with the operation of the Murman Railway which ran from 
     
     Murmansk and Petrograd. Finland was an ally with Germany 
     
     during this time. There was an agreement that Finland would 
     
     take over part of Northern Russia and support Germany’s 
     
     war effort. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Murmansk was connected to Archangel by a lonely trail 
     
     across the snow that could be traversed by reindeer sled. The 
     
     White Sea that stood between them was open to shipping in 
     
     summer but frozen over in winter. The Murmansk and 
     
     Archangel operations were therefore quite separate. The 
     
     Allies were involved in heavy fighting l80 miles south-east 
     
     of Archangel where Bolshevist forces drove back an 
     
     American and Cossack group which had to be withdrawn or 
     
     face annihilation. Bolshevist gun boats attacked Allied forces 
     
     along the Dvuna River but were driven back by 60 pound 
     
     guns manned by Russian artillerymen under command of 
     
     Canadian officers. With the clearing of the ice from the rivers 
     
     the British Naval group gradually pushed the Bolshevist 
     
     forces far to the south. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The fighting in northern Russia continued on between 
     
     1918 and 1919 in sporadic encounters mostly determined by 
     
     the weather. With the German and Finnish involvement 
     
     terminated because of the defeat of Germany in France in 
     
     November, 1918 — a conclusion that happened much faster 
     
     than the Allies had anticipated; the Northern Russia 
     
     confrontations took on a much more local quarrel between 
     
     various political parties and was of little interest to the Allies. 
     
    
   
   
    
     57