History Repeats Itself

The UK government says they are going on providing assisiatnce to the Ukrainian army.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon today (19 November) informed Parliament that the UK will provide a £971,000 gifting package as part of our non-lethal support being provided to the UAF.
The equipment being gifted includes 170 large tents, 170 heating units and 600 sets of cold weather clothing...

Well, I am a bit surprised 170 tents + 170 heaters + 600 sets of winter clothes make almost one million pounds. It smells like some guys are making good business. Anyhow, that's what Capitalism is all about; this is nit the point I am going to discuss.

Having read this piece of news, I remembered a story that took place almost exactly a century ago, in 1919. And it was also about the British military assistance to a fighting side in Russia (which Ukraine is just a part of; maybe except for its Western part).

Here is how Major General W.S.Graves of the US Army told that story in his book "America's Siberian Adventure (1918—1920)":

Most of the uniforms for the mobilized Russians were supplied by the British. General Knox stated that one hundred thousand uniforms had been supplied by the British for Kolchak forces. This was partially substantiated by the number of men in the Red Army wearing British uniforms. General Knox was disgusted at the Reds wearing British uniforms and later is re-ported to have said that the British would supply nothing more to Kolchak because everything they supplied reached the Bolsheviks. The men found in the Red Army wearing the British uniforms were the same men, generally speaking, to whom these uniforms were issued when they were with the Kolchak forces. The great mass of these men had no heart for fighting for Kolchak.

The methods used by the Kolchak people to mobilize these Siberians created a resentment not easily removed. They went into the service embittered by fear, not of the enemy, but of their own forces. The result was, as soon as they were armed and equipped they deserted by regiments, battalions, and individually to the Bolsheviks.

We will see how many of the stuff Fallon says about will make its unsurprising way to Novorossia.