Why did the West support both red and white?
The masters of the West have achieved their goal - they divided Russia and the people, they poisoned each other. At the same time, the invasion began with the aim of seizing the Russian lands and its wealth, the final solution of the “Russian question” - the destruction of Russia and the Russian people as the main enemy of the West on the planet.
Causes and main objectives of the intervention
Events in Russia developed rapidly. Following the change of power in the capital, the nationalization of industrial enterprises, banks and other large private property followed. Nationalization has affected the huge financial resources that the Western powers have invested in Russia, not counting significant loans and loans, military supplies. Westerners are always anxious about their vital economic interests. It was about depriving not only many hundreds of millions of dollars invested, pounds sterling and francs and fabulous interest from them, but also the prospects for further economic "development" of Russia.
In addition, the Soviet government negotiated peace with Germany. There was a potential threat that red Moscow and Berlin could do what tsarist Russia and Kaiser Germany could not conclude a strategic alliance directed against France, England and the USA. In Russia, the war began red with white, national separatists. The Bolsheviks were able to quickly beat the White, White Cossacks, Ukrainian nationalists, and won the Civil War. The West could not allow peace to be quickly established in Russia. The West used a pretext for invasion, ostensibly to support the white movement, fighting for “old Russia” and to establish order in the territory of its former ally. Already in December 1917, England and France concluded an agreement on the preparation of military intervention and the division of Russia into spheres of influence. 15 March 1918 at the London Conference representatives of the Entente decided not to recognize the peace treaty of Brest, signed by Soviet Russia with Germany, as well as provide military assistance to anti-Bolshevik forces.
The British Foreign Secretary A.J. Balfour reported the next day to the American government about the decision of the leaders of the three Entente states: “The conference believes that there is only one means - union intervention. If Russia cannot help herself, her friends should help her. But assistance can be provided only in two ways: through the northern ports of Russia in Europe and through its eastern borders in Siberia. Of these, Siberia is perhaps the most important and, at the same time, the most accessible to those forces that the Entente powers may now possess. And from the point of view of human material, and from the point of view of transport, Japan can now do much more in Siberia than France, Italy, America, Great Britain can do in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. ” Japan was to become the main strike force of the West against Soviet Russia in the Far East and Siberia (up to Irkutsk). The Japanese empire, a young eastern predator who wanted to expand its possession from the islands in the northwest Pacific to the Asian continent, was not opposed.
The Far East, geographically and in its natural potential, turned out to be one of the most attractive pieces of Russian pie. By decision of the Paris Conference of the Entente governing circles, the Far East became the “zone of action” (area of responsibility) of the USA and Japan. However, other Entente countries did not refuse to take part in the military intervention: England, France, Italy, Romania, Poland, China, although most of the latter states participated in the intervention on the Pacific outskirts of Russia purely symbolically. As a result, the Far East was attended by Americans, British, French, Italians, Chinese, Romanians, Poles. The Trans-Siberian Railway was captured by the Czechoslovak Corps. England received Turkestan in its sphere of influence, the British and Americans dominated in the North (with the participation of the French, Italians, Canadians), in the south of Russia, including Ukraine - the British and French (with the participation of Greece, Romania and Serbia), in Karelia - Finnish troops, in the western regions of Russia (Ukraine and Belarus) - the Poles; in the north-western regions of Russia, the Baltic states - Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Swedes.
At the same time, the western "friends" were not going to help Russia. First, they wanted to divide the Russian bear's skin, dividing Russia into spheres of influence. therefore the invasion was accompanied by a huge plunder of the country. From the Russian North, Transcaucasia, Turkestan, Ukraine, Ukraine, the Crimea, Primorye, Siberia, tremendous wealth was exported. The Entente quickly distributed zones of influence, and armed intervention against Soviet Russia began almost simultaneously in the South, North, and Far East.
