From Victoria to Vladivostok

Benjamin Isitt is a historian specializing in twentieth-century Canadian and world history, with emphasis on labour, social movements, and the process of cultural change.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Why Siberia?Part 1: Canada's Road to Siberia1 1917: A Breach in the Allied Front2 Vladivostok: 19173 The Road to Intervention4 Mobilization5 Departure DayPart 2: To Vladivostok and Back6 Vladivostok: 19197 "Up Country" and Evacuation8 AfterwordConclusionAppendicesNotes; Bibliography; Index

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. - Nathan M. Greenfield (Time Literary Supplement Review) 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. - Brian Bethune (Macleans.ca) 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. - Tom Hawthorn ("Mutiny Suppressed, a Siberian Expedition Goes Bust," Globe and Mail) 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. - Colonel Peter Williams (Canadian Army Journal, Vol 14.1, 2012) 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.- Stephen Osborne (Geist 81) [A] fascinating study of the canadian contribution to the military expedition to Siberia. - Nathan M. Greenfield (Time Literary Supplement Review)