00:15America has a bit of a history when it comes to invading other countries.
00:19You have Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Russia...
00:22Wait, Russia?
00:24Yes, да, Russia.
00:27In the summer of 1918, as the First World War was raging across, well, the entire world,
00:33the USA decided to invade Russia.
00:36Why?
00:37Well, Russia was in the middle of a bloody civil war, and the Red Communists, the Bolsheviks,
00:43were winning.
00:44They had signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the
00:48Ottoman Empire, so they could concentrate on defeating their enemy, the White Army, a motley
00:54collection of Russian monarchists, republicans, capitalists, and what have you, united only
00:59by their hatred for communism.
01:01The peace treaty meant that Germany could redeploy its troops from the Eastern Front in Russia
01:06to the Western Front in France, something the Allies, which were Britain, France, and the
01:11USA, weren't too keen on.
01:13Meanwhile, Russia was descending into near-anarchy, with multiple factions fighting, raiding, allying,
01:20betraying, and generally messing each other up.
01:22There were common bandits, a smattering of petty warlords, marauding Cossacks, and various
01:27units of the Russian army that swapped sides depending on which way the blood, or vodka,
01:32was flowing.
01:33There was also a legion of 40,000 Czechoslovakian soldiers.
01:37Never mind that Czechoslovakia as a country didn't even exist yet, but what on earth was
01:42this legion doing in the middle of Siberia in 1918?
01:46Trying to get to Germany the long way round, apparently.
01:49You see, the legion started as a group of Czech and Slovak radicals, determined to free
01:54their people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to create their own country, Czechoslovakia.
01:59Allied with the Russians, they had been fighting the Germans on the Russian front.
02:05However, the Russian Revolution and the German peace deal changed all that.
02:09The legion suddenly found itself deep in enemy territory, with no friends or allies for thousands
02:15of miles.
02:16At that point, the most reasonable thing to do was clear.
02:19They had to march across the largest country on earth, traversing some of the most inhospitable
02:24terrain imaginable, whilst one of the bloodiest civil wars in history was raging
02:29all around them.
02:32From among their many options, they decided to take the train, and they also decided to
02:37keep it.
02:38For the next two years, the Czechoslovak Legion controlled the most important east-to-west
02:43route across Russia, the Trans-Siberian Railway, guarding it and allying themselves with the White
02:49Army.
02:50The rest of the world, meanwhile, was nervously watching, as Russia tore itself apart, and they
02:55thought, something must be done.
02:58And so they did something.
02:59For Britain and France, that something was simple – invade.
03:03So, as the First World War drew to a close, Britain and France put together an expedition
03:07to Ahungelsk, in the northwest of Russia, near Finland, to go and do something there.
03:13Meanwhile in the east, the Chinese and Japanese decided they should do something too.
03:17The Japanese sent in 70,000 men, while the Chinese only sent in 2,000.
03:22Both were there to do something, but the Japanese did quite a bit more somethings than the Chinese.
03:28Crucially, though, Britain and France, who were running a little low on soldiers, what
03:32with World War I and all, managed to persuade the USA to get in on the act.
03:36President Woodrow Wilson supported the Ahungelsk expedition with around 5,000 troops.
03:42But he also decided to throw in a second expedition.
03:46After all, when America decides to do something, it absolutely has to be seen as doing something
03:51better than anyone else is doing something.
03:53So, Wilson sent another 8,000 soldiers to Vladivostok, the main Pacific Ocean port in
03:59eastern Russia, through which the Japanese were also doing something.
04:03Now, the problem when lots of people decide to do something is that, inevitably, that means
04:07that multiple things will be done.
04:09And when you try to do multiple things, or anything really, during a civil war in Russia,
04:14things can get a little complicated.
04:16The Ahungelsk expedition was under the overall command of the British, and they had two major
04:21objectives.
04:221.
04:23Preventing the Allied military supplies in Ahungelsk, shipped over there in 1917 to support
04:28the good Russians against the bad Germans, from now falling into the hands of the bad
04:32Russians who were fighting against the new, good Russians.
04:362.
04:36To rescue the Czechoslovak Legion, which was lost somewhere in Russia, perhaps on a train.
04:413.
04:42To restore the Eastern Front against the Germans with the Czechoslovak Legion and the White
04:47Army.
04:47Luckily, the surrender of the Germans in November 1918 simplified this goal.
04:52And 4.
04:53The unwritten but ultimate goal to stop the Bolsheviks from winning the civil war and
04:57ruling Russia.
04:59Only Winston Churchill was public with that intent, saying that the goal of the British expedition
05:03was to strangle the Bolshevik state at birth.
05:08Or something like that.
05:09As you can see, by the time the expedition had arrived, its objectives had doubled, and
05:14unfortunately the Bolsheviks had already seized the military supplies and ran off with them.
05:19The expedition spent a few fruitless months chasing the Bolsheviks around, but ultimately
05:24were defeated by something that no one could have ever predicted, the Russian winter, and
05:29so they were forced to evacuate next year.
05:31Meanwhile at the other end of Russia, General Graves arrived in Vladivostok with 8,000 American
05:36soldiers and similar instructions from President Wilson.
05:40They were there to protect the American military supplies and to help the Czechoslovak Legion
05:44to safety.
05:46Graves, however, decided not to read between the lines.
05:49So, instead of trying to hinder the Bolsheviks and help the White Army, which was the universally
05:54understood but unspoken goal of the campaign, General Graves decided that their purpose was
06:00to help the Russian people.
06:01How very noble of him.
06:03This resulted in quite a lot of tension with the Japanese, French, British, Chinese, Natives,
06:08Cossacks, and others, all of whom were on the same page that Communist blood had to flow.
06:13The only thing Graves achieved was to keep the Trans-Siberian Railway open, which did help
06:19the White Army's retreat.
06:20It probably wasn't intentional, though.
06:23Graves and his troops were called home in 1920 when questions were raised in America
06:27as to what they were actually doing halfway across the world.
06:30The Czechoslovak Legion left at the same time, returning home to the newly created Czechoslovakia.
06:36At the end of the day, the expeditions were pointless because, spoiler alert, the White
06:41Army was defeated by the Communists soon after.
06:44And that, my friends, concludes that time the US invaded Russia.
06:49Thank you very much for watching, and see you next time for the next exciting installation
06:54of SideQuest.
06:56Ah, yes.
06:58Hm.
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