John Silverlight

Although it did not look like it to me from the start, this is book with lots and lots of information on the period between 1917 and 1920 and inglorious role of Allies in the civil war on the territory of Russia. Main value of this book is information regarding political situation, decisions, terrible mistakes (attitude towards Germany after WW1 was not that different from attitude after WW2 - they were seen as people with know how regarding war in the East, and considering that Freikorps ideology brought certain mustached person in the 1930's it is not at all surprising that person's ideology survived from WW2 'til our times) and never ending goal creep that Allies got involved with.

As they say history repeats itself and more or less 100 years later we are at the same place, same players (US, UK, France, Japan, Germany, Russia), same money interests (I was surprised when I read that during this period the very same regions in question now were being marked for international companies), same double talk ("we do not participate in war, we just mend/equip/train/supply/finance/provide mercenaries and troops/provide bases on our ground") but with one difference - you may say whatever about old generations but they weren't stupid and they openly (albeit unofficially, although media was the same as today, bloodthirsty to the bone) spoke that they were for all means and purposes at war in Russia - nobody was fooled by quack mad statements of fighting Germany (especially not after Armistice), not the politicians and not the population. Politicians allowed to get drawn into quagmire of war and initially population went with it. But overall nobody was fooling oneself about what was actually going on (although as I said, officially politicians were constantly talking about "need to save the Czech's and prevent Germans of reaching Siberia" :)).

Unlike previous books on this subject that were more about concrete military operations, were memoirs of war veterans from the period or completely biased works (Hopkirk's books and for example book Republic of Ushakovka) this book gives actual information about meetings of various governments, ministers, prime ministers and presidents, arrangements, scheming and hubris that sunk so many [promising] peaceful agreements (again, too close for comfort when compared to our times).

Again we are given how after Bolshevik's revolution and start of civil war Allies got very upset with Russians when the latter were forced by Germans to sign the peace agreement (upset because they were afraid Germans will turn their armies to West - this was a pivotal moment because then I wonder with what were the Germans supposed to conquer Far East?). Apparently in some fantasy land, completely broken Tsarist army was expected to continue fighting for the Allies to the last Russian (again, very very familiar tone today) and when they said no (not like they had much to say, Germans seized considerable territory in the south and started moving towards Moscow to make Bolsheviks crumble to agreement) Allies decided to , oh, go get their blood vendetta. And here we come to only other difference from current events - US was actually trying to avoid any conflict here but due to the pressure from France and UK they got involved, although more on the "edges" of the conflict (Vladivostok and Archangelsk, the rest were happily fighting all over the place). And rest is just the blueprint of how things escalate - hardcore defense ministers (not army per se, since army does the dying they had an idea of disaster in works, although they did not shy from conflict against what they saw as abomination called Bolshevism) start pushing for the ever growing mission creep - helping Czechs to get to Vladivostok, no, split one half to Vladivostok, second half back to European part of Russia, no, everyone back, no.... does anyone know where they are supposed to go? Science fiction story of Germans rushing to take over Vladivostok and Siberia (whoever came with this idea was the father of all spins) and thus urgent need to land forces in Archangelsk, Vladivostok and let Japanese take over Siberia. Landing forces in Odessa to push towards Moscow and (most brilliant idea ever) recruiting veterans of German army to fight against the Bolsheviks in Baltic and why not cross over into Russia (it is not like Germans started the WW1 to get to new territories so this was all very natural (!)). Very same troops Allies barely defeated few months ago, now they supported and armed them but trusted only to a degree, big no-no was nfluence in Baltic (which of course Germans aimed for to the last minute). These were Freikorps days, former soldiers, nationalists and anti-communists that will, with the experience from the Baltic period, help and enforce the rise of not so benevolent government in Germany in the 1930's and after 1945 get glorified as staunch fighters for freedom (hah!).

It is like a slow motion train wreck from start to end, Allies bewildered (and insulted!) by direct offers from the Bolsheviks, constantly touting that they are not at war with Bolsheviks but kept on supporting White Armies with volunteers/advisors, planes, tanks, general equipment and ammunition (and initially with their own troops, including the Czechs who I think were ready to go to war with anyone just to get home and stop being pulled this and that way by powers to be).

Unfortunately it was never about Bolshevism, it was fear that regenerated Russia would again become opposition to Allies' interests in Asia (Big Game, here we go again) and same as today racial slur coming from the Allies and idea of breaking up Russia were themes of the day. And to make things even more absurd, White Armies were Tsarist through and through and not planning to lose Russia's territory so how did Allies plan to reconcile these motives and goals even if things did go their way is beyond me.

But at least they did manage to get additional testing of the high-technology of the time, planes, tanks and automatic weaponry. Again you gotta admit sounds to much like today's news.

Excellent book that managed to get the maximum out of materials made public in the 1960/1970's by the UK government. I am not so sure current governments would ever do such a thing but it would be interesting to read about declassified materials (if they ever get released) in 2060/2070 about period 2014-2020's. And who knows, maybe some new Churchill's and Clemenceau's (like today's versions) in 2120 might decide to give it a go (of course under assumption there is anybody around in 2100's).

Highly recommended.… (lisätietoja)