The Russian Expeditionary Force was a World War I military force sent to France by the Russian Empire. In 1915 the French requested that Russian troops be sent to fight alongside their own army on the Western Front.
The 1st Russian Special Brigade formed in January, 1916 under the command of General Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lokhvitsky. The 1st Special Brigade totaled 8,942 men. It left Moscow on February 3, 1916 and arrived in Marseilles on April 16 of the same year. A Second Special Brigade was also sent to serve alongside other Allied formations on the Salonika Front in northern Greece.
After the October Revolution and subsequent withdrawal of Russia from the Allies, the Russian troops were looked upon with distrust and relegated to labor companies and internment camps, primarily at Camp Militaire, near La Courtine.
By the armistice, there were fewer than 500 Russians in the French army.