American-Russian Cultural Encounter in Siberia (1918-1920)

From August 1918 to April 1920, over 9,500 American soldiers and aid workers were in Siberia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Half of these soldiers came from the Phillippines, and half from the temporary Army base at Camp Fremont, CA in present day Menlo Park and Stanford University. The soldiers in Siberia had a neutral military mission, guarded the Trans-Siberian railroad, and lived in close proximity to local Russians. Consequently, there was an American-Russian cultural encounter, recorded in dozens articles, diaries, letters, and notes of Americans who were in Siberia.

Through everyday close contact, Americans evidenced more understanding of Russians. They remembered the generosity and hospitality of their hosts, the humbling experience of communicating in another language, and the differences and similarities in rituals like Easter celebrations, weddings, and going to the banya. American society plunged into the depths of the first Red Scare and America and Russia grew further apart. However, in contrast to their society back home, American soldiers and volunteer workers in Siberia bridged the gap in cultural understanding through their experiences, resulting in a shift in their perceptions of Russian identities, in communicating and building relationships with Russians, and in observing and participating in Russian rituals. In contrast to what has been called a civilizational or imperial lens, and a dialogue of superiority and inferiority, Americans displayed increasingly positive impressions of Russians the closer they were to them, while negatively perceived differences were greatest when encounters were brief or at a distance.