A Nasty Little War

December 4, 2023
In this meticulous and searing account of British, French, and American involvement in the Russian Civil War, journalist Reid (Borderland) lambasts the West for poorly coordinated military operations and a dismal understanding of the conflict at large. Noting that a “roller-coaster of events” led to the 1918 intervention during WWI—including British refusal to grant Czar Nicholas II and his family asylum just before the Bolsheviks executed them—Reid explains that initially, the Allies feared that Germany would take advantage of Russian infighting to get control of northern ports. After the armistice, the goal of the intervention became stopping the revolutionary Bolsheviks, or Red Army, and supporting the czarists, or White Army. The U.S. limited its involvement to ferrying aid and refugees, and France exited in spring 1919 after its navy, out of sympathy for the revolution, refused to fire on advancing Bolsheviks in Crimea. The British, however, continued until 1920, when the White Army finally collapsed. Throughout, Reid accuses the British government of “willed blindness” toward war crimes committed by White Army leaders (though she notes the Red Army also committed atrocities). By comparing diary entries with official reports, she reveals how British commanders hid or shifted blame for their failures, and how the government’s anti-Bolshevism would disrupt relations for decades. The result is a vivid critical assessment of Western meddling in foreign affairs.

January 1, 2024
A thorough reconsideration of a conveniently forgotten "sideshow" to World War I: an ill-fated two-year attempt by the Allies to reverse the Bolshevik Revolution. Historian Reid, author of The Shaman's Coat, revisits a humiliating "little war" that ended with few tangible gains--other than independence for Latvia and Estonia--and did nothing to reverse the Bolshevik takeover of Russia. The fall of the tsarist regime at first came as a relief to the Allies then fighting Germany in WWI, yet when the ascendant revolutionary Reds, among the warring factions battling tsarist Whites, made the "outrageous" treaty with Germany at Brest-Litovsk in late 1917, the Allies grew alarmed. Up to that point, they had taken a "wait and see" attitude toward how the leadership would shake out in Russia--until they decided to secure the ports at Murmansk and Vladivostok. Reluctant U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was persuaded to send troops to help Czechs wipe out pockets of resistance and secure the Trans-Siberian railroad. Reid unearths significant information on the White-sponsored (and British-condoned) antisemitic pogroms across Ukraine and elsewhere that took place in 1919. "Even at the distance of a century, with 1919's killings long overshadowed by the Holocaust," writes the author, "the fact that Britain knowingly funded, supplied, trained and sent men to fight alongside the armies that committed them is shocking and shameful." Reid also knowledgeably chronicles the work of various Allied officers and Russians involved in the war, including their somewhat comic interactions and clashes of culture. The intervention ultimately involved 180,000 Allied troops from 15 countries; by 1920, Britain and America had moved on to domestic crises. The author astutely points out that the intervention contributed to "Europe's fragmentation between the wars"--and later fed the Nazi demonization of Jews. An elucidating work of research that resonates amid another ongoing intervention involving Russia.

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February 23, 2024

The 1917 Russian Revolution redefined that country's politics and had a broader impact on the world. Multiple Western governments sent troops to each border. However, this was an intervention to keep Bolshevism from leaking outside the borders and infecting neighboring countries. All the major world powers were involved, including the United States, Britain, and France. These actions failed to engender substantial change, other than assisting Latvia and Estonia to emerge as independent countries. Otherwise, she argues that it was an exercise against autonomy and self-determination. Journalist and trustee of the Ukrainian Institute Reid (Borderland) unweaves a complex historical era. Her personal views become significant in her narrative that maps a clear path from the intervention to the beginning of World War II and to the political tensions of today. VERDICT A well-researched deep dive into military and political actions set against post-Russian Revolution.--Jessica A. Bushore

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