Secondly, the factor was that predators were not one among themselves. The Entente was somewhat ahead of Germany and Austria-Hungary, whose troops quickly occupied the western regions of the Russian state, reaching Pskov, Sevastopol and Don, and Turkey, whose troops occupied the Transcaucasus and took Baku with its oil fields. Germany did not want to give up mining, believing that the wealth of Russia and the right to use them belong to the Germans, who achieved it in the course of stubborn and bloody battles. But the Entente countries were not about to give in to the grand trophy of Germany.
At the same time, this confrontation was manifested in the Soviet leadership. So, when it became clear that the policy of balancing between the two imperialist camps failed and became a convenient screen for the invaders, Lenin thwarted it. He saw that in this situation the most dangerous opponent of the Entente. The German bloc lost the war, was on the verge of revolution and collapse. Soon, Soviet Russia could abandon the “bawdy world” and return the lost. If the Americans and the British with their allies gain a foothold in Russia, then it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to throw them off. Therefore, Lenin began to think about an alliance with Germany against the Entente (Brest 2). Western intelligence agencies were not asleep and replied: in July German ambassador Mirbach was killed, which upset the relations between Moscow and Berlin; at the end of August they shot at Lenin. Immediately after the assassination attempt, Lenin was unconscious: the doctors discovered that he had a dangerous wound in the neck under the jaw, and blood entered the lung. The second bullet hit him in the hand, and the third hit the woman who was talking to Lenin at the moment the shots started. Obviously after the elimination of Lenin, Soviet Russia was to be headed by Trotsky, a protege of the masters of the West. However, the "fifth column" of the West confused Dzerzhinsky. He did not like the rampant Western intelligence services in Russia at all, he was not an agent of the West. Security officers in September 1918 struck a powerful blow at the Entente's agents in Moscow and Petrograd, making mass arrests. Trotsky, with the support of Sverdlov, could not replace Lenin.
Third, Western masters were going to solve the “Russian question” once and for all — to destroy Russian civilization and the people as the main enemy on the planet. And then on the basis of Russia and wealth to build their world order - the global slave-owning civilization. At the same time, there was a draft world order based on Marxism, pseudo-communism. For this, they wanted to realize the “world revolution”, they threw in Russia detachments of revolutionary militants led by Trotsky and Sverdlov. The population of the planet was duped with the slogans of “freedom, equality and fraternity,” while the real power remained with the parasitic clans ruling in the West.
Therefore, in the West they relied on inciting the Civil War in Russia, which began to fade, as the whites and the nationalist separatists did not have popular support and lost. Outwardly, it was amazing: the same Western powers supported the red, white and nationalists. So, when Trotsky became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, foreigners became the chief assistants and advisers of Lev Davidovich in the formation of the Red Army. And before that, Trotsky led the foreign policy in such a way that the Austro-German offensive began, with the separation of Russia from Ukraine, Ukraine, Bessarabia, Crimea, Belarus, the Baltic states, Finland and Transcaucasia. He also, under the pretext of the German threat and the need to play on the contradictions of the imperialist camps, opened the way for the occupants of the Entente. When 1 March 1918 of the Entente countries' squadron entered the raid of the Murmansk sea port, its commander, British admiral Thomas Kemp handed over to the city authorities a proposal to land troops for the defense against the advancing Germans of Murmansk and the Murmansk railway. The acting chairman of the council, a former ship's stoker, Aleksey Yuriev, reported this to Petrograd and almost immediately received a recommendation from Lev Trotsky, the acting Commissar for Foreign Affairs, to accept the help of the allies. As a result, the Murmansk Council concluded an agreement that the highest authority in Murmansk remains in the hands of the council, the command of the armed forces will be carried out jointly with the British and French. Thus, Trotsky opened the way for Western invaders.
And in the creation of the army, Colonel Robins from the American Red Cross, the French representatives Lavergne and Sadul joined. The British sent their informal mission - it was headed by Bruce Locart. In addition, British intelligence agents Hill and Cromie worked closely with Trotsky. Sydney Reilly arrived in the mission of Locart, who quickly established contacts with the head of the Supreme Military Council, M. D. Bonch-Bruyevich and the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, V. D. Bonch-Bruevich. At the same time, the representatives of the Entente declared that they were helping the Bolsheviks to create an army against the German bloc. They say that Soviet Russia will arm, gain strength and be able to renew the war against Germany together with the Entente.
