The Republic of the Ushakovka - Admiral Kolchak and the Allied Intervention in Siberia 1918-20 (1990)

1918: The World War was over, but the battle against Bolshevism had barely begun. Soviet Russia was assailed on all sides, by a combination of her foreign enemies and the supporters of the old Imperial order. The most dangerous threat came not from the White armies close to Moscow and Leningrad, but from the east in Siberia. There the ambitions of the White soldiers, lead by a Czarist admiral, matched the aspirations of the former allies, Britain and the United States. In the East also, was an army of mercenaries determined to fight their way home - the legion of trained soliders formed among former Czech prisoners of the Russians. And, above all there were the hidden ambitions of the Japanese, fulfilling their plan to achieve an ever greater presence on the mainland of Asia. The Republic of the Ushakovka, the creation of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, was the facade, behind which all these contrary ambitions were played out. Kolchak was a patriot, a tragic if inadequate figure; his associates, foreign and Russian, were a seedy rag-bag ruled by self-interest, greed or political ambition. If the characters were small, the landscape on which their games were played, was immense. The skill of Charles Connaughton's narrative is that he is a master both of the detail and the wider implications of these inglorious but epic events. This volume, originally published in 1990 and now with an updated Preface, gives an account of the Allies'last concerted attempt to destroy Russia's nascent Bolshevik regime. At the start, it looked like a threat that should be taken seriously, as the Reds'enemies both native and foreign combined with trained mercenaries under the leadership of a Tsarist admiral. But it finished with a firing squad on the ice, and a grisly end for the ill-fated Admiral Kolchak. With him died the last hope for the old order in Russia, and the future of the new Soviet state was secure. The skill of the author's narrative lies in his mastery both of the detail and of the wider implications of these epic events. Cover page 1 Halftitle page 2 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Title page 6 Copyright page 7 Dedication 8 CONTENTS 10 ILLUSTRATIONS 11 Preface 13 Map 19 I IN THE BEGINNING 20 2 PRELUDE AND DISASTER 33 3 THE PALESTINIANS OF EUROPE 48 4 THE GATHERING STORM 63 5 EGGS LOADED WITH DYNAMITE 80 6 TOWARDS THE PEAK 96 7 COUP 126 8 QUO VADIS? 139 9 THE ISLE OF DOGS 155 10 DEATH WISH 170 11 ABANDONED 184 12 THE REPUBLIC OF THE USHAKOVKA 197 EPILOGUE 210 APPENDIX 216 NOTES 220 BIBLIOGRAPHY 222 INDEX 224