Russian Expeditionary Force in France

Russian Expeditionary Force in France
Russian Expeditionary Force in France
Corps Expéditionnaire Russe en France
Active	1916–1918
Country	Russian Empire; Russian Republic
Allegiance	Tsar of Russia; Provisional Council of the Russian Republic
Branch	Imperial Russian Army
Type	Expeditionary Force
Role	Cold-weather warfare; Combined arms; Expeditionary warfare; Trench warfare
Mascot(s)
Engagements	World War I Western Front Second Battle of the Aisne; Second Battle of the Marne (Légion d’Honneur Russe); ; Macedonian Front Battle of Monastir (1916); Battle of Monastir (1917); ;
Insignia
Identification; symbol	Corps Expéditionnaire Russe en France
Identification; symbol	Légion d’Honneur Russe

The Russian Expeditionary Force [REF] (French: Corps Expéditionnaire Russe en France, Russian: Экспедиционный корпус Русской армии во Франции и Греции) was a World War I military force sent to France and Greece by the Russian Empire. In 1915, the French requested that Russian troops be sent to fight alongside their own army on the Western Front. Initially they asked for 300,000 men, an unrealistically high figure, probably based on assumptions about Russia's 'unlimited' reserves. General Mikhail Alekseev, the Imperial Chief of Staff, was opposed to sending any Russian troops, although Nicholas II finally agreed to send a unit of brigade strength. The first Russian brigade finally landed at Marseille in April 1916.

A second brigade was also sent to serve alongside other Allied formations on the Salonika front in northern Greece. In France, the First Brigade participated in the Nivelle Offensive; with news of the Russian Revolution affecting morale within the French Army following the failure of that offensive, the 1st and 3rd Brigades participated in the wave of mutinies spreading across France. The First Brigade was disbanded before the end of the year. The Honorary Russian Legion (French: Légion d’Honneur Russe) of the 1st Moroccan Division continued to maintain a Russian presence in the west and in the First World War, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918.