Historian Benjamin Isitt’s new book unfolds against a kaleidoscopic historical background with the sweep of “Lawrence of Arabia.” Military, labour, social, political history: it’s all here. If you want exotic, it’s hard to beat Vladivostok, 1919. “Vlady”, as the Canadian soldiers called it, was packed with foreign troops from a dozen different nations and thousands of refugees: White Russians, Poles, Georgians, Mongolians, Chinese and Koreans; aristocracy, bourgeoisie, peasants, beggars, and common criminals. Officers feasted on duck and geese, while dead bodies appeared daily in the Trans-Siberian Railroad station, the victims of disease and starvation. An old White Russian general and his wife lived in an abandoned railway car, surviving by selling off their gold tea service. What would happen when they sold their last cup? “We will just die.”
Japanese troops got ration cards for “comfort visits” to regulated Japanese-run brothels, while Canadian soldiers visited sex trade workers in places such as the “bucket of blood”, where Asiatic syphilis was rife. The Canadians organized a “gymkhana”, including a tug-of-war, bucking competition, and the Royal North West Mounted Police’s famous Musical Ride. It was a great success (except for the Bolshevik attempt to assassinate a White Russian leader as he left the event).
Meanwhile, Winston Churchill dreamed of a “cordon sanitaire” in Russia that would strangle the nascent Bolshevik revolution; the Allies (including the Japanese) sent thousands of troops to four different Russian fronts; BC trade unions threatened a general strike to stop Canadian involvement in the war; French-Canadian conscripts en route to Siberia mutinied in the heart of Victoria, BC; and the Canadian government … dithered.
If you’re getting the impression this is history on a grand scale, you’re right. We get the big picture, but also the view on the ground. If you like history that is superbly researched, low on academic jargon, and high on human interest, this is your book. If you’re like me, you’ll be frequently consulting the excellent maps as you read. Where exactly is Vladivostok? Does Russia really border Korea? Why was the Trans-Siberian Railroad so easy to sabotage? And you’ll find yourself absorbed by the fascinating collection of contemporary photographs.
Wow! What a read!
Wow! Please comment.
This sounds great! I’m in the middle of reading a history of China, so I’ve been learning about some of the same things, but from a different angle.
It’s wild that the British spent so much on influencing the Revolution – they had so many other things to worry about immediately post-WWI, and had already spent so much on the war!
Thanks for the review. Cheers,
Ron