Here it is necessary to note an interesting fact: the core of the Red Army was to become international. That is, it was a continuation of plans for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the world (led by the United States and partners). First of all, the “internationalists” were used - Latvians, Estonians, Chinese, Hungarians, etc. Tens of thousands of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners were infused into the Red forces. It is clear that Trotsky and his foreign advisers created this army not to defend Russia, but against Russia-Russia and the Russians. It was not suitable for war with the regular armies of Germany or the Entente countries, only as punitive and occupying forces against the Russians.
Thus, the masters of the West with one hand helped to create and arm the Red Army, which was to become international rather than national, contributing to the "world revolution", and with the other hand they sent money and weapon Kaledin, Denikin, white governments of the Urals and Siberia, Kolchak. The ancient strategy of "divide, poison, and conquer" - in action!
Entente countries ships in the port of Murmansk
Intervention
Far East. The intervention of the Entente countries in the Far East began under two plausible pretexts. First, it was necessary to protect foreign citizens in the Far East and Siberia. Japan was particularly “interested” in this, so many Japanese citizens lived in only one port of Vladivostok, and they began to settle here even before 1904 (according to official data, 3283 people who had Japanese citizenship lived in Vladivostok). Secondly, the Entente pledged to assist in the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Corps from Russia, whose military trains by then stretched along the railroad from the banks of the Volga to Western Siberia.
The first ships in Vladivostok were not Japanese ships, but the American cruiser Brooklyn, which arrived there on November 11, 1917. He anchored in the sight of the city. The commander in chief of Asia held his flag on Brooklyn fleet US Admiral Knight. At the end of December 1917 and the beginning of January 1918, the Japanese cruisers Asahi and Iwami, the English cruiser Suffolk, arrived at the Vladivostok raid. On all these Entente ships were landing forces, ready to go ashore at the first order. The Allies initially interestedly watched the course of the Civil War in the Russian Far East. The situation there was not in favor of the whites. The interventionists have not yet gone ashore in Vladivostok because of fears that the Soviet government might conclude not only a separate peace with Germany and its allies, but also a military alliance (the world war was still ongoing).
The events of the civil war in Russia and the conclusion of a separate peace in Brest-Litovsk hurried the Allies on the Entente with the start of open military intervention. The Reds began to prevail over the whites in the Far East. The White Cossack Atamans of the Trans-Baikal Army G. M. Semenov with his Special Manchu Detachment (a Japanese officer, Kuroki, became a military adviser under Semenov at that time) created in the CER line (in Transbaikalia), the Amur Cossack Army I. M. Gamov (in the Amur Region ) and the Ussuri Cossack troops I. M. Kalmykov (in Primorye) were defeated in red and fled to the territory of neighboring Manchuria. There they found a reliable base and a springboard for aggression against Soviet Russia.
