Welcome to the Siberian Jungle
My knowledge and perspective of the American involvement in the Russian Civil War has greatly progressed since the starting of the Independent Study Project. Through research, analysis and procedure I have learned extensively about politics, history and of the Russian Civil War.
Firstly, while I have always maintained an interest in the history of the Soviet Union, I have to say that I really had no idea just how complicated and interesting the Bolshevik Revolution really was. For example, this project has taught me that the Allied forces actually were involved in the civil war, and that there was an actual fear of communism even before there really existed an example of it. In addition, I have been able to study from my classmates’ blogs about such topics as FARC, and the IMF. Thus, I have learned the details of the Russian Civil War that had previously eluded me.
Also, this project has helped evolve my perspective on American hegemony and on American imperialism. I now understand just how serious a problem that outside intervention can be when the primary motive for the intervention is based on resources or on political power. I can demonstrate with examples the harm that comes from international intervention in many cases, and I believe my perspective on politics has also slightly changed. To conclude, this ISP has allowed my perspective on American intervention to develop and to flower.
Overall, this school project has allowed me to learn that, at least in this case, both the clashing ideologies, communism and capitalism, within the Russian Civil War were ultimately flawed, and that there really is no perfect system of government in which we could ever feasibly live under.
In the process of producing my seminar presentation on American Hegemony I have been able to quite successfully collaborate and work with my group members. I feel that throughout our conferences we have been able to develop and evolve an idea for our presentation that will not only be informative, but also exciting for the viewers. In fact, I look forward to our presentation to listen to my group members present their individual topics as I feel that our plan to recreate a military briefing will be very enjoyable.
Though many of our conferences were unproductive, since rarely was the whole group present, our time together produced an interesting result that I doubt any of us could have come up with on our own.
In short, while our group work may not have been stellar, our overall product is quite clearly extraordinary.
Smith, Gibson. "Guarding the Railroad, Taming the Cossacks: The U.S. Army in Russia, 1918- 1920." 2002. The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration. 2 March 2009. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/us-army-in-russia-1.html.
Ulam, Adam. Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy 1917-17. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.
The intervention by countries in the Russian Civil was not solely limited to the major powers of the Allied countries. Among the nearly two hundred thousand foreign troops fighting in Russia, over 4,400 of them were Canadians. There were also British, French, Italian, Polish, Czechoslovak, Finnish, Serbian, American and Japanese troops who all invaded Russia after the overthrow of the czar. In particular, Canada’s involvement was seen as a “part of the price of Empire.”
I have found an amazing article from Maclean’s magazine detailing not only the Allied involvement in the war, but also highlighting Canada’s achievements. Nathan Greenfield also explains the right honourable Robert Borden’s politics towards the entire situation. This resource will be useful because it includes both the events of the Russian Civil War but also Canada’s part in these events. It should be quite interesting to include Canada’s history and viewpoints within my essay as opposed to merely focussing on American hegemony.
Additionally, this source includes some of the motives towards invading Russia, which to be honest tends to differ from source to source. Regardless, the general theme of maintaining American investments and military supremacy tend to be universal throughout my research. Not only this though, I have learned from this article that America may have also been attempting to capture the “rich Caspian Sea Baku oil fields.” This seems to fit my thesis, and in fact will greatly strengthen my essay.