Serge Andolenko

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Serge Andolenko (26 June 1907 – 27 August 1973) was a French army officer of Ukrainian origin who rose to the rank of Général de brigade in the French Army and served mainly in the French Foreign Legion. Born in Volotchysk (then part of the Russian Empire) into an aristocratic military family, his father Paul was a tsarist officer who died in 1931 during Stalin’s purges. Andolenko entered Saint-Cyr in 1924, joined the Foreign Legion afterward, and became a sub-lieutenant in the 1er RE at Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria. He became a French citizen in 1928 and served in several Foreign Legion regiments as well as the Legion’s Inspectorate.

In World War II, he headed the 2nd Bureau of the 3e Division d’Infanterie Algérienne and coordinated with the 4e Division Marocaine de Montagne during the Italian campaign, contributing to the liberation of Marseille and coordinating with Resistance and American forces; he finished the war in Stuttgart. After the war, he commanded the 5e Infantry Battalion in Germany and then the 5e REI during the Algerian War. He later served as Inspector-adjoint of the Foreign Legion, studied at the Centre des hautes études militaires, and from 1961 to 1963 was Military Attaché in Vienna, where he was promoted to Général de brigade. He retired in 1963 and became a noted military historian, publishing works on the French Army and the Imperial Russian Army, and helped create a World War I Russian Army exhibit at the Musée des Invalides. Andolenko died in France in 1973 and was a recipient of the Légion d’honneur.