It did not suit the West and Japan. The Japanese military command began to rely on such a “strong personality” in the Far East as Colonel Semenov. Major Kuroki and the Japanese Consul General in Manchuria introduce Colonel Semyonov to an influential man in the imperial army command circles. He was the colonel of the General Staff Kurosawa, the future chief of the Japanese military mission in Chita, who later became the quartermaster general of the General Staff in Tokyo. Semenov and the Japanese military achieved complete mutual understanding. The Japanese side immediately rendered the white ataman not only material and moral, but also assistance from the troops that became part of the Special Manchu Detachment. Semenov himself wrote about this with all frankness: ““ At headquarters there was a battalion of Japanese volunteers, up to 600, a man who was a mobile reserve and usually rushed to the attacked front, replacing infantry from Chinese volunteers, whose valor after three months of continuous fighting left much to be desired. The Japanese battalion was created on the initiative of Captain Kuroki, who seconded the staff of his mission, Angio and Seo Eytaro, in southern Manchuria to attract volunteers from among reservists. They successfully coped with their task, recruiting several hundred soldiers who had just completed the service for the service in the squadron. The battalion was commanded by a valiant officer, Captain Okumura. The Japanese battalion in a short time earned a reputation as the strongest and most stable unit in the detachment, and the people who made it taught us, Russian officers, soldiers and Cossacks, to look at the Japanese as true and sincere friends of national Russia, who put their commitments above their obligations everything in the world, even above his own life. Thus, friendship and brotherhood of Russian and Japanese soldiers arose in the harsh Transbaikalia steppes, which were sustained by heavy casualties suffered by the detachment during this period of continuous battles with superior enemy forces ... "
So the whites and the Japanese became “loyal and sincere friends,” although it was obvious that the Japanese Empire claimed a significant chunk of the Russian lands. For the withdrawal from the warships to the Russian shores of the “peacekeeping forces” the interventionists needed only a direct and loud for the world community ”pretext. And he did not hesitate to "happen." On the night of April 5, 1918, “unknown persons” committed an armed attack with the aim of robbing the Vladivostok branch of the Japanese trading company Isido. During this thugger attack, two Japanese citizens were killed by the attackers. And immediately the squadron of the ships of the Entente countries set in motion and was no longer on the outer roadstead of Vladivostok, but at the moorings of its inner harbor — the Golden Horn Bay.
On April 5, two companies of Japanese infantry and half a man of British marines land in Vladivostok, occupying important points in the port and in the city center. The landing was carried out under the guise of ship guns aimed at urban areas and fortifications of Vladivostok. But the interventionists, in essence, did not meet any, even unarmed, resistance in the powerless port city. Vladivostok Council almost did not have military forces. The next day, a landing party of 250 sailors disembarks from the Japanese ships. The Japanese seized the island of Russian with its fortifications and artillery batteries, military depots and barracks. Thus, without any struggle, the armed intervention of the Entente began in the Russian Far East. Admiral Kato, who commanded the Japanese cruiser detachment, on the orders of which a landing force was landed in Vladivostok, appealed to the urban population. In it, he announced that the Land of the Rising Sun in his face assumes the protection of public order in Vladivostok and its surroundings. The reason for this decision was also indicated: ensuring the personal security of numerous foreign citizens residing in the port city.
The beginning of the landing of the Entente troops in the south of Primorye served as a signal for the offensive actions of the white troops. In April, the ataman Semenov launched a new offensive in the south of Transbaikalia and the ataman of the Ussurian Cossack army of Kalmyks intensified his actions. Both of them received help from the interventionists with weapons and ammunition. In the detachment of Semenov were Japanese soldiers. Semenovsk troops moved along the railway, aiming at the city of Chita. In May 1918, Ataman Semenov, at Borzya Station, declared himself and the people close to him of the cadet S. A. Taskin and General I. F. Shilnikov “Provisional Trans-Baikal Government”. This government only from spring to autumn 1918 received military and financial assistance from Japan for almost 4,5 million rubles. During the same period, France assisted the ataman Semenov in excess of 4 million rubles. Great Britain's help turned out to be much more modest - only 500 thousand rubles.
And the Western powers have relied on his mercenary - Admiral Kolchak. Therefore, the Westerners favorably reacted to the coup in Omsk and the arrival of Kolchak in power in the White movement of Siberia and declaring it the supreme ruler of Russia. The Japanese preferred to maintain in the East of Russia the power of the white-Cossack chieftains Semenov, Kalmykov, Gamow and certain small governments, which were weak, had no support in the population and were forced to seek help from Japan in everything. In Tokyo, they believed that Admiral Kolchak was “the man of Washington”, and the activity on the post of Russia's Supreme Ruler could damage the strategic interests of the Land of the Rising Sun in the Far East. Therefore, Kolchak, at the insistence of the Japanese government, was removed from the administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway in the spring of 1918 (he headed the military department there) and remained out of business until October of this year. Kolchak was an ardent opponent of the Japanese orientation and hoped for the help of the Western powers.
