Publishing house native ladoga. Soviet and Russian soldiers in Africa during the Second World War Russian battalion in Africa
During the Second World War, fierce battles took place in the north of the African continent. Here, in the sands of the Sahara and on the Mediterranean coast, the troops of the Italo-German coalition and the forces of the allies, primarily the British, clashed among themselves. Soviet Union participation in hostilities on the African continent in force geographical location did not accept, however, as historians managed to establish, our compatriots still managed to take part in the African war.
There are several categories of Russians and Soviet people who took part in the hostilities against the Italo-German troops on the African continent. First, they were emigrants and children of emigrants from Russian Empire who, even before the war or at the beginning of the Second World War, became regular soldiers of the British or French armies. The largest number of emigrants and their descendants served in the French Foreign Legion. Secondly, they were immigrants from the Russian Empire, who lived in the countries of the Mediterranean and, with the outbreak of the war, ended up in the Allied forces. Thirdly, these were Soviet prisoners of war who were kept in German prisoner of war camps in North Africa.
participation of Russian and Soviet soldiers in the fighting in northern Africa is poorly known. It has to be literally restored bit by bit, and a colossal role in this difficult and noble task belongs to several enthusiasts - professional historians and historians - "amateurs". They were able to establish the names of some Russian, Soviet military personnel, as well as military personnel of the Allied armies who had Russian ancestors.
The first group (members of the Allied armies) includes, for example, Captain George Michael Alexander Warner, who served in the British Lancers. Despite the English surname, he still had some relation to Russia - he was a great-great-grandson of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin himself. His mother Anastasia married the English Baron Harold Warner in 1917 and remained in England. George Warner was her only son. In December 1942, he died in North Africa at the age of 25.
Lieutenant Colonel Dimitry Georgievich Amilakhvari - Zedginidze (1906-1942) can be attributed to the same category of participants in the war in North Africa. A descendant of the ancient Georgian princely family of Amilakhvari, Dimitri was the grandson of Russian general from the cavalry to Ivan Amilahori. He was born in 1906 in Bazorkino (now it is the village of Chermen in the Prigorodny district of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania). When Soviet power won in Georgia, the Zedgenidze-Amilakhvari family fled to neighboring Turkey, and from there left for France in 1922. Even in a foreign land, she did not want to interrupt the old tradition of the military service of her men. In 1924, 18-year-old Dimitri entered the famous French military school Saint-Cyr, and in 1926 began serving in the French Foreign Legion.
In 1927, the prince received French citizenship and married Princess Irina Dadiani (1904-1944), also a representative of an old Georgian aristocratic family. Dimitri took part in the fighting of the French colonial troops in Morocco. When World War II began, Prince Dimitri Amilakhvari took part in the fighting against the Nazis and Italians in various parts of the world. He fought in Norway as part of the French expeditionary force that took part in the Norwegian campaign, then was evacuated to England, where he joined the Fighting France movement. Then the officer returned to Africa, fought in Eritrea, then in Libya - against the Italo-German troops. On October 24, 1942, the 35-year-old lieutenant colonel died in the battle of El Alamein. In 1955, Dimitri Amilakhvari posthumously received the Order of the Legion of Honor. Now in Georgia it is also considered national hero. In Gori, where the family of Dimitri Amilakhvari's father lived, a memorial stele was erected in memory of the Georgian officer - lieutenant colonel of the French army.
The second category of Russian and Soviet people who took part in the fight against the Nazis in the hot countries of North Africa include S.N. Enikeev. In the past, a lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet, a native of Sevastopol, Enikeev, together with the "whites", left Russia. He settled in Tunisia, where he got a job as a teacher of theoretical mechanics in the Russian Naval Corps in Bizerte. However, later the Naval Corps was closed and the former officer of the Russian Imperial Navy I had to look for a job. He got a job in a battery workshop, and then achieved a more serious position - he became the head of the electrical service of the commercial port of Tunisia.
When the Second World War began, already middle-aged S.N. Enikeev decided to remember his youth and service in the Navy. He entered the French Navy, was promoted to lieutenant commander and was appointed chief engineer of the naval base for the repair of submarines. But after a year of service, Enikeev was poisoned by chlorine. He was demobilized from naval forces and washed ashore. His son, P.S. Enikeev, served on the French naval boat "Sfax", sunk by a submarine of the German fleet in the Casablanca area. Already after demobilization from the fleet, Enikeev Sr. was forced to work as an electrician and repair German submarines in the port of Bizerte. Here he decided to avenge the death of his son. An experienced mechanic was sent to repair the electric motor of the German U-602 submarine. And he was able to make it so that at full speed there would be a short circuit of both electric motors. April 23, 1943 "U-602" sank along with the crew. So the old Russian sailor avenged the death of his son - a naval sailor of the French fleet.
The third category is Soviet prisoners of war in Africa. Historian Vladimir Belyakov writes that at least 200-300 of our compatriots took part in the hostilities in North Africa. Another historian, A.Z. Yegorin, cites the number of Soviet prisoners of war sent to Africa to build fortifications and other heavy fortification work. It is about 22 thousand people. Soviet prisoners of war driven into African camps were even nicknamed "Rommel's white slaves." They were forced to build military infrastructure facilities, used as porters in labor battalions. Most of the Soviet prisoners of war driven to Africa died - they died of disease, the Sahara heat, they could not stand the inhuman treatment of the escorts.
It is known that after the defeat of Rommel's Army of Africa, the Allied command decided to gather the surviving Soviet prisoners of war into a battalion, which was taken first to Iran, and then to the Soviet Union. But even in the homeland of these long-suffering people, a difficult fate awaited. Almost all of them were arrested and sent to Soviet camps.
After the British troops defeated the Italo-German troops in Tunisia, North Africa became a springboard for the subsequent landing of the Allied troops in southern Europe. To reinforce the Anglo-American troops, units from the Polish army of General V. Anders were transferred to North Africa, formed on Soviet territory and included not only Polish military personnel, but also Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Jews, Lithuanians living in the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. By February 1942, Anders' army already numbered 73,000 troops. The commander himself did not want to fight on the eastern front and managed to get permission from the Soviet command to withdraw his units to Iran. Moreover, Anders managed to protect the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews who served in his army and were citizens of the Soviet Union. They were also allowed to continue serving in this formation.
Since September 1942, Anders's army has been operating in Iraq, where it was entrusted with the duty of protecting strategically important oil fields in the area of Mosul and Kirkuk. It was from Iraq that Anders' army units were transferred to Egypt. The command of the allied forces was not going to use the Polish army in the North African battles, but counted on Anders' help in the fighting in Italy. Therefore, in Egypt, the formation of the 2nd Polish Corps began from parts of the Anders army and units of the Carpathian brigade, which in February 1944 was transferred to Italy. Many Soviet prisoners of war liberated by the Allies also joined Anders' army. Until now, our compatriots with Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian and Jewish surnames are buried in the English military cemeteries in this country.
Solving the problem of Soviet prisoners of war required closer interaction between the Soviet and allied commands. Therefore, a liaison officer for the repatriation of prisoners of war, Major Anisim Karasov, was sent to Cairo. The fact is that Egypt was destined to become a transit point for the repatriation of Soviet prisoners of war from Italy to their homeland - through Central Europe, where hostilities were going on, it was impossible to arrange repatriation. Until the end of 1944, 5694 people were delivered to Egypt. The provision of food and uniforms was undertaken by the British side.
By the way, quite interesting memories have been preserved about the life of Soviet prisoners of war in Egyptian repatriation camps - they were left by the Azerbaijani Suleiman Veliyev, a writer who also served in the Red Army, was captured and was repatriated from Italy to Egypt. He was in the Jineifa camp, where, on the initiative of the Soviet communications officer, Major Anisim Karasov, a regiment was formed. Moreover, on November 7, 1944, a military parade was held on the parade ground of the camp. Yesterday's Soviet prisoners of war marched in honor of the next anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. In January 1945, a new Soviet military mission arrived in Cairo under the leadership of Colonel M. Stavrov, which was to complete the process of repatriation of former prisoners of war. Through Palestine, Syria and Iraq, Soviet citizens were delivered to Iran - and further to the Soviet Union.
According to historical documents, the repatriation of former Soviet prisoners of war from Egypt to the Soviet Union was completed by April 1945. Among the repatriates were yesterday's partisans who fought in Italy as part of local Italian anti-fascist partisan detachments. It should be noted that the presence of former Soviet prisoners of war in Egypt left a certain imprint on relations between the two countries. In Egypt, there has been a gradual increase in interest in Soviet Union to socialism. Ironically, during the Second World War, Gamal Abdel Nasser and other Egyptian national socialists who would later cooperate with the Soviet Union and lead a revolution in Egypt were guided by Nazi Germany and directly admired Italian fascism and German National Socialism. On the contrary, King Farouk and his entourage cooperated with the British authorities and, accordingly, were opposed to Germany. When on May 15, 1944, the documentary film "Stalingrad" was shown at the Opera cinema in Cairo, the entire top of the Egyptian military and political elite, led by King Farouk himself, came to watch it. The stay in North Africa also affected the Soviet military personnel. For example, the Azerbaijani writer Suleiman Veliyev (pictured), who happened to visit Egypt and Iraq, subsequently wrote Arabic Stories under the influence of his impressions.
Egypt during the Second World War was not the only North African country where Soviet prisoners of war were kept. So, even after the defeat of the international brigades in Spain, who fought against the Francoists in the civil war, 156 citizens of the Soviet Union - internationalist volunteers - ended up on the territory of Algeria. They were transferred there from France, to which many anti-fascists retreated after the defeat of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Part of the Soviet citizens was placed in the city of Dzhelfa on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains.
When the Anglo-American troops landed in Algiers, they initially did not take any action to free the Soviet prisoners of war, and they continued to be in their camp. Only in March 1942, Soviet prisoners of war were moved to the Cafarelli fortress, and then they were allowed to go shopping in the city. On June 14, 1943, Soviet internationalists were repatriated to the Soviet Union through Egypt, Iraq and Iran. In addition to Soviet citizens, other internationalist volunteers who did not come from the republics of the Soviet Union were sent to the USSR. They were 40 people, including 15 German anti-fascists, as well as people from Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and France. B.N. also ended up in Algeria. Friedman, who had escaped from a POW camp in Corsica in September 1943, joined the Corsican guerrillas and then moved to Algiers.
The history of the epic of the Soviet and Russian people in North Africa during the Second World War, full of tragedies and hardships, is still waiting for its full-fledged study. It remains only to note that even here, on the far southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in the sands of the Sahara, many of our compatriots remained valiant warriors, fighting against the Nazis and their allies, albeit in the ranks of the British or French troops.
To the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory
Military operations in the north of the African continent were conducted from September 13, 1940 to May 13, 1943. The Allied victory near El Alamein in Egypt in October-November 1942 determined the course of the war in the North African theater of operations. The Allies had 200 - 230 thousand people, tanks - 1440, guns - 2311, aircraft - 1500. They were opposed by 80-100 thousand people, tanks - 540, guns - 1219, aircraft - 350 . During the battle, the German-Italian African Army lost 55 thousand killed, wounded and captured, 320 tanks and about 1 thousand guns. The war ended in Tunisia with the surrender of 150,000 Italian-German troops and 80,000 officials .
Of course, attempts are now being made in the West to give the battle of El Alamein the appearance that this battle in the Middle East was the decisive battle of the entire Second World War. The facts speak against this comparison. Held almost at the same time Battle of Stalingrad took place from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. It was attended by Soviet troops, numbering 1-1.1 million people. They were opposed by the troops of Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Finland. At the beginning of the operation, there were 430 thousand of them, and by the end of the operation - 1.1 million people. Irretrievable and sanitary losses of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) amounted to 1.1 million people, 4.3 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts and 2.8 thousand aircraft. The irretrievable and sanitary losses of the Allied troops amounted to 1.5 million people, 1.7-2 thousand tanks and assault guns, 3 armored trains, 3 thousand aircraft. In addition, according to various sources, from 91 thousand to 237.8 thousand soldiers surrendered.
However, the Battle of El Alamein was crucial to the secondary, North African theater of operations.
The Russians, who found themselves in exile in Egypt and the Maghreb after the White Army lost the Civil War, took an active part in the hostilities after the German attack on the Soviet Union. “We Russians have only one way to prove our loyalty to Russia - this is to die for her,” one of the Russian sailors said to his comrades in Bizerte.
In the late 1960s, the author, who was then working in Algeria, had to deal with people of an unusual fate - elderly Russians who came from time to time to the consular department of the USSR Embassy. Finding themselves abroad after the defeat of the White movement, they joined the French Foreign Legion. These whites continued to hate the Bolsheviks and Soviet power, but on June 22, 1941, the main thing for them was that their homeland - Russia was attacked by Germany. Deserting from the Legion, they joined the Free French. After the victory, they were granted Soviet citizenship for participating in the war against the Nazis. After retiring, many of them remained in Algeria. They lived in the ANDR, received a pension from the French government as former legionnaires, and at the same time had Soviet passports.
One of the heroes of the war in North Africa was V. D. Penyakov (another spelling of his last name is Penyakov). He was born on March 30, 1897 to a family in Belgium, where his father built a factory. True, there are other data that he was born in London. As a volunteer, V. D. Penyakov joined the French army at the age of 17 and went through the entire world war as an artilleryman, being also wounded. He had studied at Cambridge and spoke English as clearly as he spoke Russian. Since 1924, VD Penyakov worked as an engineer in Egypt at a sugar factory. The work there was seasonal; before the sugarcane harvest, V.D. Penyakov had a lot of free time. He used it to study the Sahara. Having fallen in love with the desert, he devoted long days to the study of North Africa, made long raids on the territory of the Great Desert, got acquainted with the way of life of nomads. Bedouin guides taught him to find food and water, navigate, and ride a camel and a horse. He also learned Arabic. In addition, V. D. Penyakov learned to fly a small aircraft and flew from Cairo to Alexandria, Assiut and Aswan. However, this occupation quickly bored him. He later wrote in his book that “flying an airplane is as uninteresting as driving a tram. Especially in Egypt, where it is always cloudless.
When the Italian troops invaded Egypt, V.D. Penyakov joined the ranks of the British army, saying these words: “I had no illusions that I could influence the course of events, but it was somehow embarrassing to stay on the sidelines.” Moreover, he went to deceive the commission, hiding that he was 43 years old, and was appointed with the rank of captain as a battalion commander in the Libyan Arab Forces (LAS).
In the LAS camp at the beginning of the highway from Cairo to Alexandria, Major V.D. Penyakov spent a whole year, after which they were transferred to eastern Libya. He met many sheikhs of local tribes. They all hated the Italians and were ready to help the British. In early March 1942, the battalion of V. D. Penyakov was returned to Egypt for rest.
Skate V. D. Penyakov remained intelligence. He analyzed the actions in North Africa and came to the conclusion that the command lacked operational intelligence. There were few reconnaissance groups to receive their periodic raids. It was necessary to create a whole network of informants from local residents in the east of Libya. V. D. Penyakov suggested that the LAS command form a commando group and send it to Cyrenaica. This was agreed to, and for 15 months he fought at the head of a sabotage detachment, which included only volunteers in the amount of 22 people and one officer. Poles, British, French and Libyans fought in this unit - Arabs, Berbers and Tuareg. Until the war in Italy, Penyakov had no Russians.
Penyakov relied on the fact that the Arab could not betray the guest he received in his tent. First, V. D. Penyakov met with the leader of the Obeydat, Sheikh Ali bu Hamada. In April 1942, he met with the two sheikhs Ali and Matwalla, persuaded them to convene a meeting of tribal representatives, and in one day more than sixty tribal leaders gathered at the parking lot occupied by the sheikhs. V. D. Penyakov addressed them with a speech in which he, in particular, said that “your spiritual leader, your emir, respected seyyid Idris as-Senusi - God bless him - offered his help and the help of his people to my king<...>The black and white banner of Seyyid Idris flutters next to the banner of the English king. The British Government knows that it has no more loyal friends, no more enthusiastic people than you Senussi Arabs.
The Arabs of Cyrenaica hated the Italians, and soon their extensive network spread throughout occupied Libya. The faithful assistants of V. D. Penyakov were waiters who served in hotels and bars. Day after day they collected information about the exact location of the Italo-German troops and met with agents in the narrow streets of cities to pass it on. And for five months, V.D. Penyakov every night via his transmitter got in touch with the center, informing them of information about the position of the enemy troops. Upon learning of the brutal executions of Libyans suspected of collaborating with the British, who were hung by the jaw on a hook and left to die in the sun, V.D. Penyakov sent a letter to the commander of the Italian troops in Cyrenaica, General Patti, warning that for each tortured Arab he would shoot one Italian officer, and the executions stopped.
V.D. Penyakov defeated the Bars airfield in the south of Jebel Akhdar, where from 20 to 32 enemy aircraft were destroyed, and at the same time the losses of the attackers amounted to only three people. They carried out mining of roads in the rear of the German and Italian troops, depots of fuel and ammunition, communications centers and railways exploded, dozens of prisoners of war were released from concentration camps. A notable role was played by the destruction of the Al-Kubba oil depot located in Jebel Akhdar. As a result, gasoline was destroyed, which would have been enough for 200 tanks for 12 days.
During subsequent operations, one of the most famous commando units was the Fighter Squadron (Demolition Squadron) No. 1, which was under the command of V.D. Penyakov, operating in the Northern Sahara on the left flank of the English 8th Army. His detachment went down in history as the "Popsky's Private Army" (PRA). This expression was thrown by one of the officers of the headquarters of the 8th Army and soon became the official name of the unit. The detachment consisted of the British - 5 officers and 18 soldiers. The group's vehicle fleet was represented by four Willys MB light all-terrain vehicles and two three-ton trucks. The crew of each car consisted of two or three people armed with two machine guns. On November 23, 1942, this group left Cairo and at Asyut turned southwest to the Kharga oasis. There the road ended. V. D. Penyakov had to walk 600 miles across the desert in order to reach the Libyan Kufra, where the base of the British reconnaissance group was located. On the way, I had to overcome Al-Gilf al-Kabir, where among the sandy mountains there was one road suitable for road transport. The RRA arrived in Kufra on October 4, 1942, and learned that Cyrenaica had already been liberated and that the front was already passing at Al-Ageila, that is, in the east of Tripolitania.
