Report of Meeting of 17th January : Andy Stuart “The Allied Intervention in Russia and the North Russian Relief Force”

Andy’s interest in the intervention of the Allies in Russia stems from his
maternal grandfather’s involvement where he “went to train Whites”.
After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 the Russians continued to fight until
the treaty of Best-Litovsk on 2nd March 1918. The remaining Allies were concerned
that Germans based in Finland (allied to Germany) would push east and capture
supplies that had been shipped to the port of Murmansk. The British therefore set up
the North Russia Expeditionary Force (NREF) under Maj-Gen Charles Maynard.
This arrived in Murmansk in June 1918 and there were also French, Serb and Italian
troops. At the time the rail workers on the key Murmansk to Petrograd railway were
on strike and Maynard negotiated for them to be paid and go back to work.

General Edmund Ironside (the supposed inspiration for John Buchan’s Richard
Hanney) arrived in September of that year, as did 5,000 US troops. The 6th Yorks (Green Howards) embarked for Russia on a “secret mission” on 16th October, after a
tea seller on York Station asked them about their trip to Russia! Their ship proved to
be unseaworthy so that it had to pull into Orkney on 10th November. However they
finally arrived at Murmansk on 27th where they built wooden shelters. In March 1919
they marched 730 miles to Archangel in temperatures down to -30oC. They then had
a further 90-mile march to Seletskoe where they refused to obey orders. The two
ringleaders were former pay sergeants, who had spent their whole war in Harve, were
court marshalled and found guilty. However, after 11th November all executions
were commuted.

Discontent spread, as did mission-creep. The fight was no longer with the
Germans, the anti-Bolshevik Churchill saw it as an opportunity to undermine the
revolution. White Russians were recruited and trained by “Dyer’s Battalion” led by,
former sergeant, Capt Royce Dyer DCM MM & Bar. The Slavo-British Legion was
set up using released prisoners but also a lot of Bolsheviks and anarchists; with British,
Australian and Canadian officers. These men were classified as “bads”, “less bads”
and “probably harmless”, of which there were ~300 of the latter. One member was a
girl who had previously been in the Russian women’s Battalion of Death. Over the
6th and 7th July 1919, men in Dyer’s Battalion mutinied, killing five officers. Fifty
men were tried and 12 executed by men of their unit using Lewis Guns.

In January 1919, Lloyd George estimated that 500,00 men would be needed to
have an effect. Italy & Japan both supported the intervention and Japan sent 70,000
men to Eastern Russia, to further their imperial ambitions. In et April, Churchill
decided that a rescue mission of the NREF was required and the North Russia Relief
Force was formed. Volunteers were requested both from men who had recently been demobilised and those who were still with the colours; one of the motivating factors
being 50% more pay than the rest of the British Army. Thirteen VC winners
volunteered, as did a disproportionate number of decorated men.
Churchill’s strategy was to push out of Archangel and push east to meet with
the White Russians under Kolcak in Serbia. The 2nd Hampshires under Lt-Col John
Sherwood Kelly VC CMG DSO was to attack villages on Dvina River in conjunction
with a White Russian force. One of the White Russians defected and gave away the
plans after a 35mile recce carried out in 17 hours on 16th June 1919. An attack went
on 19th at 4a.m.. However Sherwood Kelly refused to attack because of the marshy
approach route, stiff resistance and the danger of being encircled. Ironside wanted to
court martial him but, as he was South African, Ironside could not do so.

Why did the intervention fail? There were a number of reasons for this,
including the conflicting and changing war aims and the lack of commitment from
some allied powers, such as the USA. The Bolsheviks, under Trotsky, improved as a
fighting force and Russian resolve improved under what was seen as a foreign
invasion.