World War I began with the declaration of the Austro-Hungarian War against Serbia on July 26, 1914, and the bloody war ended with Germany's surrender to the Allies on November 11, 1918. World War I took place between two alliances, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Allies included Britain, France, Russia, the United States, Italy, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, China, Belgium, and more. Central powers, on the other hand, included Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and some of their allies. The First World War took place between these two allied states. At least that's what most people know.
But an important chapter in World War I remains almost unnoticed in history, especially in the history of the Western world. This chapter is about the Allied invasion of Russia / Soviet Russia in 1917. The Allies invaded Russia, their former ally, in 1917, and the war between Soviet Russia and the Allies continued after World War I ended. Japan was the most active ally in this war. They sent the most troops into the war, and the last of the Allies to withdraw from the war.
Incidentally, Japan was a member of the Allies during World War I, but their participation in the war was limited. The occupation of the small German colonies in China and the Pacific in 1914, the participation of Indian members of the British army in suppressing a revolt in British-controlled Singapore in 1915, and the subsequent use of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans Outside, the Japanese did nothing special in World War I.
But in the event of an invasion of Russia in 1917, they sent at least 72,000 troops and spent large sums of money on the operation. Naturally, this shows that Japan had a special interest behind the Russian invasion. The question is, what was that interest? Why did Japan invade Russia?
Historical context of the Russian-Japanese conflict
The first extensive connection between Russia and Japan was established in the mid-nineteenth century, and it was at that time that territorial disputes arose between them. Both Russia and Japan claimed the Kuril Islands and the Shakhalin Islands as their own, and the Japanese even claimed the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The Russians were engaged in the Crimean War in 1855, when they were forced to cede the Kuril Islands to Japan in order to avoid a new war in the Far East.
In 181, the Russians occupied the Japanese island of Sushima, and attempted to establish a "warm water port" there. But under pressure from Britain and other major powers, they were forced to withdraw their troops. The Treaty of St. Petersburg was signed between Russia and Japan in 185, and it marked the apparent end of their border dispute. According to the agreement, Russia recognizes the Kuril Islands as Japanese territory, while Japan recognizes the Shakhalin Islands as Russian territory.
At the same time, extremist nationalist and imperialist ideologies emerged in Japan, and some followers of these ideologies began to consider Russia's vast Asian lands, up to the Ural Mountains, as 'historic Japanese lands'. Meanwhile, in the 1890s, Russia and Japan clashed over the expansion of empires in East Asia (especially China and Korea). China was defeated by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, and gained the Liaodong Peninsula in southeastern Manchuria, along with other lands from China. But the Russians, along with France and Germany, put pressure on Japan, forcing Japan to return the land to China.
Between 1897 and 1896, Russian influence in Korea greatly increased, and Russia leased the Liaodong Peninsula from China and built Port Arthur's 'warm seaport' there. When the Boxer Rebellion against foreign influence began in China in 1899–1901, Russia and Japan, along with Western nations, sent troops to China to quell the revolt. At this time the Russians sent millions of troops into China's 'Inner Manchuria', and it became virtually a province of Russia.
In this situation, in February 1904, Japan suddenly attacked the Russian naval base at Port Arthur and the Russo-Japanese War broke out. In this war, Russia was sadly defeated by Japan, and the war ended with the signing of the Portsmouth Agreement in September 1905. Through this agreement, Russia recognized South Manchuria and Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence, withdrew troops from North Manchuria, and handed over the southern branch to Japan.
Russia and Japan were both members of the Allies during World War I, and this led to an uneasy alliance. Interestingly, at this time there was a propaganda in the Japanese media that German troops had invaded European Russia and entered Asian Russia, and that Japanese troops were fighting the Germans in Asian Russia / Siberia. This showed the desire of the Japanese for influence in Asian Russia, because in fact the Germans could not even reach the Russian capital Petrograd on the shores of the Baltic Sea, let alone occupy European Russia at that time.
However, in the context of the war, Russia and Japan were forced to come to an agreement. In July 1918, a secret treaty was signed between Russia and Japan. Under the agreement, Russia and Japan determined their sphere of influence in China, pledged not to make a ceasefire with Germany alone, and pledged to work together to reduce US influence in East Asia and the Pacific in the post-war period.
The rise of the Bolsheviks and the geopolitical ambitions of the Japanese
A revolution / coup d'etat in the Russian capital, Petrograd, in March 1917 forced the Russian emperor to resign, and a provisional government took over Russia. But soon political chaos spread throughout Russia. The Japanese watched the situation with interest, and began to plan whether Russia could use the ongoing unrest to their advantage, even though it was an external ally.
After the Bolshevik Revolution / coup d'etat in November 1917, Soviet Russia announced its withdrawal from World War I, and soon civil war broke out across Russia. With the withdrawal of Soviet Russia from World War I, the Central Powers had the opportunity to send large numbers of troops from the eastern battlefield to the western battlefield. As a result, other members of the Allies became furious with the Bolsheviks. On January 12, 1917, Japanese warships landed on the shores of the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok, and subsequent US and Chinese warships joined them. This marked the beginning of the first phase of the Allied invasion of Soviet Russia.
On 18 February 1917, the Allied Supreme Council called on Japan to occupy the Russian-occupied city of Vladivostok and the northern Manchuria, and the Russian-run "Chinese Eastern Railway." But they stipulate that Japan will not be able to conduct a large-scale military operation without informing the rest of the Allies, and that it will have to withdraw its troops once the operation is over. On March 17, the Japanese government agreed to the proposal, and the Soviets sent an army of about 72,000 troops to conduct military operations in the Far East and Siberia. They deployed a larger force in northern Manchuria.
Japanese troops occupied a large area east of Lake Baikal, and advanced as far as Irkutsk. They established control over the Trans-Siberian Railway. At that time the Bolshevik government was at war with various internal and external enemies west of the Ural Mountains, and they could not take any effective measures to repel the Japanese invasion. Only at the local level did the Bolshevik guerrillas build resistance against the Japanese. The rest of the Allies, meanwhile, were skeptical of Japan's real intentions, so their troops soon joined the Japanese.
Indeed, the reasons behind Japan's participation in the Soviet invasion of Russia were mixed, complex, and in some cases unclear. At this time the Russian Civil War was going on, and as a result the situation became more complicated. Japan participated in the attack as part of the Allies, and for that reason, at least externally, the Allies' objectives were Japan's.
First, there were three main motives behind the Japanese (and Allied) invasion of Soviet Russia. The first of these was to ensure that Soviet Russia did not have a large stockpile of military equipment. During World War I, the Allies supplied Russia with large quantities of arms and ammunition. But the Bolsheviks withdrew from World War I and began peace talks with the Central Powers. Therefore, the Allies feared that the military equipment supplied by the Allies stored in Soviet Russia would be seized by the Central Powers, and that the Central Powers would use them against the Allies. That is why Japan (and other Allied powers) invaded Soviet Russia to recover these weapons.
Second, the Allies had a second formal or declared purpose - to rescue the "Czechoslovak Legion" trapped in Soviet Russia. The Czechoslovak Legion was a volunteer force made up of ethnic Czech and Slovak members of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces captured by the Russians during World War I. These forces were fighting for the Allies and in return the Allies promised to give them an independent state after the war. But after the rise of the Bolsheviks and their withdrawal from World War I, Czechoslovak troops were trapped in Soviet Russia.
In this situation they revolted against the Bolsheviks and took control of parts of the Trans-Siberian Railway. But it was not possible for them to stay there indefinitely, and the Allies wanted to send them to the western battlefield because they needed as much manpower as possible. That is why the Allies (and Japan) sent troops to Soviet Russia to safely remove them from Soviet Russia.
After all, the Allies (and Japan) had a third formal or declared purpose - to thwart the peace talks the Bolsheviks were negotiating with the Central Powers to withdraw from World War I, and thereby force Soviet Russia to re-engage in the war. Their idea was that the Bolsheviks would eventually be forced to restore the eastern battlefield by attacking the surroundings, and that the central power would not be able to exert full force on the western battlefield. That is why they are conducting this operation to put pressure on Soviet Russia.
But it soon became clear that these official or declared motives were not the main reason for the Allies (and Japan's) invasion of Soviet Russia. The Allies have not been able to recover the bulk of the weapons supplied to Russia, and they have made no attempt to remove the Czechoslovak Legion from Soviet Russia.
Russia's participation in World War I officially ended on March 3, 1918, with the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, and by November 11, 1918, the member states of the Central Powers surrendered to the Allies. This marked the official end of World War I, and eliminated the need for the Allies (and Japan) to continue their invasion of Soviet Russia.
But even then the Allies (and Japan) did not withdraw troops from Soviet Russia because their real motives behind conducting the invasion of Soviet Russia were different. But the motives of each of the Allied members were different from each other. Virtually every country participating in the Soviet invasion of Britain, France, the United States, China, Italy and Poland had its own motives. Needless to say, Japan also had its own motives behind the Soviet invasion of Russia.
First, Japan had an additional formal purpose in addition to the formal objectives declared by the Allies to conduct this attack. That is to protect the lives, property and business interests of Japanese citizens living in the Soviet Russian Far East and Siberia. Incidentally, Soviet Russia had a number of Japanese citizens living in the Far East and Siberia at that time, and a significant portion of them were businessmen. But after the rise of the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik authorities banned private trade, and confiscated privately owned businesses. Several Japanese businessmen are victims of this policy. In addition, in January 1918, Vladivostok had multiple Japanese nationals murdered, although it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the killings.
