How the United States occupied Siberia in 1918

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

What have Americans been doing in Siberia since 1918? The US policy towards Russia was distinguished by hypocrisy and treachery. In all official documents and speeches, the leaders of the US government declared their love for the Russian people and their intention to "help Russia." In fact, they sought to eliminate any power, to dismember Russia and turn it into their colony.

To do this, they financed and played off both the Reds and Whites, at the same time, both the official warring parties in the civil war and the "white" and "red" collaborated with the Anglo-American invaders!

USA brought to power Trotsky (Russia) and Kolchak (Siberia), and the Czechoslovakians (White Czechs), were a punitive shock army as part of the troops of the Anglo-American coalition and were personally subordinate to the American general Grevs … An occupation regime was established in the north of Russia at the time of the intervention. Concentration camps even appeared on the territory of Russia and Siberia. They did not abandon their intentions to expand their sphere of influence and at the expense of Russia to resolve their old contradictions with Japan and England. According to the plans, all of Siberia was to go to the United States …

The creation of the Entente was preceded by the conclusion of the Russian-French alliance in 1891-1893 in response to the creation of the Triple Alliance (1882) of Austria-Hungary, Italy, led by Germany. Entente in French literally "cordial agreement", the well-established name of the agreement concluded in 1904 Great Britain and France … Its goal was to end the Anglo-French colonial rivalry by dividing spheres of influence. Great Britain was given a free hand in Egyptrecognizing the interests France v Morocco … In addition, it was envisaged to jointly counter the growing German ambitions. In 1907 Russia joined the Entente, after which the treaty became known as the Triple Accord. It became the basis of the union of these countries in the First World War.

Having come to power, Lenin, in the field of international relations on behalf of Soviet Russia, proclaimed the refusal to pay debts to foreign governments and international banks, and Concerns … At first, this was not completely voiced, and was linked to the recognition of the Soviet government. But it was clear that the Soviet government did not tsarist governmentnor on government accounts Kerensky will not repay debts. With this, for the second time since the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, Lenin signed a death sentence, both for himself and for his faction - the "Leninists", to which the American citizen Trotsky and his supporters did not belong. The question of foreign intervention in Russia was finally settled, the reason is Lenin's refusal to pay foreign debts, as if he did not know what this decision would follow.

So, from the time the Bolsheviks took power in November 1917 and until the summer, 2 decisive events took place - these are

1) The Brest-Litovsk Peace and leaving the Anglo-American allies to fend for themselves in the war with Germany, after which the Germans began to beat the Anglo-Americans on the Western Front.

2) May 1918, Lenin's speech in the press proclaiming the refusal of foreign debts.

Both of these events were decisive, and they were, as they say: "a sickle in the causal place" of the United States and England! Lenin's fate was sealed. The sluggish phase of events ended, the active phase began.

Foreign military intervention in Russia (1918-1921) - military intervention of the countries of Concord (Entente) and Central Powers (Quadruple Alliance) in the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). In total, 14 states took part in the intervention.

Already at the beginning of July 4, 1918, the Trotskyist putsch began, which began with an attempt to arrest Lenin and his supporters at the "Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets."

After the assassination attempt on Lenin, American citizen Trotsky On September 6, 1918, he canceled the Constitution of 1918, which had just been adopted on July 4, and created a non-constitutional body called the Revolutionary Military Council. Trotsky actually made a putsch and usurped the sole dictatorial power in a new position of an unlimited dictator called "Pre-Revoensoveta" and then completely legalized the "peaceful mission" of the invaders.

Earlier, taking advantage of the fact that Trotsky thwarted the peace negotiations in Brest, German troops on February 18, 1918 launched an offensive along the entire front. At the same time, Great Britain, France and a number of other powers, under the pretext of assisting Soviet Russia in repelling the German offensive, prepared plans for intervention.

