Applause rolls across the stands as soldiers enter the Champs-Elysees in the annual Bastille anniversary parade on 14 July in the Champs-Élysées, the traditional “white caps” of the Foreign Legion. This is an expression of the sympathy which legionnaires enjoy among the Parisians. Inspired by romantic legends, the Foreign Legion is a unique part of the French military, consisting of foreign mercenaries.
People without a past
The French Foreign Legion was created in 1831 by King Louis Philippe and has become home to thousands of men from all over the world, and at times a refuge for many fugitives with a troubled past. After all, the main privilege of the legion is to hire people without asking their real name (only recently, the command of the legion, with the help of the police and Interpol, began to resolutely weed out persons who had committed serious crimes in their past life). From now on, the legion became the homeland of the "soldiers of fortune", and their main destiny was to carry out any orders of their officers, usually the French. By the way, the French themselves are few in its ranks - about 5-7%. Their task is to help those who know little or not at all with the French language. All in all, mercenaries of about 100 nationalities serve in the Foreign Legion.
Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Pear King
It was a brilliant idea - to get volunteer adventurers to shed blood for the interests of France, freeing her own citizens from it.
Thousands of volunteers of various nationalities turn to 17 recruiting points of the Foreign Legion every year. A volunteer candidate must have a high level of physical fitness, be between 17 and 40 years old, and be single. Of these, hardly a fifth gets into training camps - the selection is very tough. It is here that they will find out your past, check your physical fitness and "run" on psychological tests. You will be very carefully monitored and judged. Bad behavior (fighting and misconduct) can leave you outside the gates of the camp.
Intense, tough combat training lasts from 4 to 6 months. Wake up at 4 am, hang up at 8 pm. Recruits are taught to fight in the mountains, jungle, desert, to participate in amphibious operations. Training is conducted according to the principle: "The legionnaire must run until he falls."
A lot of people can't keep up with this rhythm. Moreover, the contacts of recruits with the outside world in the first years of service are limited and controlled - no meetings with relatives and friends, the number of letters is strictly regulated, and only parents are allowed to write them. So the soldiers can only obediently serve under the motto "Honor and Loyalty". Deserters are severely punished. In fact, you can legally leave the legion only if you are seriously injured or seriously ill.
Non-civilians
The largest number of soldiers was in the Foreign Legion in 1960 - 40 thousand. Then the size of the legion was significantly reduced, and now the number of its fighters is no more than 10 thousand people. The legion has 6 regiments (types of troops): sappers, tankmen, infantry, engineers, paratroopers and saboteur divers.
The minimum service life in the Legion's troops is 5 years, and, as before, you can serve under an assumed name. But for this "protection from their past" legionnaires pay with the obligation not to marry and not to acquire any real estate and a car during the entire period of service. Their status is defined as "non-civilian".
France has banned advertisements for a career in the Foreign Legion, but you will see many posters throughout the country that say “Regarde la vie autrement” urging you to look at an “alternative life” featuring armed legionnaires standing at attention.
The legion performed one of its first missions in the Sevastopol War of 1853-1856, acting on the side of Turkey in the struggle for a free exit from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. An attempt to quickly conquer Sevastopol ended with his blockade, which lasted a whole year. Only on September 8, 1855, on the third attempt, the city was taken.
However, most often France sent "dogs of war" to its distant colonial lands - Indochina, Madagascar, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Chad, Zaire. Volunteers also took part in the Mexican adventure of Napoleon III (1861-1867), in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). During World War II, the legion fought against German forces in Norway, North Africa, southern Italy and Alsace.
Currently, units of the legion are serving in a number of countries in Central Africa, where a French military presence remains, as well as in Djibouti, on Reunion Island, in French Guiana and on a number of islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
This most colorful bunch of bandits in the world swept away everything in its path, cut and killed, without thinking about morality, not recognizing the law and obeying only orders. The history of the Foreign Legion is a veritable saga of looting, robbery and murder …
Russian trace
After three years of service, the fighter can, if desired, obtain French citizenship. After 15 years in the Legion, he is given a pension. During the service, the soldier receives about 1,500 euros per month, while in the unit on full support. He is entitled to leave once a year for 45 days, and during this period he must continue to wear a uniform. Almost all legionnaires after demobilization remain to live in France.
At the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris, there is a site with the graves of soldiers of the Foreign Legion, who came from Russia. The "Russian trace" in the legion has a long history - Russian emigrants of the first wave willingly joined the Foreign Legion. Five Russians rose to the rank of general in the legion, which is extremely rare for foreigners. Among them was Zinovy Peshkov, the adopted son of Maxim Gorky, whose name is now included in the "golden list" of the legion.
After World War II, former policemen of all nationalities from the USSR joined the legion. They were received together with the German SS and soldiers and officers of the national SS divisions "Lithuania", "Latvia", "Estonia". The Legion did not disdain anyone.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the natives of the USSR poured into the Foreign Legion in pursuit of a mirage of luck. The more local conflicts and wars arose on the territory of the former Soviet empire, the more citizens of Russia, the CIS countries and the Baltic states besieged recruiting centers in France.
One among the men
Susan Travers (1909-2003) was at one time the first and only woman in the French Foreign Legion. She fought in his ranks during World War II and went along with the legionnaires the military path from France to the Middle East and North Africa.
Nothing boded for her military career (she grew up in a wealthy English family that settled in the south of France after World War I), but Susan was a rebel by nature. In 1939, dreaming of doing something useful and at the same time extraordinary for her new homeland, she enlisted as a nurse in the Foreign Legion. After the defeat of the French troops in Finland, the girl joined General de Gaulle's army, then ended up in Senegal, then in East Africa, where she finally took off her white coat and became a military driver. Then she met the French general Marie-Pierre Koenig, becoming his personal driver, and then his mistress. Together with the general, she fought against Rommel's German corps in northern Africa. That Susan Travers was indeed a brave woman is attested to by two orders.
In 1945, she officially enlisted in the Foreign Legion, where she served for many years. She managed to fool the recruiting department only because there was no question about gender in the questionnaire. So Susan became the first and only female legionnaire.
It is curious that recently the French government decided to enroll in the legion of women. It remains to be seen how many women he is ready to accept and where exactly they will serve: The Foreign Legion is usually used in the "hot spots" of the planet, but some of its garrisons are stationed in France.
There are few chances of getting into the Legion, and there is no shortage of recruits. The explanation is simple: people thrown out by society are nailed to the legion, happy remain at home.
