Mutiny of the Russian soldiers with Courtine

Courtine is a common Frenchwoman, located in the department of the Creuse and the area the Limousin. In 1901, a military camp was created there. During the war 1914-1918, it is used as a basis back for the armies like centers instruction and of preparation to the face. In 1917, approximately 8.000 Russian soldiers installed in the camps a true Soviet republic.

Context

The first months of the war decimated the French Armies which know a shortage of men. It is considered since 1915, to send to the face the class 1916. At the request of Joffre, Paul Doumer, senator and future President of the Republic, go in Russia in December 1915, near the Russian ally. Paul Doumer comes to ask Nicolas II of Russia of the men in order to reinforce the French Armies in difficulty. Russia for lack of average material cannot use all the men in age to fight. France requires 40 0000 men per month, in parallel the French parliamentary delegation confirms the delivery in Russia of weapons including 450.000 rifles. Finally France will obtain " seulement" 45.000 men including 750 officers, who will be armed and equipped by it. Two brigades will be sent in France (the first and third) and two others in Balkans (the second and fourth). The two brigades of Russian soldiers join France by the sea of Vladivostok to Marseilles while passing by Suez Canal. They unload in France on April 20th, 1916. The Russian soldiers are received like savers by the French population. As of their arrival, they are sent to the face with Mailly. There, they are involved with the war of the trenches, are familiarized with their new armament and with protection against gases. During the summer 1916, they are assigned to the sector of Suippes and Aubérive where they were replaced thereafter by the third brigade in October 1916. The losses of the first brigade rise already with 500 dead or wounded.

Russian soldiers on the face

In December 1916, the General Robert Nivelle takes the head of the armies following Joffre and lance with beginning of the year 1917 of great offensives. The losses are important in the two camps. The Russians are placed at the disposal of the 5th army and take part in these attacks in the sides of the colonial and Breton troops. They intervene in the east of the Chemin of the Ladies, between Craonne and Rheims. The orders are to take the German positions " of only one élan". Before the offensive, having learned with several from month from delay which the Revolution had burst in February in their country, causing the fall of the Tsar and the formation of a provisional government, decides to constitute itself in committee of soldiers, as the pricaz n°1 envisaged it Soviet of Petrograd. Thus, in each company, they decide to vote to take part or not in the offensive. But not being able to communicate with all their comrades to know the result of the vote, they are resigned to leave to the combat which for them would be the last on the French soil. In three days, more than five thousand Russian soldiers out of approximately ten nine thousand are killed or wounded. Certain officers would have been killed by their men. These offensives of April 1917 mark a turning in the war: after them, the mutinies spread as well in the French Armies and allemande as among called Russian.

At the end of the offensive, the Russian committees of soldiers claim their return in Russia. To avoid a mutiny the Russians are sent in the the Vosges and in Haute-Marne where they will ravel on May 1st by singing the Marseillaise by decrying their command. The processions of the Russian soldiers of May 1st, 1917, singing the Marseillaise, turn to the rebellion: on the flags certain Russian soldiers registered “FREEDOM”. Red streamers are fixed on the flags. The French military command worries about the possible contagion of the revolutionary ideas on the soldiers of the French Armies, of which good number are in larval rebellion. It immediately decides to insulate them. The Russians will then be moved far from the face in the camp of Courtine in the Hollow one.

The mutiny

The first Brigade, mainly made up of soldiers in revolt, arrives at the end of June with Courtine, and the second rather loyal supporter at the beginning of July folded up in Felletin. As of their arrival the Russian soldiers of the first Brigade organize themselves to rejoin the loyal supporters and declare " As of our arrival in France, one regarded the Russian soldier not a man, but as an object useful and having for only value only his capacity for the combat. But with the first combat, a part among us loses this value and follows the deplorable fate of an useless burden thrown in the hospitals. To avoid that, it is necessary to unify and categorically refuse to go to the face. We require that one return us to Russia, from where we were driven out by the will of Nicolas strapping it. Over there we will be side of freedom, as regards hard people and orphelin." Rumors traverse the camps as what the Russian soldiers would have been bought by the French Army with the supply of rifles to the armies of the tsar Nicolas II.

The camps of Courtine then becomes a camp self-managed by the troops and of officer, more than 8.000 soldiers who require provisional government to return to Russia. They indicate themselves their chiefs. After Baltaïs, which negotiates without result with the emissary of Kerensky their return in Russia, it is an Ukrainian, Globa, which takes the head of the rebels.

During the negotiations, the Russians fraternize with the population and take part in the agricultural work, the French men being with the face. Frightened by the intransigence of the soldays and the risk of contagion on the French soldiers, the French Staff sends to in August 3 000 French soldiers to isolate the camp of Courtine. The instructions are precise: to use the force to reduce the rebellion. A company of Russian artillerists is also sent.

September 12th, the civil population is evacuated periphery of the camp on September 14th, the Ordering General of the Task force summons the mutineers to be delivered. While mutineers, at the request of Globa, play the Marseillaise and the Funeral March of Chopin, the first shells fall on the camp, the mutineers are protected in the barracks, the first soldiers go. The following day, the blows of guns begin again. Renderings multiply, but a hundred the most determined, besieged and bombarded, resist. Lastly, on September 19th, the last mutineers are captured and Globa is stopped. Nearly 150 soldiers are killed and a certain number succeed in escaping.

Epilog

The official results of 12 died and about fifty casualties, the army will always minimize this rebellion and will maintain the secrecy on this episode. The conscious French authorities that the repatriation of these mutineers would reinforce the Bolcheviks decide to keep these men who in addition could serve hostages.

Approximately 90 leaders will be imprisoned in a bagne. Then it is decided the dissolution of the Brigades. Except 400 officers and under officers tsarists continued to fight beside the French Armies, 11.000 will be integrated into company of work. In the event of refusal or of rebellion, they: 5000 will be off-set in Algeria in military camps or farms to replace the autochtones combatant in France.

As from 1920, a certain number of soldiers will be able to return to Russia, others will settle in France. One can see Russian tombs of soldiers in the cemeteries of Cerny, Pontavert and in Saint Hilaire the Large one.

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