Secrets and Scandals: Belgian Interference in the Russian Civil War

When the First World War came to an end in November 1918, the time had come to finally deal with the ‘Russian problem’. Whereas the Allies and even defeated Germany actively interfered in the Russian turmoil, neutral Belgium maintained the same low profile it had assumed during the War. It sympathized with interventionism, but did not develop an active policy of its own. However, it did not oppose the efforts of Colonel A.K. Prezhbiano, the Russian military agent to Belgium, to set up and train an anti-Bolshevik division. He first tried his luck with stranded Russian POWs in Belgium, and when this failed, he started to draft Belgian volunteers. Prezhbiano received tacit support from both the ministries of War and Foreign Affairs. However, when the (leftist) press got wind of his activities, a government crisis broke out. The main culprit of this failure, in Prezhbiano’s eyes, was Emile Vandervelde, the (socialist) Minister of Justice and former President of the Second (Socialist) International.status: publishe