The Polar Bear Expedition

American Intervention in Northern Russia, 1918-1919

The American military intervention at Archangel, Russia, at the end of World War I, nicknamed the "Polar Bear Expedition," is a strange episode in American history. Ostensibly sent to Russia to prevent a German advance and to help reopen the Eastern Front, American soldiers found themselves fighting Bolshevik revolutionaries for months after the Armistice ended fighting in France.

Because many of the American troops involved in the intervention were from Michigan, the Bentley Historical Library Michigan Historical Collections has long been interested in documenting this episode. This collection contains digitized versions manuscripts and photographs as well as maps and primary printed source materials relating to the Polar Bear Expedition.

The primary guide to this material can be found at http://www.umich.edu/~bhl/bhl/mhchome/polarb.htm .

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Last update July 18, 2006.