Mission of General Petit: Soviet-French Military Cooperation during World War II in the Documents of the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense
| 08 August 2024
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Anniversaries
Korovin V.V.,
Kursk, Russian Federation
Mission of General Petit: Soviet-French Military Cooperation during World War II in the Documents of the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense
Annotation
The article addresses significant issues concerning the Free France military mission in the Soviet Union during the Second World War II. The author departs from traditional Russian scholarship describing issues of Soviet-French military cooperation through the history of Normandie-Niemen Regiment to analyze previously unstudied aspects of the Free France military mission activities in the USSR. The article draws mainly on documents of the Foreign Liaison Office of the General Staff of the Red Army, until September 2010 kept under security classification in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The author has identified and elicited declassification of documents, which are herein introduced into scientific use for the first time. The researched documents establish the most important areas of the Franco-Soviet military cooperation during World War II, in the initiation and implementation of which Head of the Military Mission of the National Committee of the "Free France" General E. Petit was directly involved. Among them were solution of the problem of directing to the Soviet-German front a completely armed and equipped French division numbering up to 8,000 people with fighting experience in Libya and Syria; participation of French military pilots in the fighting on the Soviet-German front with subsequent extension of the mission; the on-the-spot visit of the Head of the Military Mission “Free France” General E. Petit to the military forces of the Voronezhsky and Spepnoy Fronts (18 to 24 October 1943); determining the fate of the prisoners of war (Alsatians and Lorraine) and addressing the issue of enlisting them to join the fight against fascism; constant exchange of military-technical and military-political information. Drawing on archival sources the author assesses the contribution of General E. Petit to the development of the Franco-Soviet military cooperation. Balanced position of E. Petit contributed to the strengthening of friendly and partnership relation between the USSR and France in the context of fight against German Nazism.
Keywords
World War II, military mission “Free France” in the USSR, General E. Petit, military cooperation, General Staff of the Red Army.
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About authors
Korovin Vladimir Viktorovich, PhD in History, professor, professor of the Constitutional Law Department of the Southwest State University, Kursk, Russian Federation, +7-920-738-40-00, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it