Maurice Janin

France state institutions Counter-revolution 1862–1946 ○ Died in France

French general who commanded the Czechoslovak Legion in Siberia and let it hand Kolchak to the Political Centre in Irkutsk in 1920

A graduate of Saint-Cyr who trained in Russia several times, he became head of the French military mission at the Russian Stavka in April 1916. On 24 August 1918 Marshal Foch appointed him commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Russia, charged with shipping the Czechoslovak Legion to Europe; he reached Omsk on 16 December as commander-in-chief of the Czechoslovak troops. Kolchak refused him command of the Russian armies, and relations between them were bad from the start. In January 1920 the Czechoslovak Legion under his command handed Kolchak over to the Political Centre in Irkutsk, opening the way to his execution, and the White emigration branded Janin a traitor. Recalled to France, he was given a minor post and died in 1946.

Also known as: Pierre-Thiébaut-Charles-Maurice Janin