Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

From Victoria to Vladivostok

Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19

by (author) Benjamin Isitt

Publisher
UBC Press, Canadian War Museum
Initial publish date
Nov 2010
Subjects
Canada, World War I
This eBook meets EPUB Accessibility 1.0 specification and W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 A, at a minimum.
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774859479
    Publish Date
    May 2010
    List Price
    $29.95

Library Ordering Options

Description

As the last guns sounded on the Western Front, 4,200 Canadian soldiers, some of them conscripts, travelled from Victoria to Vladivostok to open a new theatre of war in Siberia. Part of the Allied intervention in Russia’s civil war, the force sought to defeat Bolshevism, but grim conditions, conflict among the Allies, and local opposition eventually forced Canada to evacuate the troops.

 

This groundbreaking book brings to a life a forgotten chapter in the history of Canada and Russia. Combining military and labour history with the social history of British Columbia, Québec, and Russia, Benjamin Isitt examines how the Siberian Expedition exacerbated tensions within Canadian society at a time when a radicalized working class, many French-Canadians, and even the soldiers themselves objected to Canada’s military adventure designed to alter the outcome of the Russian Revolution. The result is a highly readable and provocative work that challenges public memory of the First World War while illuminating tensions – both in Canada and worldwide – that shaped the course of twentieth-century history.

About the author

Benjamin Isitt is a historian and legal scholar specializing in the political and legal history of British Columbia’s working class, with previous works including From Victoria to Vladivostok (UBC Press, 2010) and Able to Lead (UBC Press, 2021). He also serves as a city councillor and regional director in Victoria, BC.

Benjamin Isitt's profile page

Editorial Reviews

At a time where our mission in Afghanistan is evolving, and leaders come to grips with the 'Afghanization' of the military effort there; and, where the future of Canada’s and the international community’s involvement in Libya is being widely discussed ... this book highlights many lessons concerning strategic objectives, one being military intervention, and the necessity for public support for same. Highly recommended.

Canadian Army Journal, Vol 14.1, 2012

The story of 4,200 Canadian soldiers sailing from British Columbia to the Russian Far East is told in From Victoria to Vladivostok, a fascinating account by the historian Benjamin Isitt.

"Mutiny Suppressed, a Siberian Expedition Goes Bust," <i>Globe and Mail</i>

Now the Vladivostok story can be known in detail from the excellent research of Benjamin Isitt, in his new book From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19, a fascinating and wide-ranging account.

Geist 81

Short, inglorious, hugely unpopular at the time and largely forgotten now: most Canadians probably have no idea that, once upon a time, this country invaded Russia ... Isitt’s extensive analysis of why we were there – mostly trying to deprive revolutionary workers at home of an international beacon – is convincing, as is his ironic conclusion: the blatant class warfare of the expedition did more to incite radicalism at home than it did to suppress it in Russia. Less than six months after the Victoria mutiny, a rising tide of industrial unionism would spark the Winnipeg General Strike.

Macleans.ca

Benjamin Isitt’s fascinating study of the Canadian contribution to the military expedition to Siberia designed to crush Lenin’s nascent Communist state punches a large hole in how much of Canada’s chattering class conceives of the country.

Time Literary Supplement Review

[A] fascinating study of the canadian contribution to the military expedition to Siberia.

Time Literary Supplement Review

Librarian Reviews

From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19

This book narrates the role of Canadian soldiers sent to Siberia to encourage and support the Whites/anti-Bolsheviks against the Reds/Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. The abortive attempt to reverse the revolutionary changes within Russia is told, as are the revolutionary challenges and changes happening in Canada in terms of labour, legislation and anti-government actions. Protests, mutiny, trade unions, the BC Fed, One Big Union, the March to Ottawa, the Winnipeg General Strike play parts in this little told story. A vast archive of primary sources and newspaper editorial comment is drawn on. An engaging interpretation of the Russian Revolution and Civil War is also included. Includes extensive endnotes and ten Appendices.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2010-2011.