What do you think?
Rate this book
Churchill's Secret War With Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-20
After three years of great loss and suffering on the Eastern Front, Imperial Russia was in crisis and on the verge of revolution. In November 1917, Lenin's Bolsheviks (later known as 'Soviets') seized power, signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers and brutally murdered Tsar Nicholas (British King George's first cousin) and his children so there could be no return to the old order. As Russia fractured into loyalist 'White' and revolutionary 'Red' factions, the British government became increasingly drawn into the escalating Russian Civil War after hundreds of thousands of German troops transferred from the Eastern Front to France were used in the 1918 'Spring Offensive' which threatened Paris.
What began with the landing of a small number of Royal Marines at Murmansk in March 1918 to protect Allied-donated war stores quickly escalated with the British government actively pursuing an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks on a number of fronts in support of British trained and equipped 'White Russian' Allies. At the height of British military intervention in mid-1919, British troops were fighting the Soviets far into the Russian interior in the Baltic, North Russia, Siberia, Caspian and Crimea simultaneously. The full range of weapons in the British arsenal were deployed including the most modern aircraft, tanks and even poison gas. British forces were also drawn into peripheral conflicts against 'White' Finnish troops in North Russia and the German 'Iron Division' in the Baltic. It remains a little known fact that the last British troops killed by the German Army in the First World War were killed in the Baltic in late 1919, nor that the last Canadian and Australian soldiers to die in the First World War suffered their fate in North Russia in 1919 many months after the Armistice. Despite the award of five Victoria Crosses (including one posthumous) and the loss of hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of whom remain buried in Russia, the campaign remains virtually unknown in Britain today. After withdrawal of all British forces in mid-1920, the British government attempted to cover up its military involvement in Russia by classifying all official documents. By the time files relating to the campaign were quietly released decades later there was little public interest. Few people in Britain today know that their nation ever fought a war against the Soviet Union.
The culmination of more than 15 years of painstaking and exhaustive research with access to many previously classified official documents, unpublished diaries, manuscripts and personal accounts, author Damien Wright has written the first comprehensive campaign history of British and Commonwealth military intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918-20.
What began with the landing of a small number of Royal Marines at Murmansk in March 1918 to protect Allied-donated war stores quickly escalated with the British government actively pursuing an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks on a number of fronts in support of British trained and equipped 'White Russian' Allies. At the height of British military intervention in mid-1919, British troops were fighting the Soviets far into the Russian interior in the Baltic, North Russia, Siberia, Caspian and Crimea simultaneously. The full range of weapons in the British arsenal were deployed including the most modern aircraft, tanks and even poison gas. British forces were also drawn into peripheral conflicts against 'White' Finnish troops in North Russia and the German 'Iron Division' in the Baltic. It remains a little known fact that the last British troops killed by the German Army in the First World War were killed in the Baltic in late 1919, nor that the last Canadian and Australian soldiers to die in the First World War suffered their fate in North Russia in 1919 many months after the Armistice. Despite the award of five Victoria Crosses (including one posthumous) and the loss of hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of whom remain buried in Russia, the campaign remains virtually unknown in Britain today. After withdrawal of all British forces in mid-1920, the British government attempted to cover up its military involvement in Russia by classifying all official documents. By the time files relating to the campaign were quietly released decades later there was little public interest. Few people in Britain today know that their nation ever fought a war against the Soviet Union.
The culmination of more than 15 years of painstaking and exhaustive research with access to many previously classified official documents, unpublished diaries, manuscripts and personal accounts, author Damien Wright has written the first comprehensive campaign history of British and Commonwealth military intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918-20.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published July 27, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2021
This is a useful and important book. Too few people even know that the WW1 allies continued fighting in Russia afterward, and too many existing accounts are partial, distorted or biased. Damien Wright has produced a comprehensive overview, organised by battle front, stretching from the start of the British and Commonwealth intervention in 1918 to their final withdrawal in 1920.