VD Penyakov received another assignment. Fighter squadron played important role in the Tunisian campaign after March 20–23, 1943, the commander of the 8th Army, B. Montgomery, tried to break through the fortifications of the Maret Line in southern Tunisia, but, having lost 150 tanks, he was forced to abandon the frontal assault. And at the same time, to the west of the Maret Line, the commander of Formation L, F. Leclerc, managed to defend Ksar Gilan, which opened up the possibility of bypassing the Maret Line from the flank. The British command decided to shift the direction of the main attack from the coast to the desert. But for this it was necessary to find a passage through the mountains of Matmata. “The main point of my plan,” B. Montgomery would write later, “was to be bypassing the enemy’s flank from the west of Matmata<...>The problem became one: is it possible to find a way through the sands? . And the passage was found - found by V.D. Penyakov! Through this passage the mountains were crossed: 10th army corps, 1 armored and 4 Indian divisions, which bypassed the Maret Line, took Al-Hamma and forced the African Army to begin a withdrawal to the North.
After Tunisia, V.D. Penyakov reached Tebessa, where the American troops who occupied this city generously provided them with clothing and weapons. After that, the PRA unit continued to fight in Tunisia. On May 13, the Nazis capitulated. The fighter squadron was transferred to Phillipville to rest, and then to Italy.
After the war, V. D. Penyakov worked in Vienna as a liaison officer between the British 8th Army and the Soviet troops and was awarded orders of Great Britain and the USSR. In 1950, he published the book "Popsky's Private Army", published in England. The press then wrote that "this is an adventurous story that has no equal in the literature about any other war." VD Penyakov was buried in London.
The Russian R. Kasev was in Morocco, in which the French administration was subordinate to the Vichy government. He got to Gibraltar and then to England, joined the Free French and fought in Africa as part of the Lorraine flying squad. After the war, R. Kasev became a well-known diplomat and a member of the French Academy and published the book "Premonition of Dawn" under the pseudonym "R. Gary." This book reproduces the heavy atmosphere of the Vichy presence in Morocco. R. Gary describes his life in Meknes and Casablanca before escaping to Gibraltar and then to London, where he entered aviation.
Rear Admiral A. Vasiliev, who served in the Navy, published the book Unknown Soldiers of the Past War after the war. In this book, he writes about the experiences he and his comrades experienced, and in particular, about the landing in the Maghreb in November 1942.
On November 8, 1942, the Germans landed for the first time at the Al-Avin airfield near Tunisia. The cover of the French units retreating to Algeria was entrusted to Klobukhovsky, the commander of the squadron of the 4th formation of the African Riflemen. He retreated to Majez al-Bab, where he dug in. In the second half of November, the Germans, with the support of aviation, threw motorized units against them, but received a strong rebuff. This created an opportunity for the American artillery to approach, and the front stabilized.
The commander of the 1st Moroccan cavalry regiment N. Rumyantsev, his deputy lieutenant Kreshenchutsky and the commander of the cavalry squadron lieutenant Kashanovsky, who was part of the Composition "L" Fighting France (as Free France began to be called from July 1, 1942), was charged on April 8, 1943 with an attack in Tunisia Mezouna station. At the same time, Kreshenchutsky broke into Mezun and held it until the approach on April 9 from the north of the American units. On April 16, 1943, under Fadelon, units of Rumyantsev again distinguished themselves. Moreover, Kashanovsky went far ahead, his unit was cut off by the German-Italian army from the rest of the troops, and he himself was considered dead. But, thanks to a clever maneuver, Kashanovsky withdrew his unit from the enemy's ring.
At the end of the Tunisian campaign in the Zaghouan area, a French armored detachment came to a halt after stumbling into minefields. Lieutenant Lewandowski alone in a jeep, at the risk of being blown up at every moment, rushed forward into the village occupied by the Germans. Jumping to the checkpoint, he demanded an officer to negotiate. Having seated the German, he rushed back to the location of his troops. The officer gave instructions that facilitated clearance.
Captain Z. Peshkov, the elder brother of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. army. At the end of the war, he served in Morocco in the French Foreign Legion. After the defeat of France, Z. Peshkov refused to recognize the truce with the Germans, fled to England in 1941 and joined the head of Free France, General Charles de Gaulle. He was a battalion commander in the Foreign Legion and fought in Africa from February to May 1941, and then became an adviser to Ch. de Gaulle. In 1941–1942 Z. Peshkov was the representative of the Free French in the Union of South Africa, and in 1943 he was the head of the Mission in British Africa. He then served as French Ambassador to China from 1943–1945. and Japan. He was promoted to General and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross and the Military Medal. In his book Sounds of the Horn. Life in the Foreign Legion "(American edition) Z. Peshkov proudly writes about the Russians:" I should pay tribute to the unknown greatness of these people, who became soldiers on the occasion, these nomadic workers who under the African sun perform multiple and difficult tasks. They could say of themselves, like the soldiers of Rome: "We go, and the roads follow us."
N. A. Turoverov fought with the German-Italian troops as part of the 1st French cavalry regiment in the Maghreb. He dedicated the poem "Legion" to his impressions of the battles.
In the ranks of the allied forces after the landing in Morocco, there were also Russians who lived in this country. In particular, Captain A. Ter-Sarkisov, who was awarded the order Cross of Liberation. On the other hand, not only soldiers fought in the ranks of the Allied army. Thus, the doctor I. M. Tolstoy (1901–1982), the grandson of L. N. Tolstoy, was sent by the allies to a military hospital in Rabat.
In the cemeteries in the mountains. Algeria has the Russian surname I. Ostapchenko, the inscription "Soviet Armed Forces" and the date of death - June 1943. Unfortunately, the attempts made by the Embassy in Algiers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out exactly who was buried in the ANDR ended in failure - their names are unknown to the central archive Soviet army. On the other hand, there are a dozen more Slavic surnames in the English cemeteries in Egypt. Moreover, some of them are inscribed “Soviet Armed Forces”: Sergeant E. Krasin, who died on October 20, 1944, and Private V. Zimbering, who died on October 20, 1944, lie in Kantara.
One of the buried is I. D. Zvegintsev. He was born on May 29, 1912 in St. Petersburg. His father was a colonel, participated in the First World War and the Civil War. Mother - nee Princess Obolenskaya. In 1920, the Zvegintsev family, who emigrated from Russia, settled in Great Britain. ID Zvegintsev graduated from the prestigious Bloxham School. At the beginning of the war, Zvegintsev was drafted into the British army, and he died on December 28, 1941 near Al-Agelia in Libya.
Lieutenant Colonel D. G. Amilakhvari fought very well in the Free French forces near Bir Hakim. He, being a Georgian, was born in 1906 in the village of Cherleon in North Ossetia. In 1920 his parents emigrated from Russia to France. From 1924 to 1926 D. G. Amilakhvari studied at Saint-Cyr in France, and after graduating, he entered the Foreign Legion. Together with the armed forces of the Free French, D. G. Amilakhvari was transferred to North Africa, where he took part in the battles near Bir Hakim, which began on May 27 and went on until June 10, 1942. On the day of the breakthrough, he was in the front vehicle along with Commander Koenig and driver S. Travers. The Battle of Bir Hakim was of great importance during the fighting in North Africa. The thing is that the tanks of the commander of the African Army, General E. Rommel, experienced a constant shortage of fuel, and the preservation of Bir Hakim in the hands of the Free French led to the fact that the Germans had to make a long detour to supply the units attacking Tobruk with fuel. Shortly before his death near El Alamein in 1942, D. G. Amilakhvari received from the hands of C. de Gaulle the highest award - the Liberation Cross, established by the general in 1940, and in 1955 he posthumously received the Order of the Legion of Honor. “A real cult of the memory of Lieutenant Colonel Amilakhvari has been created among the soldiers of Free France,” wrote V. I. Aleksinsky, another participant in the North African campaign, in 1947. In the homeland in the city of Gori, where Father D. G. Amilakhvari came from, a memorial stele was erected in his memory, and his personal belongings are kept in the Museum of the Order of Liberation in Paris.
Another example: Captain of the English uhlan regiment J. A. Werner, great-great-grandson of A. S. Pushkin, descended from the youngest daughter of the poet Natalya Alexandrovna. His mother Anastasia in 1917 married the English aristocrat baronet G. Warner and did not return to Russia. J. A. Warner was their only son. He fought in North Africa and died in December 1942. He was 25 at the time. J. A. Werner was the only one who died out of all 15 descendants of A. S. Pushkin who took part in the war.
Zemtsov also fought in North Africa, awarded two Military Crosses, the second posthumously.
In his memoirs, published in Paris, V.I. Aleksinsky wrote that many Russians fought in the French units in North Africa. Among the 1056 people awarded by Charles de Gaulle with the Cross of Liberation were 10 of our compatriots.
Some of the emigrants moved to the USSR to fight alongside Soviet soldiers. In particular, the Titovs were going to return to the Soviet Union. Shortly before leaving, his wife died, but he decided to return alone and left for his homeland.
However, emigrants from Russia not only fought with weapons in their hands. Here is what Captain 1st Rank N. Cherkashin writes, who visited Bizerte aboard the Fyodor Vidyasov mother ship in September 1976. P. S. Enikeev served on the Sfax submarine, sunk by the U-37 near Casablanca after France signed a truce with Germany. His father, Lieutenant of the Black Sea Fleet S. N. Enikeev, who was born in Sevastopol and arrived in Bizerte on the submarine "Seal", was at that time in Tunisia. After the evacuation of Sevastopol, he taught at the Russian Naval Corps located in Bizerte. theoretical mechanics. Then, when the Corps was dissolved, unemployment began. In the end, he managed to get a job in a battery workshop, and then S. N. Enikeev became the head of the electrical service of the commercial port. When the war began, he volunteered for the French Navy and was appointed chief engineer of a submarine repair base with the rank of lieutenant commander. A year later, he was poisoned by chlorine and was written off clean. In March 1943, he was called to the port of Bizerte, where he was forced to repair the electric motors of the German U-602 submarine. Taking advantage of the situation, he made it so that at full speed both electric motors are closed. This becomes clear when the submarine is forced to give full speed while under water. April 23, 1943 "U-602" died under unknown circumstances. Thus, S. N. Enikeev took revenge on the Nazis for the death of his son. True, in accordance with the reference book "U-602" survived during the war. Rather, the number of the submarine is confused, and we are talking about the boat "U-612".
And emigrants from Russia, who left before the revolution, defended themselves from the Nazis. So, in the family of the artist Stolov, the sons served during the war in the English and American armies.
Among the Russian colony in Egypt, a fundraising was held, in which, along with the Russians, the Egyptians also participated, including the rulers of this country. Egyptian newspapers in February 1942 published reports of masquerade bazaars organized in Cairo and Alexandria under the auspices of King Farouk, at which auctions of handicrafts made by the female part of the local Russian colony were held. The collected funds were used to buy shoes and clothes to send to the children of Stalingrad.
Particularly significant changes occurred in the mood of Russian emigrants as the Soviet troops continued to succeed. Mission adviser D.S. Solod reported to Moscow on December 15, 1943, that the Russian colony in Cairo and Alexandria mainly consisted of white emigrants, the vast majority of whom were loyal to the Soviet Union. “Many,” wrote D.S. Solod, “express a desire to return to the Soviet Union.” At the beginning of 1944, the last paragraph of the charter of the Russian Club in Cairo was canceled, which stated that a person recognizing communist power in Russia could not be a member.
By the beginning of 1944, the changed situation in Egypt made it possible to create an Egyptian fund under the leadership of Princess Irina Alexandrovna, who lived with her husband, the Greek Prince Peter, in this country during the occupation of Greece by fascist troops. The foundation was headed by Sherif Sabry and its press officer was the writer Taha Hussein. Reporting on his activities, N. V. Novikov, Charge d'Affaires of the USSR in Egypt, wrote that "as from other charitable foundations, significant material assistance from the Egyptian Foundation could not be expected, but its political significance should not be underestimated" . The campaign began with a May 15 screening at the Cairo Opera cinema of the documentary Stalingrad, which was attended by King Farouk. With the funds raised, the fund purchased and sent to the Soviet Union 4.4 thousand pairs of shoes for the orphans of Stalingrad. In turn, the Government of Egypt handed over to the USSR Mission a check in the amount of 1,000 Egyptian francs for the purchase of things for the children of Stalingrad.
However, not all Russians sympathized with the struggle of the USSR. Among the members of the Russian Club in Egypt, who were sharply anti-Soviet, pro-fascist sympathies were noticed. The British even considered arresting Russian immigrants. In Cairo, there was a Club of Russian Youth - an organization that was set up extremely monarchically. After the decision of the Russian Club to cancel the paragraph on non-recognition Soviet power, there, having left the club, a group of Russian boy scouts moved. Moreover, the Russian Fascist Union operated in Egypt. Its Egyptian branch was headed by a former captain, and in exile - by an Egyptian police officer, A. L. Markov. Its members were anti-Soviet.
As for the citizens of the USSR, they were part of the Army of General V. Anders, which in February 1943 numbered 73 thousand people. There are many Russian surnames in the burials of 417 servicemen in Egypt. Moreover, after the end of the war, only in 1947, the repatriates from this army amounted to 1024 people. In addition, a separate brigade of Carpathian riflemen was formed in Syria, which included more than 200 Ukrainians. Later in Egypt in late 1943 - early 1944. the 2nd Polish Corps was formed from the Army of W. Anders and the Polish Brigade of Carpathian Riflemen, which on February 8, 1944 was transferred to Italy.
Special mention deserves the "white slaves of E. Rommel" - Soviet prisoners of war used in the African Army in the construction of military infrastructure, as well as porters of Todt's labor battalions. We owe the fact that the memory of them has been preserved to the Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.Z. Yegorin, who opened this almost unknown page of the Second World War. Of the 20-22 thousand prisoners sent to North Africa, about a third died, unable to bear the inhuman conditions of detention. True, V. V. Belyakov expresses doubt that there were several thousand prisoners of war in North Africa. In his opinion, we are talking about several hundred Soviet prisoners.
One way or another, after the Battle of El Alamein, the Allies released a significant part of the Soviet prisoners of war. Subsequently, after the offensive in the Maghreb, a considerable number of prisoners were released by the British. The Foreign Policy Archive contains a document that is a note sent on January 29, 1943 by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs to the British Embassy in Moscow in response to a note dated January 10, which expresses gratitude to the British for "the readiness to assist in the passage of Soviet citizens to the USSR, currently in North Africa. The surviving 311 were released in Tunisia and, after the end of the war, were taken by the Allies to the Mezoncare camp in Algiers and later by sea to Port Said and by trucks through Palestine, Iraq and to Tehran. True, among this number were people transferred to Tunisia from Italy. But during the retreat of the Germans, some people managed to scatter, hide in oases and dissolve, having converted to Islam, among the local population ...
Since it was impossible, due to the continuation of hostilities, to send back to their homeland both the liberated prisoners of war in Egypt and Libya, and those of them who had been liberated by American and British troops in Italy since August 1944, i.e. 5.6 thousand people. people, they all remained in camps in Egypt. All these prisoners were placed in transit camps No. 190, 305, 307, 379 and 380. In this regard, Moscow decided to send a liaison officer, Major A.V. Karasov, who was in charge of Soviet soldiers, to Cairo. The writer S. Veliyev, who was repatriated from Italy through Egypt, described A. V. Karasov in his memoirs as follows: “He belonged to the number of those people who immediately won over. In the expression of the face, the eyes surprisingly combined concentration, severity with friendliness. From the very first meeting, Anisim Vasilyevich won our sympathies.
November 7, 1944 in honor of the day October revolution in the camp where the released prisoners were kept, a parade was held. The Egyptians and the British military watched the parade. In addition, the prisoners of war were shown the play "Arshin mal alan" by U. Gadzhibekov. The production was a success not only among the prisoners, but also among the Egyptians. S. Veliyev pointed out that “residents from nearby villages came to our performances. We heard the Arabs singing the arias of Asker and Gulchohra in the streets. Even the children hummed under their breath the melodies of the popular Azerbaijani operetta. For its part, the camp administration had nothing against Egyptians communicating with Soviet prisoners. As S. Veliyev emphasized, locals“every day they came alone and in groups, struck up conversations with us, bombarded us with questions< ...>We tried to get better acquainted with the life of the Arabs. She was heavy. We deeply sympathized with them, and they understood this and were deeply grateful to us for this. We fell in love with these people, simple-hearted and hospitable. They said that for them we are the Soviet people and, showing their good feelings for us, they express their love for the Soviet people, for our country.
The British and Americans treated the prisoners differently. The American magazine "Colliers" wrote that "the fear and suspicion of Russia are so great that sometimes the question involuntarily arises: with whom are we at war - with Germany or with the USSR". One day, a group of one hundred Soviet officers were captured and imprisoned by American agents. It took the energetic intervention of A.V. Karasov for the kidnapped officers to be found and released. Somehow, American interpreters approached a group of Soviet military men and persuaded them to apply for asylum in the United States or England. But it turned out the opposite - translators quickly began to fall under the influence of Soviet soldiers. On another occasion, a group of officers from Anders's army came to the camp, persuading people released from captivity not to return to the USSR. This idea also failed.
However, one of the prisoners of war committed suicide. It turned out that he went over to the side of the Germans and served in the police.
On December 8, 1944, prisoners from camp 307 were sent to Suez, from there by ship to Iraqi Basra and were taken to the USSR. S. Veliyev noted that “the Arabs prayed for us, for our safe return to our homeland, for our happiness. They gave us persimmons, figs, and to those who, embarrassed, refused, they almost forcibly put bundles in their hands and put them in their pockets. They said that for them we are the Soviet people and, expressing their good feelings for us, they express their love for the Soviet people, for our country.
Returning to the Soviet Union, S. Veliyev published a collection of memoirs "Pearl Rain", published in Moscow in 1963. The collection also includes his "The Way to the Motherland". In addition, he was impressed by what he experienced in Egypt and published "Arabic stories" in Azerbaijani. Some of them ("The Fig Tree", "Dreams of the Fallah", "Pitcher of Water") were translated into Russian.
In January 1945, the Soviet mission, which was assigned to deal with prisoners of war, arrived in Egypt with 10 officers. The mission was headed by Colonel M. Stavrov. The remaining prisoners were transported on Studebaker trucks to Iran via Palestine, Syria and Iraq. The repatriation of prisoners of war was completed in April 1945.
