How the West Tried and Failed to Stop the Russian Revolution

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

The Allied Intervention into the Russian Civil War remains one of the most ambitious yet least talked about military ventures of the 20th century. Coinciding with the end of the first World War, some 180,000 troops from several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Romania, among others, were sent to fight alongside Russian “Whites” against the Red Army.

Despite one victory for the Allied troops – independence for the Latvians and the Estonians – the two-year long attempt at reversing the 1917 Russian Revolution ended in humiliating defeat. To explore this crucial event of the early 20th century is today’s guest, Anna Reid, author of “A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War.”

What was originally aimed to prevent Germany from exploiting the power vacuum in Eastern Europe left by the Russian Revolution ultimately morphed into the Allies’ gamble to destroy Communist ideology. It was a mixture of good intentions and self-delusion, flag-waving and empty promises, cover-ups, exaggerations, and downright lies from politicians.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History and Plug Podcast.
0:07.0	Ever since the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, some journalists and foreign policy
0:12.0	analysts have explored a worst-case scenario if the war spilled out of Ukraine and other nations got drawn into the conflict.
0:18.0	First, the easternmost NATO nations, then the United States, and if things really got out of hand, then the Cold War that we thought
0:25.0	we avoided could go hot.
0:27.0	Well, something like that did happen in Russia over a century ago.
0:30.1	Coinciding with the end of the First World War, approximately 180,000 troops from several countries,
0:35.2	including the United States, the UK, France, Japan, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Romania,
0:40.4	were set to fight alongside the Russian whites against a Red Army after the Bolshevik Revolution.
0:45.0	The force originally aimed to prevent Germany from exploiting the power vacuum in Eastern Europe left by the Revolution,
0:51.0	but it morphed into the Allies' gamble to destroy the new communist state.
0:55.1	Battles were fought from Poland to the Pacific, on the step and in the tundra and on the Caspian
0:59.2	Sea, with forces striking as far west as Vladivostak on behalf of the Japanese, but it ultimately
1:05.0	fell apart due to a lack of a central command structure, leadership, competing aims, and sometimes
1:10.3	delusion about what could be accomplished.
1:12.8	To explore this mostly forgotten military venture as today's guest, Anna Reed,
1:16.4	author of Anasty Little War, the Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War.
1:21.0	We look at why it didn't work, whether it could have worked, and how the incursion has affected
1:25.0	Russian domestic and foreign policy and can explain what's going on in Ukraine today.
1:29.4	Hope you enjoy this discussion with Anna Reed.
1:31.1	And one more thing before we get started with this
1:35.5	episode, a quick break for word from our sponsors. We all know that hard
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