There are plenty of 'What?' moments. Both sides had a track record of executing prisoners, using poison gas, and shelling villages (the inhabitants' fate in a northern winter is not discussed). Early on, British troops worked with the Bolsheviks against White Finns who were allied with the Germans. Four WW1-vintage Mk 5 tanks left with the Estonians after the British withdrawal were used against German panzers in WW2. The engagement was predictably brief. British submarine L55 was lost with all hands but salvaged by the soviets and remained in service with them until 1953, as well as being the model for their Leninets class. The Japanese (allies at the time) were the last to leave, preserving a foothold in Siberia until 1922.
The reasons for going in were rational enough at first: to protect large deposits of British stores at Archangel (mostly appropriated by the Bolsheviks before they arrived), to prevent, as far as possible, the redeployment of German divisions from the eastern front to the western, and to stop U-boats using the ice-free port of Murmansk to bypass the North Sea blockade. These aims, however, were irrelevant after the Armistice yet Britain and her allies found themselves being sucked into an ever-increasing commitment to a civil war they didn't understand, where complex loyalties could shift without warning. And Russia is a big place. Failure was built into the equation.
Except in one place. The Royal Navy's role in establishing and defending the independence of the Baltic states against both Russian and German aggression was the one clear benefit to come out of the whole sorry tale.
So why only three stars for the book? Even allowing for the mind-numbing complexity of the subject matter, it is hard going. I came away with the feeling that the chapters had been written independently and bolted together at the last minute, so that ideas are too often explained long after their first use. There is repetition, disjointedness, and some parts read like a mashup of regimental war diaries with far too much extraneous detail. Where the people involved went on to influential or interesting lives after their service in Russia it is understandable that Wright stops to describe them, in some other cases it is a little puzzling. The book would be greatly improved by extracting the detail of casualties and awards to chapter endnotes, and by a thorough edit of the rest.
The campaigns in the north, from Murmansk and Archangel, take up roughly two thirds of the text. The pace improves markedly when the author moves on to the other fronts.
There are plenty of 'What?' moments. Both sides had a track record of executing prisoners, using poison gas, and shelling villages (the inhabitants' fate in a northern winter is not discussed). Early on, British troops worked with the Bolsheviks against White Finns who were allied with the Germans. Four WW1-vintage Mk 5 tanks left with the Estonians after the British withdrawal were used against German panzers in WW2. The engagement was predictably brief. British submarine L55 was lost with all hands but salvaged by the soviets and remained in service with them until 1953, as well as being the model for their Leninets class. The Japanese (allies at the time) were the last to leave, preserving a foothold in Siberia until 1922.
The reasons for going in were rational enough at first: to protect large deposits of British stores at Archangel (mostly appropriated by the Bolsheviks before they arrived), to prevent, as far as possible, the redeployment of German divisions from the eastern front to the western, and to stop U-boats using the ice-free port of Murmansk to bypass the North Sea blockade. These aims, however, were irrelevant after the Armistice yet Britain and her allies found themselves being sucked into an ever-increasing commitment to a civil war they didn't understand, where complex loyalties could shift without warning. And Russia is a big place. Failure was built into the equation.
Except in one place. The Royal Navy's role in establishing and defending the independence of the Baltic states against both Russian and German aggression was the one clear benefit to come out of the whole sorry tale.
So why only three stars for the book? Even allowing for the mind-numbing complexity of the subject matter, it is hard going. I came away with the feeling that the chapters had been written independently and bolted together at the last minute, so that ideas are too often explained long after their first use. There is repetition, disjointedness, and some parts read like a mashup of regimental war diaries with far too much extraneous detail. Where the people involved went on to influential or interesting lives after their service in Russia it is understandable that Wright stops to describe them, in some other cases it is a little puzzling. The book would be greatly improved by extracting the detail of casualties and awards to chapter endnotes, and by a thorough edit of the rest.
The campaigns in the north, from Murmansk and Archangel, take up roughly two thirds of the text. The pace improves markedly when the author moves on to the other fronts.