Another Soviet comrades in the amount of 156 people who fought as part of the international brigades in Spain ended up in Algeria. After the war, in 1947, the book “French Notes. 1939–1943”, the author of which was A. N. Rubakin. In the camp in Verne in France, he spent until December 10, 1941, from where he was transferred to Algeria in small town Djelfa on the southern slope of the Atlas Mountains on the border with the Sahara. On December 4, 1942, Russian prisoners learned about the Anglo-American landing in Algiers, but the landing troops were not interested in the camp. Only at the beginning of March they were moved to the Cafarelli fortress, and on March 25, 1943 they were allowed to go out to the city for shopping. Finally, on June 14, 1943, Soviet internees were put into trucks and arrived in the Soviet Union through the Mediterranean, Egypt, Palestine, Baghdad, Tehran. Moscow also offered to evacuate to the USSR the International Brigades, who numbered 40 people, of which 15 were Germans, and the rest were Hungarians, Poles, Czechoslovaks, Balts and even one Frenchman.
Among the military evacuated from Algeria was B. N. Fridman, who set out his memoirs in a manuscript entitled "My military roads", which, along with Algeria, also mentioned Alexandria and Suez. On September 5, 1943, he escaped from captivity in Corsica and joined the partisans, and then they were transferred to Algeria.
In memory of the participation of Soviet prisoners of war in the battles in North Africa, the book by S. A. Borzenko "El Alamein" was published in 1963, which is literary work. It describes the fate of the commander of a tank division, Colonel A. V. Khlebnikov, who was taken prisoner in the first days of the war. He and 12 tank fighters, while in France on the banks of the English Channel, escaped to England. There they entered british army, were transferred to North Africa, took part in the defense of Tobruk, and A. V. Khlebnikov died near El Alamein.
In the Church of the Resurrection of Christ built in 1956 in the capital of Tunisia, there are two memorial plaques. One of them is dedicated to the memory of six dead Russian citizens who fought in World War II; these are K. Fedorov, G. Kharlamov, K. Sharov, N. Alexandrov, M. Grunenkov, N. Yurgens. There is an inscription on the plate: “The Russian colony of Tunisia to its sons who fell on the battlefield. 1939-1945". The second one was installed by the Russian Embassy in memory of those Soviet prisoners of war who died on the territory of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt during the Second World War.
1 maxpark.com/community/politic/content/1611095; Egorina. Z. Egypt of our time. M., 1998. S. 75.
2 Ibid. S. 78.
3 http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%DO%BD%D0%B3%D1%80%DO%B0% D0%B4%D1%81%D0%BA%D0% ; Great Oh the current war of the Soviet Union. M., 1970. S. 223.
4 Sologubovsky N. A. Anastasia Alexandrovna Shirinskaya. fate and memory. M., 2012. S. 282.
5 Work. 06/23/2001; Belyakov V. V. El-Alamein, or Russian soldiers in North Africa (1940–1945). M., 2010. S. 82.
6 http://lib.aldebaran.ru/author/nenahov_yurii/nenahov_yurii_voiska_specnaznacheniya_vo_vtoroi_mirovoi_voine
7 Belyakov V.V. El Alamein in North Africa (1940–1945). M., 2010. S. 82.
8 Sologubovsky N. A. Anastasia Alexandrovna Shirinskaya. fate and memory. M., 2012. S. 278.
9 Ibid.
10 Zherlitsina N. A., Sologubovsky N. A., Filatov S. V. Dialogue of Civilizations. Essays from the history of Russian-Tunisian relations in the XVIII-XX centuries. M., 2006. S. 80.
11 Ibid. pp. 81–82.
12 Belyakov V.V. Russian Egypt. M., 2008. S. 305.
13 Gandini J. Pistes du Sud Tunisien à travers l'histoire. Clavisson, 2000. Z. 53.
14 Montgomery b. Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery, Viscount of Alamein. M., 2004. S. 157.
15 http://www.ice-nut.ru/tunisia/tunis014.htm
16 Russian colony in Tunisia 1920–2000. M., 2008. S. 211–212.
17 Ibid. S. 211.
18 http://maxpark.com/community/129/content/1981924; Parkhomovsky M. Son of Russia, general of France. M., 1989. S. 183; For a professional army. The ideas of Charles de Gaulle and their development in the twentieth century. M., 1998. S. 221; Parkhomovsky M. Son of Russia, general of France. M., 1989. S. 221.
19 Parkhomovsky M. Son of Russia General of France. M., 1989. S. 95–56.
20 http://www.maghreb.ru/kolupaeve/voinskie_tradicii5_peshkov.htm
21 www.infrance.su/forum/showthread.php?t=52756
22 Ibid.
23 http://maxpark.com/community/14/content/195728
24 Belyakov V. Africa sheltered the Firebird. Russians in Egypt. M., 2000. S. 29.
25 La Noblesse de Russie, vol. 2, 1962, pp. 490, 493.
26 27 Belyakov V.V. Russian Egypt. S. 309.
28 Zherlitsyna N. A., Sologubovsky N. A., Filatov S. B. Dialogue of Civilizations. Essays from the history of Russian-Tunisian relations in the XVIII-XX centuries. M., 2006. S. 77.
29 Ibid. S. 77.
30 Belyakov V.V."To the banks of the sacred Nile ...". M., 2003. S. 182.
31 Prisoners of Bizerte. M., 1998. S. 260–267.
32 www.proza.ru/2012/10/16/1966
33 See: All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis, b/g, r. 242.
34 Belyakov V.V."To the banks of the sacred Nile ...". S. 182.
35 Novikov N. V. Ways and crossroads of a diplomat. M, 1976. S. 142.
36 Belyakov V.V."To the banks of the sacred Nile ...". pp. 184–185.
37 Ibid. S. 186.
38 http://maxpark.com/communitytv/14/content/1957283
39 Cm.: Kvechen Z. Tobruk. 1941–1943 M., 2003 S. 49, 103, 114; Belyakov V. V. Russian Egypt. S. 317.
40 Cm.: Egorin A. Z. Egypt of our time. S. 80; Egorin A. Z. History of Libya. XX century. M., 1999. S. 114.
41 Cm.: Belyakov V.V. El Alamein... S. 115–117, 120.
42 Belyakov V. Africa sheltered the Firebird... S. 236.
43 Tolstoy N. D. Victims of Yalta. M., 1996. S. 52.
44 Belyakov V.V. Russian Egypt. S. 300.
45 http://maxpark.com/communitytv/14/content/1957283 ; See: Belyakov V. V. El-Alamein... S. 119.
46 Ibid.
47 Belyakov V.V. Russian Egypt. pp. 325–326.
48 Ibid., p. 329.
49 Belyakov V.V. El Alamein ... S. 168.
50 Ibid. S. 170.
51 Belyakov V.V. Russian Egypt. S. 330.
52 Belyakov V.V. El Alamein ..., S. 126.
1.2 RUSSIAN MILITARY TRADITIONS IN AFRICA
1.2.1 FOREIGN LEGION
"He's in disturbing, deaf Morocco
Guarded foreign forts,
Blossomed, withered hopes.
But to despair - God forbid!"
Russians serving in the Legion in the pre-Soviet period
One of the most little-studied aspects of Russian life in the diaspora is the presence of Russian people from among the professional military who found themselves in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion. The fact is that there are very few materials on this subject, and the little that we have belongs to the category of memoir literature. On the one hand, this situation is partly due to the fact that this special military institution, for obvious reasons, strictly observes a certain regime of secrecy. On the other hand, people who ended up serving in the legion were not at all in the mood for writing. They were stern soldiers, devoted to orders and duty. But, nevertheless, we will try to make a complete picture, from the little material available.
The French Foreign Legion was created in 1831. After the Duke Louis-Philippe of Orleans was proclaimed king of France, the Belgian bar. de Begar, who was in the French service, came up with the idea of creating a special military unit, devoted to the mother country, but not connected by any ties with France itself, capable of performing tasks of any complexity and ensuring combat effectiveness at a high level. Legionnaires could become male foreigners aged 18 to 40 years. Legislation stipulated the use of the legion in hostilities only outside of France.
Information that our compatriots became soldiers of the Legion appeared at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. As the researchers write, "Russian citizens began to join the ranks of legionnaires more and more often, as a rule, from among low-income labor migrants and settlers who rushed to the West for socio-economic, ethnic and confessional reasons. Most of them were recent residents of Western and South-Western provinces - Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans". A particularly large influx of recruits to the Legion from Russia falls on the time after the revolutionary events of 1905-1907. At this time, many Russians from the central provinces appeared abroad. As a rule, these were people who belonged to poorly educated sections of society, so they experienced difficulties in mastering foreign languages and, as a result, it was problematic for them to get a decent job. It is not surprising that many young people from among Russian migrants agreed to conclude a contract and join the French Foreign Legion. "The loyal attitude of the tsarist government to such a practice was largely ensured by the Russian-French political alliance proclaimed at the end of the 19th century."
Among known cases When Russian soldiers entered the service of this international army unit, one can point to the example of the famous Russian philosopher Nikolai Onufrievich Lossky. Back in pre-revolutionary times, he was in Algeria, even served for some time in the Foreign Legion.
The Foreign Legion was notorious. "In the old, pre-war time, the legion was filled almost exclusively with criminals and vagabonds, with a small percentage of adventurers, bankrupts and other losers," wrote one of the former legionnaires. Ilya Ehrenburg, who lived in France during the First World War and tried in 1914. to join the French army, wrote in this regard: "The Foreign Legion before the war consisted of criminals of different tribes who changed their name and, after serving military service, became full citizens. Legionnaires were usually sent to the colonies to pacify the rebels. It is clear what morals reigned in the legion" . There were also Russians from among political emigrants, students, Jews who had left the Pale of Settlement, and others in the legion. As one of the sources regarding the presence of Russians in the Foreign Legion, documents found in the diplomatic archives of France can serve. At the Russian embassy in Paris before the revolution of 1917. the Russian charitable society operated, where our compatriots often applied, especially from among the recruits. Those in the legion were considered all passing the first five-year term of service.
In April 1911 from the city of Sidi Abbes, where the main base of the legion in North Africa was located, a petition was received to the Charitable Society in Paris. In it, a certain Mikhail Smolensky wrote: “In view of the upcoming great feast of Holy Pascha, I ask you most humbly to pay attention to your compatriot and give him the opportunity to at least somehow celebrate this holiday in a Christian way. Since I am currently in the Legion and receive only 5 centimes per day, which is not enough even for tobacco, then I hope that the charitable society will not disregard my request and will respond.
In another letter sent on August 1, 1911. from Zhebdu, on behalf of three Russian soldiers of the legion and signed on behalf of comrades by N. Bochkovsky, it was said: “A small handful of Russians ... cry out ... and ask for the following. Serving in the French army, where we ended up through our own fault, looking for happiness abroad, they found themselves in a situation in which they would never have found themselves in a worse situation at home.
We are literally standing in the desert, the boredom is terrible, and most importantly, you don’t know anything about what’s going on in your homeland, and there’s nothing to read at all.
Our salary consists of one sous a day, for which it is impossible to buy a cigarette, without which it is very difficult, not to mention other items such as soap, wax, needles, threads, and similar things necessary in soldier's everyday life.
No one from Russia can help, since the parents died and the thousand rubles left by them were left in France, and the finale is the Foreign Legion.
We bitterly repent of our rash act, but there is hope that, after finishing our service here, we will return to Russia and serve faithfully and faithfully to the Sovereign and the Motherland.
Now we implore, we tearfully implore ... help us with what we need and kindly send us newspapers or magazines in Russian or French.
From Taurirt, in December of the same year, Adrian Ivanovich Aseev, who signed himself "Truly Russian man", wrote: "Being in the French Foreign Legion and in the absence of either Russian books or Russians, I dare to turn to you if you find it possible to help me by sending no matter what Russian books or financial assistance for the purchase of this." The Ambassador of the Russian Imperial Government in Paris, in whose position at that time was A.P. Izvolsky, a Russian petitioner who was in the team of military musicians M.F. Pastushkov wrote from Sidi Bel Abbes asking for help in acquiring a violin and a self-instruction manual.
In December 1913 in the same place, at the main military base of the Legion in the Sahara Desert, the following letter was written: “Having got into military service in the legion in Algeria, it’s hard for me - also because I don’t know the language much. I’ll say briefly: I need a French-Russian and Russian dictionary French. I beg you to deliver them to me - I will be grateful to the grave. " And the signature: "Kaidansky... Spare soldier of the Russian army."
Another person, in January 1914. Commissary from the Legion due to poor health, asked for help, "because now it is very winter time - and in a summer suit, which they give in Africa, it is impossible to travel to Russia."
Likewise in 1914. one of the Russians asked to continue the interrupted deportation of the newspaper "Paris Vestnik" to him in Sidi Bel Abbes and further: "It remains for me to serve another 20 months; knowing spoken French and German, I would also like to study the theory of these languages, but without textbooks, I have the courage to ask you to send me ... ".
Russian military attache at the Russian Embassy in Paris Count A.A. Ignatiev, in his book "Fifty Years in the Line", reports that after the outbreak of the First World War, when mobilization was announced in France, Russian citizens liable for military service who ended up in this camp had to formalize their attitude to military service. Otherwise, according to the law, they were threatened with arrest and detention in a concentration camp. However, under the same French laws, foreigners could not serve in the regular French army. A huge crowd gathered near the Russian diplomatic mission. Colonel Ignatiev was forced to go out to the people. Here is how he further describes what happened: “The young brunette was especially distinguished by his loud voice and enormous growth, declaring his desire to be sent immediately to the front. I do not remember his last name, but I have not forgotten his tragic fate. Being enlisted, like most Russians , in the Foreign Legion, after the first weeks of the war, he became the head of his compatriots, who were indignant at the inhuman treatment of them by the French non-commissioned officers, accustomed to dealing only with those scum of society that the Foreign Legion was completed in peacetime ... The indignation of the Russian legionnaires , mostly intelligent people, who reigned in the legion ... resulted in a bloody riot against the command ... The reprisal was cruel: the field court sentenced the rebels to be shot.
Russian regular officers in the service of the Legion
The active penetration of the Russians into the Foreign Legion occurs as a result of the evacuation of parts of the white army under the command of the bar. P.N. Wrangel. The French began to recruit emigrants who left the borders of our country from the very first days of the evacuation. In November 1920 gene. Peter Wrangel with his army crossed the Black Sea and arrived in Turkey. Participants of those events recalled the difficult situation in Istanbul - in the spring "all kinds of political agitators suddenly appeared - paid agents who were ready to promise everything they wanted to hear from them ... This situation was used ... and recruiting agents of the Foreign Legion .. . gathered a considerable harvest". As you can see, the first entries in the Foreign Legion were already in Turkish ports. An eyewitness of those days left a testimony: “Earlier than others, the French Foreign Legion entered the history of the Russian foreign army. No sooner had the Russian squadron with the troops of General P.N. Wrangel entered Constantinople and anchored in Maud Bay, recruiters to the legion appeared on the ships. Since that time, thousands of Russian officers, soldiers and Cossacks have spent many years of military suffering under the banner of the five regiments of the legion.The whole burden of the struggle against the Rifans and Berbers in North Africa fell on their lot ... ". The Russian military, who found themselves in a difficult financial and moral situation, were offered to continue their service so that their army experience would not remain unclaimed. It is known that many Russians even entered the service of Kemal Pasha Ataturk, who fought for an independent Turkey, this was written in the newspapers.
The allies who controlled Constantinople were afraid of the mass concentration of Russian units in Turkey itself, so most of the white emigrants were scattered on the Greek islands. It was here that Legion recruiters were persistent. Most of the Russian refugees accepted countries such as Bulgaria and Serbia, but for a long time the emigrants had to wait for their fate to be decided in the camps, where gloomy moods reigned. For example, the island of Lemnos alone gave a considerable harvest. From the Don Corps stationed there, more than 1,000 people entered the French service. True, subsequently the Cossacks were not successful in the Legion and most of them left for France.
A modern author writes about service in the Legion: "The opportunity to start new life much more than the adventures associated with it, it attracts losers to the Legion ... Since the legion is called Foreign, French citizens are forbidden to join it ... In addition, recruits learn that they are no longer Poles, Australians, Germans or Japanese, but citizens of a country called the Foreign Legion, with its uncompromising code of honor, which, in particular, reads: "Every legionnaire, regardless of nationality, race or religion, is your brother in arms."
Uncertainty, sad thoughts about the future of the abandoned fatherland, personal disorder - all this oppressed the Russian people. In refugee camps, Russian officers and soldiers sometimes reached despair. In order to just escape from the camp, many agreed to join the Legion. But not only these arguments should be recognized as decisive. In order to fully understand what was going on in the soul of emigrants, why they decided to take such a serious step, let me quote the words of one of the writers, whose work was revealed precisely in the conditions of the diaspora. E. Tarussky subtly noticed the peculiarities of national psychology and was a connoisseur of the depths of the Russian soul. In the 30s of the 20th century, he wrote: “The Russian officer was not afraid of hunger and cold. But he was afraid of poverty and the “bottom”. Hunger and cold in the ranks of the regiment, in trenches and campaigns did not frighten him, hunger and cold at the bottom, among human scum he was terrified." On the one hand, the Legion gave you the opportunity to arrange your life, the agents did not ask questions about the past and were not interested in personal life, but that's not all. Russian officers were attracted by such a side of service in the Legion as the opportunity to find themselves in a special psychological climate. The internal way, the military spirit that developed among the "soldiers of fortune" was close and understandable to Russian military traditions, when the relationship between officers and soldiers overcome bureaucratic formalism and the soldiers really make up a single family. In the Legion, "the authority of officers was based not on origin, but on real combat experience. Officers shared with their subordinates all the hardships of field life, which is why a special spirit of military fraternity arose in the Legion, so close to Russian officers."
Nevertheless, for the sake of the objectivity of the picture, it is necessary to cite the testimonies of the legionnaires themselves, in order to fully understand the conditions and the environment in which our compatriots found themselves. One of them, Captain Arkhipov, wrote: "The attitude is so boorish that I barely have the strength to resist. The food is so bad that I even remember Gallipoli. A lot of Russians died in the last battles." In the diary entries of the Russian historian P.E. Kovalevsky, contains a remark that in December 1921. received a letter from a former acquaintance, "He is now in Morocco in the legion. Voluntary hard labor for five years. Poorly fed, living in barracks, treated like cattle, the climate is terrible, no communication with outside world, begs to send a dictionary and newspapers.
The fact that a large number of Russian military men ended up in the service of the Legion was reflected in the moral climate, in the very spiritual appearance, in the atmosphere that reigned in the units. "The places of adventurers and life losers were taken by real warriors who sought only honor, even if under a foreign banner." These men, it is safe to say, did honor to the Legion. They became his most "disciplined and combat-ready and most valued part." "A significant part of the legionnaires remained in the legion up to 10-15 years, although the service in it lasted 5 years. The legion became their home, their life was in it."
