The King of Karelia. Col P.J. Woods and the British Intervention in North Russia 1918-1919. A History & Memoir

by Nick Baron

The Book Artist, adventurer, soldier and politician, Philip Woods, ’King of Karelia’ and Belfast’s ’Fighting Colonel’, participated in many of the dramatic events of the early twentieth he served with Baden-Powell in South Africa; joined the Ulster Volunteer Force to oppose Irish Home Rule on the eve of the Great War; then, as an officer of the Royal Irish Rifles, he was decorated for his bravery on the Somme. During 1918–1919, Woods accompanied the Allied expedition to revolutionary Russia, where he became embroiled in the struggle of the Karelian people for independence. In the 1920s, as an independent, non-sectarian member of the new Northern Irish parliament, shunned by the Unionist establishment, he witnessed the province’s bitter politics at first hand, and dedicated himself to promoting religious and social reconciliation. In England in the 1930s he unwittingly became involved with the notorious British Nazi, William Joyce (’Lord Haw-Haw’). This book on the history of Karelia is in two parts. Nick Baron’s engaging study of Philip Woods’ life and times is followed by Woods’ own entertaining and historically important memoir of Britain’s ill-fated intervention in Karelia during the Russian civil war, published here for the first time. The Author Nick Baron teaches twentieth century Russian and East European history at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of Soviet Karelia. Politics, Planning and Terror in Stalin’s Russia, 1920–1939 (2007) and co-editor of Homelands. War, Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia, 1918–1924 (2004) and Sovetskaia Lesnaia Ekonomika. Moskva-Sever. 1917–1941 (2005). He is currently working on a cultural history of Soviet cartography.

Genres: Military History

345 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2007

About the author

Associate Professor in History University of Nottingham.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This one is Nick^^Baron

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Nick Baron is Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK, specializing in Russian, Soviet and East European cultural, social and political history and historical geography. The genesis of “The King of Karelia” was Dr. Baron’s discovery at the Imperial War Museum of the unpublished two-volume typescript memoir of Colonel Philip J. Woods recounting his experiences in Karelia along the Russo-Finnish border during 1918-1919. Moreover, having discovered this typescript, Dr. Baron then added to the published version the answer to the obvious question of who was Colonel Woods and what background and experience did he bring to Karelia. As a former intern in the Naval Archives, I really appreciated that process of discovery that led Nick Baron to produce this book. Every archive collection seems to have some unnoticed and untold or forgotten story waiting for recognition by someone willing to take up the often hard and tedious work required to turn that story into a published work.
Having ordered this book knowing little beyond the title and general subject matter, I found that I had in fact picked up a little gem. Instead of the simple account of the Allied Intervention in Russia during and after the First World War, I found a book that provided new insights into the stories of pre-First World War Ireland and Ulster, the Ulster Volunteer Force, the 36th Ulster Division and the Royal Irish Rifles, the British Army of the First World War, Oswald Mosley and the Fascists in Britain, as well as the observations of one British officer into the events relating to the Allied Intervention and the Bolshevik Revolution in Tsarist Russia. For me, it is this combination of biography and memoir – along with the social and political history surrounding Colonel Woods – that real lifts the finished book out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, I must emphasize that this is still a book not aimed at the general reader but that will be an interesting read for those interested in the history of Ireland and especially Northern Ireland as well as a must read for those interested in the Allied Intervention and the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War. Personally, having lived in both Belfast and Moscow, there was almost no way this book would not be more interesting than I expected.

[Laurance · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book.

Mr Baron has done a great job of not only helping shine some light unto Colonel Woods and his amazing career from Textile designer, to soldier adventurer to war hero and politician but only to look at one of the least known Military campaigns of the 20th century.

The book is split into two parts.

The first is a biography of Colonel Woods' life, where he grew up in Ireland, how he saw his country divided, his adventures in South Africa with Baden Powell, helping the UVF in its early stages, being an officer in the famous 36th Ulster Division at the Somme. It shows a man who knew where he stood and was unwilling to compromise his beliefs and promises. How he was a stalwart in the face of adversity and for the first years of the North Irish parliament, the only opposition to the Unionist party.

The second is his memoir from Karelia as part of the British intervention force there. It details how he founded The Karelian Volunteer Regiment and helped drive the German supported Finnish forces from the region. How he dodged and dived the jealous and murderous intents of the White Russian officers. The Regiment and the people of Karelia fought hard to be recognised as a people and unfortunately couldn't gather the support for their cause. Their struggle is recorded by Woods in a way that makes you sympathise with them and curse the blind British high command for listening to the whispers of their Russian advisers.

It is a recommend to any Historical fan who is interested in British or Russian military history.