A collection of memories from the Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia.

Extensive and varied lot of documents relating to the Belgian Expeditionary Corps of Armoured Cars in Russia. This military unit (equipped with Mors-Minerva and Peugeot armoured cars) was sent to Russia during WWI to fight alongside the Imperial Russian army on the Eastern Front between 1915 and 1918. The first contingent arrived in Archangel in October 1915 and fought with distinction in Galicia during the Broussilov offensive and then the Kerensky offensive. After the October Revolution in 1917, the Belgian soldiers had to leave Russia for the United States via China and the Trans-Siberian railway in June 1918. The unit was disbanded in Eu (Normandy, Fr.) on 15 July 1918. Marcel Thiry, Walloon poet, and Julien Lahaut, former chief of the Belgian Communist Party who was assassinated in 1950, served in this contingent.
1. A set of ca. 200 small and medium photos and postcards documenting the Russian campaign: Belgian troopers in several places in front of their armoured cars, with Cossacks or Russian soldiers; the soldier Jean Trooster; Alexander Kerenksi reviewing his troops; Russian aviators with their planes; Russian landscape and cities: Moscow and the Kremlin (1917), Petrograd (1917), Peterhof Palace, Perm, Ternopil, Zborow, the Trans-Siberian, etc.; ruins; Niagara Falls; Peasants and refugees, etc.-- 2. A photograph of 300 volunteers in honour of their reception in San Francisco. March 1919 (22,5 x 103 cm). Under frame.-- 3. Concert programme of an opera given in honour of Belgian guests on 20 October 1915. Folded. 4 ff. (21,5 x 14 cm). On paper, bilingual Russian-French, with a portrait of the King Albert I of Belgium (browning).-- 4. Reiff, Ch. Ph. - Petit manuel de la langue russe. Septième édition, revue et corrigée. Paris, Librarie orientale & américaine E. Guilmoto, [s.d.]. 16mo: 130 pp. (browning). Editor's binding, gold titled. Prov. Désiré Gomez, member of the division (dated ms. ownership entry, 1 Jan. 1916).-- 5. Menu of a birthday dinner in honour of Louis Degreppe. 14 March 1916. Folded. 2 ff. (22 x 15 cm). On paper, with a coloured wash drawing of an armoured car by Charles De Mey and two stamps. Degreppe was killed a few days later.-- 6. Three sheets of papers typed in French and relating to the campaign and the return with the Trans-Siberian. Various sizes.-- 7. Seven documents relating to the trooper Jean Troosters. Paper, various sizes. In French.-- 8. Seven documents in Russian. Paper, various sizes.-- 9. Pages de gloire du corps expéditionnaire belge des Autos-Canons-Mitrailleuses en Russie. [Brussels], Fraternelles des anciens combattants du corps expéditionnaire belge en Russie (1914-1918), [1958]. 4to: 278 pp., 5 pl. Sewn.-- 10. 40th Anniversary Commemorative Medal of the Russian Campaign delivered to F. Lust. Brass (diam. 7 cm). In its protective box. (223 pcs.)