Japonia wobec rewolucji bolszewickiej w Rosji, 1917–1922
Japan and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, 1917–1922

Summary/Abstract: Japan was the only allied power that was not directly threatened by the effects of the Russian defeat in the war. In Tokyo news about the two coups in Petrograd in 1917 (of February and October) were met with a wait-and-see attitude. But, from the spring of 1921 on, both the British and the French wanted to send troops to Russia, initially to support, then to reactivate the collapsing front in Russia. In Siberia (Vladivostok was one of the main reception points of allied supplies) such an action could have been conducted only by the Japanese. The plan, however, fuelled mistrust of Washington that regarded it as a threat to American interests.It was not until after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, recognized as the beginning of German-Bolshevik cooperation that Woodrow Wilson consented to the Japanese action in Siberia. There was one condition, however, that participation of Japan could not exceed that of U.S., Britain and France. Yet, already in the first months of the intervention which began in August 1918, the Japanese forces (70,000 troops) deployed in Siberia were ten times the number of the other allies together.The Japanese ignored the Russian government of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchal (despite the fact that they recognised it). Their hidden aim was to create a buffer pan-Mongol state which would include also the part of Russian Siberia. Those plans were met with strong opposition, especially of the United States, which was skilfully used by the Bolsheviks to their advantage. An expensive expedition drained the Empire’s treasury, and their official aims were totally obscured for average Japanese people (including soldiers). And after the victorious Bolshevik revolution, they also lost their meaning. America insisted that Japan withdraw from Siberia, and all that Japan wanted was to save face, so it demanded compensation for the massacre of several hundred Japanese expatriates in Nikolayevsk in February 1922. Finally, on 25 October the Japanese troops left Vladivostok.

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