Siberian Intervention

The Siberian Intervention, or the Siberian Expedition, of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War. The Imperial Japanese Army continued to occupy Siberia even after other Allied forces had withdrawn in 1920.

Background

Following the Russian October Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik government signed a separate peace with Germany. The collapse of the Russian front presented a tremendous problem to the Entente powers, since not only did it allow Germany to shift troops and war material from its eastern front to the west, but it also made it possible for Germany to secure the huge stockpiles of supplies that had been accumulating at Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok. In addition, the 50,000 man Czechoslovak Legion, fighting on the side of the Allies, was now behind enemy lines, and was attempting to fight its way out through the east to Vladivostok along the Bolshevik-held Trans-Siberian Railway.