The Russian Civil War took place in November 1917, coming off the heels of the Russian Revolution. The revolution took place in March of that year, and was the direct cause of the civil war. So in order to understand the civil war, one must take a look at the Russian Revolution first.

The Russian Revolution came as a result of the increasingly bad living conditions in Russia; the peasants had little to no food and the working class was underpaid while the upper class lead a comparably luxurious lifestyle. The revolutionaries felt that the answer to all the problems would be a shift to communism. The reason they felt this way is because communism, which has the same homiletic roots

Upon the United States entering WWI, President Wilson and Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, met to decide what the goals of the United States should be in the war. They decided that the main goal of the United States was to be economic expansion. Wilson believed that no nation could be considered free unless they possessed economic freedom as well. Therefore, the United States, now as "The Land of the Free," must obtain as much economic freedom as they could. Wilson not only felt that economic expansion by the United States would bring freedom to the US but felt that the economic relations that the Us would then have with the other countries would in effect bring tastes of democracy and freedom to those countries as well.

Wilson was becoming impatient, probably because the Japanese were making louder and louder noises about intervention, and Wilson did not want the Japanese to gain control of that which was to be taken from the Bolsheviks. Although Wilson told a British representative that he was prepared to "go as far as intervention against the wishes of the Russian people knowing it was eventually for their good, provided he thought the scheme had any practical chance of success," he was sill opposed to unilateral Japanese intervention, stating that he felt this might antagonize the non-Bolsheviks in Russia. He then told the English, "We must watch the situation carefully and sympathetically and be ready to move whenever the right time arrives." (Home Page ).

Not only was Wilson facing pressure from within the United States, but also many other countries continually pressured Wilson for explicit action against the Bolsheviks. Furthermore, Wilson was to speak on January 8, 1917, and discuss his plans for peace following the war. The pressing issue known as the "Russian Problem," was unavoidable by Wilson and had to be discussed. Wilson, still undecided on the Russian Problem, in his speech reflected his indecision by tactfully avoiding the issue using general and cryptic statements. Wilson stated that United States should give Russia an "an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy." Due to the ambiguity of his statements, there was much debate to what they meant.

The battle between the Czechs and the Bolsheviks was the opportunity that Wilson had been looking for. In July, Wilson gave the go ahead for the intervention of the United States into Siberia, claiming that the only goal of the revolution was, "only to help the Czecho-Slovaks consolidate their forces and get into successful cooperation with their Slavic kinsmen and to steady any efforts at self-government or self-defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to accept assistance." (Horowitz 61).

No matter what Wilson said in public, however, did not change the facts or resolve the real dilemma. Wilson himself was one who knew this better than anyone else. He admitted, in a letter to Lincoln Colcord that the bulk of the information he received classified the Bolsheviks as radical revolutionaries and not German agents. The question remained, how could President Wilson validate his decision to intervene?

The Japanese, too, had a desire to intervene in Siberia. Their motivation, however, was in question. After initially deciding to participate in the Japanese intervention, Wilson p

Some common words found in the essay are:
Siberia United, Bolsheviks Wilson, Russian Revolution, Socialist Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks Germany, United Russia, United Siberia, Furthermore Wilson, President Wilson, Land Free, civil war, president wilson, economic freedom, japanese intervention, russian revolution, dilemma wilson, intervention wilson, allied powers, socialist revolutionaries, wilson public, patience political savvy, russian civil war, economic freedom wilson,
Approximate Word count = 2297
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)