One of the offers of assistance was sent to Murmansk, near which there were British and French military ships. Deputy Chairman of the Murmansk Council A. M. Yuriev On March 1, he reported this to the Council of People's Commissars and at the same time notified the government that there were about two thousand Czechs, Poles and Serbs on the line of the Murmansk railway. They were transported from Russia to the Western Front by the northern route. Yuryev asked: "In what forms can help with living and material force from friendly powers be acceptable to us?"

On the same day, Yuryev received an answer from Trotsky, who at that time held the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. The telegram said: "You are obliged to accept any assistance from the allied missions." Citing Trotsky, the Murmansk authorities entered into negotiations on March 2 with representatives of the Western powers. Among them were the commander of the British squadron, Admiral Kemp, English consul Hall, French captain Sherpentier … The result of the negotiations was an agreement that reads: "The supreme command of all the armed forces of the region belongs to the supremacy of the Soviet of Deputies to the Murmansk military council of 3 persons - one appointed by the Soviet government and one each from the British and French." The First World War began to gain momentum.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Kamchatka and Sakhalin, which were rich in oil, ore and furs and had an advantageous strategic position, attracted special attention of the Americans. They assumed that by taking possession of these territories, they would thereby also deprive Russia of access to the ocean. On August 16, 1918, American troops landed in Vladivostok and immediately took part in hostilities.

At the same time, Japan sent large military forces to Siberia, intending to capture the Russian Far East. The contradictions between the United States and Japan have escalated. England and France, fearing the strengthening of the United States and claiming the "Russian inheritance", began to support Japanese claims to Primorye and Transbaikalia. One hundred thousandth out of two hundred, the Japanese army, together with the Anglo-American troops, occupied Primorye, the Amur and Trans-Baikal regions. The organizer of this intervention was the United States. Not having a large military force to subjugate the eastern territory of Russia to their influence, Wilson and his government decided to take the path of the coalition and took upon themselves the financing of the anti-Russian campaign of the powers. The main partner of the United States in this campaign was imperialist Japan, despite the contradictions between them. Great Britain also wanted to grab a fatter piece.

1920-30-01 The US State Department handed the Japanese Ambassador to Washington a memorandum stating:

"The American government will have no objection if Japan decides to continue unilaterally deploying its troops in Siberia, or send reinforcements if necessary, or continue to provide assistance in the operations of the Trans-Siberian or China Eastern Railways." Although the Japanese competed with the United States in the Pacific, at this stage the Americans preferred to have these competitors as neighbors rather than the Bolsheviks.

This is how the Entente was created, for which the peoples of Russia, and especially the Russians, are genetic rubbish that must be disposed of. Colonel of the US Army Morrow was frank about this in his memoirs, complaining that his poor soldiers … "could not sleep without killing someone that day. When our soldiers took the Russians prisoner, they took them to Andriyanovka station, where the carriages were unloaded, the prisoners were brought to huge pits, from which they were shot from machine guns. " The "most memorable" for Colonel Morrow was the day "when 1,600 people were shot in 53 wagons." Concentration camps began to be created everywhere, in which there were about 52,000 people. There were also frequent cases of mass executions, where in one of the surviving sources, the invaders shot about 4,000 people by decision of the military field courts. The occupied lands were used as a "cash cow" - the north of Russia was completely devastated. According to the historian A. V. Berezkin, "the Americans took out 353,409 poods of flax, tows and tow, and everything that was in the warehouses in Arkhangelsk and that could be of interest to foreigners was exported by them in a year, about the amount of 4,000,000 pounds sterling."

In the Far East, American invaders exported timber, furs, and gold. Siberia was given to be torn apart Kolchak, where the Americans sponsored this event, for the gold of Tsarist Russia. In addition to outright robbery, American firms received permission from the Kolchak government to trade in exchange for loans from the banks "City Bank" and "Guaranty Trust". Only one of them - Eyrington's company, which received permission to export furs, sent from Vladivostok to the USA 15,730 poods of wool, 20,407 sheep skins, 10,200 large dry skins. Everything that was of at least some material value was exported from the Far East and Siberia.

