IN SIBERIA: August 2008

8.31.2008

Weather in Siberia

Clearly, it gets extremely cold in Siberia. I wanted to take a post and describe the gear the troops used to combat the extreme weather. In the previous post from Thanksgiving George tells of late November temperatures in the negative 60's.

From Robert L. Willett's Russian Sideshow,

...men were supplied with adequate cold weather gear before they left California...the staple garment for the outdoors was sheepskin-lined greatcoat...they wore woolen uniforms topped off with fur hats, with lumber men's socks in place of leggings...They were also issued parkas, shoe packs, heavyolive-drab underwear, and fur mittens.

While the clothing was surely adequate for cold weather, the extreme cold still had its effects. Willett describes two particularly related effects, frayed tempers and drinking. In terms of drinking the Americans got their hands on Russian vodka, something presumably none of them had tried before. Willett quotes a particularly desrciptive account of the vodka drinking in Siberia,

It's qualities are varied; it's virtues many. It has the appearance of oily water and the effects of a young volcano.

Thanksgiven Dinner

Today we had Chinese Pheasants for dinner and I had the luck to get on kitchen police and help clean them Pheasants, This dinner was the best we had since coming to Siberia. Today it was 62 below zero.

The Amur River at this time of the year was frozen down for ten feet. With lots of snow the railroad was not running very much and some weeks we were very shy of food, the only meat we got was some old Russian Cattle that was so tough that all they could make out of it was stew as we call slum.

We had coffee with out sugar or milk and what ever did need sugar did not get sufficient so we could eat it. So we saw quite a lot of hardship during the winter months, and any day we might be forced move as every ow and then there were large bands of Bolsheviks were pretty close to us and our nearest reinforcements 500 miles away. As a rule the Bolshevik had us outnumbered by two to one.

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Notes

February 20th 2013 -

Ahhh wow. It's February 2013. So, it's been 3 years since I've posted anything. It's as good time as any to get started again right?

*On Facebook - In Siberia

*Please see below on the right side for general info about the blog. Posts are to the left.

*This is a blog based on a journal. Posts are in reverse chronological order. Here is a link to the first entry.

*All of George's actual journal entries are in Courier font in order to more easily distinguish between my words and the journal.

About

This blog is based on the words of George C. Voegeli, my great grandfather. I will be posting portions of his journals, including the entirety of a consolidated journal he put together based on his hand written journals and his memory. I will also supplement the journals with historical background and information. Unless otherwise noted the entries come straight from George's consolidated journal. I will incoporate supplemental material from his other, hand written journals. When I do so I will identify the source of the post. Also, any posts that deal specifically with historical events, places or people will be clearly marked and sources cited. There will also be, from time to time, original drawings from Matt Boyle.

Historical Information

George Voegeli was part of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in Siberia from 1918-1920. Approximately 8,000 men were part of this force which inlcuded the Amry's 27th and 31st regiments. The AEF was sent to Siberia and Northern Russia in an attempt to maintain order after the Russian Civil War (Revolution) and to protect key military interests originally sent by the U.S. to support the previous Russian government's efforts in the Eastern front of WWI from the various local competing groups. The groups included the Cossacks, Bolsheviks, and Japanese. The AEF was also sent to rescue the Czech Legions who had been fighting against the Austrio-Hungarian forces. [wikipedia for more info] The political history of this area and time are incredibly complex and I am learning there implications more or less on the fly.

On Historical Accuracy

On Editing

The content of the original consolidated journal is entirely intact. Some spelling errors have been fixed. Also, the occasional run on sentence has been changed to multiple sentences when necessary. Paragraph breaks and George's titles are also intact. The title of certain blog posts will not necessarily be his titles, but some will. While he did utilize titles and headings sometimes the length of certain of his entries will necessitate multiple blog posts here and therefore I will choose titles for these blog posts when needed.

Also, not all of the journal entries or events mentioned are dated. Therefore, many entries will not indicate nor contain a date. Where a date is referenced or can be inferred I will include it.