American troops in Vladivostok. Xnumx
To be continued ...
Causes and main objectives of the intervention
Events in Russia developed rapidly. Following the change of power in the capital, the nationalization of industrial enterprises, banks and other large private property followed. Nationalization has affected the huge financial resources that the Western powers have invested in Russia, not counting significant loans and loans, military supplies. Westerners are always anxious about their vital economic interests. It was about depriving not only many hundreds of millions of dollars invested, pounds sterling and francs and fabulous interest from them, but also the prospects for further economic "development" of Russia.
In addition, the Soviet government negotiated peace with Germany. There was a potential threat that red Moscow and Berlin could do what tsarist Russia and Kaiser Germany could not conclude a strategic alliance directed against France, England and the USA. In Russia, the war began red with white, national separatists. The Bolsheviks were able to quickly beat the White, White Cossacks, Ukrainian nationalists, and won the Civil War. The West could not allow peace to be quickly established in Russia. The West used a pretext for invasion, ostensibly to support the white movement, fighting for “old Russia” and to establish order in the territory of its former ally. Already in December 1917, England and France concluded an agreement on the preparation of military intervention and the division of Russia into spheres of influence. 15 March 1918 at the London Conference representatives of the Entente decided not to recognize the peace treaty of Brest, signed by Soviet Russia with Germany, as well as provide military assistance to anti-Bolshevik forces.
The British Foreign Secretary A.J. Balfour reported the next day to the American government about the decision of the leaders of the three Entente states: “The conference believes that there is only one means - union intervention. If Russia cannot help herself, her friends should help her. But assistance can be provided only in two ways: through the northern ports of Russia in Europe and through its eastern borders in Siberia. Of these, Siberia is perhaps the most important and, at the same time, the most accessible to those forces that the Entente powers may now possess. And from the point of view of human material, and from the point of view of transport, Japan can now do much more in Siberia than France, Italy, America, Great Britain can do in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. ” Japan was to become the main strike force of the West against Soviet Russia in the Far East and Siberia (up to Irkutsk). The Japanese empire, a young eastern predator who wanted to expand its possession from the islands in the northwest Pacific to the Asian continent, was not opposed.
The Far East, geographically and in its natural potential, turned out to be one of the most attractive pieces of Russian pie. By decision of the Paris Conference of the Entente governing circles, the Far East became the “zone of action” (area of responsibility) of the USA and Japan. However, other Entente countries did not refuse to take part in the military intervention: England, France, Italy, Romania, Poland, China, although most of the latter states participated in the intervention on the Pacific outskirts of Russia purely symbolically. As a result, the Far East was attended by Americans, British, French, Italians, Chinese, Romanians, Poles. The Trans-Siberian Railway was captured by the Czechoslovak Corps. England received Turkestan in its sphere of influence, the British and Americans dominated in the North (with the participation of the French, Italians, Canadians), in the south of Russia, including Ukraine - the British and French (with the participation of Greece, Romania and Serbia), in Karelia - Finnish troops, in the western regions of Russia (Ukraine and Belarus) - the Poles; in the north-western regions of Russia, the Baltic states - Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Swedes.
At the same time, the western "friends" were not going to help Russia. First, they wanted to divide the Russian bear's skin, dividing Russia into spheres of influence. therefore the invasion was accompanied by a huge plunder of the country. From the Russian North, Transcaucasia, Turkestan, Ukraine, Ukraine, the Crimea, Primorye, Siberia, tremendous wealth was exported. The Entente quickly distributed zones of influence, and armed intervention against Soviet Russia began almost simultaneously in the South, North, and Far East.
Secondly, the factor was that predators were not one among themselves. The Entente was somewhat ahead of Germany and Austria-Hungary, whose troops quickly occupied the western regions of the Russian state, reaching Pskov, Sevastopol and Don, and Turkey, whose troops occupied the Transcaucasus and took Baku with its oil fields. Germany did not want to give up mining, believing that the wealth of Russia and the right to use them belong to the Germans, who achieved it in the course of stubborn and bloody battles. But the Entente countries were not about to give in to the grand trophy of Germany.