The desire to take possession of Russian possessions appeared among the ruling circles of the United States during the conflicts around Oregon and the preparation of the deal on Alaska. It was proposed to "buy the Russians" together with a number of other peoples of the world. The hero of Mark Twain's novel The American Challenger, the extravagant Colonel Sellers, also outlined his plan to acquire Siberia and create a republic there. Obviously, already in the 19th century, such ideas were popular in the United States.

On the eve of the First World War, the activities of American entrepreneurs in Russia sharply intensified. Future President of the United States Herbert Hoover became the owner of oil companies in Maykop. Together with the English financier Leslie Urquart, Herbert Hoover acquired concessions in the Urals and Siberia. The cost of only three of them exceeded $ 1 billion (then dollars!).

The First World War opened up new opportunities for American capital. Drawn into a difficult and devastating war, Russia sought funds and goods abroad. America that did not participate in the war could provide them. If before the First World War, US investments in Russia amounted to 68 million dollars, then by 1917 they had increased many times over. Russia's demand for various types of products, which sharply increased during the war years, led to a rapid increase in imports from the United States. While exports from Russia to the United States fell 3 times from 1913 to 1916, imports of American goods increased 18 times. If in 1913 American imports from Russia were slightly higher than its exports from the United States, then in 1916 American exports exceeded Russian imports to the United States by 55 times. The country was increasingly dependent on American production. It was not in vain that the Anglo-Saxons carried out the industrial revolution, and now their "death" locomotive for the colonization of most countries was racing at full speed. Only in 1810 in England there were 5 thousand steam engines, and after 15 years their number tripled, by the beginning of the First World War they were already rubbing their hands from the forthcoming profit. But the USA understood that to solve all the problems, the results of the industrial revolution would not be enough, and in March 1916, a banker and grain merchant was appointed as the US Ambassador to Russia. David Francis. On the one hand, the new ambassador sought to increase Russia's dependence on America, on the other, being a grain merchant, he was interested in eliminating Russia as a competitor from the world grain market. The revolution in Russia, which could undermine its agriculture, judging by the results of his activities, was part of Francis's plans, hence the artificially created prerequisites for hunger, it was not for nothing that American bankers sponsored Trotsky … This is where the origins of the "starving Volga region", the "Holodomor", the hushed up famine in Siberia come from; they are still trying to attribute all this to Stalin's Russia.

Ambassador Francis, on behalf of the US government, offered Russia a $ 100 million loan. At the same time, by agreement with the Provisional Government, a mission was sent to Russia from the United States "to study issues related to the work of the Ussuriysk, East China and Siberian railways." And in mid-October 1917, the so-called "Russian Railroad Corps" was formed, consisting of 300 American railway officers and mechanics. "Corps" consisted of 12 teams of engineers, foremen, dispatchers, which were to be deployed between Omsk and Vladivostok. Siberia was taken in pincers and the movement of all cargo, both military and food, was under the control of the Americans. As the Soviet historian emphasized A. B. Berezkin in its study, "the US government insisted that the specialists they send should be vested with broad administrative authority, and not be limited to technical supervision functions." In fact, it was about the transfer of a significant part of the Trans-Siberian Railway under American control.

It is known that during the preparation of the anti-Bolshevik conspiracy in the summer of 1917, the famous English writer and intelligence officer US Maugham (transgender) and the leaders of the Czechoslovak corps left for Petrograd via the USA and Siberia. It is obvious that their conspiracy, which the British intelligence spun to prevent the victory of the Bolsheviks and Russia's withdrawal from the war, was linked to US plans to establish their control over the Trans-Siberian Railway.

