Recent comments in /f/history
[deleted] t1_j3b4v2k wrote
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Mypantsareblue t1_j3b4hsx wrote
Reply to comment by J_Bard in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
I’m not OP, but here is a diary of an engineer from one of the Polar Bears (engineer from UP Michigan).
J_Bard t1_j3b2ho8 wrote
Reply to comment by royiroyi in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Do you have any stories from your grandpa's time in Russia?
[deleted] t1_j3az2uk wrote
Reply to comment by BusinessPenguin in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
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BusinessPenguin t1_j3awudu wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Up until they withdrew these forces did explicitly support the Whites’ cause and war effort.
[deleted] t1_j3av94k wrote
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mustard-plug t1_j3au5hc wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Lions Led By Donkeys podcast has a terrific 4 part episode on this expedition
[deleted] t1_j3ar2sd wrote
Reply to comment by BusinessPenguin in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
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cfrey t1_j3aqgi4 wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
The Western war against Russia is over 100 years old, and still going strong.
TheBalrogofMelkor t1_j3aonpa wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
The Russian civil war famously had the Reds (communists) and Whites (monarchists), but also the Blacks (anarchists) and the Greens (peasant armies). The Reds used the Greens and Blacks to fight the Whites and then backstabbed them to win, notably in Ukraine where they were the biggest factions.
Pretty much everyone would massacre the jews, and there were hundreds of pogroms.
At one point, a White general converted to a militant sect of Buddism and led an army of mounted Mongols who captured Ulaan Battar (capital of Mongolia).
sarpon6 t1_j3aomv5 wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
My grandfather was born in an area that was Ukraine or Russia or Poland depending on the year, immigrated to the US as a teenager, volunteered for the US Army and was sent to Siberia to be a translator. In September 1919, he and a captain were captured by Cossacks. The captain escaped. My grandfather was turned over to General Kalmykov. He was flogged before being released.
TheBalrogofMelkor t1_j3ao59p wrote
Reply to comment by rockrnger in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Led by a Czech admiral, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean
bhl88 t1_j3ansrq wrote
Reply to comment by TheEmperorsWrath in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
The orders are to shoot anyone not wearing the Czechoslovakia uniform
royiroyi t1_j3amdbe wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
My Grandpa was an engineer in the US Army with the Polar Bear unit and kept a journal while he was in Russia. He and his engineer unit were mainly from Michigan. He referred to the enemy as “Bolos” too if anyone might find that interesting.
Also his Russian Mosin Nagant rifle was actually made in the US. Something about how the US was contracted to make Russian rifles for the Tsar, and the unit he was in at least had them.
ironroad18 t1_j3akheh wrote
Reply to comment by rockrnger in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Yeah, the international expeditions into Russia, really shed light onto the Lenin's and later Stalin's hyper paranoia towards the West and Japan. In addition to the ever present worry of an internal party coup or another popular uprising.
After WW2, it seems like Soviet Russians were obsessed with creating a physical buffer between them and the West at all costs due to what happened during the civil war. Even if it meant using the spent remnants of the Red Army to subjugate Eastern Europe by force.
KahuTheKiwi t1_j3ajyfv wrote
Reply to comment by BlishBlash in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Borderline? How so?
TheEmperorsWrath t1_j3aixym wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
"Caught up" - Ah yes, the "American Expeditionary Force, Siberia" just accidentally ended up in Siberia. Poor bastards lol.
BusinessPenguin t1_j3aifqu wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
"Got caught up in" is a funny way to describe what was an unjustified invasion of a foreign nation.
Breezy34 t1_j3aht1t wrote
Reply to comment by pk10534 in The States of WY, UT, MT, CO and ID all gave women the right to vote 20 years before the 19th amendment. This meant women in those states could vote for U.S. President in 1892, but women in most other states could not. Montana even sent a woman to Congress before most U.S. women could vote. by triviafrenzy
Pedantic...the post
[deleted] t1_j3ahlni wrote
Reply to comment by Sedknieper in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
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Dr-P-Ossoff t1_j3agybw wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
I learned this from the SPI game. To represent the stunning chaos, a player does not take a side. You can earn points for having you red and white armies attack each other.
pk10534 t1_j3aglou wrote
Reply to comment by Breezy34 in The States of WY, UT, MT, CO and ID all gave women the right to vote 20 years before the 19th amendment. This meant women in those states could vote for U.S. President in 1892, but women in most other states could not. Montana even sent a woman to Congress before most U.S. women could vote. by triviafrenzy
I didn’t make any posts…
Breezy34 t1_j3agad1 wrote
Reply to comment by pk10534 in The States of WY, UT, MT, CO and ID all gave women the right to vote 20 years before the 19th amendment. This meant women in those states could vote for U.S. President in 1892, but women in most other states could not. Montana even sent a woman to Congress before most U.S. women could vote. by triviafrenzy
Well you didn't have any other comments until explaining that. So, nothing is wrong with your post, you just didn't make any point.
Sedknieper t1_j3aetta wrote
Reply to The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
I was at the Detroit Zoo this last summer and saw a random plaque about this. I was completely unaware of this before seeing this plaque. http://pbma.grobbel.org/polar_bear_zoo.htm
Attygalle t1_j3b5bf8 wrote
Reply to comment by TheBalrogofMelkor in The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War by Novel_Finger2370
Reminds me of China where the great CCP let the KMT and local warlords do all the fighting against the Japanese in WWII only to backstab them when the war was basically won and then “win” the civil war. It’s a very effective tactic.