Морально-психологическое состояние американских войск на Русском Севере в 1919 году в оценках спецслужб США
The Moral-Psychological State of American Troops in the Russian North in 1919 as Assessed by US Secret Services

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to the study of the functions and role of US intelligence officers in the intervention in the North of Russia, namely — their participation in monitoring the morale of expeditionary forces in the region. Attention is also paid to the political aspects of this area of work of the US secret services. The author studied a series of memoranda drawn up by officers of the American Military Mission during the spring and summer of 1919, directly or indirectly concerning the moral and psychological state of military personnel. Although the authors of these documents had significant discrepancies in their observations, assessments and arguments, they were aware of the Red Army’s use of agitation methods to influence the interventionist troops, but they concealed from their superiors the facts of demoralization of American soldiers under the influence of Bolshevik propaganda. The analysis of these sources in the context of the history of special services in the beginning of the 20th century made it possible to establish that the officers of the expeditionary forces in the North did not have the necessary experience in countering psychological warfare methods by the beginning of the operation, thereforethey could not fulfil the assigned tasks. At the same time, the negative aspects of the presence of American soldiers in Russia were hushed up for socio-political purposes to prevent the deheroization of the army and maintain the image of the United States as a “great power”. The article provides information about how intelligence officers of the Military Mission tried to formulate the reasons for the failure of the intervention in the Russian North, which did not contradict the official position of the state leaders.

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