The French army and intervention in Southern Russia, 1918-1919

Abstract

J. Kim Munholland, The French army and intervention in Southern Russia, 1918-1919. At the end of World War I French troops landed in southern Russia to support anti-Bolshevik military and political movements in the Ukraine and the Crimea. The French military expedition failed to achieve its objective, however, due to local conditions that prevailed in the region. French military leaders quickly became disillusioned by internal quarrels within the anti-Bolshevik forces that prevented effective collaboration against Bolshevik pressures, and they particularly criticized the Volunteer army for its arrogance toward local population. Strong, anti-foreign feeling among the people of the Ukraine convinced French officers that intervention in a climate of hostility was doomed without massive support. When the French government failed to supply enough equipment and manpower for extensive military operations, the French army faced defeat at the hands of pro-Bolshevik forces and counselled withdrawal of the expedition from Odessa and the Crimea. Military considerations had a decisive influence upon the decision to terminate active intervention and to turn instead to a policy of quarantine toward the Bolshevik regime and indirect aid to the anti-Bolshevik opposition.