At the same time, this confrontation was manifested in the Soviet leadership. So, when it became clear that the policy of balancing between the two imperialist camps failed and became a convenient screen for the invaders, Lenin thwarted it. He saw that in this situation the most dangerous opponent of the Entente. The German bloc lost the war, was on the verge of revolution and collapse. Soon, Soviet Russia could abandon the “bawdy world” and return the lost. If the Americans and the British with their allies gain a foothold in Russia, then it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to throw them off. Therefore, Lenin began to think about an alliance with Germany against the Entente (Brest 2). Western intelligence agencies were not asleep and replied: in July German ambassador Mirbach was killed, which upset the relations between Moscow and Berlin; at the end of August they shot at Lenin. Immediately after the assassination attempt, Lenin was unconscious: the doctors discovered that he had a dangerous wound in the neck under the jaw, and blood entered the lung. The second bullet hit him in the hand, and the third hit the woman who was talking to Lenin at the moment the shots started. Obviously after the elimination of Lenin, Soviet Russia was to be headed by Trotsky, a protege of the masters of the West. However, the "fifth column" of the West confused Dzerzhinsky. He did not like the rampant Western intelligence services in Russia at all, he was not an agent of the West. Security officers in September 1918 struck a powerful blow at the Entente's agents in Moscow and Petrograd, making mass arrests. Trotsky, with the support of Sverdlov, could not replace Lenin.
Third, Western masters were going to solve the “Russian question” once and for all — to destroy Russian civilization and the people as the main enemy on the planet. And then on the basis of Russia and wealth to build their world order - the global slave-owning civilization. At the same time, there was a draft world order based on Marxism, pseudo-communism. For this, they wanted to realize the “world revolution”, they threw in Russia detachments of revolutionary militants led by Trotsky and Sverdlov. The population of the planet was duped with the slogans of “freedom, equality and fraternity,” while the real power remained with the parasitic clans ruling in the West.
Therefore, in the West they relied on inciting the Civil War in Russia, which began to fade, as the whites and the nationalist separatists did not have popular support and lost. Outwardly, it was amazing: the same Western powers supported the red, white and nationalists. So, when Trotsky became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, foreigners became the chief assistants and advisers of Lev Davidovich in the formation of the Red Army. And before that, Trotsky led the foreign policy in such a way that the Austro-German offensive began, with the separation of Russia from Ukraine, Ukraine, Bessarabia, Crimea, Belarus, the Baltic states, Finland and Transcaucasia. He also, under the pretext of the German threat and the need to play on the contradictions of the imperialist camps, opened the way for the occupants of the Entente. When 1 March 1918 of the Entente countries' squadron entered the raid of the Murmansk sea port, its commander, British admiral Thomas Kemp handed over to the city authorities a proposal to land troops for the defense against the advancing Germans of Murmansk and the Murmansk railway. The acting chairman of the council, a former ship's stoker, Aleksey Yuriev, reported this to Petrograd and almost immediately received a recommendation from Lev Trotsky, the acting Commissar for Foreign Affairs, to accept the help of the allies. As a result, the Murmansk Council concluded an agreement that the highest authority in Murmansk remains in the hands of the council, the command of the armed forces will be carried out jointly with the British and French. Thus, Trotsky opened the way for Western invaders.
And in the creation of the army, Colonel Robins from the American Red Cross, the French representatives Lavergne and Sadul joined. The British sent their informal mission - it was headed by Bruce Locart. In addition, British intelligence agents Hill and Cromie worked closely with Trotsky. Sydney Reilly arrived in the mission of Locart, who quickly established contacts with the head of the Supreme Military Council, M. D. Bonch-Bruyevich and the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, V. D. Bonch-Bruevich. At the same time, the representatives of the Entente declared that they were helping the Bolsheviks to create an army against the German bloc. They say that Soviet Russia will arm, gain strength and be able to renew the war against Germany together with the Entente.
