Customer Reviews

The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow: The Allied War in Russia 1918-1920

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This is not the most academic or detailed of the tomes on the Siberian intervention or the Russian Civil War.
However it is generally a relaibale and well researched piece. its strength is the depth and variety of first-hand sources dobson has been able to bring to the attention of readers. These include the pilots of the title, and Colonel Johnson. On the other hand, they do not make as much use of particularly American, Russian and Czech sources as they could.
The academic reader would welcome footnoting etc. This does not have that, but what it does have iss a readable summary, primarily from a British point of view, of why the Allies were involved on a number of fronts in Russia's outlying provinces in 1918-20.
Equivalent volumes by Swettenham and Silverlight are available and offer almost the same information. A researcher will probably find only the above mentioned sources make this worth looking at. Otherwise for the general reader these three are broadly interchangable, Swettenham has more on the Canadians, and is perhaps the best-researched of these.
Similar more in-depth analysis is given by Ullman's 3 volume series and an intensely British one by Michael Kettle, also in 3 volumes.

This is a very interesting and readable history of how the USA, Canada, Serbia, France, Japan, Italy and the Czechs all fought the Soviets on Russian territory. Or at least that's what Russian history says. Some did more fighting than others. The British sank at least 2 red battleships and used tanks and planes on Russian soil. No wonder the Reds didn't trust anyone. Very readable history of a little known war not taught in schools.