French and Russian officials on May 29, unveiled an obelisk commemorating the Russian soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force, who defended France during the harsh battles of World War I. The monument became the seventh monument under the account established by the Russian military-historical society in the territory of the French Republic.

It has been installed in the commune of Aguilcourt, department of Aisne. Regional officials, French military, Russian diplomats, and the successors of the soldiers and officers of the 3rd Brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force, which Russia dispatched to assist its military allies, attended the ceremony.

The monument is located on Mont Espin height that the Russian soldiers seized from the German forces after three-years-long occupation.

"The exploit of the Russian soldiers will never be forgotten," said Aguilcourt Mayor Gerard Prevost.

He recalled that the Russian battalions stormed the unassailable stronghold on Mont Espin in spring 1917. They faced a numerically stronger enemy.

Almost 2,000 Russians died, received wounds or went missing in the attack but the Russian battalions fulfilled the task set forth by the French command.

In all, the Russian expeditionary corps lost almost 5,000 men and officers in the offensive operations of 1917.

The Russian Ambassador to France, Alexey Meshkov, thanked the French authorities for paying tribute to the Russian soldiers. "Our two countries were allied in the two world wars," he said, adding that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron had stressed the importance of shared history at their talks in St Petersburg earlier this month.

Vladimir Medinsky, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society sent a welcoming address that was read out at the ceremony.. 

"Russia rendered most precious assistance to France during the critical moments of World War I," said the French historian Pierre Malinowski, who stands at the head of an archeological expedition to the sites for former battles.

In 1914, the counteroffensive that the Russian Army began on its front before the completion of a conscription campaign, compelled the German commanders to take two army corps away from the line of advance towards Paris.

- This is the seventh monument, which the Russian Military Historical Society (RMHS) opens in France. This is another reminder to our peoples that we were allies in the two most terrible world wars of the twentieth century. The attitude of the French to the memory of Russian soldiers who gave their lives for France's freedom leaves no doubt about the strength of historically good relations between Russia and France. I am sure that they will continue to be such," - the representative of the RMHS Alexander Barkov said.

In spite of huge losses Russia was suffering on the eastern front, it dispatched an expeditionary corps to the allies in 1916. It consisted of elitist infantry regiments.

The Russian infantrymen showed exemplary courage in the battles that unfolded in the Champagne-Ardenne region in spring 1917. They blocked to the routes of advance to Paris for the German divisions.

Lieutenant-General Nikolai Lokhvitsky, the commander of the Russian units in France, received the title of commander of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor.

The French offensive operation in Champagne-Ardenne began already after the revolution of February 1917 in Russia, which swept away the millennium-old Russian monarchy. Russian soldiers were not formally bound anymore by the oath of allegiance that they had given to the Czar but the regiment committee voted in favor of an offensive when it held a meeting on the eve of the battle.

All the Russian military from the commander down to the private kept their promise to help the allies.

On the wave of the revolutionary events in Russia, a decision was taken to disband the corps but hundreds of Russian volunteers joined the regular troops of the allies.

The Russian legion showed its valor in the Battle of Somme in April 1918 and in the Battles of Soissons in May and September 1918. They earned the title of the honorary legion in the ranks of the French Army.

Reference about the activities of The Russian Military Historical Society