Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force
Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force | |
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James H. Elmsley |
The Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force (
Background
Allied intervention in Siberia was driven by a mix of motivations. Prior to
Canadian involvement in the Siberian campaign was to a significant degree driven by the policy of Canadian Prime Minister
Domestically, the Siberian expedition was presented to the public as a trade and economic opportunity. After the Armistice, however, domestic opinion turned against foreign involvement, particularly with conscript troops.
Trade and business
The belief that the Bolshevik revolution would be unsuccessful and lead to business and trade opportunities led the Canadian government to appoint the Canadian Siberian Economic Commission in an October 1918 order-in-council, led by trade commissioner
Support and opposition in Canada
The force was authorized by the
Arrival and disposition in Vladivostok
Under General James H. Elmsley's command, the advance party of Canadian troops left Vancouver aboard the RMS Empress of Japan, reaching Vladivostok, Russia on October 26, 1918.[6] The general quickly secured base headquarters at the Pushkinsky Theatre, an ornate building in the centre of the city that housed the Vladivostok Cultural-Educational Society. The unilateral Canadian action provoked a strong protest from leading Vladivostok businessmen, who demanded that Elmsley vacate the premises. The Canadians were quartered at three main sites: the East Barracks, at the head of Golden Horn Bay, the former Czarist barracks at Gornestai (today the town of Shitovaya), and the Second River Barracks north of Vladivostok. The main body of the CSEF arrived in Vladivostok in mid-January 1919, aboard the ships Teesta and Protesilaus. The Teesta's departure from Victoria on 21 December 1918 had been delayed by a mutiny of two companies of mainly French-Canadian troops in the 259th Battalion; the Protesilaus also faced difficulties reaching Vladivostok, losing a propeller off the Russian coast when it got stuck in the ice.[7]
Victoria mutiny of 21 December 1918
On 21 December 1918, two companies of troops in the 259th Battalion (Canadian Rifles), mutinied in the streets of Victoria, British Columbia. The mutiny occurred as the conscripts were marching from the Willows Camp to the city's Outer Wharves. Midway through the march, a platoon of troops near the rear refused to halt. Officers fired their revolvers in the air in an attempt to quell the dissent. When this failed, they ordered the obedient troops, primarily from the Ontario companies, to remove their canvas belts and whip the mutineers back into line. The march proceeded through downtown Victoria to the outer wharves, accompanied by a guard of honour of 50 troops armed with rifles and fixed bayonets. Twenty-one hours later, the SS Teesta left Victoria harbour bound for Vladivostok, with a dozen ringleaders detained in cells. While a court martial found 8 of the 9 accused guilty of "mutiny and willful disobedience", the sentences (all being some duration of hard labour, though they could have been sentenced to death) were eventually commuted by General Elmsley prior to the Canadian evacuation in early April, amid concern over the legality of deploying men under the Military Service Act for a mission tangentially connected to the "defence of the realm".[8]
The
During the Soviet period, this site was largely unmaintained.[11] In 1996, a Canadian squadron of warships visited Vladivostok; during the visit, sailors from HMCS Protecteur, assisted by members of the Russian Navy, replaced headstones and generally repaired the graves of Canadians buried in a local cemetery.[12]
Departure
Canadian labour unions in Canada's four largest cities—Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver were sympathetic to the Soviets in Russia and started to pressure the Canadian government to leave Russia.[6] When the main force of Canadians arrived in Russia in January 1919 it was decided to bring them home. The government refused to allow them to move to the front where they would come into conflict with the Soviets so they stayed in Vladivostok. Even there they were not safe as Soviet partisans started to attack Allied forces in the port city. Canadians were ordered to arm themselves at all times.[6] The Canadians dedicated a monument to the 19 Canadians who died in Russia on June 1, 1919. On June 5, 1919, the remaining Canadians boarded the SS Monteagle and sailed for Victoria ending the Canadian presence in Russia. [6]
See also
- North Russia Intervention
- Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
- North Russia Intervention
- Russian Civil War
References
- ISBN 978-0-7748-1802-5. Archived from the originalon 6 July 2011.
- ^ Lackenbauer, P. Whitney (April 1998). "Why Siberia? Canadian Foreign Policy and Siberian Intervention, 1918-19". University of Waterloo.
- JSTOR 1905120.
- JSTOR 40866246.
- ^ a b "1899-1920 The Seas Beyond: International Expansion". Royal Bank of Canada. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011.
- ^ a b c d Isitt 2008.
- ^ Canadian Expeditionary Force (Siberia) War Diary., October 29, 1918.
- doi:10.3138/CHR/87.2.223. Archived from the originalon 6 July 2011.
- ^ "Churkin Russian Naval Cemetery". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
- ^ "Grave Locations - Russian Federation". Australian War Graves Photographic Archive. Archived from the original on October 17, 2009.
- ^ Hart, Jim (May 30, 1995). "Transcript". Veterans Affairs Committee, House of Commons of Canada. 1600.
- UPI.
- Isitt, Benjamin (November 22, 2008). "The Siberian Expedition". Legion Magazine by Canvet Publications Ltd. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
Further reading
- Wright, Damien. "Churchill's Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-20", Solihull, UK, 2017
- Nicholson, G.W.L. (1962). "Intervention in Siberia". Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919 (PDF). Ottawa: Queen's Printer. pp. 517–523. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-26. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- Murby, Robert Neil (1969). Canada's Siberian Policy 1918-1919 (M.A.). University of British Columbia.
- Tompkins, Stuart Ramsay (1989). Pieroth, Doris H. (ed.). A Canadian's Road to Russia: Letters from the Great War Decade. Edmonton: ISBN 0-88864-144-3.
- Kinvig, Clifford (2006). Churchill's crusade: the British invasion of Russia, 1918-1920. London: ISBN 1-85285-477-4.
- Moffat, Ian C.D. (2007). "Forgotten Battlefields - Canadians in Siberia 1918-1919" (PDF). Canadian Military Journal. 8 (3): 73–83.
- Laughton, Richard (December 2012). "The First Cold War: CEF Soldiers in Siberia and North Russia" (PDF). laughton.ca.
External links
- "Siberian Expeditionary Force". Canadian War Museum.
- "Canada's Siberian Expedition". University of Victoria.
- "War diaries - North Russia (Siberian) Expeditionary Force, 16th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery (1918/08/21-1919/05/31)". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
- "Andreans Who Served in Russia in the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force and Northern Russian Expeditionary Force". Highland Cadet Corps, St. Andrew's College.