2022
Michel Paoli et al., « French Military Mission of Kazan-Samara and The Front of Volga (Summer 1918) », HAL-SHS : histoire, ID : 10670/1.dw194v
Based on archival materials, the article examines the activity of several French citizens — captain Joseph Bordes, the “elected” vice-consul in Samara Lucien Jeannot, and some others — in the Volga region during the government of Komuch. These French, some of whom made up a semi-official “French military mission of Kazan-Samara”, apparently influenced a number of events in 1918 in the Volga region: activities of anti-Bolshevik organisations in Samara in the spring of 1918, a decision to keep the Czechoslovak units in this city, a decision on the offensive of the People’s Army of Komuch on Kazan, and a formation of detachments from prisoners of war in Samara. It has been suggested that in the decades that followed, French military historians may have delibera tely portrayed the activities of the mission participants as insignificant or even condemned in France, while in fact some of them were decorated and certainly were not blamed.