On December 14, 1917, the "Russian Railway Corps" of 350 people arrived in Vladivostok. However, the October Revolution thwarted not only the conspiracy Maugham, but also a plan to capture the US Trans-Siberian Railway. Already on December 17, the "railroad corps" departed for Nagasaki. Then the Americans decided to use Japanese military force to seize the Trans-Siberian Railway. February 18, 1918 American Representative to the Supreme Council of the Entente General Bliss supported the opinion that Japan should take part in the occupation of the Transsib.

Voices were openly heard in the American press in 1918 inviting the US government to lead the process of dismembering Russia. Senator Poindexter wrote in The New York Times on June 8, 1918: "Russia is just a geographic concept and will never be anything else. Its power of cohesion, organization and reconstruction is gone forever. The nation does not exist." June 20, 1918 Senator Sherman, speaking at the US Congress, offered to use the opportunity to conquer Siberia. The senator declared: "Siberia is a wheat field and pastures for livestock, which are of the same value as its mineral wealth."

These calls have been heard. On August 3, the US Secretary of War issued an order to send units of the 27th and 31st US Infantry Divisions, which until then had served in the Philippines, to Vladivostok. These divisions became famous for their atrocities, which continued during the suppression of the remnants of the partisan movement.

July 6, 1918 in Washington at a meeting of the country's military leaders with the participation of the Secretary of State Lansing the issue of sending several thousand American troops to Vladivostok to help the Czechoslovak corps, which was allegedly attacked by units of former Austro-Hungarian prisoners, was discussed. It was decided: "To disembark the available troops from American and allied warships in order to gain a foothold in Vladivostok and provide assistance to the Czechoslovak legionaries." Three months earlier, a landing of Japanese troops had landed in Vladivostok.

On August 16, about 9,000 American troops landed in Vladivostok.

On the same day, a declaration was published by the United States and Japan, which said that "they are taking under the protection of the soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps." The same obligations were assumed in the respective declarations of the governments of France and England. And soon, under this pretext, 120 thousand foreign invaders, including Americans, British, Japanese, French, Canadians, Italians, and even Serbs and Poles, came out “to defend the Czechs and Slovaks”.

At the same time, the US government was making efforts to get its allies to agree to establish their control over the Trans-Siberian Railway. U. S. Ambassador to Japan Morris assured that the efficient and reliable operation of the CER and the Trans-Siberian Railway would allow us to start implementing "our economic and social program … In addition, to allow the free development of local self-government." In fact, the United States revived the plans for the creation of the Siberian Republic, which the hero of the story dreamed of. Mark Twain Sellers.

In the spring of 1918, the Czechoslovakians moved along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the United States began to closely monitor the movement of their echelons. In May 1918, Francis wrote to his son in the United States: "I am currently plotting … to thwart the disarmament of 40,000 or more Czechoslovak soldiers who were invited by the Soviet government to surrender their weapons."

On May 25, immediately after the start of the rebellion, the Czechs and Slovaks captured Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk). On May 26 they captured Chelyabinsk, then Tomsk, Penza, Syzran. In June, the Czechs captured Kurgan, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and on June 29 - Vladivostok. As soon as the Trans-Siberian Railway was in the hands of the "Czechoslovak Corps," the Russian Railroad Corps headed for Siberia again.

Back in the spring of 1918, the Americans appeared in the North of the European territory of Russia, on the Murmansk coast. On March 2, 1918, the chairman of the Murmansk Council A. M. Yuriev agreed to the landing of British, American and French troops on the coast under the pretext of protecting the North from the Germans.

The official goal of the mission is to protect the military property of the Entente from the Germans and Bolsheviks, to support the actions of the Czechoslovak corps and to overthrow the communist regime.

