Intervention in Siberia

The area about the White Sea was not the only sphere of Allied intervention in Russia. We have already noted (above, p. 494),,the part played by British and other forces in the Trans-Caucasus region; and in December 1918 French troops landed at Odessa and moved into the Crimea and the Ukraine. 17' Before the war against the Central Powers ended, Allied contingents had entered Siberia. More than 4000 Canadians represented the Dominion in this venture, which kept them on active service until the summer of 1919.

To account for the presence of Canadians in Siberia it is necessary to trace briefly the course of events after the Bolshevik Revolution. The signing of the treaty of Brest- Litovsk, which followed the suspension of hostilities between Russia and Germany, had the effect of throwing Russia open to German domination. Grain from the Ukraine, oil and minerals from the Caucasus and the Caspian were now within the grasp of the Germans. With these resources, and by penetrating into Siberia, they hoped to circumvent the Allied blockade of their country; moreover the capture of the port of Vladivostok would give them very considerable military stores which had been supplied for Russian use against the Central Powers, and which, it was reported, were still stock— piled there. These were disturbing prospects for the Allies, who had, above all, to reckon with the wholesale transfer of German forces from the Eastern to the Western Front at a time when the weight ofthe American entry into the war had not been appreciably felt.

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