With Snow on their Boots: The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I Paperback – July 2, 1999

Interesting read about the ordeal of the Russian soldiers that fought on the Western Front in WW1. Great for any anyone interested in WW1 who has already read all the books about the usual WW1 topics. Worth the money.

During the years of World War I, the costly trench warfare in the Western Front was eating the manpower of France. On the other hand, their eastern ally Russia had a huge army but was inadequately provided with weapons and ammunition. So, someone got this splendid idea: Russia would send a couple of their seemingly endless armies to the west, and in exchange they would receive much needed ammunition from French factories.In the end, the Russians could spare only two brigades, approximately 20 000 men, which were shipped to France in 1916. For what they were worth, they performed pretty well in the battle, but obviously the bargain of exchanging human lives for ammunition had failed, and pretty soon the French high command regarded this Russian Expeditionary Force only as trouble. For various reasons however, they either wouldn't or couldn't send them back to Russia, and the situation became a real mess after the Russian revolution. Two Russian units, one "czarist" and one "bolshevik", actually fought a battle against each other while in France.This little-known story has been thoroughly told in Mr. Cockfield's excellent book. The author has an eye for tragi-comical nature of REF's odyssey and sad ultimate fate, but admirably this doesn't border to cynicism. On the contrary, despite the heavy research work, Mr. Cockfield approaches his subject with a very humane touch. The various people in this story - Czar and his advisors, French politicians and commanders, Russian officers and ordinary peasant-soldiers - come very much alive with all their faults and few virtues. The book isn't just about an obsucre military incident or war politics, it manages to tell a lot about certain era and the people living it.

As a reader of The Great War, I always thought that the coming of millions of russian soldiers to fight side by side with France in the Western Front was just a legend. The many views of russian troops crossing England by night trains and ready to embark and fight was like a desperate dream. Then I pick up the book of Jamie H Cockfield and know all the History about this eventfull drama.The book is really a masterpiece of the matter and is based in russian, french and english archives. All the details of ships, embarkment, landing, trains, etc. is brought to the reader in a pleasure way. You are transported to those terrible days. Cockfield told us how the events in Russia during the fall of the Romanovs and the Provisional Government, Kerensky and then the Bolshevist seizure of power have consequences in the men of the two Regiments that formed the Russian Expeditionary Force (REF). The men split themselves in two opposite groups and eventually one fight the other with french support. Many were put under arrest and others sent to Argelia as punishment. The REF still fought in the Western Front during 1916. 1917 brought indiscipline and internal disturbance. The french government then begun the negotiatons to send the men back Russia. While the Provisional Government didn't want more unrest troops inside Russia, the Bolshevist Government insist to bring the men and to use them as a propaganda tool. The book is very good and bring light to these historical events. Highly recommended.

This is a very interest, well researched work on a little known chapter on the First World War. I have on one occasion ran across a brief introduction to the Russian experience on the Western Front; little more than a passing comment. This book covers the entire experience of the Russian soldier from the opening negotiations between the French government and Imperial Russia through the training, combat experience, the revolution and ultimate repatriation of the troops well after the war ended. Very insightful and moving narative of the plight of the common Russian soldier sent away from the homeland to fight in a foreitn country. With the advent of the Russian Revolution, the soldiers did not know what this meant for them; how the early exit of Russia from the war would effect them; and how the final peace would relate to their returning to their homes and families.Ultimately, the soldiers become pawns between Revolutionary Russia and France.Anyone having an interest in the First World War will find this an interesting read.

This book gives an incredibly detailed picture of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France during WWI. The frustrations of the situation are so well delineated that the reader begins to share the feelings of the involved parties. The vast amount of detail is well documented and reflects exhaustive research. This truly scholarly work is the definitive English langauge account of the REF in WWI.

Cockfield has written a book that is DENSE with the names of Russian Officers, French diplomats, and Russian/Soviet diplomats/political leaders. The book is clearly exhaustively researched following the mutiny and subsequent efforts by the French to coerce the mutineers back to the trenches or at the very least into labor units. The final third of the book chronicles the repatriation of the REF as well as Russian POWs from Germany - this in itself is an odyssey worthy of Homer and continued all the way to 1920.In the end however I can only give this book 2 stars due to the manner in which the author has aggravatingly laid out the story - jumping forward many months (or sometimes years) in the tale and the very next page backing up to an event that had happened many months before as if it was directly responsible for the future act. This disjointed, non-chronological story telling goes on throughout the entire book, and made finishing it a veritable challenge.I wanted to like this book as it relates such an obtuse tale from history, but in the end I can't recommend it unless you are researching this subject for some scholarly work.