To follow in Napoleon Bonaparte’s footsteps… against communists

Abstract

In the work the historian O. I. Beyda sets the task to give an overall picture of history of the Legion of the French volunteers — the collaborationist formation created within armed forces of Nazi Germany for participation in military operations on Eastern front. In spite of the fact that this problem became a subject of research by foreign authors more than once, in a domestic historiography there are no serious works about this military formation. Relying on a considerable collection of Russian and foreign historical sources, O. I. Beyda succeeded in recreating complete history of participation of the French legionaries in military efforts of Nazi Germany against the USSR. In the monograph the reasons and background of creation of a legion are considered, process of its organization and training is analyzed, the main stages of combat using from 1941 for 1944 are shown. The author quite reasonably proves that military activity of a legion was not considerable. The German command, in general, negatively estimated its combat qualities that, eventually, led to disbandment of this military unit. O. I. Beyda’s concept, source base, the given facts, explanatory notes and methodology allow to draw a conclusion that its monograph is a serious contribution to a domestic historiography of a problem of a militarypolitical collaboration. Refs 10.