Great Britain and Russia’s civil war: “The necessity for a definite and coherent policy”

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis. Britain's involvement in the Russian Civil War was an attempt by the greatest maritime power in the world to project power decisively against continental-power Russia; to overturn the Bolshevik Revolution and prevent the spread of communism across Europe. This article briefly examines the Royal Navy's Baltic Campaign during the pivotal year of 1919 and especially during October, with counter-revolutionary White General Nikolai Yudenich's final lunge towards Petrograd. Although the existing literature predominantly ascribes a great moral and strategic victory to modern naval deterrence -- the protection of the Baltic States on the one hand and against German-led forces on the other -- the historical evidence suggest a much more nuanced definition of 'victory'. British sea power was not able to destroy the Red Fleet anchored at Kronstadt, nor secure Yudenich's left flank by overpowering the outlying coastal fortress of Krasanaya Gorka. As a result, the entire White offensive was thrown off-balance and ultimately ill-fated.