U.S. & Worldwide Stamps & Postal History

e 1919 (8 Oct) cover with printed "Office of the Chief Inspector, Chinese Eastern District, Trans-Baikal, Tomsk and Omsk Railways" return address, franked with pair of imperf. 35/2k green, tied by Vladivostok cds and addressed to USA (St. Paul, Minn), sent though the "A.E.F. Siberia", boxed "Censored" handstamp and signed by the commanding officer (Colonel Emmerson, who is also the sender), with Russian "Opened by Censor / Vladivostok War Control No.25", resealed at left, some backflap faults, fine and rare usage from the commander of Russian Railway Service Corps (actually a "railway mission" which consisted of 316 American Army railway engineers out of St. Paul and Philadelphia, under the command of Colonel George Emmerson, the general manager of the Great Northern Railway. It was a military unit with civilian status hired by Kerensky's Provisional Government for duty along the Trans-Siberian Railroad. By the time the Russian Railway Service Corps (R.R.S.C.) arrived in Vladivostok, Lenin and the Bolsheviks had come to power and its services were no longer desired. The engineers initially pulled back to Nagasaki and returned to Vladivostok in 1919. The American troops were pulled out of Siberia in early 1920, although some civilian train experts did stay on until later. The last of the Czechs had been withdrawn by September. This left only the Japanese, who became stuck in the quagmire of a prolonged intervention until 1922, when forced to withdraw without having achieved their goals)