An interesting testimony was left by one of the officers. In Russia, this man was a lieutenant colonel. France made him a corporal. So, having merged with the bulk of his colleagues, melted down in the flames of battles, becoming part of the Legion, he wrote: “We can safely say that, as a combat material, foreign regiments are the best in the French army. Both Algeria and Morocco were conquered mainly by the hands of foreigners ... Talking about the battles in which they participated, the legionnaires incredibly boast and lie. But they have every right to be proud of their unit, as the best unit of the French army." A certain share of this military pride, no doubt, belongs to Russian flesh and blood, and most importantly, to the spirit.
One of the former Russian legionnaires, summing up his service, wrote about those several thousand people who entered the French Foreign Legion, that they became its most "disciplined and combat-ready and most valued part ... The Russian legionnaires had to bear the burden of fighting Rifians, Kabils, Tuareg, Druzes and other rebellious tribes in the period 1925-1927 In the hot sands of Morocco, on the rocky ridges of Syria and Lebanon, in the stuffy gorges of Indochina, Russian bones are scattered everywhere.
Legion recruits began their new lives in boot camps in the searing, sandy desert. Descriptions of this area have been preserved. On the pages of the Russian emigrant press, compatriots shared their impressions: "The first stage in the" career "of each legionnaire is Sidi Bel Abbes, a city in the north-west of Algeria. This is the main training center of the Legion, or, in the words of the legionnaires themselves," the gates of hell ". From here there are only two ways: death from malaria, dysentery and other diseases that mow down legionnaires in Sidi Bel Abbes, and for the survivors - in case of disobedience - a prison in Colombes-Béchar, in the center of the Sahara, not a single person from there doesn't come out alive."
In 1921 in the Algerian town of Sidi Bel Abbes, the Russian lieutenant colonel artilleryman E. Giacintov got. He rose to the rank of corporal in the Legion. About the impressions made during the years of service, this man later wrote in a memoir book. “Here they spoke, in my opinion, all the languages \u200b\u200bof the world,” but at the same time he noted that “there were always a lot of Russians in Bel Abbes ... the staff of the training team, i.e. instructor sergeants were almost all Russians." "The old legionnaires always speak among themselves in French, or rather, in a special soldier's jargon. This is considered the highest chic."
According to official sources, the following statistics can be established. In the 1920s, there were up to 8,000 Russians in the Foreign Legion, of which about 3,200 served in Algeria.
Service in the Legion was not easy. Sometimes experienced, brave Russian soldiers who got there, who had a long service life behind them, participated in battles, were awarded military awards, etc., found themselves in completely new conditions. "Old, honored colonels who have gone through the whole great war, participants in many battles had to obey, like ordinary soldiers, young foreign lieutenants, and thank God and the country that gave them shelter and service ... life is as it is created by people themselves.
Let me also put here some information that I managed to establish about other compatriots who served in the Legion. The Russian legionnaire S. Andolenko, who was in Morocco in the 30s of the last century, reports on the man who died in the battle on Taziouate in 1932. lieutenant of the second infantry regiment Alexandrov-Dolsky: "On September 5, the French troops went on the offensive. Already on that day, being in a difficult battle, Aleksandrov-Dolsky showed miracles of courage. "We were all amazed, his comrades say, by which he behaved; bullets whistled and dug into the ground around him, people fell, and he walked with long strides forward, with some unearthly composure, as if he did not see the hell that was going on around him. "The unit commander wrote:" I also see Lieutenant Aleksandrov with a revolver in his hand, enticing his people. After a fierce hand-to-hand fight, the legionnaires took over the position and the surviving Moroccans were already fleeing, when suddenly one of them turned around and fired at point-blank range at Aleksandrov-Dolsky. Struck by a bullet in the carotid artery, Aleksandrov was killed on the spot. In a funeral speech, the regiment commander spoke of the dead as follows: “We are proud of you. You paid with your life for valiant and heroic behavior, which honors not only the Legion, but the entire Army. You added a new page of glory to the history of the regiment and the memory of your glorious behavior will be sacred and serve as an example for future generations."
In the 50s of the last century, a book by one of the legionnaires was published in the West. This man writes about his comrades, about a military unit, "in which there were especially many Germans and Russians who found refuge here as a result of the coups that took place in their homeland ... He immediately became close to Lieutenant Shalidze, a Caucasian, a little sad, but direct and a good comrade. He was given a Circassian Yepandiyev, a caring and diligent soldier, as a batman."
The famous French Military Museum in the Palace of the Invalides in Paris has a special Russian section, which stores the memory of the valiant sons of Russia, who managed to acquire glory for their homeland abroad.
Legion in North Africa
In the period under review, when there was a mass exodus of military counter-revolution from Russia, France actively penetrated into the states of the Maghreb. Algeria became a colony in 1830, Tunisia became a protectorate from 1881, Morocco from 1912.
Just as the Europeans drove the Indian tribes to the United States, the French colonists also conquered the Arabs and Berbers. The internal structure of the North African countries corresponded to historically established factors related to the characteristics of the Eastern Muslim civilization. "There were no relations of serfdom in Morocco ... the power structure in the country was not sufficiently clear and stable ... there were no large private estates, because ... the land was legally considered the property of the Sultan, but under the free control of the tribes. Finally, the formation of traditional feudalism was hindered by tribal solidarity, which was of great importance in the public life of the country". On the contrary, capitalist relations, according to which the economic, political and social life France, led to active colonial expansion. First of all, this was reflected in the African territories. Best fertile lands were given to settlers from the metropolis. Along with the pursuit of political and economic interests, the Europeans carried out ideological intervention. French missionaries tried to Christianize the locals.
Following the seizure of territories, the Europeans began to conduct geological exploration in the Atlas Mountains and in the Sahara Desert, with the aim of subsequently developing mineral sources. French sources of those years report the use of the Legion in the pacification of the rebellious tribes of North Africa and the need to protect peaceful settlers engaged in agriculture from wild nomads. One of the soldiers wrote about the Legion: "By its legendary qualities - calmness, courage, devotion - it remains the best military unit that one can have. Its battalions are remarkable both in attack and in defense, they are admired by those who saw them in Moreover, in the activities preceding and accompanying offensive operations, the Foreign Legion successfully copes with various other tasks, thanks to the presence of workers of different professions in its composition. "
In 1920 In Morocco, the "Office Shirifienn de Phosphate" society was created with the aim of developing deposits in the Kouribga zone. This is the central part of the country, traditionally inhabited by one of the Berber tribes. As the researcher writes, "by the end of the First World War in the French zone of Morocco, almost all the mountainous and desert regions of the country remained unconquered." Based on historical data economic development, you can restore the course of the war waged by units of the French Foreign Legion against the local population in North Africa. The stated facts, references to settlements and geographical names, one way or another, find confirmation in letters, memoirs and other official information, with whom you have to meet, studying the information left over from the Russian legionnaires who went through the Moroccan period of service.
So, in 1923. active hostilities are taking place in the area of the city of Tazy, located in the northeastern part of the Middle Atlas in an inaccessible mountainous area. Then the legion moves further into the Tadla region and the southwestern part of the Middle Atlas. The next stage is the south and the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountain ranges. By 1924 hostilities are transferred to the valley of the river Uerga. As the historian notes, during the summer period of the same year (June-August 1924) the most fierce hostilities with the tribes take place. French newspapers of those years wrote about the war in the Rif mountains in the north. The public outcry caused by the war in Morocco acquired global proportions. The fierce resistance of the tribes, the unwillingness to obey the colonialists, and therefore the difficult situation of the Foreign Legion, forced to carry out its operations in incredibly difficult conditions, became a topic for discussion not only in the press. For example, the Soviet military leader M.V. Frunze carefully studied the features of military operations and wrote about the advantages of the partisan tactics of the Rif tribes. Inconclusive fierce fighting in the mountains continued until the spring of 1925.
In April, the French command decides to reinforce its battalions. Fresh forces enter the war, additional units of the Foreign Legion were transferred from Algeria to the Moroccan front. However, this did not bring the desired results. A parsimonious newspaper report published in a central French publication speaks eloquently enough about the situation: "Every group of dwarf palm trees, every cliff hides an arrow behind it." It took another whole year to consolidate the main strategic positions in the region. On the transfer of additional troops in 1926. reported the telegraph agency from Rabat: "Reinforcements from Algiers are disembarking and heading towards their future locations." Quite rightly, the words of one of the participants in those battles sound that "the Moroccans do not have a front either in length or in depth."
Working with the old émigré publications that were published in the Russian intellectual environment in the first years of the dispersion, according to a few scarce information, it is possible to partially restore the atmosphere of military everyday life. In 1926 one of the legionnaires wrote from Morocco: “I live in the center of the political, economic and religious life of a newly conquered tribe, which occupies part of the Great Atlas ... The Moors, having temporarily submitted two years ago, do not leave the thought of throwing off the power of strangers. Accustomed to independence "They despise our laws and regulations. Raids on us almost do not stop ... They feed well. But the monotonous, full invisible danger(bullets from behind a bush, from a corner, from a sandy mound) life creates the need for artificial excitations. There are no books. Newspapers are rare. And yet, for such a service - and the Russian has nothing to choose from - special happiness is needed.
The subjugation of the tribes continued until 1934, at the same time, a significant number of the French population gradually concentrated in the large cities of Morocco: workers, petty employees, government officials, the petty and middle bourgeoisie, and the intelligentsia appeared. However, the tasks of the Legion to ensure the peaceful development of the country under the French protectorate did not weaken. This can be judged by studying the facts of the biography of Russian legionnaires who continued their service in North Africa.
In subsequent times, there are isolated cases of Russian people serving in the French army in Africa. In particular, in the mid-1950s, Alexander Terentyev (1931-1998), a future priest (he served in Russian parishes in France and Italy), "he served his military service in Morocco and participated in military operations against the rebels."
The connection of the Legionnaires with the church and the Russian community in Morocco
In North Africa, centers of Russian life were created in the French territories. Emigrants who came to Bizerte with Black Sea Fleet and arrived as a result of single moves from European countries, formed Russian communities in various cities of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Compatriots who continued their military career in the Foreign Legion became, to a certain extent, part of the Russian presence in the region, as evidence of those days has been preserved. For example, the first Russian priest who arrived in Morocco in 1927 wrote about this. In the parish archive of the Resurrection Church in the city of Rabat, a note compiled by Father Varsonofy / Tolstukhin / has been preserved. It says, in particular, that "... those who served time in the foreign legion and in its ranks participated in the wars to pacify Morocco ..." Russian soldiers and officers were the first members of the Russian community in this country.
The same information is confirmed in his memoirs by Met. Evlogii / Georgievsky /: "The parish in Morocco arose in 1925 under the influence of the need for the church life of Russians scattered in Africa. This need was especially urgent among those serving in the Foreign Legion. People were accepted there without passports: anyone fit for military service, regardless of nationality, enrolled in the legion under the number and falls into that mass, which, well trained and bound by iron discipline, forms a formidable fighting force known as the "Foreign Legion". Hard service! Always at the forefront, in bloody skirmishes with the Arabs , in agonizing journeys through the sultry desert... Among the clergy of my diocese, one father Gregory Lomako was a priest in the "Foreign Legion", but not in Africa, but in Mesopotamia.The French government could not issue loans for the maintenance of an Orthodox priest for a long time, and Father Lomako I did not stay there. I began a correspondence with the Minister of War, applying for permission to send a priest to Morocco, referring to The names of the clergy of other religions who received this permission - nothing came of my petition. Meanwhile, screams were heard from Africa: the Russians are running wild! Russian people are disappearing! Send a priest!". In the parish archive of the Russian Church in Rabat, an interesting document has been preserved confirming the efforts that the Orthodox leadership made to organize chaplain service in the Foreign Legion among their compatriots. Thus, in a letter on the letterhead of the Diocesan Administration of Orthodox Russian Churches in Europe, signed Archimandrite Nikon, with reference to information received from the rector of the Resurrection parish in Rabat, Father Barsanuphius, reported that “the French authorities agree in principle to appoint a military priest for the Orthodox throughout North Africa. The priest must be a French citizen. The salary will be 3,000 francs a month, with a stay in Sidi Bel Abbes."
Studying sources related to the topic related to the Russian presence in Morocco, the author of these lines had to work a lot with documents from the church archive of the Resurrection Church in Rabat. There, among the letters addressed to the rector, there is one piece of evidence that illustrates the attitude of one of the Russian correspondents to the Foreign Legion. Only the most difficult condition could prompt him to agree to serve in this military formation. One young man, 32 years old, in the past an artillery officer, who had already graduated from Sofia University in Bulgaria with a degree in economics in exile, but despaired of many years of futile attempts to find a suitable job, wrote to Archimandrite Varsonofy in Morocco with a request to help in employment and solving life problems: “Now it has become unbearably hard to get this job, and Russians are taken to permanent places as an exception ... It’s a shame to go to the Foreign Legion, where losers and, in general, superfluous people go. For now, I don’t consider myself superfluous.”
When the Russians built their church in Morocco, and for the consecration of this church in the winter of 1932, Met. Evlogii from Paris, he had the opportunity to meet fellow-believing compatriots who connected their lives with military service in the Foreign Legion: "The temple, created by the joint efforts of the Moroccan emigration, became in those days the center of all Russian life. The legionnaires asked for permission from the authorities, and came to the celebration with my musical team, I had the opportunity to talk with them and learn the details of their lives.
Legionnaires live hard. They are well fed, but thirsty often and painfully. It is so unbearable that the soldiers kill the horses and drink their blood. Rescues the radio, through which they report the demand for the immediate delivery of water; an airplane arrives and drops pieces of ice. It happens that the ice does not fall to legionnaires, but falls into the camp of enemies. There was a case when an officer could not stand such a "past" and shot himself. To go 25-30 versts, it is supposed to take two flasks of water with you: one for yourself, the other for the boiler. God forbid you touch this "public" flask - they will beat you half to death. At a halt, a fire is made and the water brought for public use is poured into the cauldron. The long-awaited hour of food and rest is coming. It wasn't there! Suddenly, like devils, the Arabs swoop in... We have to fight them off. The skirmish lasts 10-15 minutes, but everything is gone: the cauldron is overturned... Exhausted people sit hungry, selective swearing is heard in all languages. The officer commands: "A glass of rum!" Immediately the mood changes - fun, laughter, songs ... And then death awaits: patrols are set up around the bivouac, five or six people, with a junior officer; the Arabs in their white burnouses crawl inconspicuously like snakes, and it happens that they cut out all the sentinels with curved knives ...
There are two types of people among legionnaires. Hard life tempers some, makes them invincibly hardy, strong, to the point of cruelty, people; it destroys others, they drink too much, crushed by the weight of service and existence. Among the legionnaires of this category, I happened to meet on that visit a Zhytomyr chorister who once sang to me: "Is polla these despots" *. Now it was a drunken man. I witnessed how he pounced on an uncorked bottle of white wine, which he noticed on the window of Father Barsanuphius. Father Barsanuphius had to fight with mosquitoes, and he poisoned them with some kind of drug from a spray gun; many mosquitoes fell into the bottle and spoiled the wine: it was impossible to drink it. The chanter pounced on the bottle. “May I?
Russian legionnaires kept in touch with the Orthodox church in Rabat. There is information in church statistics: under 1936. the death of legionnaire Pavel Derfanovsky was recorded, over whom a funeral ceremony was performed. Another evidence says: "When General Peshkov was in the Foreign Legion in Morocco, crosses were placed on the graves of Russian legionnaires: Arkadiev, Konenko and Fedorov."
Some of the Russian legionnaires, having served their due term and retired, remained in Morocco, started families, and joined the life of the Russian community. Others left for Europe or continued to look for deceitful happiness somewhere else.
Whenever possible, the legionnaires tried to participate in the cultural life of the Russian community. In the archives of the Resurrection Church of Rabat, the "Program of a Musical Evening and a Ball" has been preserved, which says that the captain of the chief orchestra and a conductor from among the legionnaires managed the orchestra at this holiday. The Russian officer E. Giatsintov, mentioned above, noted with a certain pride high level the participation of compatriots in musical and cultural terms in general: “Every Thursday, the Legion symphony orchestra played in the city square. They say that it took second place among all the orchestras of France. There were a lot of Russians in this orchestra. In general, there are always a lot of people who want to get into the musical team because they live much better than everyone else. Thanks to this, the bandmaster has a wide choice, and he recruits only really valuable musicians. "
Among the Russian diaspora in North Africa, a rather intense cultural and intellectual life was conducted. Legionnaires, as far as possible, became participants in these events. The famous Russian artist Zinaida Serebryakova left a noticeable Moroccan mark in her work, she twice visited North Africa. In 1928 worked in the ancient capital of Marakkesh, and in 1932. was in Fes. At the same time, Zinovy Peshkov served as an officer of the Foreign Legion in Morocco. This person will be discussed below. Here I will only note that, according to the biographer of this famous Russian, who devoted his whole life to serving France, Gen. Z. Peshkov during his service in the Foreign Legion was closely acquainted with the famous artist. In particular, “there is every reason to assume Peshkov’s acquaintance with Serebryakova: their paths very often crossed ... She traveled all over North Africa, where Peshkov served,” writes M. Parkhomovsky.
Zinovy Peshkov (Sverdlov)
Despite all the difficulties and troubles, the Russian people, by virtue of their national character and natural qualities, achieved success in the Foreign Legion, and we have something to be proud of for our compatriots. In émigré literature, evidence has been preserved that many Russians who served in the Foreign Legion in North Africa achieved sufficient success in their service. Five of them rose to the highest ranks, among them Z. Peshkov, Nolde, Favitsky, Rumyantsev N. and Andolenko. One of them, namely General Zinovia Peshkov, deserves special mention.
The name of this person is carved on the same tombstone with Princess V. Obolenskaya. Zinovy, the elder brother of Yakov Sverdlov, is dumb: "... this small and sternly truthful man, for which we are hated everywhere ...". Zinovy was born into a Jewish family. My father worked as a shoemaker in Nizhny Novgorod, where the family moved from Belarus. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, persons of the Jewish faith were limited in their rights. Therefore, many of them converted to Orthodoxy, in particular, our hero decides to change faith in order to be able to receive higher education. According to Russian laws, and the Church was then a state institution, in order to become Orthodox, and therefore not have infringement of rights, when performing the Sacrament of Baptism, the presence of two recipients-witnesses (men and women) was required. Such a person, or according to a common folk tradition, Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, under the pseudonym "Bitter", became the godfather for Zinovy.
