R. Ernest Dupuy (1887–1975)

This is the history of the 40,000 strong Czech Legion that found itself cut off when the Russian Army collapsed in World War One and, according to the Preface, "marched from the Volga to Vladivostok and back again, fighting both ways, held a new Eastern Front for two years and went home around the world to build a new nation." The history also includes an account of "our {i.e. the United States, within the context of multi-national forces assembled by the Allies of WWI} two assisting campaigns in Siberia and North Russia, both fought mainly after the Armistice of November 11, 1918." All of this is new information for me, and I've been very much looking forward to reading this history since I ordered it online several months ago.

The book was published in 1939, very soon after the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia. Dupuy was a U.S. Army major and the publisher was "The Military Service Publishing Company." As Dupuy concludes his Preface, "In the light of what has happened, in the light of what we may be urged to do again, it will be well to recall the past."

Dupuy also spends a good amount of time describing both AEF adventures, in Archangel/Murmansk and in Siberia. The point is made quite strongly that, in Eastern Russia, the ultimate success of the Bolsheviks can be attributed as much to the wanton savagery and sadism of the White Russian generals than to any attraction the populace had to Bolshevism. As to the Northern expedition, the American forces were part of a multi-national force, originally there to try to encourage a second front and keep the Germans from building a submarine base. They stayed after the Armistice, however (as did the Siberian AEF) in part in support of the Czechs and in part in support of the White Russians. The Northern Russian force was under the command of a British general whose doomed attempts to drive south and actually unseat the Bolsheviks Dupuy labels "inane."

The book is clearly written, and as well researched as possible for the time, I guess. At one point, Dupuy says that he has no idea how the Czech forces, spread out as the became more or less across the length of the Trans-Siberian rail lines, maintained communication with each other, but evidently they did. There are quite a few fascinating photographs. There are also a couple of maps, but these are much too sketchy to be of much use.

The book is listed in only two LT libraries, mine being one.

p.s. I had to look up the word "anabasis." According to Wikipedia, the word comes from the title of a classic text by the Greek writer Xenophon (431–355 BC), about the expedition of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger against his brother, King Artaxerxes II. More generally, however it means "an expedition from a coastline up into the interior of a country."… (mehr)