Soviet historians have written a great deal about the agitation and propaganda that the Bolsheviks conducted in the troops of the Anglo-French interventionists in 1918-1919 in the South of Ukraine .1 The system of organization of such propaganda, its forms and methods are investigated. The Bolshevik propaganda literature is partially taken into account and systematized. But all the materials available on this subject (especially in local archives) have not yet been put into scientific circulation. Below are some facts from them that are poorly covered in the literature.

"Foreign Board" (Board of Foreign Propaganda at the Odessa Regional Committee of KP (b)U) - an underground group created by the Communists on the instructions of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to conduct work among the soldiers of the occupation forces (essentially, among workers and peasants dressed in soldiers ' overcoats), distributed revolutionary literature in French, English, Polish, Romanian, Greek and Serbian. These publications aroused a keen interest in the ranks of the interventionist troops. After their flight from Soviet Russia, the Odessa banker, owner of the newspaper "Southern Thought" Zh. Xidias accused the French command of underestimating the danger of revolutionary propaganda in its army .2 However, this is not true.

The Entente command, on the contrary, sought to take into account the role of the Bolshevik propa-

1 Konovalov V. G. Foreign College. Odessa. 1958; same name. Heroes of the Odessa underground. Odessa. 1960; Dokunin I. N. Underground work of the Bolsheviks in the rear of the Anglo-French interventionists in the South of Ukraine (November 1918-April 1919). - Notes of the Kharkiv Agricultural Institute, 1958, vol. 22; Seleznev K. L. Revolutionary work of the Bolsheviks in the troops of the interventionists (1918-1919). - Istoriya SSSR, 1960, N 1; Zak L. M. Slavnye traditsii solidarnosti [Glorious Traditions of Solidarity], Moscow, 1962. Они представляли народ Франции. М. 1977; Цвілюк С. Народжена в підпіллі. Odessa. 1968; Патлажан Ю. І. Незабутній вияв пролетарської солідарності. Lviv. 1973; Dunaevsky A.M. Zhanna Lyaburb-znakomaya i znakomaya. M. 1976; Melnichenko V. Zhanna Lyaburb. Kyiv. 1977; Пустовойтенко М. Карби на граніті. Odessa. 1977; and others.

2 Xydias J. L'Intervention francaise en Russie 1918 - 1919. P. 1920, p. 212.

page 180

ganda. While preparing the French units stationed on the Salonika Front to be sent to Soviet Russia, their commander, General Fr. d'esperay, in mid-November 1918, ordered: "It is necessary to take into account that from the moment when our army... If it comes into contact with the Bolshevik population, revolutionary propaganda can spread widely among the troops. I strongly suggest that all unit commanders fight such propaganda. " 3 One of the precautions taken was a special approach to the recruitment of personnel of interventionist units. The command believed that they should consist mainly of natives of the colonies, who are mostly illiterate, and therefore will be less susceptible to the influence of the Bolsheviks and more likely to believe anti-Soviet slander.

When the Bolshevik underground workers established contact with soldiers of the 1st combined African Regiment in Odessa, they said that the commander assured them that they were going to free hungry workers who were being robbed by the Bolsheviks:"We are going there to ease the grief of the people, to feed them." 4 The French bulletins published in Odessa and Sevastopol by the interventionist command for their soldiers, and the counter-revolutionary leaflets printed by the bourgeois government of Crimea for the Allied army, carried a muddy stream of disinformation. The bourgeois press terrified the soldiers that the Bolsheviks were shooting prisoners, eating children, socializing women, and that they were "German spies"in general .5 Some things were initially believed not only by soldiers from the colonies, but also by workers from France .6 "When we arrived in Odessa," said the captured French soldiers, "we were not aware of the intentions of our government and had no idea of the political situation in the city." 7
The intervention of imperialism had to be fought "not only by means of a national war, but also by propaganda and its disintegration from within." 8 It was extremely difficult to conduct Bolshevik agitation among the interventionist troops. This is confirmed by the memoirs of members of the Bolshevik underground A.D. Zhukov-Kevko, S. I. Traitelovich, K. P. Pervushin and others.9 . In the South of Ukraine and in the Crimea, white counterintelligence and military field courts were rampant. French soldiers marveled at the heroism of the Bolshevik agitators: "The courage of these people amazed us. They boldly marched to our positions, armed with a dozen French words mangled in the Russian way. But these words had more effect on us than the shots: they disarmed us... From obedient sheep, we gradually turned into class-conscious people and flatly refused to speak out against the Bolsheviks. " 10
The agitation and propaganda work of the underground was further complicated by the fact that many soldiers, who came from Afro-Asian countries, did not know French or did not know it well enough .11 However, it is known, for example ,that all the soldiers of the colonial units who arrived in Odessa on December 16, 1918, were fluent in French 12. It is established that a member of the presidium of the "Foreign College" Zh. La-

