Four decades ago, during a high-school seminar about World War I, I asked my teacher if he knew that U.S. troops had fought in Russia during the Great War. He politely dismissed me as the knot-headed kid that I was and replied simply that “we never had troops in Russia.” But I knew otherwise, thanks to Howard Welshofer. Howard was my friend's grandfather; a World War I veteran, he was among the Americans deployed to Russia in 1918 and had told me about the bone-chilling winter he spent on the Kola Peninsula. One telephone call from Howard and my teacher pretty much guaranteed me an A.
James Carl Nelson also deserves an A for his excellent book, “The Polar Bear Expedition,” which celebrates “the heroes of America's forgotten invasion of Russia.” It begins with a quick survey of the war leading up to the autumn of 1918. By then the Bolsheviks had overthrown the czar, started their socialist utopian experiment and disengaged the Germans.
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