Rick Rosoff, owner of Stop NATO and a journalist for Global Research.ca, told the Voice of Russia about the Polar Bear expedition, also known as the American Expeditionary Force in Northern Russia or the Northern Russian Campaign.At least five thousand American soldiers who fought in the northern territories of Russia against the Bolsheviks took part in the military expedition from 1918 to 1919. The campaign was aimed at protecting military property warehouses, supporting the actions of the Czechoslovak corps and overthrowing the communist government.
- The 95 anniversary of these events will be celebrated soon. Could you tell about them?
“The events we are talking about are best known as the Polar Bear Expedition.” But there are two different official names: "Northern Russian Campaign" and "American Expeditionary Force in Northern Russia." What was it? It was the introduction of the order of five thousand American soldiers, from September 1918 th and, at least until July 1919 th, into the territory of Russia. The troops had to fight against the army of the Russian government, which came to power after the October Revolution, that is, against the government of Lenin.
American soldiers were sent to fight on the territory of the Russian Arctic from France and the state of Michigan. Often after the signing of a peace treaty.
In 1972, I talked to my maternal grandfather, shortly before his death. I knew that he served in the army of Allied forces under the command of General Pershing, they joined the French army during the First World War. Once I asked him, then I was still a boy, and so, I asked him what happened after the signing of the peace treaty, when the military were demobilized in France. And he answered me: "We were sent to fight the Bolsheviks." This is his exact quote, I remember it, although 41 has passed a year since.
I knew that his unit was undergoing training at the Custer camp, named after General George Custer. Then the camp turned into a military town of Custer near the city of Battle Creek (Battle Creek) in Michigan.
Grandfather was born in Michigan, although he lived most of his life in the province of Ontario in Canada. But when the United States entered World War I in 1917, he was enrolled in military service and trained in the Custer training camp. It was in the 85 Division, which was training in the camp, that he was sent to Russia and participated in the expedition "Polar Bear".
More than a hundred American soldiers died in battles during the campaign, many others died during a flu epidemic and other diseases, and probably about a hundred people were injured. I think it is not necessary to say how many Russians were killed by American soldiers at that time.
And four years ago, the film was shot, which was shown in cinemas in the state of Michigan, just where the camp was located. Among the people who came to see the film and pay tribute to the memory of the so-called Polar Bear Expedition was Michigan State Senator Karl Levin, who said at the premiere of the film, quoting a Michigan newspaper from 2009 of the year: “Now is the right time and place for our meeting. There are lessons to be learned from storiesand here are these lessons. "
I'm not sure exactly what lessons Senator Levin had in mind, but it can be assumed that over the past four years, the United States has renewed its claims to the Arctic Ocean, mainly at the expense of other states, such as Canada and, no doubt, Russia. The fact that the United States celebrates its first attempt to gain a foothold in the Arctic region, during an operation in Russia in 1918-1919, seems to me to say a lot.
I remember how my grandfather told me about his stay in Murmansk. As I understand it, he was not so far from Arkhangelsk, where American soldiers were landed. Winston Churchill, then the Minister of War of Great Britain, was able to convince US President Woodrow Wilson of the need to send soldiers to perform various tasks, the main of which was to protect the warehouses of military equipment set by the Allies during the First World War, before the October Revolution.
The second task was to overthrow the government of the Bolsheviks. The third task was to support the Czechoslovak Corps, which fought on the side of the Russian army in World War I, and then opposed the government formed in November 1917 of the year.
It seems to me that the third reason, namely the support of the Czechoslovak Corps, is the most plausible explanation for the participation of American soldiers in those events, they were interested in overthrowing the Russian government. This is the main reason for US participation.
- Could you tell about some operation about which students may not know?
- From those sources with which I got acquainted, I learned that, naturally, not the whole division was sent to Russia. About two or three regiments of the 85 Division were sent. They arrived in Arkhangelsk at the very beginning of September 1918 of the year, at least this was indicated in one of the sources, and they came under the command of the British army, which was already there.
The British army probably landed in Arkhangelsk a month earlier, at the beginning of August 1918, and, probably, the Russian army had already managed to remove all the military reserves that the British were planning to seize. Thus began an expedition up the Dvina River, which was accompanied by fierce battles between the Russian and American armies.
According to my calculations, it was October, which means that winter has come. And the American campaign was at an impasse, it failed. Their attempts to unite with the Czech army to oppose the government in Moscow were not crowned with success. Then they decided to postpone the campaign until the summer of 1919, but then they completely abandoned it.
Losses, according to some sources, amounted to 110 American soldiers killed in battles with the Russian army.
“But did the US military kill Russians in Russia too?”
- Yes, although these people defended their territory, their land.
“Why did the American soldiers come under British command?”
- It seems to me, because British soldiers were sent to the same region: in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, a month earlier, in order to prepare and make it easier to carry out the operation, I think. In addition, we know the role played by Great Britain in Russia during the transitional period between the February and October revolutions of the 1917 year, under the Provisional Government of Kerensky. And how she wanted to draw the Russian government into the war, whatever it was.
Russia under Kerensky, I am sure that, not without the help of pressure and bribery from Britain, France and the United States, I continued to participate in the war that claimed several million human lives.