The French reference book "Who is Who" reports the following information about Peshkov: he was born in 1884. in Nizhny Novgorod. Before the First World War, he was forced to emigrate from Russia, and volunteered for the French army in 1914. Participated in missions: in the USA - 1917, China, Japan, Manchuria and Siberia - 1918-1920, Caucasus - 1920. Member of the war in Morocco, officer of the Foreign Legion - 1921-1926, commander of the Foreign Legion in Morocco - 1937-1940, joined the "Free France" - 1941. Representative of the "Free France" in South Africa, in the rank of minister - 1941-1942. Head of Missions in British Africa - 1943 French Ambassador to China - 1943-1945 and Japan - 1945-1949. Awards: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor; military medal; Military Cross.
Big French encyclopedic Dictionary"Larousse" contains the following information: "Pechkoff (Zinovi), general fransais d'origine russe" ("Peshkov (Zinovy), a French general of Russian origin" (from French)). He entered the Foreign Legion in 1914, in Morocco from 1922 to 1925, then in Africa again with de Gaulle in 1941.
From rich and interesting biography our compatriot, in fact, within the framework of this article, we will dwell on the Moroccan period of his life. The biographer of the general writes the following in this regard: "Zinovy Peshkov served in the Legion for quite a long time - in 1921-1926, in 1933 and in 1937-1940. He was a man of strong convictions, and he would hardly have remained in the Legion for so many years if this contradicted him conscience."
In archival documents A.M. Gorky, some information has been preserved that speaks of the continuation of the writer's ties with his godson, in particular, some letters contain information that makes it possible to highlight the Moroccan period of Z. Peshkov's life. One of the foreign correspondents wrote in August 1922 to A.M. Gorky: "As for Zinovy, he is now in Morocco and organizes cultural and educational work among the officials subordinate to him ...". From another letter we learn: "He is already in Morocco, the commandant of the fortress district on the Middle Atlas (Kazbakh-Tadla)". Among the papers in the archives of the famous proletarian writer, there is a letter that he received from his godson. In it, in particular, a young officer of the Foreign Legion Peshkov gave a description of his colleagues: “There are about forty Russian people in my company ... By the way, I have a wonderful Russian choir ... There are also soloists. they can fit into this situation, one bar... T., gentle blond, soft-bodied, cannot even get through to the rank of corporal, sings gypsy songs, and another long and thin young gentleman in glasses, the son of a landowner of the Oryol province, sings Vertinsky's songs: "your fingers smell of incense", you see this picture ... in the mountains of the Middle Atlas, dressed in a legionnaire's overcoat, closing his eyes and swaying, someone sings with anguish about fingers smelling of incense ... ".
Among the records of Zinovy, the following information about Russian soldiers has been preserved: “They are simple, they are modest, soldiers of the Foreign Legion. They do not require remuneration for their service. They do not seek fame. But their enthusiasm, their admirable efforts, their hearts, which they invest in their cause, cannot go unnoticed by those who saw them in action. Legionnaires do not think of heroic sacrifice. They do not consider themselves martyrs. They go forward, and if they die, they die in peace.
The graves of these unknown heroes lost in the desert or in the mountains. Their names on wooden crosses are erased by the sun and carried away by the wind. No one will know what the people resting there were like, and no one will bow down over their graves ... ". Further, he wrote about one Russian colonel who, by the will of fate, ended up in the Legion: "During the exceptionally difficult winter retreat of 1923. I lost the outstanding sergeant Kozlov, former colonel of the Russian army, one of the most brave soldiers of our detachment, a man who endured the hard life of a sergeant of the Foreign Legion with exceptional stoicism. The senior lieutenant of the detachment described him to me: "The best of our detachment. An outstanding instructor. He speaks fluent French, is exceptionally correct, everyone treats him with great respect. The Russian detachments call him "colonel." That evening I invited him to the office and asked him if he really was an officer of the Russian army. "Yes," he said, "I served in the last 25 years." From further it turned out that Kozlov was wounded several times during the war of 1914-1918 and shell-shocked in the head, which resulted in frequent cerebral hemorrhages. Therefore, he prefers not to take any promotions, so as not to be responsible. He was the most calm person in the detachment. When commanding, he never raised his voice, but his very tone was so convincing that everyone followed for him unconditionally. All the sergeants respected him very much. During the last battle for him, he was wounded several times, but did not leave the line. The last wound to the head was fatal. " These are the pages of Russian foreign history.
We will try further to restore the facts from the rare evidence that has survived from that time. In 1924, after a two-year Moroccan company, the legionnaires spent some time on vacation in the relatively calm eastern part of Algeria. "Zinovy in Africa, in Numidia, commands a company. He sent interesting postcards from there. An indefatigable guy," lines from a private letter tell us. In April of the same year, judging by the letter sent from El-Kreider to A.M. Gorky, we learn that Peshkov is taking part in the battles. The Legion is conducting active military operations at this time. A little more than a month passes, and from the response message we learn: "June 3, 1925. My dear ..! Are you fighting again? When I think about this war, I worry about you ..." - Alexei Maksimovich wrote in Morocco. Then in 1925. A.M. Gorky writes to one of the addressees: "...Zinovy is wounded in the leg, he is in the hospital in Rabat." Later, Zinovy Peshkov himself will describe his life of that period as follows: “In the summer of 1925, I was in a military hospital in Rabat, where I was waiting for the healing of a wound on my left leg received in battles with reefs. I had enough time to think over and recover in years of service in Morocco, in the Foreign Legion. I felt indebted to the people whose fate I shared for several years and whose ranks I had just left. I should pay tribute to the unknown greatness of these people who became soldiers on the occasion, these nomadic workers who under the sun of Africa perform multiple and difficult tasks. They could say of themselves, like the soldiers of Rome: "We go, and the roads follow us. "In the intervals between battles, where paths were barely marked, they pave roads that open their their own country. Always warriors, but also by turns sappers, diggers, masons, carpenters. They are pioneers whose work and sacrifices allow other people to live happily and peacefully in these remote places. It is under the protection of the posts that they have built, under the protection of the posts that are tirelessly awake, that Morocco is civilized."
Let's get back to history. In 1926 our hero is already in the rank of captain, by the same time he has several military orders and medals, as we learn from the correspondence of those years. "My godson Zinovy Mikhailovich Sverdlov, the captain of the French army, decorated with many orders and deprived of one arm on the shoulder," mentions A. M. Gorky. Official information also has interesting evidence: "Peshkov (Zinovy), captain of the 1st regiment of the Foreign Legion, on the proposal of the Military Ministry and the Council of the Order of the Legion of Honor, for exceptional services, brilliant performance of the duties of a captain, excellent education of soldiers, remarkable energy and composure shown in all the battles in which he took part, from May 1 to June 27, 1925, and in which he was wounded near Bab Taza (Morocco) on June 27, leading his unit on the attack, he is awarded the Military Cross T.O.E. palm branch," he wrote in 1926. "Le journal officiel".
Zinovy Peshkov will express his impressions, observations, experiences and personal experience of service in Morocco in his book on the Foreign Legion, on which he is undertaking work during this period of time. The first edition will be published soon. It appeared on English language in the USA under the title "Sounds of the Horn. Life in the Foreign Legion" in 1926.
The French edition of the book comes out a year later with a slightly different title: Foreign Legion in Morocco. In a preface written by Maurois, it says: “All civilizations have their outcasts. Dostoevsky called them humiliated and insulted. For example, Russians who did not accept the Bolsheviks, Germans who cannot bear their drill, Belgians and Swiss, victims of some personal drama. For all these people, the discipline of the Foreign Legion is not offensive.The author is one of those commanders who know and know how to raise the humiliated and insulted, attaching them to the task that the Foreign Legion inherited from the Roman Legion - the task of serving civilization.Wherever the legionaries go, roads are laid, houses are built, here Europeans carry out their task of learning modern technology. Having visited Morocco with an interval of three years, I did not recognize the city, so it has changed for the better. In terms of the quality of the construction of roads, factories, buildings, in terms of hygiene, it surpasses Europe.
The Foreign Legion is more than an army of soldiers, it is an institution. From conversations with Zinovy Peshkov, one gets the impression of an almost religious nature of this institution. Zinovy Peshkov speaks of the legion with burning eyes, he is, as it were, an apostle of this religion. Peshkov tells about the soldiers in the hospital, who, dying, jump up to greet their officers.
Many aspects of the legionnaires' life are revealed in Peshkov's book. It describes the tea parties in the city, the booze that the soldiers had on the days they received their salaries. Mention is also made of a Christian cemetery near the city of Marakkesh in the central region of Morocco, where colleagues, including Russian compatriots, were buried. One Italian mason made crosses for the dead from local mountain marble. There was no priest then, they buried themselves. From the same book we learn that Captain Z. Peshkov, being on official business in Paris, buys with his own money in 1923. horns and flutes for the battalion. An interesting, somewhat sentimental detail - a Russian captain planted two palm trees near the distant Fort Wiseth. Peshkov called the word "tramps" his unfortunate fellow-subordinates. And as the biographer writes, "he knew all the "tramps" of his battalion - from the Don Cossack - his orderly, who picked flowers twice a day, because they reminded him of his native steppes."
Z. Peshkov's book about legionnaires in Morocco "Pechkoff Zinovi. La Legion Etrangere au Maroc. - Paris, 1927." received sufficient popularity at that time. Subsequently, based on this work, a film was created in Hollywood according to the script and with the participation of Peshkov, which was filmed in North Africa.
In 1933 in Paris, Z. Peshkov gave an interview to the newspaper "Paris midi", in which, in response to a correspondent's question, he expressed his opinion and his devotion to the cause that called him and became part of his life: "A lot of lies and slander are spread about the legion, but it remains the same .. "There is one French Foreign Legion. Nothing can be added to that."
Let us allow ourselves to return to the well-known Zinovy Peshkov. Our hero on the eve of the Second World War continues to serve in North Africa. Command of the Foreign Legion August 11, 1938 decides to extend the term of service of Z. Peshkov in Morocco for 2 years - from January 11, 1939. As you know, September 3, 1939. France declares war on Nazi Germany. Between these countries, hostilities begin, affecting, among other things, the territory of North Africa. Peshkov participates in the battles of the Foreign Legion against the Nazis in Morocco. By the way, it should be added that the fighting here began on the eve of the declaration of war, namely, on September 2, and lasted almost two more months after the surrender of France, which took place on June 22, 1940. According to the biographer, "some commanders of the Legion, including Peshkov, refuse to recognize the shameful truce for France ...". Peshkov draws up his resignation. The last entry in his service record reads: "20.8.1940, in connection with reaching the age limit for his rank, he is sent to a permanent place of residence." The obituary, published after the death of General Peshkov, provides an interesting detail that allows you to restore the atmosphere of those days and clarifies the circumstances of the decision. "The Second World War found him in Morocco, where he commanded a battalion of the Foreign Legion. After the defeat of 1940, he refused to accept a truce with the Nazis and fled at night on a steamer, arriving in London one of the first."
Spanish Foreign Legion
Another noteworthy historical event associated Russian military from among those who served in the Spanish Foreign Legion. This refers to the famous war in Spain 1936-1938. In July 1936 in Spain, the reactionary forces did not recognize the victory in the elections of the revolutionary popular front. A fascist rebellion broke out, which was supported by Germany and Italy. The occupation of the country began. The USSR provided the Republicans with tacit moral and material support. Thousands of Russian people fought in the international brigades in Spain. At the same time, there were also Russian people on the other side of the front. Once again, fratricide pushed compatriots who had been separated by ideological and political views for many years. "On August 1, 1936, the Harbin newspaper" Our Way "published an interview with the Spanish professor E. Afenicio under the heading "The Spanish uprising was raised by Russian emigrants, ranks of the Foreign Legion in Morocco." As you know, the north of Morocco was under a special occupation regime, due to its restless nature local tribes The Spanish Foreign Legion controlled the situation in these places, "where the Russians make up the largest percentage, both soldiers and officers ... the first events began in Melilla and Ceuta, garrisons ... Russian emigrants ... Therefore, I am convinced that the uprising in Morocco, which has now spread to the continent, is the work of your compatriots, who were the first to put their real strength at the disposal of the uprising in the form of regiments ... of a foreign legion, "wrote the Spanish professor.
1.2.3 FOR THE HOME
Battles against German-Italian forces in North Africa
As you know, France is defeated in the war with the fascist alliance. The occupation of the country, the creation of a puppet government of Vichy, all this was the result of a truce that was concluded between France and Nazi Germany on June 22, 1940. and the Franco-Italian agreement of June 24, 1940. The metropolis "... was in a very difficult position, although it continued to maintain control over its colonial possessions in North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco)." However, the fascists, having achieved the use of economic resources, military-strategic bases and administrative apparatus in the region for their own purposes, "began to export iron ore and molybdenum from Morocco, and food from Algeria and Tunisia."
At the same time, both in France itself and in the colonies, there are patriotic forces that did not want to accept defeat and are ready to give themselves to the fight against the enemy. These forces began to unite around General Charles de Gaulle. The legendary general, having fled from Paris, took refuge in the British Isles. On London Radio June 19, 1940. the following appeal of de Gaulle was transmitted: “On behalf of France, I firmly declare the following: it is the absolute duty of all the French who still bear arms to continue resistance. crime against the motherland. At the moment I am speaking, first of all, referring to French North Africa, not captured by the enemy ... In Africa, Clausel, Bujot, Lyauté, Nogues, the direct duty of all honest people is to refuse to comply with the conditions of the enemy. " One of the first to respond to the call was Zinovy Peshkov. He became the closest collaborator of de Gaulle and already in this capacity returned to North Africa.
The British first used the formations of General de Gaulle in West Africa during the Dakar operation, which began on August 3, 1940. However, the forces turned out to be insufficient, since at that time the Free French Committee had only two battalions of the Foreign Legion. The failure was due to the fact that the preparations that were carried out in London could not be hidden from spies. The active military operations of the Foreign Legion in the fight against the Nazis begin with operations in the Mediterranean part of Africa. In his speech delivered in Algiers on July 14, 1943, General de Gaulle noted: "When the fire of war spread to the soil of our North Africa, the French army turned up there to serve gloriously as the vanguard of the Allies in Tunisia." Biography researcher Z. Peshkova, on the basis of documents, writes that "... it can be concluded that he fought against Rommel's troops in North Africa somewhere from February to May 1941."
As for other Russian emigrants who ended up on the side of the Allies and fought against the German-Italian troops, a record of one of the participants has been preserved about them. Veteran French Resistance N.V. Vyrubov wrote: "These warriors with their valor, worthy service and dedication deserve eternal memory ...". Many of the participants in the war are buried in the cemeteries of France and in other places, someone's graves remain unknown. There were a small number of volunteers who expressed a desire to join the troops of General de Gaulle. This circumstance is explained by an eyewitness of the events: "Since the population of the country itself remained largely passive, the emigrants did not feel the need to prove themselves. In addition, for personal and family reasons, emigrants were often afraid to do anything ... Nevertheless, many of them sympathized victories of the Russian troops, were proud of them. After the surrender of France in 1940. and the German attack on the USSR in 1941. the entry of Russians from among those living in the diaspora into volunteers is noted. "They wanted to take part in the war, to fight for 'their second homeland' with which they were linked by culture ... they did not feel bound by the 1940 armistice, they were driven by the desire to contribute to victory." Further, the émigré author continues: “After 1941, everything changed: the Motherland was attacked, its very existence was threatened. For those who were brought up in the Russian spirit, lived in a Russian environment, Russia undoubtedly became the main motive for participating in the war. They fought for victory on the side of the Allies." Also, apparently, the words of the legendary leader of the Resistance movement, heard by the Russians, had their effect: "Free France together with suffering Russia. Fighting France together with fighting Russia. Desperate France together with Russia, who managed to rise from the darkness of the abyss to the sun of greatness" .
November 12, 1942 Anglo-American troops landed in Africa, four days later they occupied the city of Bonn in Algeria, moving towards Tunisia, where on November 16 the first clash with German units took place. "The German command, which did not have military reserves in the immediate vicinity of the theater of operations, was forced to hastily transfer parts of various formations to Tunisia." The task of the Germans was to fortify in the area of Bizerte, taking advantage of its forts. Here, the military units of the "Free France" played a certain role, in which they fought, incl. and our compatriots. One of these Russian soldiers was V.I. Aleksinsky. In his memoirs, drawn up in post-war Paris, he wrote that many Russians fought in de Gaulle's troops in North Africa.
Many of our compatriots distinguished themselves in battles against the Nazis during military operations in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Among the legionnaires awarded the "Cross of Liberation" are the following names: Lieutenant Colonel D. Amilakhvari, died in Egypt in 1942, N. Rumyantsev, commander of the 1st Moroccan cavalry regiment, captain A. Ter-Sarkisov. Russia should also know the names of her sons who fought in North Africa, here are some of them: Vashchenko Alexei soldier 2nd grade. II Regiment of the Foreign Legion (+1947), buried in Villiers on the Marne; Guyer, (+20.5.1940) died at Porron; Gomberg (?), junior lieutenant; Zolotarev, junior lieutenant, (+1945); Popov, commander of the 1st cavalry regiment (+1946); Regema, lieutenant (+1945); Rotshtein, junior lieutenant (+1946); book. Sergei Urusov; Zemtsov, awarded two Military Crosses, retired in 1940, in 1941. volunteered for the legion, awarded the second Cross posthumously.
Yu.V. Lukonin, who was in Morocco for diplomatic work in the 60s of the 20th century and personally knowing some of the representatives of the old Russian emigration, he left notes about people of Russian origin who fought in North Africa on the side of the allies. "Two authors - one of them served in aviation, the other in the navy - received loud literary fame after the victory over fascism. Especially the former pilot - Romain Gary (Roman Kasev). He became a famous novelist, diplomat, member of the French Academy. In an autobiographical book" Premonition of Dawn" he reproduces the heavy, disturbing atmosphere of Vichy timelessness in Morocco, describes his wanderings around Meknes and Casablanca before a daring escape to British Gibraltar, towards combat everyday life in one of the units of Degol aviation. As for the former sailor, rear admiral of the reserve Alex Vasiliev , then his pen belongs to the collection of fascinating short stories "Unknown Soldiers of the Past War. In several short stories, he resurrects his experiences in North Africa, in particular, the landing of a powerful allied landing in Morocco and Algeria in November 1942." In December 1940 in the Atlantic, near Casablanca, the French submarine Sfax sank, among the crew members was Senior Lieutenant P. Enikeev. During the German occupation of Bizerte, one of the enemy submarines was sabotaged by a mechanic who served at the base former lieutenant Russian fleet S.N. Enikeev.
