Curated by Jesse Aaron Cohen

In the summer of 1918, nearly 3,000 members of the US Armed Forces departed for Siberia under the direction of Major General William S. Graves in a loosely defined and soon forgotten mission that would be the United States' only intervention in the Russian Civil War. The "American Expeditionary Force" in Siberia, as they were known, arrived in the city of Vladivostok in the fall of 1918 and remained in Russia until 1920, well after the conclusion of the First World War in Europe. Although the ostensible reasons for their deployment involved the promotion of democracy abroad and the rescue of a stranded Czech Legion, the more pressing matter at hand for the US government was the protection of nearly a billion dollars worth of armaments and war supplies sent to Russia before the Revolution of 1917. In the interim, the AEF had to contend with the conflicting priorities of armies from Great Britain, France, Japan, and China, as well as the hostile Bolshevik Red Army and ruthless Cossack warlords, all of whom traveled the region in armed trains. Negative 40 degree winters, an epidemic of typhus, and general confusion and widespread lawlessness contributed to make the AEF's experience all the more miserable. By the time that the US Congress demanded the troops returned home in April 1920, over 300 men were dead.

The photographs in this exhibition were taken and collected by journalist Herman Bernstein, during the two years that he accompanied the AEF in Siberia as a war correspondent for the New York Herald.

These images can be found in Record Group 713 at the Archives of the YIVO Institute.

Bernstein's Album

Lt. Scovell on a camel "somewhere in Sibera Asia"

Bread received from the peasants at Meahs. June 17, 1918

Girls in field

A member of the expeditionary forces, with "a Mongolian, somewhere in Siberia Asia"

Members of the Expeditionary forces swimming

"Wreck at Verst Post 340 between stations Boyasky and Posolskaya. This was result of line having been cut by Colonel Ushakoff where Bolsheviks lost 61 eschelons. Aug 18, 1918"

Captured Bolsheviki in a train

"These long haired individuals are Bolsheviki prisoners, and are typical types, being prisoners so long, their hair growns very long"

Russian refugees live in a Siberian train station. Some have lived this way for four months

Herman Bernstein

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