3 Cit. by: Gukovsky A. I. French intervention in the South of Russia. Moscow-L. 1928, p. 185.

4 F. Anulov Allied landing in Ukraine. - Chronicle of the Revolution, 1924, N 1, p. 41.

5 Lachard E. Recognition of the Soviet Government, M. 1925, p. 25; Peuret H. L'USSR. P. 1961, p. 110; Brinkley G. A. The Volunteer Army and Allied Intervention in South Russia, 1917-1921. Notre Dame. 1966, p. 56; see also: La Gazette d'Odessa, France L'independant, 1918-1919 (Party Archive of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (PACO), f. 150, op. 1, d. 186, l. 22); Volynsky L. Campaign against the Revolution, Moscow, 1929, p. 4.

6 Red Army, 26. IV. 1919; Deygas F.-L. L'armee d'Orient dans la guerre mondiale, 1915-1919. P. 1932, p. 297.

7 Pravda, 15. III. 1919.

8 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 212.

9 Селезнев К. Л. Ук. соч., с. 126; Шевчук Г. Н. Разгром іноземних інтервентів на півдні України. Kiev, 1959, p. 130; Party Archive of the Odessa Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (PAOO), f. 2, op. 1, 1315, l. 3; f. 13, op. 3, 63 (memoirs of A.D. Zhukov-Kevko), l. 24; Traytelovich S. In the Odessa underground. In: These Days will not be Silenced by Glory, Moscow, 1958, p. 298; Archive of the Naval Museum of the Red Banner Black Sea Fleet (Sevastopol), Foreign Intervention of 1918-1920, Memoirs of K. P. Pervushin, l. 1.

10 Slovo vosstavshim (Memoirs of French workers-participants of the Black Sea Uprising), Moscow, 1931, p. 14.

11 Annales de la Chambre des deputes. Debats parlaementaires, session ordinaire de 1919. Pt. II. P. 1920, pp. 576, 578, 582.

12 PAOO, f. 13, op. 2, d. 27, l. 40.

page 181

burb successfully worked among Arab soldiers without knowing Arabic .13 Propaganda literature in French was sent by the " Foreign College "to the 1st Zouave Regiment 14. Much greater difficulties in propaganda work were caused by the fact that soldiers from the colonies enjoyed less freedom than those from the mother country, were isolated from the population, they were constantly supervised by officers, and discipline in the colonial units was generally very strict: for the slightest offense, the command ruthlessly dealt with the soldiers. 15
Bolshevik agitators had to show a lot of ingenuity in order to establish the necessary contacts. Here is one example: "A group of French soldiers is walking down the street. Lida Petrenko suddenly runs up to them, takes one of them by the arm, says something, laughs, shoves a bag at him and runs away. And in this package - the newspaper "Kommunist" and other proclamations " 16 . Or else. In the" House of Diligence " in Odessa came to dance with French sailors and soldiers of the colonial units. Girls from the "Foreign College" deftly handed out leaflets to them during the dance 17 . A group of the first local Komsomol members took an active part in this process18 .

Underground workers threw leaflets into the wagons in which the French command immediately after unloading them in the port sent the colonial units to the advanced positions .19 Bolshevik publications were distributed during parties where soldiers and sailors from the occupation forces were invited; they were delivered to the ships of the French Navy by barges and boats that brought coal and food .20 Propaganda literature was distributed to the arrested soldiers and sailors 21 . It was put into the clothing of soldiers when they came to the bathhouse 22 . Sometimes French soldiers, who were transferred by the command to the colonial units, helped to establish contact with the soldiers of the colonial units .23
As a result of the efforts of Bolshevik agitators, the 1st Zouave Regiment refused to fight against the working people of the Land of Soviets. The French command disarmed this military unit and sent it to Istanbul on 24 . Awareness-raising activities were also conducted among Algerians and Moroccans .25
Political organizations of the advancing Red Army also took part in propaganda among the interventionist troops. Thus, the political department of the 2nd Ukrainian Insurgent Division wrote an appeal to the French soldiers. It was pasted onto a freight car and then pushed down the rails at an incline, towards the French 26.