On June 14, 1918, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia protested against the presence of the interventionists in the Russian harbors, but this protest was left unanswered. And on July 6, representatives of the interventionists concluded an agreement with the Murmansk Regional Council, according to which the orders of the military command of Great Britain, the United States of America and France "must be unquestioningly carried out by all." The agreement stipulated that Russians "should not be formed into separate Russian units, but, as circumstances permit, units composed of an equal number of foreigners and Russians can be formed." On behalf of the United States, the agreement was signed by Captain 1st Rank Berger, commander of the cruiser Olympia, which arrived in Murmansk on May 24. After the first landing, about 10 thousand foreign soldiers were landed in Murmansk by summer. In total in 1918-1919. about 29 thousand British and 6 thousand Americans landed in the north of the country. Having occupied Murmansk, the interventionists moved south. On July 2, the invaders took Kem, on July 31 - Onega. The participation of the Americans in this intervention was called the "Polar Bear" expedition.

US Senator Poindexter wrote in the New York Times on June 8, 1918 that: "Russia is only a geographic concept, and will never be anything else. Its power of cohesion, organization and reconstruction is gone forever." In the summer of 1918, the 85th Division of the US Army was transferred to the Western Front. One of its regiments, the 339th Infantry, consisted mainly of conscripts from the states of Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, was sent to northern Russia. This expedition was named "Polar Bear".

On August 2 they captured Arkhangelsk. In the city, the "Supreme Administration of the Northern Region" was created, headed by the Trudovik N. V. Tchaikovsky, which turned into a puppet government of the interventionists. After the capture of Arkhangelsk, the interventionists attempted to launch an offensive against Moscow through Kotlas. However, the stubborn resistance of the Red Army units thwarted these plans. The invaders suffered losses.

At the end of October 1918, Wilson approved the secret "Commentary" to the "14 points", which proceeded from the dismemberment of Russia. In the "Commentary" it was pointed out that since the independence of Poland has already been recognized, there is nothing to talk about a united Russia. Several states were supposed to be created on its territory - Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and others. The Caucasus was viewed as "part of the Turkish Empire's problem." It was supposed to give one of the winning countries a mandate to govern Central Asia. A future peace conference was to appeal to "Great Russia and Siberia" with a proposal "to create a government representative enough to speak on behalf of these territories" and to such a government "the United States and its allies will provide all possible assistance." In December 1918, at a meeting at the State Department, a program for the "economic development" of Russia was outlined, which provided for the export of 200 thousand tons of goods from our country during the first three to four months. In the future, the rate of export of goods from Russia to the United States should have increased. As evidenced by Woodrow Wilson's note to Secretary of State Robert Lansing on November 20, 1918, at this time the US President considered it necessary to achieve "the dismemberment of Russia, at least five parts - Finland, the Baltic provinces, European Russia, Siberia and Ukraine."

The United States proceeded from the fact that the regions that were part of the sphere of Russian interests during the First World War, after the collapse of Russia, turned into a zone of American expansion. On May 14, 1919, at a meeting of the Council of Four in Paris, a resolution was adopted, according to which the United States received a mandate for Armenia, Constantinople, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.

The Americans launched activity in other parts of Russia, into which they decided to divide it. In 1919, the director of the American Aid Distribution Administration, future US President Herbert Hoover visited Latvia.

During his stay in Latvia, he established friendly relations with a graduate of the University of Lincoln (Nebraska), a former American professor, and at that time the newly minted Prime Minister of the Latvian government, Karlis Ulmanis. The American mission, which arrived in Latvia in March 1919, led by Colonel Green, provided active assistance in financing the German units led by General von der Goltz and the troops of the Ul-manis government. In accordance with the agreement of June 17, 1919, weapons and other military materials began to arrive in Latvia from American warehouses in France. In general, in 1918-1920. The United States has allocated over $ 5 million for the armament of the Ulmanis regime.

The Americans were active in Lithuania as well. In his work "American intervention in Lithuania in 1918-1920." D. F. Finehuise wrote: "In 1919, the Lithuanian government received from the State Department military equipment and uniforms for arming 35 thousand soldiers for a total of $ 17 million … The general leadership of the Lithuanian army was carried out by American Colonel Dawley, assistant to the head of the US military mission in the Baltic States." At the same time, a specially formed American brigade arrived in Lithuania, the officers of which became part of the Lithuanian army. It was supposed to bring the number of American troops in Lithuania to several tens of thousands of people. The United States provided food to the Lithuanian army. The same assistance was provided in May 1919 to the Estonian army. Only the growing opposition in the United States to plans to expand the American presence in Europe stopped further US activity in the Baltic States. Now you understand where the Latvian riflemen and the rest of the Baltic states came from, who staged a massacre of the Russian people.

