Many Americans would be surprised to learn that the USA, along with Britain, France, and Japan, fought a campaign in Russia just after the Great War (World War I). The primary objective of this action was the re-establishment of an Eastern Front following the collapse of the Russian government during the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, but Allied fear of communist ambitions in other countries also played into the intervention as will be seen below. The overall campaign was named the Polar Bear Expedition, but was also known as the Northern Russian Expedition, the American North Russia Expeditionary Force - ANREF or the American Expeditionary Force North Russia - AEFNR.
These efforts are not mentioned in most history survey courses, and few texts even mention that US troops (or those of any other nation) fought against the Bolsheviks during this period. The presence of US Army units from Michigan in Vladivostok, Archangel, and other Russian locations is rarely noted although the University of Michigan maintains an archive of photographs and other primary evidence relating to the period.
Troops were sent to Russia near the close of World War I for several reasons, all of which were related to the instability of the Russian government. First, the Russian army's disastrous defeat at the hands of the Germans resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Initially his government was replaced by an interim democratic administration (the only democratic regime that has ever existed in Russia) under the leadership of Alexander Kerensky. This change in government structure caused president Woodrow Wilson to change his mind about participation in the war. He had initially refused to commit the US to an alliance with the despotic Tsarist government. Thus, US troops were mustered for action on the Western Front.
However, in October 1917 the Bolshevik revolution replaced the Kerensky government with communist rule under Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. This resulted in the withdrawl of Russian troops from the Eastern front as the new government negotiated a separate peace with Germany under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Loss of the Eastern Front placed additional pressure on Allied troops from the US, France, Britain, and other countries fighting on the Western Front. The Germans were able to move troops from Eastern borders to French battlefields, thus strengthening their hand.
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