The main argument of the book—that the Allied intervention
in Soviet Russia was a “nasty little” misadventure—is a grotesque
misrepresentation. It serves as a falsehood fabricated by a ruling class
planning new atrocities.
I. The Historical Crime Reid Cannot Admit
The Allied intervention was a major attempt by global
capitalism to suppress the workers’ state. Fourteen imperialist
countries—Britain, France, the US, Japan, and their allies—launched a
multi-front invasion to overturn the October Revolution and restore capitalist
control. Winston Churchill, the main planner of the intervention, openly stated
that the Bolshevik Revolution needed to be “strangled in its cradle.” Reid
mentions this line but only as a vivid detail, ignoring its grave significance:
the ruling class recognised that the October Revolution posed a direct threat
to their worldwide dominance.
Reid’s narrative centres on concealing this truth. She
depicts the intervention as a tragic confusion, a geopolitical mistake, a
“nasty little war” that spiralled out of control. This is not just inadequate;
it is a political lie.
II. The Erasure of the Working Class: The Central
Falsification
The most striking aspect of Reid’s book is how it almost
completely omits the international working class—the key group that opposed the
intervention. This omission is intentional, not accidental, serving a strategic
political purpose.
Britain
The “Hands Off Russia” movement mobilised hundreds of
thousands of workers, with dockers refusing to load munitions and railway
workers refusing to transport them. The Labour leadership, fearing the rank and
file, pressured the government to withdraw. Reid, however, dismisses this as a
minor aside.
France
The Black Sea mutinies, in which French sailors refused to
fire on Bolshevik positions, were essentially political revolts that deeply
unsettled the French ruling class. Reid views them primarily as a morale issue.
Canada
The Victoria mutiny, where conscripts refused to go to
Vladivostok, was a clear sign of anti-war and pro-Bolshevik feelings. Reid
hardly mentions it.
Why this matters
The defeat of the Allied intervention was due not only to
the Red Army but also to the global working class. This fact challenges
bourgeois historians because it shows that workers, when acting consciously and
internationally, have the power to halt imperialist wars. Reid's silence is
deliberate; it forms the core falsehood that underpins her entire story.
III. The Political Function of Reid’s Book in the Present
War Drive
Reid is part of the same ideological circle as Timothy
Snyder, Anne Applebaum, and the broader group of academics and journalists who
support NATO’s geopolitical goals. Her earlier book, Borderland, helped spread
the nationalist mythology that now forms the basis of Western policy in
Ukraine. A Nasty Little War serves a similar purpose.
By portraying the 1918–20 intervention as a tragic
miscalculation rather than a counter‑revolutionary crusade, Reid accomplishes
three political tasks:
- She
sanitises imperialism. The great powers appear misguided, not
murderous.
- She
erases the working class. The decisive force in history disappears,
replaced by diplomats and generals.
- She
legitimises contemporary aggression. If past interventions were merely
“nasty little” mistakes, then today’s intervention in Ukraine can be
framed as a noble defence of democracy.
Reid’s book is thus not a contribution to historical
understanding but a weapon in the ideological arsenal of the ruling class.
IV. The Real History: A Global Class War
The Allied intervention was a worldwide
counter-revolutionary campaign that covered regions such as the Arctic,
Siberia, the Caucasus, the Baltic, and the Black Sea. It involved widespread
atrocities committed by the White armies, including pogroms, torture, and mass
executions. Reid notes these brutal acts diligently but avoids explaining them,
unwilling to acknowledge that these atrocities were not isolated incidents but
manifestations of the social forces that the imperialist powers aimed to
reinstate.
The Bolsheviks' success was not due to ruthlessness, as Reid
suggests, but rather because they embodied the only social force capable of
mobilising the masses: the working class and the poor peasantry. Their victory
was part of the revolutionary surge across Europe from 1918 to 1923. Reid
misses this point because it highlights the working class's revolutionary
potential today.
V. The Continuity of Imperialist Violence
Reid’s book comes at a time when the same imperialist powers
that invaded Russia in 1918 are once again engaged in conflict in Eastern
Europe. This ongoing pattern is no coincidence but reflects a structural
continuity. In 1918, the goal was to dismantle the workers’ state. In 2023–26,
the objective shifts to subordinating Russia to Western financial interests and
encircling China.
Reid’s downplaying of history obscures this continuity. By
describing the earlier intervention as a “nasty little war,” she normalises the
belief that the West has the right to intervene anywhere, anytime, for any
reason. This serves as ideological groundwork for a much larger conflict.
VI. The Marxist Lesson: Only the Working Class Can Stop
Imperialist War
The defeat of the Allied intervention was not a miracle; it
resulted from the Bolshevik Party’s revolutionary leadership, the international
solidarity of the working class, and the clarity of Marxist politics. Later,
Stalinism undermined this leadership with its nationalist doctrine of
“socialism in one country,” which disconnected the revolution from its
international roots. This led to the Soviet state's bureaucratic decline and
the eventual return of capitalism. Today, as the Fourth International has argued
since 1938, rebuilding this revolutionary leadership on an international scale
is crucial. The working class remains the only force capable of preventing a
new world war. Reid’s book aims to stop the working class from having to learn
this lesson the hard way.
VII. Conclusion: Against Historical Falsification, For
Revolutionary Clarity
A Nasty Little War is more than just a popular history; it
serves as a political tool supporting imperialism. It distorts the past to
justify current actions, dismisses the working class to weaken it, and turns a
global class struggle into a tragic misunderstanding. Marxists must reject this
account outright. The genuine history of the Allied intervention highlights:
the relentless hostility of imperialism toward any challenge from below, the
power of a conscious, international working class, and the crucial importance
of revolutionary leadership. These lessons are not just theoretical—they are
urgent. With the world teetering on the edge of a new imperialist crisis, the
working class must arm itself with the unvarnished truth of history, not the
sanitized myths peddled by bourgeois historians.
