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During World
War 1 the Russian Army was not able to arm and equip the great number of
soldiers that it could enlist. Its western alleys, France
and Great Britain, tried
to solve this problem by sending arms and equipment to Russia, but this was not enough.
To resolve this issue and to avoid the destruction of the whole French
manpower in the Western front trenches, it was decided that Russian soldiers
should be sent to France
where they would be equipped and supplied by the French Army. It was expected
that Russia could send
400,000 men, that should be transferred in France
within ten months. In exchange Russia asked the delivery of
1,126 artillery pieces with their ammunitions, 1,850,000 rifles and other
equipments. However soon it became clear that it was impossible to transfer a
so great number of soldiers, and the Russian contingent was reduced to only
50,000 men : four brigades with 10,000 men each were
assigned to France and one brigade to Macedonia. On the other hand the
French Army too was not able to send all the requested supplies.
From the
beginning of 1916 the Russian Head Quarters sent from Archangelsk and Vladivostok four
brigades, each composed of two regiments, each with three battalions and one
machine guns company with six Hotchkiss mod. 1914 or Saint-Étienne mod. 1907
machine guns (3,500 officers and men). Every regiment had also one
replacement battalion with six companies (25 to 30 officers and 1,500 to
1,650 men). The total of these troops was 745 officers and 43,547 soldiers.
The 1st and 3rd Special Brigades were directed to the
French front and the 2nd and 4th to the Macedonian
front, where they were attached to the Armée d’Orient under the command of General Sarrail.
Four more brigades (5th – 8th) were raised in Russia, but they were not sent to France.
The 2nd
Special Brigade (3rd and 4th regiments) was raised on
22 May 1916 and left Arkhangelsk
at the beginning of July 1916. It arrived at Brest on 16 July, after a two weeks
crossing. Then it was transferred to Marseille by train and reached Salonika on 30 July. It was assigned to the French
group headed by gen. Cordonnier (156th
and 57th Infantry Division), and deployed near the Serbian Army,
in front of the Cerna loop. Supported by two French
horse artillery batteries, from 12 to 23 September 1916, the 3rd
regiment took part in the attack towards Florina,
fighting near the village of Armesco and loosing 10
officers and 576 men. Afterwards, in October-November 1916, the 2nd
Special Brigade took part in battle of Monastir,
suffering once more heavy losses and from 25 November 1916 it was assigned to
1st Serbian Army.
The 3rd
Special Brigade (5th and 6th regiments) was at first
assigned to the Salonika front, but, while
it was in Marseille waiting for its embarking, some problem of indiscipline
arose, and on 20 September 1916 it was sent back to Mailly
and assigned to the Western front. The 4th Special Brigade (7th
and 8th regiments) left Arkhangelsk
between 11 and 18 September and via Brest and
Marseille it was sent to Salonika, where it
arrived on 21 November 1916. After three weeks of training, it was assigned
to the 3rd Serbian Army. Even if attached to the Serbian Army, the
two Russian brigades remained subordinate to the French Army.
On 6 June 1917
the two brigades were reunited under the command of gen. Dieterichs
and the 2nd Special Division was built. In July gen. Dieterichs was recalled to Russia and replaced with gen. Tarbeiev, the former commander of the 4th
Special Brigade. On November 1917 he was replaced in his turn with gen. Taranovski.
So far the
Russians had not their own artillery, but in combat they were supported at
first by French, and then by Serbian artillery units. In order to fill this
gap, the 2nd Special Artillery Brigade was raised and assigned to
gen. Beliaev. It arrived in France in
July 1917, and was armed with French guns : 24 – 75mm
field guns, 12 – 65mm mountain guns, 8 – 120mm field howitzers and 6 – 58mm
trench mortars. In July the division was sent to the front, and deployed with
its two brigades on the left and on the right of Prespa
lake. The artillery units, after having familiarized with the French guns,
became to reach Salonika at the beginning of
August.
The first
expression of insubordination occurred on 29 October 1917, when some soldiers
of the 4th Brigade refused to comply with the orders. In the
course of the following winter the division mutinied and dissolved. A handful
volunteered for service in the French Foreign Legion, and a larger proportion
for work in labour companies. While the greatest part of the infantrymen
refused to continue on
fighting, 400 artillerymen decided to stay and were assigned to
the artillery park of the Armée d’Orient.
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