Here it is necessary to note an interesting fact: the core of the Red Army was to become international. That is, it was a continuation of plans for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the world (led by the United States and partners). First of all, the “internationalists” were used - Latvians, Estonians, Chinese, Hungarians, etc. Tens of thousands of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners were infused into the Red forces. It is clear that Trotsky and his foreign advisers created this army not to defend Russia, but against Russia-Russia and the Russians. It was not suitable for war with the regular armies of Germany or the Entente countries, only as punitive and occupying forces against the Russians.
Thus, the masters of the West with one hand helped to create and arm the Red Army, which was to become international rather than national, contributing to the "world revolution", and with the other hand they sent money and weapon Kaledin, Denikin, white governments of the Urals and Siberia, Kolchak. The ancient strategy of "divide, poison, and conquer" - in action!
Entente countries ships in the port of Murmansk
Intervention
Far East. The intervention of the Entente countries in the Far East began under two plausible pretexts. First, it was necessary to protect foreign citizens in the Far East and Siberia. Japan was particularly “interested” in this, so many Japanese citizens lived in only one port of Vladivostok, and they began to settle here even before 1904 (according to official data, 3283 people who had Japanese citizenship lived in Vladivostok). Secondly, the Entente pledged to assist in the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Corps from Russia, whose military trains by then stretched along the railroad from the banks of the Volga to Western Siberia.
The first ships in Vladivostok were not Japanese ships, but the American cruiser Brooklyn, which arrived there on November 11, 1917. He anchored in the sight of the city. The commander in chief of Asia held his flag on Brooklyn fleet US Admiral Knight. At the end of December 1917 and the beginning of January 1918, the Japanese cruisers Asahi and Iwami, the English cruiser Suffolk, arrived at the Vladivostok raid. On all these Entente ships were landing forces, ready to go ashore at the first order. The Allies initially interestedly watched the course of the Civil War in the Russian Far East. The situation there was not in favor of the whites. The interventionists have not yet gone ashore in Vladivostok because of fears that the Soviet government might conclude not only a separate peace with Germany and its allies, but also a military alliance (the world war was still ongoing).
The events of the civil war in Russia and the conclusion of a separate peace in Brest-Litovsk hurried the Allies on the Entente with the start of open military intervention. The Reds began to prevail over the whites in the Far East. The White Cossack Atamans of the Trans-Baikal Army G. M. Semenov with his Special Manchu Detachment (a Japanese officer, Kuroki, became a military adviser under Semenov at that time) created in the CER line (in Transbaikalia), the Amur Cossack Army I. M. Gamov (in the Amur Region ) and the Ussuri Cossack troops I. M. Kalmykov (in Primorye) were defeated in red and fled to the territory of neighboring Manchuria. There they found a reliable base and a springboard for aggression against Soviet Russia.
