japanese commander then stepped in and defused the situation.
As the wounded soldier was likely to survive, Smith was turned over to the Americans.
He demanded Smith apologise. The American and Japanese force saluted each other. Crisis averted.
This incident was one of several where fighting almost broke out between the Japanese, Americans,
and Cossacks in Siberia. But they were still fighting the Bolsheviks,
and by the end of their deployment in April 1920, the Americans had lost 189 soldiers in Siberia.
The Japanese stayed in country until 1925,
three years after a puppet regime led by the Cossack Ataman Semenov collapsed. Throughout
the conflict, Japan lost 1,399 soldiers in combat and 1,717 more to frostbite and disease.
In February 1920, the Czechoslovak Legion captured Kolchak and sold him to the advancing Bolsheviks.
In return, they got the last of their force to Vladivostok and out of Siberia for good.
Aside from the Czechoslovak’s escape, the Siberian intervention failed its objectives.
Communism spread to the rest of Russia, and Japan didn’t get its buffer state.
The intervention proved to be a propaganda coup for the Bolsheviks,
who claimed only they could save Russia from aggressive foreign invaders.
Of everyone involved, Winston Churchill was the most upset. He had always been Britain’s strongest
supporter of intervention and wished to crush communism decisively before it had a chance to
get going. In a speech to the National Press Club in 1954, Churchill stated, “If I had been properly
supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle.” Maybe he was right.
THAT was the strange story of the Siberian intervention and the impromptu allies that
fought for years without achieving their goals. But what do YOU think? Did YOU know the Japanese
planned to carve out a buffer state in Siberia? Who do YOU think was in the wrong during the
Evgenevka incident? Was the whole thing doomed to fail from the start? Let us know in the comments!