Foreign News: Two Friends

A curious footnote to history bobbed up in the wake of General de Gaulle's Moscow visit. Before Joseph Stalin, Charles de Gaulle had met one other Soviet marshal—Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Red Army's brilliant Chief of Staff and No. 1 mechanizer, who was liquidated in the 1937 purge of the Russian high command.

De Gaulle and Tukhachevsky first met during World War I. Both were young officers. Both were war prisoners in Germany. Both were interned at Ingolstadt, the Alcatraz of German prison camps. Both the short, ebullient Russian and the tall, solemn Frenchman were advocates of the new ideas of...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!