America's Secret War Against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1920 by David S. Foglesong

Author:David S. Foglesong [Foglesong, David S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: International Relations, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, History, General
ISBN: 9781469611136
Google: RUHn9nCC9EoC
Goodreads: 642157
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 1995-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Immediate Impact of Intervention at Archangel

The Wilson administration restricted the scope of American action in northern Russia not only in obeisance to legal niceties and liberal principles but also because Wilson and his advisors feared that more direct intervention would provoke a nationalistic reaction which might strengthen the positions of the Bolsheviks and Germans. Ironically, however, fear of a massive invasion still pushed Soviet leaders to request secret military assistance from Germany in August, while the limitations on the size and range of the expedition contributed to the other result Washington sought to avoid: the small, ineffective intervention helped the Bolsheviks to consolidate their power.

In the summer of 1918, many Bolshevik leaders despaired of hanging onto power much longer. British special consul Lockhart reported in June, based on conversations with two high Soviet officials, that the Bolsheviks understood that their reign was coming to an end, and that they had decided to go down without compromising themselves by inviting either German or Allied intervention. Similarly, U.S. consul general DeWitt Poole advised Washington: “The Bolsheviks are apparently making preparations for a last stand.” At the beginning of August, Captain William B. Webster of the American Red Cross observed that “the feeling in Petrograd is that this Government will not last long, being squeezed to death between British and German pinchers [sic].” Webster, whose relief work involved frequent contacts with Soviet officials, reported rumors “that even the Red Guard is ready to turn towards the Allies’ side,” and that “a ship is standing in harbour with steam up ready to convey the Soviet leaders into a place of safety.”116

With the Bolsheviks floundering in stormy seas, the Allies tossed them a lifebuoy. The small expeditionary force that sailed into Archangel at the beginning of August was not strong enough to overthrow the Soviet regime by itself, but it gave the Bolsheviks an opportunity to portray their domestic political opponents as collaborators with imperialist invaders. A Bolshevik newspaper in Petrograd, for example, declared on August 8 that anti-Soviet forces, from monarchists to socialists, were “summoning foreign conquerors to help, to restore the bourgeois power,” promising concessions in return. Although the paper portrayed the situation as dangerous, it also showed a degree of cockiness, announcing that “the French and the British are unable to send over here any great forces; they are relying on help from our home enemies.”117

In Moscow, the news that the Allies had landed at Archangel provoked excited reactions. “For several days the city was a prey to rumour,” Lockhart remembered. “The Allies had landed in strong force. Some stories put the figure at 100,000. . . . Even the Bolsheviks lost their heads and, in despair, began to pack their archives.” Deputy Foreign Commissar Karakhan, whom Lockhart encountered, “spoke of the Bolsheviks as lost,” though they would go underground rather than surrender. By August 10, however, the Bolsheviks realized how small the Allied expedition was. That afternoon a relieved, smiling Karakhan assured Lockhart, “The situation is not serious. The Allies have landed only a few hundred men.

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