Allied intervention in Russia 1917-1920
John Bradley

Comprehensive studie on the Allied intervention during the Russian Civil War.

Allied intervention in the Russian civil war consisted of a series of multi-national military interventions which began in 1918. The Allies first had the goal of helping the Czechoslovak legion in securing supplies of munitions and armaments in Russian ports. At times between 1918 and 1920 the Czechoslovak Legion controlled the entire Trans-Siberian Railway and several major cities in Siberia. By 1919 the goal was to help the White forces in the Russian Civil War. When the Whites collapsed the forces were withdrawn by 1920 (or 1922 in the case of Japan). The Soviet government until its collapse in 1991 made the episode a feature of its anti-Western propaganda.

The goals of these small-scale interventions were partly to stop Germany from exploiting Russian resources, and to defeat the Central Powers, and to support some of the Allied forces that had become trapped within Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. Allied troops also landed in Arkhangelsk and in Vladivostok as part of the North Russian Intervention and Siberian intervention

Allied efforts were hampered by divided objectives and war-weariness from the overall global conflict. These factors, together with the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion in September 1920, compelled the Allied powers to end the North Russia and Siberian interventions in 1920, though the Japanese intervention in Siberia continued until 1922 and the Empire of Japan continued to occupy the northern half ofSakhalin until 1925.