It did not suit the West and Japan. The Japanese military command began to rely on such a “strong personality” in the Far East as Colonel Semenov. Major Kuroki and the Japanese Consul General in Manchuria introduce Colonel Semyonov to an influential man in the imperial army command circles. He was the colonel of the General Staff Kurosawa, the future chief of the Japanese military mission in Chita, who later became the quartermaster general of the General Staff in Tokyo. Semenov and the Japanese military achieved complete mutual understanding. The Japanese side immediately rendered the white ataman not only material and moral, but also assistance from the troops that became part of the Special Manchu Detachment. Semenov himself wrote about this with all frankness: ““ At headquarters there was a battalion of Japanese volunteers, up to 600, a man who was a mobile reserve and usually rushed to the attacked front, replacing infantry from Chinese volunteers, whose valor after three months of continuous fighting left much to be desired. The Japanese battalion was created on the initiative of Captain Kuroki, who seconded the staff of his mission, Angio and Seo Eytaro, in southern Manchuria to attract volunteers from among reservists. They successfully coped with their task, recruiting several hundred soldiers who had just completed the service for the service in the squadron. The battalion was commanded by a valiant officer, Captain Okumura. The Japanese battalion in a short time earned a reputation as the strongest and most stable unit in the detachment, and the people who made it taught us, Russian officers, soldiers and Cossacks, to look at the Japanese as true and sincere friends of national Russia, who put their commitments above their obligations everything in the world, even above his own life. Thus, friendship and brotherhood of Russian and Japanese soldiers arose in the harsh Transbaikalia steppes, which were sustained by heavy casualties suffered by the detachment during this period of continuous battles with superior enemy forces ... "
So the whites and the Japanese became “loyal and sincere friends,” although it was obvious that the Japanese Empire claimed a significant chunk of the Russian lands. For the withdrawal from the warships to the Russian shores of the “peacekeeping forces” the interventionists needed only a direct and loud for the world community ”pretext. And he did not hesitate to "happen." On the night of April 5, 1918, “unknown persons” committed an armed attack with the aim of robbing the Vladivostok branch of the Japanese trading company Isido. During this thugger attack, two Japanese citizens were killed by the attackers. And immediately the squadron of the ships of the Entente countries set in motion and was no longer on the outer roadstead of Vladivostok, but at the moorings of its inner harbor — the Golden Horn Bay.
On April 5, two companies of Japanese infantry and half a man of British marines land in Vladivostok, occupying important points in the port and in the city center. The landing was carried out under the guise of ship guns aimed at urban areas and fortifications of Vladivostok. But the interventionists, in essence, did not meet any, even unarmed, resistance in the powerless port city. Vladivostok Council almost did not have military forces. The next day, a landing party of 250 sailors disembarks from the Japanese ships. The Japanese seized the island of Russian with its fortifications and artillery batteries, military depots and barracks. Thus, without any struggle, the armed intervention of the Entente began in the Russian Far East. Admiral Kato, who commanded the Japanese cruiser detachment, on the orders of which a landing force was landed in Vladivostok, appealed to the urban population. In it, he announced that the Land of the Rising Sun in his face assumes the protection of public order in Vladivostok and its surroundings. The reason for this decision was also indicated: ensuring the personal security of numerous foreign citizens residing in the port city.
The beginning of the landing of the Entente troops in the south of Primorye served as a signal for the offensive actions of the white troops. In April, the ataman Semenov launched a new offensive in the south of Transbaikalia and the ataman of the Ussurian Cossack army of Kalmyks intensified his actions. Both of them received help from the interventionists with weapons and ammunition. In the detachment of Semenov were Japanese soldiers. Semenovsk troops moved along the railway, aiming at the city of Chita. In May 1918, Ataman Semenov, at Borzya Station, declared himself and the people close to him of the cadet S. A. Taskin and General I. F. Shilnikov “Provisional Trans-Baikal Government”. This government only from spring to autumn 1918 received military and financial assistance from Japan for almost 4,5 million rubles. During the same period, France assisted the ataman Semenov in excess of 4 million rubles. Great Britain's help turned out to be much more modest - only 500 thousand rubles.
And the Western powers have relied on his mercenary - Admiral Kolchak. Therefore, the Westerners favorably reacted to the coup in Omsk and the arrival of Kolchak in power in the White movement of Siberia and declaring it the supreme ruler of Russia. The Japanese preferred to maintain in the East of Russia the power of the white-Cossack chieftains Semenov, Kalmykov, Gamow and certain small governments, which were weak, had no support in the population and were forced to seek help from Japan in everything. In Tokyo, they believed that Admiral Kolchak was “the man of Washington”, and the activity on the post of Russia's Supreme Ruler could damage the strategic interests of the Land of the Rising Sun in the Far East. Therefore, Kolchak, at the insistence of the Japanese government, was removed from the administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway in the spring of 1918 (he headed the military department there) and remained out of business until October of this year. Kolchak was an ardent opponent of the Japanese orientation and hoped for the help of the Western powers.
American troops in Vladivostok. Xnumx
To be continued ...
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