WORKING COMPANIES (1917-1920): ACCORDING TO THE DOCUMENTS OF THE ARCHIVE OF THE HISTORICAL SERVICE OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF FRANCE
The article examines the history of Russian working companies in France (1917-1920). The source of the research is the documentation of the French General Staff stored in the Defence Historical Service of France Archives. These documents were opened to researchers in 2014 and partially published in France and Russia. The purpose of the article is to study the history of Russian working companies in France on the basis of previously unknown documents from the Defence Historical Service of France Archives. The author concludes that the companies were volunteer detachments, which included the soldiers of the disbanded Russian Special Brigades, created with the aim of restoring the infrastructure of France at the end of and after the First World War. All French sources used in this work are given in the author's translation into Russian.