March 9, 2022
Personal enjoyment 4/5. For the amount of detail and information 5/5. 470 pages of main text. Another 100 pages of appendices (names of every British and Commonwealth soldier who died and where and sometimes how they died, names of every Australian, New Zealander, South African and Rhodesian soldier known to have served in Russia, and all the various units and ships involved).
The book covers all the areas that Britain and its empire (I don't think it had become the Commonwealth at the time of the Russian Civil War) were involved in in Russia. It is mainly focused on unit movements and personal accounts, and by the standards of that kind of book it is fairly enjoyable to read, not too dry. The introduction sets the context pretty well so you don't need too much background knowledge on the Russian Revolution or Civil War. The first 300 pages cover the North Russian intervention, part 1 deals with the area around Murmansk and Karelia while Part 2 covers the Archangel area. Due to logistics (very few railways) and the terrain (swamps and massive forests) the battles in these areas were quite small by the standards of the First World War and the Russian Civil War, with the biggest battle (of the whole British intervention) only being against a force of about 6000 Bolsheviks. Most of the battles in this region are for small fortified points, areas of railways or junctions rather than continous frontlines. I think that because most of the fighting follows a railway or a river it is fairly easy to follow and more interesting to read about that massive fronts. Part 3 which is the the last 170 pages covers all the other areas of the British intervention (intervention in Odessa and the Black Sea, the Caucasus around Baku and the Caspian Sea, Siberia, and naval action in the Eastern Baltic but also a chapter on spies and on POWs).
There is also a lot of naval content, mainly flotilla battles and operations in lakes and rivers (I didn't expect so much naval stuff in a book about the Russian Civil War). There is a decent amount on aviation but that topic doesn't really interest me so I didn't pay as much attention to it.
The maps in the Helion hardback and pretty good and easy to follow. There are plenty of photos but they are mainly of particular soldiers and a lot of the photos are not that interesting.
Overall if the time period interests you and you can put up with, or actually like, heavy military histories I would reccomend it. I suspect it is probably the most detailed book on the British intervention in Russia that is going to come out for a very long time.
The book covers all the areas that Britain and its empire (I don't think it had become the Commonwealth at the time of the Russian Civil War) were involved in in Russia. It is mainly focused on unit movements and personal accounts, and by the standards of that kind of book it is fairly enjoyable to read, not too dry. The introduction sets the context pretty well so you don't need too much background knowledge on the Russian Revolution or Civil War. The first 300 pages cover the North Russian intervention, part 1 deals with the area around Murmansk and Karelia while Part 2 covers the Archangel area. Due to logistics (very few railways) and the terrain (swamps and massive forests) the battles in these areas were quite small by the standards of the First World War and the Russian Civil War, with the biggest battle (of the whole British intervention) only being against a force of about 6000 Bolsheviks. Most of the battles in this region are for small fortified points, areas of railways or junctions rather than continous frontlines. I think that because most of the fighting follows a railway or a river it is fairly easy to follow and more interesting to read about that massive fronts. Part 3 which is the the last 170 pages covers all the other areas of the British intervention (intervention in Odessa and the Black Sea, the Caucasus around Baku and the Caspian Sea, Siberia, and naval action in the Eastern Baltic but also a chapter on spies and on POWs).
There is also a lot of naval content, mainly flotilla battles and operations in lakes and rivers (I didn't expect so much naval stuff in a book about the Russian Civil War). There is a decent amount on aviation but that topic doesn't really interest me so I didn't pay as much attention to it.
The maps in the Helion hardback and pretty good and easy to follow. There are plenty of photos but they are mainly of particular soldiers and a lot of the photos are not that interesting.
Overall if the time period interests you and you can put up with, or actually like, heavy military histories I would reccomend it. I suspect it is probably the most detailed book on the British intervention in Russia that is going to come out for a very long time.
December 12, 2022
An overview of British involvement in the aftermath of the Russian revolution. Detailed descriptions of the prominent figures and actions. Lots of short first-person accounts. Some photos. Adds to the histroy, complements some other volumes about the Allied incursions.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews