The American cruiser Brooklyn in Vladivostok harbor, Russia in a 1919 Czech Legion photograph. The Legion consisted of Austro-Hungarian Czechs taken prisoner by the Russians, then organized to fight for Czech independence. With peace on the Russian front, they went east to leave Russia from Vladivostok, sometimes fighting their way through the Red Guard defending the Revolution. The Americans, British, and Japanese had forces in the city.
Text, in Czech:Americký křižník BrooklynAmerican cruiser Brooklyn
"We are in Vladivostok! We arrived early this morning. It is 2nd April 1918, and exactly 27 days since we boarded our goods-train in Moscow. It is wonderful that we are really here — at last! But what makes it all the more wonderful is that when we steamed slowly into the station, Vladivostok's magnificent harbour was spread before our eyes. In that harbour four large cruisers were anchored, and one of them was flying the UNION JACK! Oh! The joy! The relief! The comfort! The security! Who will ever know all that this glorious flag symbolised for us travel-stained, weary refugees? It was as though we had heard a dear, familiar voice bidding us 'Welcome home!'"
Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, on her arrival in Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast, after a 27-day journey by train from Moscow. It would be over three weeks before Farmborough and other refugees would board the Sheridan, a United States transport. Among her fellow passengers was Yasha Bachkarova, former leader of the Russian Women's Death Battalion. Farmborough's unit had been with the Russian Army in Romania when the Bolshevik Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. He had consistently called for an immediate end to the war, and Russia had agreed an armistice on December 15 with the Central Powers. On December 26, Farmborough's unit received orders to make their way to Moscow as best they could. She traveled first to Odessa on the Black Sea before going on to Moscow, finally reaching it after a journey of 13 days.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 402, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1918-04-02, 1918, April, Vladivostok, Vladivostok, USS Brooklyn Vladivostok
