‘Soldiers of Russia’: Veterans of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France and USSR, 1917–1975

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Russian Expeditionary Force (REF) was a small military force of roughly 50,000 men who fought in France and Salonika under French command. After 1917 the majority of the soldiers repatriated to Soviet Russia, but some chose to stay in France. By looking closely at the fate of the former soldiers of the Russian Expeditionary Force in those countries this paper examines two contrasting methods of interaction between Russian veterans and the state. The veterans that chose to remain in France had to fight for their recognition by the French state and in 1924 they created the ‘Association of the Russian Officers, who fought on the French front’ which advocated for their rights. Those who opted to return home discovered that the new Soviet state had no means to support them, but was ready to use them as a propaganda instrument. Portraying REF veterans as victims of the ‘imperialist war’, in the 1920s the Soviet government promoted the ‘Society of Former Russian Soldiers in France and the Balkans’, helping its members with housing and pensions. Despite the apparent differences in those examples, this paper argues that there is one key and significant resemblance between them. At the heart of interaction between the veterans and the state always laid veteran societies powered by the social bonds and sense of entitlement built during the war. That makes Russian veterans in many respects similar to their European counterparts and allows for a better understanding of the nature of Russian veteran experiences after 1918.