Fighting the Bolsheviks

Most Americans are unaware of that historic time when American soldiers and sailors fought Russian revolutionaries - the Bolsheviks - in north Russia and Siberia. This is the daily record and recollections of Pfc. Donald E. Carey, one of the 5,600 American soldiers who fought the Bolsheviks there during 1918 and 1919. Carey and his men were part of the U.S. Army's 339th Infantry Regiment. Their battleground was just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle and though often outnumbered, these soldiers battled, and usually defeated, the Bolsheviks. Ironically, most of their combat occurred after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ended World War I. This segment of history is condensed from the daily record maintained by 25-year-old Carey, a drafted school teacher who was proud to serve his country as an enlisted man, but did not want to be responsible for the lives of others as an officer. Carey records army life and duty with unvarnished observations of his fellow soldiers, officers, and events - the brave and fainthearted, the humorous and the heart-rending.