However, unfortunately, there were also reverse cases, when from among the former Russian military, including legionnaires, there were people who went to cooperate with the Nazis. The émigré writer Nina Berberova wrote about one of these people. In his diaries for 1942. she wrote: “At the age of eighteen, he went to Shkuro and cut someone ... He staggered somewhere, then he entered the Foreign Legion and left for Africa (there was a war between the French and Abd al-Krim) ... In Africa, he again he cut someone, returned five years later ... And now he is in a German uniform, fighting on the eastern front, or rather, serving as an interpreter for the Germans in Russia. Now he has returned on vacation from near Smolensk ... ". She later found out further fate this person. In 1944 he died near Chernivtsi.
1.3 GENERATIONAL CONFLICT
The Second World War was a definite watershed between two waves of Russian emigration. Official figures from international refugee organizations indicate a figure of 8 million displaced persons who ended up in Europe in 1949. As for the Russian people, namely, they made up the majority in this huge human mass, they can be divided into two categories:
Firstly, these are outright traitors, employees of the occupiers, members of anti-Soviet armed formations, and secondly, people forcibly displaced to work in Germany. The political views of these people differed from those of the emigration of the first wave. Having tasted stale bread in a foreign land, aristocrats, military men, Cossacks and their families, were imbued with sympathy for, even if Soviet, but the homeland that became the winner in the world war. About political reconciliation, say the words uttered by the former ambassador of the Provisional Government in Paris Maklakov, which he uttered during a visit to the USSR Embassy on February 12, 1945: "We have stopped the struggle, we have separated from those who want to wage it."
On the contrary, a new batch of Russians that arrived from the USSR breathed exclusively malice at home country. The only exception was simple people, forcibly driven to work, but afraid of returning in view of the upcoming persecution by the punitive authorities in their homeland.
A certain share of the blame for the rooting of the anti-Soviet infusion to harm defectors lies with the Soviet state itself. Order No. 120, dated August 16, 1941, sentencing in absentia to death those who surrendered and initiating repressions against members of their families, was well known among prisoners of war. On this occasion, the historian writes: “It is clear that the state, with its repressive legislation, where the very fact of captivity was considered as treason to the motherland, where not only the prisoners and displaced persons themselves, but also members of their families were persecuted, in fact rejected hundreds of thousands of its citizens.”
The agreement between the allied states, concluded in Yalta on February 11, 1945, on the extradition of Soviet citizens, regardless of their consent, according to the state of the borders on September 1, 1939, only aggravated the matter.
Unlike their predecessors, the emigrants of the 1920s, the new refugees were by no means striving to recreate Russia abroad. Some of them wanted only peace, tranquility, an elementary household device - to forget the nightmares of captivity, humiliation, to get away from the problems of the disorder of Western life and fear from Soviet reality. Others were, on the contrary, aggressively active, they considered themselves fighters, heroes. Only there was nowhere to apply heroic forces, all this remained there, in the east, beyond the Soviet border. There were also communities of Russians, gray-haired, aged, people who had lost their former activity. Actually, they have never been ideological opponents of the new arrivals, as they lived in different Russia, in different cultures, in different ideologies, in different social strata. A foreign author, who is inclined to see community and unity in the Russian emigrant mass, nevertheless writes: "The Second Emigration" ... represented all the social strata that existed at the beginning of the war. It was a fragment of a society already Sovietized, decapitated, but also the most fierce ... only gradually did the second wave perceive the cultural and religious values preserved by the first, it grew to a spiritual level ... ".
So far, there is no need to talk about spiritual growth. Using the example of African Russian communities, we see that newcomers do not merge into existing Russian public institutions, organizations, associations, but create their own, as if in parallel. This also applies to the church. Temples for the “second wave” are already, but only a place of prayer, but a sphere of manifestation of political sympathies and antipathies.
With the arrival in new places, the seizure began, and where it was not possible, there was the creation of alternative parishes. And this is in those places where Russian churches have been for decades, with their established traditions and liturgical way of life adapted to local conditions. All these facts are observed in the example of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
In Morocco, for example, a large organized group of Russians arrived with two priests and a well-sung choir. Tunisia becomes the seat of foreign bishops - Archbishop Panteleimon, then Bishop Nathanael. The parish in Casablanca found an alternative bishop, at one time it was John (Maximovich), about whom it should be said that he was the most worthy saint of all the foreigners. He had little interest in politics, was a prayer book and an ascetic, paid great attention to charity, enlightenment, and the consolation of suffering souls. An opponent of the foreign camp in Morocco wrote about him: "The only exceptions are such meek saints as John (b. Shanghai), and there probably will be, but such a minority." According to people who knew him closely, "the archbishop did not absolutize jurisdiction at all, which later caused him to be condemned by "more serious" foreign hierarchs, for whom parties and "trends" mattered more than the commandments of Christ."
How did the priests of pre-existing churches react to the appearance of their restless brethren? This was written in the foreign church press: “Not so long ago, the rector of our church, Archimandrite Mitrofan, received an offer from the local representative of the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Anastassy, Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko-Borovsky, to move along with the entire parish to the Karlovtsy jurisdiction. In his response to this strange proposal, Archimandrite Mitrofan explained in detail to the father archpriest all the non-canonicity of the church dispensation, the so-called Church Abroad, and, considering further negotiations on the topic of "transition" superfluous, asked only one "peaceful existence", without interference in other people's affairs.
1.4 CO-CITIZENS
"People who leave the fatherland for foreign lands are not respected in a foreign land, but alienated in their homeland" Aesop
So, who are they, our compatriots, who today form the backbone of the Russian diaspora in the country of the Maghreb?
It must be immediately emphasized that for the most part these are women. Their appearance here is associated with marriage with local Arabs and Berbers. Many young people from Morocco studied in Soviet universities, and even today they continue to receive education in Russia and other CIS countries. Most of these women are not Russians, but Ukrainians or Belarusians. What is most interesting is that they all always present themselves as Russians and use only Russian in everyday life. A separate conversation is that due to the lack of diplomatic missions of Ukraine and Belarus in many North African countries, these women have to overcome a lot of visa, legal and passport problems (the nearest Ukrainian diplomatic mission is in Tunisia). Moroccan students also study in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics, but, as a rule, they do not bring their life partners from there.
Getting into the Arab, Islamic world of North Africa, the Slavs face problems of adaptation. Let's look at specific examples of how this difficult process takes place in the Maghreb.
As a rule, women, who in the official consular language are referred to as “compatriots”, do not break off relations with relatives who have remained at home, their children are bilingual, usually speak Russian and French, and often a third language - Arabic. The latter is typical for those who are brought up in Arab families, where patriarchal foundations are strong. Usually, intelligent modern families, knowing the local dialect, prefer to speak French in the family, especially since the "fellow citizens" notice a constant negative-critical attitude towards everything Arabic and Muslim.
Islamic law does not recognize marriages outside of this religion, so wives are forced to convert to Islam. But, having no civil internal passports, but only a residence permit, they depend on their husband in everything. A residence permit for foreigners arriving from Eastern European countries must be renewed annually, and for this you need to present a certificate from your husband's place of work among the necessary papers.
Parents try to send children born in joint marriages to study in Russia and other CIS countries. Women belonging to the older generation try to influence their grandchildren through books, games, etc., but, as a rule, the grandchildren no longer speak Russian, but they consider French and Arabic to be their equally native languages. Soviet citizens try to get acquainted with the intelligentsia from among the Russians who come to the country to work on contracts and on official business trips. Arab husbands, as a rule, do not oppose this - on the contrary, keeping good impressions about Russia during the years of study in our country, are drawn to Russian culture, willingly speak Russian. A certain share in this process is played by the Russian Cultural Center, libraries, video films, etc. The local press constantly publishes positive reviews about the work of the cultural center on their pages.
Attempts to prolong or create an atmosphere of Russian living environment are expressed in the purchase of old Russian things, furniture, utensils from those compatriots who, having completed their term of work in Morocco, return to their homeland. But due to the low cultural level, all this sometimes takes ugly and even caricature forms.
Fellow citizens are also trying to turn the church left over from the old Russian emigrants into a place of their meetings and leisure. Orthodox worship, dogma, books (and the parish has great opportunities in terms of choosing literature that is inaccessible to compatriots in Russia) - all this does not arouse interest. On the one hand, people come to church for psychological consolation when their hearts are really bad from an excess of negative emotions associated with being in an alien ethno-religious and cultural environment. On the other hand, as already noted, a piece of Russian land is used as a meeting place. Appeals to the priest for advice in terms of spiritual life, the traditional performance of rites and rituals - such as custom notes, prayers, confession, communion, etc. - practically does not happen. The only prayers in the church are "for travelers", when one of the employees of official missions flies home on vacation or in connection with the end of a business trip.
Relations among fellow citizens are far from simple. Domestic and family issues are constantly discussed. The lack of social activity, reliable information, multiplied by a low intellectual and moral level, gives rise to constant gossip and squabbles. The environment of fellow citizens will never "forgive" one of the compatriots if she can get a decent job. As a rule, Russian and Russian-speaking women are not employed, as they do not have the necessary qualities and skills, the first of which is a good knowledge of French, and often Arabic. They are even more incapable of going to unskilled work. Therefore, they sit at home, depend on their husbands for everything and usually do not get along with numerous relatives. Their Arab husbands in this respect look much nicer and nobler.
The patriarchal Arab family life, built on the norms of Islamic morality, has many positive elements. Fellow citizens falling into this environment, in fact destroying the environment in which they find themselves, do not bring anything positive from Russian culture, religion, life and ethics to the Arab world. Therefore, in the local environment, the wrong attitude towards everything Russian and towards Russia is often formed. Sometimes, frankly speaking, you feel a sense of guilt and shame for the Russian nation. For example, when communicating with ordinary residents, I had to explain more than once that I was a Russian priest: then the answer was not infrequently asked: "Do Russians have a religion?" In such an attitude towards Russia and Russians, of course, one cannot blame only fellow citizens. A certain amount of anti-Russian tension is carried by the modern mass media. Watching both Arabic and Western TV channels in French, English and other languages, you constantly see and hear about negative processes in modern Russia. It is a shame that the word "vodka" has become synonymous with the word "Russian".
Indeed, women who came to Rabat from former USSR, are ignorant in matters of doctrine. They, brought up on atheistic principles and knowing nothing about Orthodoxy, are alien to any religion in general. In addition, one should take into account the fact that fellow citizens aggressively do not accept Islam, despite the fact that officially many of them are considered Muslim. In contrast to wives, their husbands willingly speak on religious topics, show knowledge of both the Qur'anic provisions and the basics of Christianity, and are satisfied with those moments of dogma that speak of the original historical community of our monotheistic religions.
In legal terms, local legislation based on the norms of Sharia law is completely unusual for the European consciousness. This applies to the topic of divorce, the possibility of having other wives, to issues related to the upbringing of children, the position of a woman in society, her social activity. Sometimes, when a Moroccan, without doing anything reprehensible from the point of view of the law, religious norms, social and family traditions, commits an act that, from the point of view of the European mentality, cannot be accepted, tragedies happen in mixed families. Fellow citizens, even having lived for decades in an Arab environment, still do not want to know or understand how mutual relations are built here.
In the succinct expression of one of the Russian diplomats, who has been working with fellow citizens for many years, "they wanted to be foreigners there (that is, in their homeland), and they also want to remain foreigners here." When marrying Arabs, many women thought that they would become wives, if not princes, then at least relatives of the king. In fact, it turned out that princes usually study in Europe, while the children of the poor studied in the USSR.
1.5 PARISH DAYS
As for the characteristics of other Russian citizens who find themselves in foreign conditions and who come to the temple, these are those who are on official business trips, working under contracts, etc. Naturally, in this environment there is a strong tendency to preserve their isolated way of life. People live in temporary, cramped conditions with minimal adaptation, not getting used to, but rather adapting to local life.
The position of the Church in Morocco is directly related to the apparent failure of the Christian mission in that country. Priests of the Moscow Patriarchate come for a short period of time and are completely unprepared for work in local conditions. The activity of priests develops in various directions, but not in the field of counseling. The fact is that usually there are from one to three people at the Sunday liturgy, on major holidays - a maximum of 15, and these are not regularly praying, but simply visitors. The usual forms of activity of priests who came from the USSR, and now from the Russian Federation - leisure, travel, endless communication with the bored public living on the territory of the embassy and creating the appearance of being busy with diplomats and those who joined them. A lot of free time encourages reading, intellectual pursuits, learning foreign languages.
Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, the Russian community continues to exist in Rabat. Thanks to the fraternal help of the Greek Archimandrite Timothy from the Paraclete Monastery, as well as international Christian charitable organizations, the library is replenished with new editions. In response to the request of V.P. Butkovsky, director of the Russian embassy school, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the OBCA MP, sent a set of video cassettes "The Shepherd's Word". Doctor pedagogical sciences Vladimir Petrovich Butkovsky with his wife Elena Leonidovna and daughter Ekaterina, during the time spent in Morocco, showed themselves to be the kindest Christians and very nice people.
Having touched the topic Orthodox Church in Rabat, it is impossible not to mention one more thing. Due to the sharp deterioration of the economic situation in the countries of Eastern Europe, many Serbs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles go to North African countries in search of work. For many, the church becomes part of the homeland. Joint divine services on the occasion of the days of remembrance of common saints and the events of Slavic history unite people. Bulgarian parishioners became frequent visitors to the temple. The Ambassador of Bulgaria is constantly present at the divine services, and he takes part with pleasure in the reading of the liturgical texts, both in Church Slavonic and in Bulgarian. With great zeal and seriousness, the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria responded to the initiative proposed by the rector to celebrate the day of memory of the holy enlighteners of the Slavic Cyril and Methodius. This holiday was prepared and carried out in 1998 and 1999 by Ambassadors Todorin Packerov and Georgy Karev, who consistently worked in Morocco. Similar festivities in honor of St. Sava of Serbia were held on January 24, 1999, just at the time when the international community revolted against Serbia, the Moroccan diplomatic corps ignored and boycotted the Yugoslav embassy. Serbs living in Rabat, Casablanca and other cities gathered in a Russian church. Mr. Ambassador Golub Lazovik participated in the service, he, according to the Serbian custom, cut the bread and poured wine over it, as is customary in the ceremony of "Serbian glory". Then a reception was held in the church garden.
The ambassador of the Hellenic Republic usually arrives at the Russian church for the procession on Easter night and then leaves for Casablanca, where he takes part in the service held in the Annunciation Church of the Alexandrian Patriarchate. Having shown respect to fellow Russian people, the ambassador celebrates Easter among the Greek community.
Unfortunately, the embassy of the Russian Federation remains practically indifferent to our church, and Russian diplomats do not attend divine services. The exception is perhaps the Easter holiday, when, having huddled together during the procession, the Russians unanimously begin the celebration in the garden under a canopy. At that moment, no more than a dozen people remain in the temple, and by the end of mass, only the priest and a few amateur choristers are left at all. The steps of the porch covered with wax, cigarette butts on the tiles of the paths and white plastic disposable tableware scattered across the green lawn remind us that the past holiday will remain in the minds of those who associate themselves with Russian culture.
These are largely subjective impressions of my tenure as rector of the Resurrection Church in Rabat.
For the sake of objectivity, we should name the names of wonderful people, thanks to whose selfless devotion the Russian church continues to exist and the necessary care is shown for this unique place associated with Russian history and culture. These are the indefatigable Lyudmila Mikhailovna Mulin - the treasurer (in fact, the headman of the Russian church), Nina Alekseevna El-Kinoni - the regent of the church choir, Irina Alexandrovna Vasilyeva - the librarian of the parish library. During their stay in Rabat, Vyacheslav, Galina and Veronika Semenov, and Nikolai Alexandrovich Vasiliev helped and enlivened the meager everyday life of the Russian community in Morocco a lot. The Polish trade consul Pan Teofil Stanislavsky with his wife Pani Silvia and daughter Maya showed great attention and friendship to the Russians.
Mother Maria (Ekaterina Vasilievna Gurko) maintains a spiritual connection with the Resurrection Church. She is the granddaughter of the famous colleague of Skobelev, the liberator of Bulgaria, Field Marshal Iosif Gurko, after whom one of the streets of Sofia is named. Her father, General Vasily Gurko, married a Frenchwoman, the daughter of the Minister of Justice Trarieox, Sophia. Since 1946 Sofia and Ekaterina Gurko lived in Rabat. After the death of her mother, Ekaterina Vasilievna moved to Paris, where, having taken monastic vows, she worked in the office of the Exarchate.
CHAPTER XIII.
Formation and combat activity parts of the "Russian Legion". - Combat work of the 1st battalion of this legion as part of the 1st Moroccan division. - Fights on April 26th and May 30th. - The participation of this battalion in the July offensive of General Mangin. - Fights on the 2nd and 14th of September. - The offensive march of the Russian Legion from Nancy to the Rhine. - His participation in the occupation of the left-bank part of Germany. - Demobilization.
In accordance with the decrees of the French Minister of War on the procedure for distributing Russian contingents into three categories, General Lokhvitsky, immediately upon taking up the post of head of the base in Laval, began preparatory work to form people of the 1st category of Russian volunteers.
Volk squads. He widely disseminated information about such a formation, and Russian volunteers responded to the call, not only living in France, but also in Holland, Italy, p. Africa and even Calcutta and the Far East.
All the volunteers who came gathered at the base in Laval. There they had to sign an appropriate engagement, which they undertook to obey the French military discipline, which did not allow the presence of soldiers' committees (councils) in the military units.
The Colonel of the 2nd Special Regiment Gottua was appointed to command the 1st Battalion of the Russian Legion. The battalion consisted of 400 people who arrived from the Cournot camp; he was seconded, by the authority of the French command, to the Moroccan division and went to the front already on March 7, 1918.
Then the formation of the 2nd battalion of the Russian Legion from the people of the Kurtinsky camp was started, which was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Special Regiment Yeske. This battalion, numbering 270 people, was assigned to the 178th French division and left for the front on March 10th.
In addition to those sent to the front, 120 more people remained in Laval, who were supposed to serve as the core for the formation of the 3rd battalion. In fact, they formed one company of this battalion, which was temporarily assigned to the 1st battalion. Finally, 40 officers and 530 volunteers were expected to arrive from Thessaloniki, who could provide material for the 4th battalion of the same Legion.
