Suggested Research Topics - Home Front Reaction to U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War
During the summer of 1918, the U. S. Army's 85th Division, made up primarily of men from Michigan and Wisconsin, completed its training at Fort Custer, outside of Battle Creek, Michigan, and proceeded to England. While the rest of the division was preparing to enter the fighting in France, some 5,000 troops of the 339th Infantry and support units (one battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Field Hospital, and the 337th Ambulance Company) were issued Russian weapons and equipment and sailed for Archangel, a Russian port on the White Sea, 600 miles north of Moscow.
When the American troops reached their destination in early September, they joined an international force commanded by the British that had been sent to northern Russia for purposes never made clear. Whatever the reasons for the intervention, however, the force found itself fighting Bolshevik revolutionaries for months after the Armistice ended fighting in France.
A winter of fighting Bolsheviks and wondering why they were still in combat when the war with Germany had ended led to severe morale problems among the American troops, including an alleged mutiny in March 1919 by members of one company in Archangel and the presentation of an antiwar petition by members of another company in the same month. The troops were ready for the new American commander who arrived at Archangel in April 1919 with orders to withdraw. As soon as navigation opened in June, the American forces left northern Russia.
What was the reaction in Michigan to the use of local men in an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks? How did this reaction relate to the attitudes of the men in the field? Can connections be drawn between attitudes toward the Russian intervention and anti-Red actions in this country?
Examples of Primary Source Collections and Other Resources:
- Various Polar Bear collections, all small, see Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections
- Newspapers at Bentley Library and the U-M Graduate Library: Ann Arbor papers and Detroit Free Press
- Other newspapers at Library of Michigan (Lansing) and Burton Historical Collections at the Detroit Public Library
In an effort to encourage creative thinking about possible research topics for students unfamiliar with archives and their inevitable complexities, archivists and student employees of the Bentley Historical Library have authored "suggested research topics ." The purpose of these is not to define a topic but rather to stimulate thinking about a topic where the holdings of the Bentley Library are particularly strong.