In this context, the Japanese government covered up their Soviet invasion of Russia with the guise of 'protecting Japanese citizens'. But the reality is that the Bolsheviks at this time targeted not only Japanese citizens, but also Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans - businessmen of all nationalities. Overall, 'Japanese citizens must be protected' - this was a strategy of the Japanese government to gain public support for the purpose of conducting an invasion of Soviet Russia.
Second, the rise of the Bolsheviks and the social system they introduced were viewed with fear by the Japanese ruling class. The Bolsheviks called on the working class people all over the world to revolutionize their governments and establish a classless society. The Japanese ruling class feared that if the Bolsheviks survived, their ideas would spread among the Japanese masses, and from their point of view, Bolshevikism was a serious threat to class-based Japanese society.
Moreover, in 1917, the Bolsheviks assassinated the last Russian emperor, Nikolai II, along with his family, and this incident shocked the Japanese. Note that at that time the Japanese emperor was given almost god-like status, and the assassination of the Bolsheviks was considered a 'moral crime' by them. In order to prevent such an ideology from spreading inside Japan, the Japanese considered the elimination of the Bolsheviks as the appropriate strategy, and for this they began to support the anti-Bolshevik 'White Army'.
Third, there was a fear among the Japanese that Bolshevik doctrine might spread to Manchuria and Korea. By this time Korea had become a colony of Japan, and they had an extensive military presence in Manchuria. The Bolsheviks were spreading freedom-loving ideas among the inhabitants of the eastern colonies, and this could pose a threat to Japanese hegemony in Manchuria and Korea. The Japanese also feared that the Bolsheviks might invade Manchuria and Korea. That is why they wanted the Bolsheviks to deal with them on their own soil.
After all, the main goal of the Japanese was to either annex Soviet Russian Far East and Siberia directly to Japan, or to establish a "buffer" between the Bolshevik state and mainland Japan by establishing a Japanese-controlled refugee state there. And if that were not possible, then at least the Japanese were interested in annexing all the land east of Lake Baikal, or creating a Japanese-controlled state there.
With the expansion of the empire in this vast region, Japan would literally become an empire, settle the Japanese population in this sparsely populated region, solve Japan's population problems, and use the region's vast natural resources to fill Japan's natural resource deficit.
One thing is that the Japanese were afraid of the Bolsheviks because of their "anarchic" ideology, but no Russian political party or organization was able to compete with the Bolsheviks. Japan considered not only Bolshevik ideology but also the Russian state as a threat to itself, and therefore the goal of the Japanese was to weaken this state (whether it was imperialist or Soviet Russia) as much as possible.
That is why the Japanese were not particularly fond of the White House, where other Allied member states (such as the United States) supported the anti-Bolshevik 'White Army', and secretly sought to weaken the government that the White Army had established in Siberia. . This was because the leaders of the White Army were anti-Bolshevik and enlisted the help of the Allies (and Japan), but in practice they were also fierce Russian nationalists and imperialists. Therefore, if the White Army won, they too could become a big threat to Japan in the future.
So the Japanese replaced the established government of the White Army with two puppet governments in the Transbaikalia region under Cossack leader Gregory Semyonov and in the Khabarovsk region under Ivan Kalmikov. But the local Bolshevik guerrillas began to launch massive attacks against the Japanese and their local allies, and in retaliation the Japanese burned down large numbers of villages and carried out massacres.
Strategic defeat of the Japanese
Meanwhile, by February 1920, the Bolsheviks had defeated the White Army in Siberia, executed their prime minister, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, and occupied Irkutsk. They established in Siberia a Bolshevik-controlled state called the "Far Eastern Republic", which was officially independent but closely linked to Soviet Russia. After the defeat of the White Army, the Allies withdrew (or were forced to withdraw) troops from Siberia and Soviet Russia in the Far East, but the Japanese did not.
The Japanese may realize that it is not possible for them to occupy Siberia or the Far East under changed circumstances. The campaign cost them a lot of money, and the Japanese public was increasingly opposed to this failed and seemingly purposeless campaign. In this situation, Japan entered into negotiations with the Far Eastern Republic, and demanded compensation in exchange for the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the coastal border province. But the Far Eastern Republic did not accept any conditions from the Japanese.
Under these circumstances, in October 1922, the Japanese began withdrawing troops from the coastal frontier province. With the withdrawal of Japanese troops from one region after another, the troops of the Far Eastern Republic began to occupy those territories. On October 25, Japanese troops left Vladivostok, and within hours of the last Japanese troops leaving Vladivostok, troops from the Far East occupied the city. Two weeks later, the Far Eastern Republic became part of Soviet Russia.
The Japanese occupied the northern branch for about three years, but in January 1925 a "basic treaty" was signed between Japan and the Soviet Union, and as part of the treaty, they handed over the northern branch to the Soviet Union on 15 May 1925. Japan's invasion of Soviet Russia was a complete failure, and the undeclared Soviet-Japanese War came to an end.
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