Thus, already in the first half of March, the formation of volunteer units began to noticeably improve. Subsequently, the ranks of the first four battalions were supposed to be strengthened by further injection of additional staffing into them, since there was every reason to expect further development of the volunteer movement. And indeed, around March 20, 300 people arrived from Africa who expressed a desire to be listed in the 1st category, who
They were divided into existing battalions. Unfortunately, it later turned out that among them agitators also made their way into the ranks of the Russian Legion, who did not stop their corrupting work.
The battalion organization of the legion prevented the senior ranks of the former special divisions (colonels and especially generals) from taking direct part in the volunteer movement, but it had to be put up with this shortcoming, in anticipation of the possibility of a wider deployment of volunteer units.
The Russian colony warmly rejoiced at the success of these formations. A report has been preserved, according to which on March 10, a train with Russian volunteers, going from Laval to the front, was solemnly met in Versailles by the former Russian ambassador in Paris V. A. Maklakov and Russian ladies who brought gifts to the soldiers.
General Daugan, Chief of the 1st Moroccan division, to which the 1st battalion of Colonel Gottua was seconded, already on March 26 reported to his army commander that the Russian unit seconded to him made an excellent impression on him. At the same time, he asked to send letters from this part to Russia as soon as possible, hoping that they would appear a good remedy for appropriate propaganda in Russia of healthy moods.
Colonel Barjonet, chief of staff of the Laval base, about that time reported to the French Ministry of War that a detachment of volunteers (under the command of Captain Pavlov) had arrived at the base from Thessaloniki in perfect order and in excellent uniforms. The battalion formed from these people was assigned to the 56th Infantry Division and sent to the battle front on April 9th.
officers |
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1st Battalion Col. Gottua |
At the front |
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At the base (at the depot) |
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2nd Battalion Col. Yeske |
At the front |
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At the base (at the depot) |
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3rd Battalion Col. Simenov (one company of this battalion was temporarily seconded to the battalion of Gottua). |
At the front |
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At the base (at the depot) |
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4th battalion p. Balbashevsky |
At the front |
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According to the report of General Lokhvitsky on April 13, among these people there were 446 people who had St. George's crosses or insignia of the Military Order.
However, already during the formation of these battalions, serious concerns arose as to how legal the position of these military units in the theater of operations, in view of the conclusion by the Bolshevik authorities in Russia of peace with Germany. Can't, in fact, the latter consider these battalions as units made up of non-combatants, which would threaten their ranks, if captured, with very serious consequences. This consideration acquired particular importance in connection with the indispensable desire of the Russian military contingents to preserve the Russian military uniform and fight under the Russian national banner.
After a very long study of this issue, and in the desire to ensure the legal existence of the Russian units, I had to take the path of some compromise and agree to the wearing by the Russian legionnaires of the uniform of the French colonial troops, with a three-color bandage on the left hand, however, from the national colors, on which be stamped by the French Ministry of War.
As for the national banner, after Russia's withdrawal from the war, it could also not be provided to Russian volunteer detachments, and they had to be content with the fact that a banner of Russian colors had to be attached to a French-style staff.
For its part, in an effort to legalize the position of the Russian legions, the French War Ministry issued a special decree on behalf of the President of the French Republic (dated April 11, 1918), which officially established the formation of four battalions for the entire duration of the war, made up specially of Russian volunteers .
Under all these conditions, the position of the Russian volunteer detachments could be considered legalized to a certain extent. Unfortunately, however, under the influence of the same tireless work of agitation, limited
The lack of the right to wear the Russian uniform, together with other reasons, which will be discussed below, caused a very serious excitement among the volunteer soldiers, which had a very unfavorable effect on further development such a successful start of the formation of Russian volunteer detachments.
The thing was that on May 13, at the review of the battalion of Colonel Balbashevsky, one of the high-ranking French generals, the latter made a careless speech in which he reminded in a rather harsh form that the battalion was composed of volunteers and that, consequently, the one who no real desire to fight, can leave the ranks of his unit at any time. Since the idea of the possibility of freely leaving the ranks of the battalion at any time differed significantly from what was said to the soldiers earlier, during the "triage", when they were allocated to the 1st category, then, under the influence of some irritation with the content of the speech, mainly - malicious secret agitation, unrest arose among the people of the battalion. People, pushing forward the facts of the conclusion of peace between Russia and Germany and the insufficiently fair assessment by the allies of their sacrificial impulse, began to express their unwillingness to be in the armed units in the future and agreed only to enroll them in the category of voluntary workers. These main motives for refusing military service began to be joined by other more secondary motives, such as their unwillingness to wear non-Russian uniforms, fight under an unusual banner, and others. The unrest was not slow to spread to other battalions (for example, the battalion of Colonel Yeske, especially when it became known that, when concluding an engagement for service, all the formalities that made the contract inviolable by law were not observed, namely, the signing of such in most cases took place in the absence of an appropriate representative of the French government.
About the broken balance of spirit in the battalions of Colonels Balbashevsky and Yeske, the Commander-in-Chief of the French troops considered it his duty to bring to the attention of the French Minister of War. General Petain, recognizing the aforementioned speech of the French general as unsuccessful, nevertheless spoke out in favor of the need to disband the Russian volunteer battalions, in which, in his opinion, military discipline had been compromised by the latest events. If, according to the conditions of the general situation, the French Commander-in-Chief added, it is still necessary to preserve the Russian Legion, then this Legion should be created on the basis adopted in the foreign Legion, that is, it should be under French command and with a mixed officer staff.
However, by this time the battalion, which was under the command of Colonel Gottua, had won such a strong military glory that there could be no talk of disbanding it.
This battalion, consisting of one drill and one machine-gun company, which later gradually joined the people of the company of the 3rd battalion seconded to it, was, after formation, included, as the reader already knows, in the 1st Moroccan division, which used in the French army's outstanding fighting reputation.
Having been transported along with the named division to the Nancy region, the mentioned Russian battalion was attached directly to the 8th Zuavsky Infantry Regiment, which was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lagarde.
In the Nancy region, the Russian volunteer detachment did not remain long. Very soon he had to be in
Combat environment and show your exceptional fighting qualities.
In the last third of March 18, after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk peace by the Bolshevik government, the Germans were able to launch a grandiose offensive against them. western front. The offensive was directed against the British in the Amiens-Arras area. The Allied front was broken through and their position was becoming very serious. General Foch, in whose hands, due to the complexity of the situation, the command of the allied forces was united, sends all the freest forces to the place of the breakthrough. But the operation is dragging on and the situation on the Allied front continues to be critical. The extremely difficult days of the operation are coming from April 26 to 30. By this time, the Moroccan division was brought to the scene of action in cars. It also includes a Russian detachment. Together with other units, on April 26, he goes from Villers-Bretone to a counter-attack, which makes a significant improvement in position.
Here are some hot lines from the "history of the glory of the Moroccan division". They are worth citing as proof of Russian valor and Russian sacrifice.
"At the most critical moment of the battle, a small part appears on the horizon .... It boldly rushes forward between the Zouaves and the arrows, with bayonets directed at the enemy .... They have no danger ... Who are these brave men? ..
These are the Russians of the Moroccan division! Glory to them..."
Regarding the battle on April 26, General Daugan reported that he was very pleased with the companies of the Russian Legion, his subordinates: officers and soldiers showed themselves ardent and courageous in battle.
Total Russian losses: 3 officers wounded; soldiers: 19 killed, 74 wounded.
In order not to let the cadres get upset, the head of the Moroccan division asks to quickly send the appropriate reinforcements to these companies, which were at that time in Laval, including about 200 volunteers.
With particular enthusiasm, General Daugan speaks of the activities in this battle of the combatant company of Captain Lupanov and the machine-gun company of Captain Razumov. “These units, he says, moved into battle with an unparalleled (sans pareil) ardor and courage, which led to the admiration (en admiration) of all who saw this movement, and especially the Zouaves, with whom they advanced alongside.
Captain (now Colonel) Lupanov was right there, on the battlefield, awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, and two especially distinguished non-commissioned officers were awarded military medals.
In addition to the named persons, other ranks of the Legion were also awarded French military awards.
The entire battalion of the Russian Legion, which was under the command of Colonel Gottua, for participating in the attack on April 26, 1918, was recognized as deserving: "Etat de recompenses".
But here comes the next month - May. The German attacks in Flanders and Artois, despite their persistence, generally do not lead to the results expected by the Germans. The French command is transferring strong reserves to the attacked area, which stop the development of the successes that accompanied the enemy's initial offensive. As a result of the regrouping carried out, the position of the allies naturally weakens in other areas, and especially on the nearest approaches to Paris, in the Soissons-Reims region. The Germans take advantage of this circumstance in order to direct their new blow precisely here.
Enemy. Only by the beginning of July does the combat activity of the legion in this area end, and he, as part of the same division, is assigned to the army reserve in Villers-Coteret.
French newspapers of that time are especially enthusiastic about the heroism of the Russian detachment in the battle of May 30 near Soissons. They emphasize the large number of military awards granted by the French military authorities to Russian legionnaires.
People who have newly joined the ranks of the detachment, fighting like lions, compete in valor with the previously arrived legionnaires.
The courage of those killed - Lieutenant Ornatsky, Lieutenant Rudnev, Dr. Zilberstein and the wounded - Captains Razumov, Jordan and Lieutenant Vasilyev was especially noted.
Among the reports testifying to the valor of the ranks of the Russian Legion who participated in this battle, a report is issued by the Commander of the 1st company about the heroism of Lieutenant Dyakonov.
In the battle near Soissons, during a counter-attack, he was seriously wounded by several bullets in the chest, stomach and arm. Due to the fact that the company, when retreating, had to fight its way with bayonets to its own, there was no way to take Lieutenant Dyakonov from the battlefield.
“Nevertheless, ensign Dyakonov, the report testifies, was not lost; having gathered around him as seriously wounded as himself, the named ensign made up a team of them, with the fire of which he covered the rear of his company, thereby facilitating its withdrawal.
Apparently, Lieutenant Dyakonov did not survive, since all information about him ceased.
(Follows a list of witnesses to the injury.)
Ensign Dyakonov had the St. George Cross of the 4th degree and Croix de guerre (with a palm tree)."
This simple story is about one of many. How many, in fact, such modest Russian heroes, whose names could not be preserved, were left lying on the fields of France and Macedonia, expressing their heroic death protest against the power of the Bolsheviks and their audacity to control the fate of Great Russia, which does not belong to them!...
It is interesting to cite a letter from a very thoughtful officer of the Russian Legion, a participant in the glorious battle of May 30, written by him to General Lokhvitsky and translated in the corresponding archival file. It says approximately the following: “Regarding the mood of officers and soldiers, I can say that we consider ourselves condemned, without any hope of returning whole, like a battalion of “suicide bombers” in Russia, completely destroyed, without any real benefit to general position. It has to be seen more as an "idea" than as an organism to be used in combat."
Unfortunately, the author of the letter adds, the dream of having the battalions of the Russian Legion united together has not yet come true; acting separately, in small packages, under the command of French officers, these units cannot carry out any independent task and their entire role is reduced to promoting the success of other units. Meanwhile, he complains, the best soldiers have already been killed, the rest will face the same fate. "I'm afraid that, under such conditions, neither the task nor the idea underlying the organization of the Russian Legion will be fully implemented."
On June 12, command of the 1st battalion passes from Colonel Gottua to Captain Lupanov. And the day before, on June 11, the French Ministry of War issued an order to replace the old engagements with new ones, which introduced a certain obligation to serve "until the end of the war", and which had to be signed by each legionnaire, such as
Guo was demanded by the basic law, in the presence of a French representative (sous-intendant).
According to this order, Russian legionnaires who signed a new contract were given the right to either continue serving in the special Russian Legion, or transfer to a foreign legion. Those who did not want to sign a new contract were subject to transfer to the category of workers, or, in case of unwillingness to work voluntarily, sent to the village. Africa, on a common basis. The French Ministry of War was aware that the requirement to sign a new engagement would lead to a significant decrease in the number of volunteers, but, in his opinion, he had no other way out to eliminate the accumulated misunderstandings.
Of course, the Bolshevik elements did not fail to take advantage of this situation, which, being interspersed everywhere, intensified their agitation in general against the existence of the Russian Legion. According to the report of General Lokhvitsky, the ranks of the legion on vacation and in hospitals, as well as the soldiers who were in Laval, were subjected to a new wave of agitation, just as it happened in the 17th year. Agitators waited for holiday pay at railway stations, especially in Paris.
In contrast to this current, in Paris and Nice, special patronages were organized by patriotic charitable societies for the ranks of the Russian Legion, the purpose of which was to provide the ranks of this Legion with support - moral and material.
Meanwhile, in the first half of the summer of 1918, the position of the French on the roads to Paris becomes, as you know, extremely difficult. The Germans went deep into their location in the areas of Montdidier and Château-Thierie, finding themselves only 60 kilometers from Paris. In the Château-Thierry area, they even managed to cross over to the left bank of the Marne.
In this situation, on July 18, the famous flank counter-offensive of the 10th French Army of General Mangin begins from the forests of Villers-Cotere. The Moroccan division also takes part in this offensive, having units of the Russian Legion in its composition,
Significantly thinned after the operation of the secondary signing of the engagement.
The Moroccan division advances in the center; on its flanks are two fresh American divisions. The offensive of General Mangin is supported by a huge number of artillery batteries, hundreds of tanks and a cloud of airplanes. A roaring and bubbling shaft, with which the German resistance is swept away ...
Later, in early August, as a result of the July offensive operation of the French, on the front of Reims - Soissons, the Germans are in retreat from the Marne to the river. En; a little later, after the swift onslaught of the Anglo-French at Montdidier, the German troops withdraw in early September to their main positions on the 17th year.
During this period of time, the Russian Legion is undergoing another reconstruction, with the aim of using all the people who signed the 2nd engagement and dispersing them in small groups in four different battalions. This reconstruction was entrusted to the Chief of the 1st Moroccan Division, General Daugan, in agreement with General Brulard, the new head of the Laval base. These persons, closer than others, from the French army, were close to the Russian military contingents and therefore were considered in this case the most competent in the Russian question. Both named generals, at the same time, showed the type of French military leaders who treated the Russian military contingents with care and their extremely difficult feelings caused by revolutionary time and stay outside the homeland. However, as can be seen from the report of General Daugan, addressed to the Commander-in-Chief of the French Forces dated August 14, 1918, No. 4949, the opinions of the two named persons differed seriously in the matter of the best organization of volunteer elements. General Daugan was full of desire to keep them at his front as an active unit, organizing only one or a few "component" battalions in the rear, in accordance with the number of reinforcements that were accumulating.
At the same time, General Daugan expressed his opinion on the desirability of transferring command of the Russian active battalion to a French headquarters officer, who, in his opinion, would be alone in a position to accurately and quickly coordinate the actions of this battalion with the general tasks of the head of the French division or brigade. He also recognized the usefulness of the presence in the battalion of a certain number of French officers to smooth out those rough edges that had been artificially created by propaganda between Russian officers and soldiers since the beginning of the revolution.
As for General Brulard "a, the latter was a supporter of a different system, offering to withdraw all Russian volunteer units from the front, not excluding those who were part of the 1st Moroccan division, in order to use them as personnel for new larger formations, which in the future and could be used for combat work on the French front.
It is not difficult to see that this second system, pursuing a more extensive task, could bear fruit only after a few months. In reality, it would deprive the Russian military contingents only of the opportunity to take combat participation in the events of the last months of the war on the western front.
Fortunately, it was not accepted.
As a result of accepting the proposal of General Daugan, a detachment of the Russian Legion, which was part of the 1st Moroccan Division, received quite significant reinforcements in August at the expense of other battalions of the same Legion.
It turned into a battalion of 2.5 companies of riflemen and 1 machine gun company and entered, as an independent unit, into the 1st brigade of the Moroccan division. This brigade is formed from a foreign legion: (3 battalions), the Malgash battalion (from the natives of Madagascar) and the battalion of the Russian Legion. This brigade is commanded by the French Colonel Bouchez, the current chief of staff of the Strasbourg military governor.
In this composition, the Russian battalion, has long been
Having taken the honorary title of “Legion of Honor” in its internal use, it is once again transferred by cars to the north of the Oise and here it leads during the entire first half of September, in the Terni-Sorni region, a multi-day offensive in the direction of Lafo, one of the most prominent corners of the fortified line of the Hindenburg.
The battalion suffers heavy losses here, especially in the battles of September 2 and 14. In the first of these battles, according to the testimony of the participants in the battle, two French officers (commander of the battalion Commandant Tramuset and Capitaine Brun) fall on the battlefield "death of the brave", next to the Russian legionnaires: the highly valiant doctor of the battalion Kleiman and St. George Knight Archpriest Bogoslovsky, 60 years old, who had already received the right to be transferred to Russia, but considered it his sacred duty to participate in the battle and admonish those who went on the attack with the blessing of the cross. This death in one battle of heroes belonging to two allied nationalities clearly emphasizes the commonality of the idea that inspired the selflessly dying Russian and French people.
I give below, in translation, the text of the report of General Daugan about this legendary battle:
"The battalion of the Russian Legion, which took part in the general attack on September 2, 1918, received the task of capturing the village of Sorny. In battle order, this battalion was in the 2nd line, behind the 12th battalion of the Malgash Riflemen, which, having Soissons-Bethune, was to attack the village of Terny-Sorny.
With the beginning of the attack, the troops advancing under the cover of a rolling shaft of barrage fire came under the influence of strong flank machine-gun fire coming from the northern edge of the Beaumont forest and peak 172. The right-flank units of the Malgashsky
The shooters, under the influence of this fire, hesitated somewhat; the left flank of the advancing battalion still managed to reach the western part of the named village. However, on the northern edge of the named village, enemy machine guns developed such hellish fire on the column that continued to advance that the advance of the entire detachment had to stop.
At this moment, some parts of the battalion of the Russian Legion, on their own initiative of their officers, make an independent decision to move to the east, in order to bypass the attacked village and capture it, by covering it from the north.
Under a hail of artillery and machine-gun fire, while the entire 1st line froze, parts of the Russian battalion quite clearly carry out this complex maneuver.
With remarkable determination, in an unquenchable impulse, having in mind the movements of their officers, the Russian battalion takes possession of the village. - The fight is fierce. - The enemy, firmly entrenched in the ruins of the village, decided to stay in it, no matter what it cost him; he defends himself with the energy of desperation, clutches chest to chest and resists most nights, showing no mercy to anyone. But at dawn, the village completely passes into the hands of the Russian battalion, which organizes its defense and stays in it, despite the frenzied counter-attacks of the enemy. For three days, on September 3rd, 4th and 5th, the battalion held out in it, exerting all its strength and despite the brutal enemy bombardment with guns of all calibers and shells with asphyxiating gases.
