US troops guard Bolshevik prisoners. Wikipedia photo.

I had never known until recently that the soldiers of the U.S. Army had battled communists, on Russian soil, but they did, just over a hundred years ago. In fact, 83 U.S. soldiers were killed in action, and another 84 died of disease or accidents. An additional 29 were missing in action, and 12 were captured.

The U.S. entered the First World War after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The Russian Provisional Government pledged to keep fighting, but the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) signed a peace treaty with Germany and the Central Powers a few months later.

The British and French felt the need to intervene and support the White Russians, who would continue the war on the eastern front, and keep supplies in Arkhangelsk from falling into German hands.

In July 1918, they persuaded President Wilson, against the advice of the War Department, to send U.S. troops as the American North Russia Expeditionary Force. The campaign was known as the North Russia Intervention, or informally as the Polar Bear Expedition. Allied troops sailed in to Arkhangelsk in August 1918. The Americans ultimately withdrew in April 1919, leaving the White Russians in a most precarious position.

A hundred years ago, a small band of those White Russians set off on skis to Finland, hundreds of miles away. Among their number was Anatol von Spakovsky. In a Wall Street Journal article, his son recounted the Christmas Eve spent during that retreat. It’s reprinted a number of places, including the Heritage Foundation, and it’s well worth reading.