Authors

Gwendal Piégais¹;  ¹ University College Dublin, Ireland

Discussion

In November 1918, the Allies decided to send a military contingent to Ukraine, in support of the anti-Bolshevik forces. The contingent was made up of French units (metropolitan and colonial) and Greek forces, and took action in Crimea and the Odessa region. Although the contingent had to disembark in the spring of 1919, this expedition marked the beginning of an Allied (and particularly French) presence in the Black Sea and with the anti-Bolshevik forces. The French remained very much present on this front of the Civil War, both through military and technical missions to the White armies, and through naval and humanitarian support during the Wrangel rout. The aim of this paper is to reassess the French agenda and action in the region, and the resources deployed by France as part of this anti-Bolshevik coalition. In particular, I will focus on French interaction with actors neglected in the study of Allied intervention, especially the Ukrainians and Greeks.