During these actions, the Russian battalion took 160 prisoners and got into its hands significant material booty, in the form different kind weapons and supplies.
The sacrifice with which this battalion carried out its maneuver, in view of the seriousness of the general situation, the boldness and courage with which it carried it out, under the heaviest enemy fire,
The astonishing energy and endurance, which properties they showed, require the submission of a battalion of the Russian Legion to a well-deserved reward ... "
This idea was respected by the Commander-in-Chief of the French armies on September 30, 1918, and the battalion of the Russian Legion received the right to wear a special distinction, called in France "Fouragere" (a kind of aiguillette worn by all ranks of the unit on the left shoulder).
The named award was accompanied by a special order of Marshal Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French troops.
“This award, says General Daugan in his Notice, reminds not only of the excellent combat deed of the Russian Legion battalion, performed by him on September 2, but of all the heroic deeds in which the battalion took part in April 1918.
A battalion of specially selected men, whose irreconcilable hatred of the enemy, coupled with complete contempt for death, inspires all their actions, showed rare courage during military operations on the Somme from April 26 to April 30, 1918 (see above ), contributing with their heroic resistance and at the cost of heavy losses, stopping the advance of the enemy on Amiens.
The same battalion took no less brilliant part in the operations at Soissons on the 30th of May and now on the 2nd of September, where it showed the same qualities and the same sacrifice, fighting mercilessly, in order to retain territory once taken, and seizing from the enemy numerous prisoners and materiel".
Finally, on September 14, 1918, a detachment of the Russian Legion takes an equally honorable part in the general attack on the fortified position of the Hindenburg, northeast of the Laffaux plateau. This participation is drawn from the same source in the following form:
"On the night of September 13-14, the battalion leaves its bivouac disposition, which has occupied it since the brilliant battle of September 2. Its new assignment was to move out of the reserve into
1st line of battle order of your brigade, take the area between the Foreign Legion and the 12th battalion of the Malgash Rifles on the right.
The combat mission of the battalion was to capture a very heavily fortified enemy knot of resistance. which posed a significant danger to the offensive of the entire detachment. After capturing two trenches on the front of this knot (du Rossignol and Avancee), it was necessary to storm the Chateau de la Motte and, having mastered the latter, bring it into a state of defense.
On the appointed day and hour, the 1st company of the battalion of the Russian Legion rushed into the attack, with its usual swiftness, supported by the 2nd company following it at a distance of 150 meters. - In its boundless impulse, the 1st attack wave captures the "Rossignol" trench, almost instantly overcomes the second intermediate trench and takes possession of the bayonet attack, combined with the action of hand grenades, the "Avancee" trench. This action was largely helped by a detachment sent to the mark (82, 41), where the German blockhouse was located, fighting off the enemy invasion with all its mortars and machine guns, covered with concrete shelters.
Having cleared the captured trenches from the enemy, the Russian Legion continued its offensive and, ahead of the barrage of its artillery, with a swift bayonet strike, seizes the last object of its actions, Chateau de la Motte. - The speed of the actions of the Russian legionnaires was such that the Germans did not have time to resist them and many prisoners, machine guns and various military supplies fell into the hands of the attackers.
All these actions were conducted so brilliantly and with such reckless swiftness that the losses of the battalion were relatively very insignificant: only 9 killed and 25 wounded. “But the impression of these victories was greatly increased by the already glorious combat reputation that the valiant phalanx of Russian legionnaires in the 1st Moroccan division acquired for itself.”
So on October 26, 1918, General Dogan, head of the 1st Moroccan Army, reported to his superiors.
divisions. On the same report there is the following note by General Gerard, commander of the 8th French Army:
"Since April 1918, the time of formation, the battalion of the Russian Legion, which became part of the 1st Moroccan division, has repeatedly given evidence of its best behavior in various operations in which it had to take part.
The qualities that made this part of the troops in the hands of his superiors a very valuable combat tool are noted in the motives for presenting the battalion for the award received by this part on September 30, 1918.
Under these conditions, it is desirable to assist in the further staffing of this battalion, which is part of the 1st Moroccan division, with Russian contingents.
Signature: Commander of the 8th (French) Army
General Gerard.
This was also the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief of the French troops, expressed by him in October 1918.
The loud military glory of the Russian Legion attracted new volunteers to its ranks. There were those who wanted to join his ranks from the category of workers. - In addition, many Russians who served in parts of the Foreign Legion wished to be transferred to serve in the specially Russian Legion. In the archives, a note has been preserved that, according to the permission of the French Minister of War, on November 1, 18, 152 people were poured into the battalion of the Russian Legion at the 1st Moroccan division, from among the Russians who served in parts of the Foreign Legion.
As a result, the battalion of the Russian Legion, despite losses in battle, did not decrease in its numerical strength.
Sti. On the contrary, his strength to some extent even grew. According to the report of General Daugan, by November 1, 18, 564 people were in his ranks, and the battalion was divided into three drill and one machine-gun companies.
With such forces, the Russian Legion was again ready for further action.
But already in the first half of October, the Germans, according to the general situation, were forced, as you know, to clear the entire Hindenburg line, which was an exceptionally heavily fortified strip of terrain, with concrete buildings and hidden artillery. Undermined by this time, the psyche of the Nm people could not find support in the dead buildings. The retreat of the Germans to the borders began ...
In such conditions, at the end of October, the Moroccan division, in its entirety, was transported to Nancy, from where its final maneuver was to begin, as part of the army group of General Castelnau, along the right bank of the river. Moselle on Mainz. The Russian Legion was also to take part in this maneuver, which had the task of striking at the reports of the retreating German armies. Only the armistice on November 11, 1918 interrupted the planned operation. Nevertheless, the Russian Legion of "honor" continued to exist in the future, taking part in the occupation of the left bank of the river by the allied forces. Reina. Departing a few days later, after the announcement of a truce from the Nancy region, he crossed Lorraine, Alsace, Sare and Renania. At the end of the aforementioned marching movement, with a total length of up to 200 kilometers, this battalion occupied the points intended for it to occupy on the Rhine against Mannheim.
Thus ended the glorious service of this small Russian unit, which absorbed all the strongest and most spiritually strong elements of the Russian special divisions.
According to legionnaires, during the entire combat period of their activity, they were surrounded by
The sides of the French army received exclusive attention, especially from their combat comrades in the division.
During the period of its combat activity, on the fields of France, the mentioned battalion of the Russian Legion, with its valor, as already noted, twice deserved the honor of being marked in orders for the French army and thus acquired the right to a special external distinction. Many of the ranks of this battalion received French military decorations; Particularly noteworthy is the awarding of the Order of the Legion of Honor to the “soldier” Vvedensky (by profession a doctor, but who entered the detachment as an ordinary volunteer) - an extremely rare case in the practice of awarding this order by General Petain to military ranks who did not hold officer positions.
Thus, we must state that during the whole of 1918, until the conclusion of the general armistice on November 11, in the ranks of the armed forces of the Powers of Entente on the territory of France, a small Russian detachment fought tirelessly against the Central Powers. This detachment also took part in the general offensive of the armies of the Powers of Concord to the Rhine, for the occupation of the left bank of Germany.
By their presence on the banks of the Rhine, the Russian legionnaires sealed their fidelity to the obligations that Russia assumed by entering into an agreement with the Powers of Concord on the joint conduct of the war by the Powers of the Triple Alliance to the end.
Glory for this steadfastness and, at the same time, valor shown to living heroes, everlasting memory their fallen comrades!
The Western press in a hysterical tone describes the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR), which is "captured by Russian mercenaries." Apparently, Russian specialists really arrived in this country. Why were they invited there, what exactly are they doing there, and what significance does this have for both the CAR and Russia?
Russian landing
Outwardly, everything looks like this. In October 2017 President CAR Faustin-Archange Touadéra arrived in Sochi for a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. At it, according to official reports, he asked Russia to apply to the UN with a request to temporarily lift restrictions on the supply of weapons and equipment to the CAR. Informally, President Touadéra asked Russia for weapons for three local battalions, that is, about 1.5 thousand fighters with light armored vehicles. The answer was positive.
A month later, the UN agreed to partially lift Moscow's arms embargo on the Central African Republic, and on January 26 this year, the first Il-76 landed at Bangui airport. Already on March 31, President Touadéra solemnly hosted the parade of the first company (200 people) of the Central African army, dressed in Russian camouflage and with Russian weapons. Commanded this unit suspiciously white people.
But the main surprise awaited everyone on March 30 at the main football stadium in the country's capital, Bangui, during the celebration of the second anniversary of Tuadera's election as president. Some armed people of Slavic appearance appeared at the celebration as the personal bodyguard of President Touadéra. Prior to this, Rwandan soldiers from the remnants of the collective peacekeeping force were supposed to provide public security in Bangui at mass events. White guards currently almost completely control the administration of the President of the Central African Republic, have unlimited access to the schedule of his movement and to key figures from President Touadéra's entourage, to the president's garage and armored vehicles.
Official administration of President Touadéra acknowledges the fact that from now on there is a "detachment of Russian special forces to strengthen the security of the president." A new position has appeared in the presidential administration: a “security director” from among Russian officers is formally “responsible for the work of a group of bodyguards.” The French press believes that the same officer is also "a key intermediary for contacts between the Central African Republic and Russia in the defense and economic spheres."
In just a few weeks, Russian people - often without military uniform, but with a distinct military bearing - have become a noticeable part of the life of the capital of the Central African Republic.
They are no longer visible only in and around the presidential palace, but in key ministries, starting with the Ministry of Defense, in military units with soldiers, in street patrols, and even in Lebanese shops on the central Boganda Avenue. The French press uses the figurative expression "they scattered like antelopes across the country", since Russians were already seen in the provinces. At the same time, the fact that the Russians have seized the staff of Fords, which were previously provided by the Pentagon to the Central African Republic, and shamelessly drive them around the streets of Bangui, causes particular irritation. The 15.5 million dollars allocated by the Pentagon for the needs of the CAR army ended up in the hands of the Russians.
It is believed that the official staff of Russian military advisers consists of only five regular officers, and all the rest are employees of private military companies (PMCs). The French press claims that these are employees of the Sewa Supreme organizations (registered in India and engaged in detective and security services) and Lobaye Ltd (the place of registration is unknown, but Lobaye is a protected region in the Congo), but does not provide any evidence. These allegations set off a whole series of speculative publications about "Wagner mercenaries in Africa", accusations against the same characters from President Putin's entourage and the standard set of lamentations about the "hand of Moscow".
The French sigh, shrug and nod at Washington. “The Russians are waiting for America's reaction. In addition, they use methods that we do not use,” says one unnamed French diplomat in the CAR. "They shamelessly bribe anyone who opens doors for them." Here, who would speak. France in the Central African Republic historically lived only on bribes- and they were given and taken in both directions.
Origins of the crisis
The situation in the Central African Republic a few years ago could not be deciphered for a simple white man. It was a territory of chaos with shades of genocide on religious grounds.
The religious and ethnic situation in the country is extremely confused.. Of the autochthonous population on the territory of the Central African Republic, only the Sara tribe remained (no more than 10% of the population), all other tribes are newcomers to one degree or another.
The fact is that back in the 18th century, a caravan route to the Middle East passed through the modern CAR, along which ivory and slaves were transported, and gradually the Arab slave hunters simply devastated this land. Local Ubangi tribes eventually completely disappeared under the pressure of aggressive refugees, and from the west and south, tribes from the territory of modern Nigeria, Congo and Cameroon began to come to the depopulated lands, which now make up up to 90% of the country's population. But in its pure form, the conflict between the tribes, as in Rwanda, has never been observed in the Central African Republic. There was a common enemy - Arab slave traders and Islamized tribes from Darfur and Chad, who were also exclusively engaged in slave trading and robbery.
In the second half of the 19th century, the territory of modern The Central African Republic became the very place where the waves of colonization of three empires at once collided head-on: the British coming from the southeast, French, moving ahead through the jungle from the west, and German, which accidentally fell under this batch, expanding its influence in Tanzania. Things almost came to a direct Anglo-French war, but in the course of peace negotiations, the territory of the present CAR was, as it were, divided between the main world empires. The borders of what we now call the Central African Republic were drawn according to the principle “whoever gets up first gets the slippers.” The specificity of the population - both religious and ethnic - was not taken into account. Formally, the lands of Central Africa remained with France.
cannibal emperor
After the independence of the Central African Republic from France proclaimed in 1960 (“the year of Africa”), chaos became systemic phenomenon. He was brought to the apotheosis by Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the president of the Central African Republic from 1966 (seized power as a result of a military coup) to 1976, when he proclaimed himself emperor and ruled in this capacity for another three years. The basis of Bokassa's foreign policy was blackmail. He threatened almost everyone he dealt with: France, the Soviet Union, China, Romania, Yugoslavia, he bribed French politicians, and when they began to make claims, he threatened to take away concessions. The source of personal enrichment and bribes to the French was the looting of diamond placers. At the same time, one must understand that the CAR is now one of the poorest countries in the world, since all the explored deposits of diamonds, uranium and rare earth metals are either not used at all, or controlled by no one knows who.
In Paris, the “Bokassa diamond case” led to the fall of the president Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, who, for the sake of the uranium concessions needed by France to develop its own nuclear weapons, fraternized with Bokassa, called him "friend" and "brother", went to the Central African Republic to hunt elephants. It turned out that the French president was aware not only of Bokassa's typical African love for luxury (the shoes in which he was "crowned" were recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive in the world), but also of other details of the life of the president-emperor.
After Bokassa's visit to Moscow in 1970, where he also extorted aid from the USSR in exchange for concessions, he really liked Russian cuisine and asked for a Russian cook to be sent to him. But this poor fellow, finding in the refrigerator presidential palace human meat, was able to escape to the Soviet embassy. Later, at a trial in Bangui in 1986, Bokassa claimed that he kept parts of the human body in refrigerators in the Berengo palace not for the purpose of cannibalism, but for ritual purposes. They believed him and officially dropped the charge of cannibalism. Although the fate of several dozen oppositionists and some of his 19 wives, including Europeans, remained unclear.
Born into a Catholic family (he was even predicted to be a priest), Bokassa, with the aim of all that political blackmail of France (but already under President Mitterrand), invited Muammar Gaddafi to the CAR, promising to give him uranium mines, and defiantly converted to Islam, becoming Salahaddin. This was the last and main mistake. At wounds in the hands of Gaddafi - France could no longer endure this. The formal reason for the overthrow of Bokassa was, however, not this, but the murder of about 100 schoolchildren who protested against the introduction of too expensive, but compulsory school uniforms. Operation Barracuda has begun. The Foreign Legion, commandos from Gabon and the French 1st Airborne Division landed in Bangui when the newly converted Salahaddin Bokassa was visiting a friend of Muammar in Libya. In Paris, they called it "the last colonial expedition of France." Wrong.
By the way, for the next ten years, Bokassa lived comfortably in the Adincourt castle near Paris that he owned. In 2011, after his death in Bangui from a heart attack, the castle was sold at auction for more than 900 thousand euros.
Modern alignment
The first thing that General Francois Bozize did when he became president in 2010 was to rehabilitate Bokassa and "restore him in all rights." “He built the country, and we destroyed everything he built,” Bozize said. Bozize was born in Gabon and from the Gbaya tribe. But he, as a member of the Bokassa clan, had no chance of staying in power for a long time, especially since he relied only on foreign bayonets. In general, foreign military personnel of varying degrees of competence have been the main force of life in the Central African Republic for twenty years.
And in 2012, a certain Seleka alliance (“union” in the Sango language), made up exclusively of Muslims, invades the country from the north. With the support of the armies of Chad and Sudan (both deny) and with the direct financing of Saudi Arabia, in a few weeks he took over the entire country. Séléka leader becomes president Michelle Djotodia. Formally, by religion, he is a Muslim. But he studied in the USSR in the purely Russian city of Orel at an accounting and credit technical school, and then at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University. He is married to a Russian, they have a daughter, in total spent in the USSR over 10 years and upon his return to the CAR, he worked in the tax service, and then in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a gentle person and during all the endless civil wars and outbreaks of violence he participated in organizations whose names always contained the words "unity", "peace", "consent". But the Seleka formally headed by him turned out to be a collection of jihadists and bandits who, after capturing the capital, unleashed sadistic terror against the Christian population in it.
In response, the Christians began to form a militia, and the civil war took on a religious character. 15% of Muslims have successfully killed 75% of Christians (another 10% are pygmies and jungle dwellers who believe in the spirits of trees and leopards) with full support Saudi Arabia and the complete helplessness of the French military contingent. Convinced of his inability to govern a country that fell into bloody chaos, Michel Dzhotodiya chartered a plane and flew to Chad.
In November 2013, Paris again recalled its "historic responsibility". Operation Sangaris began (such a butterfly), but already in December the French suffered their first losses. The then President François Hollande personally arrived in Bangui, but did not help. Clashes between Christians and Muslims only grew. The French tried to make their protege president - a woman, the mayor of Bangui Catherine Samba-Penza, who only urged the French to send more troops, went to the G7 summits in colorful national clothes, asked for humanitarian aid and promised to go to war against Christians. The number of casualties grew. In May 2014, that is, with a delay of at least three years from the beginning of a new round civil war, a unit of Estonian troops arrived in the CAR, consisting of 45 people. Did not help.
And in February 2016, the former rector of the local university, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, won a decisive victory in the elections. The French slowly began to roll up and fly to Gabon and Mali. Estonians somehow dissolved themselves. The situation is not exactly stabilized, it somehow quieted down and hid.
And then the Russians showed up.
Remote control
So far, there is no information about who controlled the existing diamond mines and the uranium mine. This usually happens fairly quickly and bloodlessly. Another thing is that physical control over deposits and fields does not mean a legal transfer of ownership. President Touadera has not yet announced anything on this topic and is unlikely to be in the near future. For him, the effectiveness of the actions of the invited contingent in protecting the borders, destroying the very fact of the threat from Muslim troops and the final restoration of security throughout the country is important. And if the French were not able to cope with this, then why not the Russians try.
Many tend to see this as the prerequisites for some new “battle for Africa”, in which, in contrast to the “proxy wars” cold war, not only purely armed methods will be used, but also political technologies. Even specific names of people allegedly responsible for this are called. It is argued that only people with “African experience” are used in the project, that is, a priori over forty years old and with knowledge of local languages and realities. We do not claim that this is possible. But one can certainly agree that Africa will definitely become another “competitive zone”. Only more distant from us than the post-Soviet space or the Balkans.