On 21 June 2011, French Prime Minister François Fillion and Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a statue on Place du Canada in Paris, in memory of soldiers and officers of the Russian Expeditionary Force who fought on French soil between 1916 and 1918.
The bronze statue, named The Spring or Spring Brook by the sculptor, is of a Russian soldier dreaming of peace and remembering his fallen comrades as his horse drinks.
The statue rests on a granite-clad plinth. A brief historical context is on the back of the plinth, in French and Russian: in 1916, at the request of the Allies, Russia sent two special brigades of the Russian Expeditionary Force to France. More than 20,000 men participated in the military operations in Champagne. More than 5,000 of them, Russian soldiers and officers, lost their lives on the French battlefields.
The sculptors are Vladimir Surovtsev and Danila Surovtsev. Architects are Vladimir Syagin and Oleg Syagin.
Place du Canada overlooks the Seine in the 8th arrondissement, where Cours la Reine meets the Pont des Invalides.
Great War 100 Reads 