Maurice Janin

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Pierre-Thiébaut-Charles-Maurice Janin (October 19, 1862 – April 28, 1946) was a French general (since April 20, 1916) and military commander who was the chief of the French military mission in Siberia during the Russian civil war.

On January 14, 1920, he ordered the Czecho-Slovak Legion to kidnap Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, leader of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, and hand him over to the Bolsheviks at Irkutsk. It is sometimes mentioned that this was done in exchange for one-third of the bullion of the Russian Imperial Treasury which was under Kolchak's control and that this bullion have become the first national treasury of the newly created country of Czechoslovakia, but it is not true. Czecho-Slovak Legion gave all what remained of the bullion back to Bolsheviks after the peace treaty has been concluded.

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