At the same time, the Americans began to divide the lands inhabited by the indigenous Russian population. In the north of the European territory of Russia, occupied by interventionists from England, Canada and the United States, concentration camps were created, where every 6th inhabitant of the occupied lands ended up in prisons or camps.

A prisoner of one of these camps (the Mudyug concentration camp), the doctor Marshavin recalled: “Exhausted, half-starved, they took us under the escort of the British and Americans. from hunger … We were forced to work from 5 am to 11 am Grouped in groups of 4 people, we were forced to harness ourselves to the sledges and carry firewood … Medical assistance was not provided at all. 15-20 people . The invaders shot thousands of people by the decision of the military-field courts, many people were killed without trial.

The Mudyug concentration camp became a real cemetery for the victims of the intervention in the Russian North, Russian Hyperborea. The Americans acted just as cruelly in the Far East. In the course of punitive expeditions against the inhabitants of Primorye and the Amur region, who supported the partisans, in the Amur region alone, the Americans destroyed 25 villages and villages. At the same time, American punishers, like other interventionists, committed cruel tortures against the partisans and people who sympathized with them, but in order to conceal their crimes, they entrusted most of the "dirty work" to the Czechoslovakians, whom the people called the Czech dogs. Today, liberals put monuments to them, of course, "Western values", "Western culture" and other gay affairs they hold in high esteem.

Soviet historian F. F. Nesterov in his book "The Link of Times" wrote that after the fall of Soviet power in the Far East, "supporters of the Soviets wherever the bayonet of the transatlantic" liberators of Russia "reached, were stabbed, chopped, shot in batches, hung up, drowned in Amur, taken away in torture trains death, "starved to death in concentration camps." Having told about the peasants of the prosperous seaside village of Kazanka, who at first were by no means ready to support the Soviet regime, the writer explained why, after long doubts, they joined the partisan detachments. Played a role "the stories of neighbors on the counter that last week an American sailor in the port shot a Russian boy … that the locals should now, when a foreign soldier enters the tram, get up and give him a seat … that the radio station on the Russian Island has been transferred to the Americans … that in Khabarovsk, dozens of Red Guards prisoners are shot every day, etc. " Ultimately, the inhabitants of Kazanka, like most Russian people in those years, could not stand the humiliation of national and human dignity perpetrated by the American and other interventionists, their accomplices and White Guards, and rebelled, supporting the partisans of Primorye. In the general picture, the invaders began to suffer losses in the Far East, where partisans constantly attacked American military units.

The losses incurred by the American invaders received significant publicity in the United States and prompted demands for an end to hostilities in Russia. May 22, 1919Rep. Mason said in his speech to Congress: “There are 600 mothers living in Chicago, which is part of my district, whose sons are in Russia. I received about 12 letters this morning, and I receive them almost every day, in which I am asked when our troops should return from Siberia. " On May 20, 1919, Senator from Wisconsin and future US presidential candidate La Follette introduced a resolution to the Senate, approved by the Wisconsin Legislature. It called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Russia. Somewhat later, on September 5, 1919, the influential Senator Bora declared in the Senate: "Mr. President, we are not at war with Russia. Congress has not declared war against the Russian people. The people of the United States do not want to fight Russia."

How is it that intervention is not a declaration of war? If Hitler invaded in order to liquidate the USSR, then he turns out to be the aggressor, and the Anglo-Saxons are white and fluffy? In this situation, they are one and the same, they just sensed the force of resistance and decided to hide the ends in the water.