In 1918, the United States and several Allies invaded Soviet Russia, occupying more territory than the Bolsheviks themselves. But for everyone involved in this oft-forgotten Allied intervention into the Russian Civil War, including the key decision makers, they were all clueless about what they were doing and why. I wrote my capstone essay in undergrad about that decision, called “A Study in Confusion,” which is what this episode is. ――――――――― Selective Bibliography War Cabinet Meeting Minutes, British National Archives

Donald Davis and Eugene removed, The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in US-Soviet Relations (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002). https://amzn.to/2OpXxwg

E.M. Halliday, The Ignorant Armies (New York: Bantam, 1958). https://amzn.to/2OzcWuD

George F. Kennan, The Decision to Intervene: Soviet American Relations, 1917-1920, Volume II (Princeton, N.Jer.: Princeton University Press, 1956). https://amzn.to/2vGXzZO

Anna Reid, A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War (New York: Basic Books, 2023). https://amzn.to/4hYDpjZ ――――――――― Connected videos My autobiography • My Story Thus Far (100k subscriber special…
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Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cynicalhisto… ――――――――― Wiki: The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions that began in 1918. The initial impetus behind the interventions was to secure munitions and supply depots from falling into the German Empire’s hands, particularly after the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and to rescue the Allied forces that had become trapped within Russia after the 1917 October Revolution.[17] After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the Allied plan changed to helping the White forces in the Russian Civil War. After the Whites collapsed, the Allies withdrew their forces from Russia by 1925