Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918-1920

by Robert L. Willett Jr.

In July 1918, as the carnage of World War I continued, President Woodrow Wilson deployed U.S. troops to join other Allied forces in civil war-ravaged Russia. Ostensibly a mission to guard tsarist military supplies and the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the true purpose of the Allied intervention was to help topple the nascent Bolshevik government. Dispatched to some of the most remote regions of the Russian wilderness - from the frigid port city of Archangel to Lake Baikal to Vladivostok - the U.S. troops encountered fierce resistance from Red army units, partisans, and peasants. Using previously classified official records and the letters and diaries of Americans who served there, Robert L. Willett describes the suffering of the hundreds of American soldiers who fought and died in subzero conditions, both in combat and from disease. Expertly researched and provocatively written, this book is the first to describe in detail the experiences of the American doughboys who fought in this little-known campaign - a tragically misguided military action that established a legacy of distrust that defined U.S.-Soviet relations for the next seven decades.

Genres: History, Military History, War, Russian Revolution, World War I, Russia

327 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2003

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert L. Willett's Russian Sideshow offers a fair, succinct chronicle of America's role in the Allied intervention. Little of his information is new for anyone who's read, say, E.M. Halliday's The Ignorant Armies, but given the paucity of recent sources it's worthwhile. Willett mixes secondhand accounts, memoirs and oral histories for a fascinating portrait of Allied blundering in Arkangelsk and Siberia, the muddled motivations for intervention (Wilson's aide-memoire is a masterpiece in incoherence), the frustration of soldiers stationed in hellishly cold, isolated regions while not knowing what they were fighting for, their fractious relations with allies and White leaders (especially in Siberia, where Americans and Whites clashes frequently). When historians like Richard Pipes can still write with a straight face that Americans never saw combat in Russia, Willett's account of pitched battles, botched raids and general bloodshed (not to mention disease and frostbite) is useful. A good account, occasionally dry in prose but always interesting in content.

[Jody Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Willett’s book Russian Sideshow: America’s Undeclared War is a thorough examination of the Allied intervention in revolutionary Russia. His book starts with the painstaking decision by President Wilson to agree to support the British and French strategy to send Allied troops to the Murmansk/Archangelsk region in far northern Russia and to Vladivostok, Russia’s window on the Pacific Ocean, seven time zones away from Moscow. Initially the troops were meant to safeguard the massive stockpiles of military and humanitarian supplies that had been shipped to Tsarist Russia as it fought on the side of the Allies against the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) in the First World War. But after the troops arrived in Russia, they suffered from what would become to be known as “mission creep.” The British leadership in northern Russia (all Allied troops were placed under the command of a British general) decided that Allied troops should link up with anti-Bolshevik forces and overthrow the new Soviet government under Lenin. The fighting in that area soon became brutal (more on this below). In the Far East, General William Graves was extremely circumspect about using the more than 7,000 U.S. Army troops in anything other than a protective role. He refused to place them under the command of either the British or the Japanese leadership. Japanese forces made up the largest contingent of Allied soldiers in the Far East, and they took an active anti-Bolshevik posture, openly fighting Red Army forces while supporting the White anti-Bolshevik troops. They eventually lost more than five thousand dead in the campaign. Graves was able to keep U.S. troops mostly out of harm’s way, losing about 190 troops, half to disease. Graves was also appalled at the atrocities carried out by Japanese troops and by both sides of the Russians fighting in the region. His zealous oversight saved many American and Russian civilian lives. The Allied withdrawal from the region was not until the summer of 1920, long after WWI had ended. Willett’s book includes the long, vague aide de memoire penned by Wilson in early 1918 about the U.S. decision to send forces to Russia. It is a well-written, informative book.

[Joe Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very book covering the military aspects of the American intervention in the Russian Civil War. The first half of the book covers the North Russia Expedition and the second half covers the Siberian Expedition. They author draws his information on many US sources and the book is well footnoted.

[Mike Slawdog · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is essentially divided into the two separate intervention campaigns in North Russia and Siberia, and this works fairly effectively. Willett mixes in a surprising amount of anecdotes with descriptions of American and Allied operations. While some stories and incidents do seem somewhat incomplete and there is some debate (as he mentions) about some facts and recollections, this work is remarkable considering the lack of coverage these campaigns have received over the years and the comparatively small scale of operations relative to the Western Front of WWI.

The only reason I'm giving this book four stars is the lack of maps. There are three maps in the book, but many of the small villages discussed in the book, especially in Siberia, are not annotated on those maps and force the reader to accept a certain level of confusion/ambiguity.