Miles Hudson is a military historian with several interesting books to his credit, especially his War and the Media (1981), written with Field Marshal Sir John Stanier. He gives his latest book the subtitle ‘A Cautionary Tale’, and so indeed it is. It tells the story of the various forces sent to Russia in 1918–19 by the Allies for what seemed at the time good reasons. Each was a separate expedition within the vast geographical range of Russia’s western frontier. Eventually all of them ended in humiliating failure, and their presence was used by the Bolsheviks (or Bolos as they were often called at the time) as patriotic propaganda in their struggle to win their own power.
The British were of course not alone in this venture (except in the Baltic sector). The nationalities of the forces engaged were:
Hudson’s researches cover a wide range of British sources, especially in the Imperial War Museum and in regimental archives.55,000 Czechs12,000 Poles4,000 Serbs4,000 Romanians2,000 Italians1,600 British760 French28,000 Japanese (later increased to 70,000)7,500 Americans4,000 Canadians
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