Australia’s Lost Heroes
Anzacs in the Russian Civil War 1919
Damien Wright
Newport, NSW: Big Sky Publishing, 2024
Paperback 420pp RRP: $32.99
Reviewer: David Rees, June 2024
Damien Wright has done much to clarify why 150 Australian soldiers were sent to fight in Russia towards the end of the First World War. They were not sent as an AIF unit but as individuals who had temporarily been discharged from the AIF and voluntarily enlisted in the British army for one year. This enabled them to participate in two of the Allied Brigades consisting of battalions from Britain (3), America (3), France (1), Italy (1) and smaller units who formed the North Russian Relief Force (NRRF). The NRRF was sent to Russia in 1918 to assist the White Russians in their civil war against the Russian Bolshevik Reds. Like the New Zealand and Canadian volunteers who enlisted in the British army for NRRF duty, the Australians volunteers were allowed to wear their own AIF army uniforms.
At the start of the First World War, the Russian army lost most of its battles with Germany on the Eastern Front. By early 1917 the Russian army was in tatters and had suffered over two million casualties. Its supply of munitions, food and clothing to the front line was inefficient and inadequate, despite receiving war stores from the British & French through the northern ports. By March 1917, things were so bad that the Tsar abdicated and a provisional Russian government was set up which formally created a Russian Republic with the aim of continuing the war against Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey. However, it was soon dissolved when the Bolshevik revolution occurred in October 1917 and Lenin, the Bolshevik leader together with a Soviet Congress, assumed power.
Lenin opposed the continuation of the war and negotiated an armistice with Germany in December 1917 and a formal peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk on 3rd March 1918. Some of the Russians who disagreed with Lenin aligned themselves with the old Tsarist order known as The White Russians. Their aim was to overthrow the Russian Bolsheviks and restore hostilities against Germany. Many Western allies decided to support the White Russians by creating the NRRF. They reasoned that with the war stopped on the Eastern Front, more German Army Divisions could be transferred to the Western Front. The Americans on the other hand, only joined the NRRF as long as the Imperial government was not restored and that there was no interference with the political liberty of the Russian people. By October 1919, the Allied participation in Russia had failed. The remaining NRRF troops were evacuated by Royal Navy troopships and subsequently, the White Russians were defeated thereby ending the Russian Civil War in 1921.
The book is written in two parts. The first describes how the NRRF was formed and gives backgrounds to the Australians who volunteered for it as well as descriptions of the roles they had in the battles against the Red Army. The second part covers the postwar stories of two AIF Australians in the NRRF who were awarded Victorian Crosses for their valour in Russia - Corporal Arthur Sullivan and Sergeant Samuel George Pearse). Cpl. Sullivan survived the war and returned to Australia but died in 1937 after a tragic road accident in London. Sgt. Pearse was awarded his VC posthumously. He was killed in action and buried in North Russia but the location of his grave was lost for over 100 years. The author, with help from Pearse’s family and a Russian historian, went to great lengths to successfully rediscover the burial location in 2019. He vividly describes the diplomatic and bureaucratic difficulties he experienced over many years in finding the grave.
The author provides a comprehensive index as well as good maps and appendices which include a list of the names and military details of the Australians who were in the NRRF. This is a very worthwhile read.
The RUSI – Vic Library thanks the publisher for making this work available for review.