The Polar Bear Expedition

In this “excellent” book, an award-winning historian draws on firsthand accounts for this vivid account of the little known Invasion of Russion during WWI (Wall Street Journal).

In the winter of 1919, five,zero U.S. soldiers, nicknamed “The Polar Bears,” found themselves hundreds of miles north of Moscow in desperate, bloody combat against the newly formed Soviet Union's Red Army. Temperatures plummeted to sixty below zero. Their guns and their flesh froze. The Bolsheviks, camouflaged in white, advanced in waves across the snow like ghosts.

The Polar Bears, hailing largely from Michigan, heroically waged a courageous campaign in the brutal, frigid subarctic of northern Russia for almost a year. And yet they are all but unknown today.

More than two hundred Polar Bears perished before their withdrawal in July 1919. But their story does not end there. Ten years after they left, a contingent of veterans returned to Russia to recover the remains of more than a hundred of their fallen brothers and lay them to rest in Michigan, where a monument honoring their service still stands.

In the century since, America has forgotten the Polar Bears' harrowing campaign. Russia, notably, has not, and as Nelson reveals, the episode continues to color Russian attitudes toward the United States. At once epic and intimate, The Polar Bear Expedition masterfully recovers this remarkable tale at a time of new relevance.

“A fascinating, vivid exploration.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[An] engrossing narrative. … . . Crisp, character-driven.” —Publishers Weekly

“Nelson’s well-written and well-researched history brings this often overlooked war to life. . . . Intimate. . . . Heartbreaking.” —New York Journal of Books

“You’ll wonder why you’ve never heard of this amazing story before.” - John U. Bacon, author of The Great Halifax Explosion