Eclectic Amateur

There was a plaque on the trail honoring “Detroit’s Own Polar Bears.”

No, not Ursus maritimus. The other “Polar Bears” — members of the 339th Infantry, 1st Battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Ambulance Co., and the 337th Field Hospital of the Army’s 85th division, many of whom hailed from Michigan.

I had hear rumor before of American troops in Russia after the Russian revolution. But this was part of one of those college political arguments, presented with the perspective of “of course the Soviets were belligerant; the Evil Americans™ tried to take over at the Revolution and they never forgot.” Filed, stored, taken with a large grain of salt.

And now here I am looking at a memorial marker for the men who fought and died doing just that. It’s amazing where one picks up these tidbits of history, because it sure isn’t in the schoolroom. (Have I mentioned lately that we homeschool?)

Besides the plaque in the Detroit Zoo, there is a a “Detroit’s Own” Polar Bear Memorial in Troy. There is an online summary of the Polar Bear Expedition hosted by the University of Michigan.

Long sad story short: In the waning days of The Great War (to end all wars), President Wilson was persuaded to lend American support to a multinational attempt to defeat the Bolshevik faction in Russia which was in the process of taking over in the chaos following the fall of the Tsar. They were under British command, along with French and Canadian troops, and were originally (or ostensibly) sent to re-open an eastern front against the Germans. Fighting the Bolsheviks was what actually happened. Of course, morale was terrible when their fighting continued after the German defeat, and (as we know from the rest of 20th-century history) the Bolsheviks plagued Russia and beyond for quite some time.

Some of the men were able to return to Russia (now the U.S.S.R.) in the twenties to recover the bodies of fallen troops; these are now interred at the Troy memorial.

It is a pity they did not succeed. And a double pity that the men who tried are not more honored and remembered.

“[Marxism will] in a generation or so [go] into the limbo of most heresies, but meanwhile it will have poisoned the Russian Revolution”

— G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 7/19/19.