at the front lines in Manchuria via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Returning to the United States in 1906, McCully had submitted a lengthy report on his findings. In 1914, McCully was assigned as naval attaché at St. Petersburg. By 1916, fluent in Russian and knowledgeable of the fluid political, military and social conditions there, he warned the State Department that food shortages, official corruption and a demoralized populus might soon force Russia out of World War One. In 1917 he witnessed the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. Shortly after this, he was ordered back to sea duty in the Atlantic and promoted to rear admiral in September 1918. Less than a month before the Armistice, McCully was designated as Commander, U.S. Naval Forces in Northern Russia, and read his orders aboard the on October 24, 1918. With Olympia's departure for Scotland on November 8, McCully and a small contingent of officers and bluejackets were the American naval presence for the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, the struggle between the Bolsheviks and those who opposed them (often known as the "Reds" and "Whites", respectively). The 8,000 American troops of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia sent by President Woodrow Wilson to Vladivostok to guard the billion-dollar investment of American guns and equipment along the Trans-Siberian railroad and protect the Czech legion tried to remain in a defensive posture. A larger force of British "Tommies", freezing alongside the Czechs, fought among themselves as much as against the Bolsheviki. The separate 5,000 troop Polar Bear Expedition was sent to Archangel to guard the Murman and Archangel-Vologda railways and Allied supply stockpiles in the vicinity. American military action was deemed admissible only to assist the Czechs in defending themselves against armed Austrian and German prisoners that were attacking them and to steady efforts at self- government by the Russians. American policy was stated on August 3, 1918, the day after the Allied occupation of Archangel, "Whether from Vladivostok or from Murmansk and Archangel, the only present object for which American troops will be employed will be to guard military stores which may subsequently be needed by Russian forces and to render such aid as may be acceptable to the Russians in the organization of their self-defense." No interference with Russian political sovereignty or intervention in her internal affairs was planned. Despite this directive, during their 19 months in Siberia, 189 soldiers of the American