Agitation and propaganda work in the interventionist troops continued even after their departure from Odessa. Bolshevik leaflets were sent to French ships that remained on the Black Sea and dropped from planes in areas where the enemy army was stationed .27 Among the propaganda literature published at that time, the leaflet "To the Colonial Soldiers" is of particular interest, which can be considered as a kind of generalization of the collective experience of the Bolshevik underground during the occupation period. It says: "You're wearing a French uniform. Your commanders are French officers. You fight and die for France. But are you French?.. Did the French do you any good? They have invaded the lands of your ancestors, taken possession of them, and conquered you. They brought you vodka and a whole loaf-

13 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 549, op. 6, d. 4, l. 80.

14 PAOO, f. 13, op. 3, 63, l. 24; Odessa State Scientific Library named after A.M. Gorky, Department of Local Lore, Rare Editions and Manuscripts (OGNB), f. 79, p. 3, l. 1.

15 Beandz L. La formation de l'armee coloniale. P. 1939, pp. 411, 416.

161B, f. 65, p. 916, maps 19, ll. 14-15.

17 Ibid., f. 79, I. 5, L. 1.

18 PAOO, f. 13, op. 3, d. 203, l. 9.

19 Party Archive of the Institute of Party History under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, f. 13, op. 3, 63, ll. 24-25.

201B, d. 166, l. 23; October in the Odessa region. Collection of articles and memoirs. Odessa. 1927, p. 433.

21 PAOO, f. 2, op. 1, d. 1120, l. 2.

22 Ibid., 1054, ll. 35-36.

23 Party Archive of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, f. 1, op. 17, d. 97, l. 112; PAOO, f. 2, op. 1, d. 953, ll. 3-4.

24 PAOO, f. 2, op. 1, d. 953, ll. 3-4.

251B, f. 79, p. 3, l. 2.

26 TsGAOR USSR, f. 130, op. 3, d. 176, l. 21.

27 Degot V. Pod znamenem bolshevizma [Under the banner of Bolshevism]. Notes of an underground worker, Moscow, 1931, p. 198; Izvestiya, Odessa, 15. VI. 1919.

page 182

they have destroyed your forests and your plantations. They stole from you the best and bravest of your young men and sent them to the cold north, where they died from the effects of terrible diseases... By what right did they do all this? Because they don't think you're human... All the oppressed and oppressed peoples who are being held in a state of slavery by robber international capitalists must unite to throw off the hated yoke. The great Russian and Ukrainian peoples understood this truth before anyone else and achieved freedom with weapons in their hands. But they were not content to win freedom for themselves alone. They liberated the peoples who were oppressed in the old Russian Empire... By fighting against us, you are killing your own freedom and strengthening the chains of slavery for you. " 28 During the occupation, a participant in those events recalled, "we saw how the attitude of the colonial soldiers towards us, towards Bolshevik literature, was changing. At first they were wary of us, but then they hung on every word of the truth, our Bolshevik truth. " 29 Soldiers and sailors from France's colonial possessions increasingly refused to shoot at Soviet people.

Agitation and propaganda work, the success of which was largely determined by the heroic struggle of the working masses against the interventionists and their White Guard and Petliura collaborators, bore fruit .30 The commander of the occupation forces in Odessa, General d'Anselme, stated that half of his army was decayed under the influence of Bolshevik propaganda .31 "On our soil, despite all our backwardness, despite all the severity of our struggle, the troops of Great Britain and France were not able to fight against us, " V. I. Lenin emphasized. "This victory, which we won by forcing the withdrawal of British and French troops, was the most important victory we won over the Entente. We took her soldiers away from her. We have responded to its infinite military and technical superiority by taking away this superiority with the solidarity of the working people against the imperialist governments. " 32 The defeat of the interventionists was not only a military fact, but also a political one.

28 Odessa Regional State Archive, f. leaflets and proclamations, 375-a, ll. 1-3; see also: Historical Archive, 1958, N 1, pp. 38-39.

29 PAOO, f. 13, op. 3, d. 63, l. 25.

30 Петров В. І. З історії боротьби трудящих України проти буржуазно- націоналістичної Директорії і інтервенції Антанти (листопад 1918 р. - травень 1919 р.). В кн.: Великий Жовтень і громадянська війна на Україні Київ. 1973.

31 Balkun And. Intervention in Odessa (1918-1919). - Proletarian Revolution, 1923, N6-7, p. 215.

32 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 39, p. 391.

page 183

Permanent link to this publication: