Algeria War of Independence

France invaded Algeria , has long been the center of Muslim piracy and the slave trade, in 1830 and officially annexed it in 1834 . The territory of the country was divided into three overseas departments - Algeria, Oran and Constantine. From that moment, for more than a hundred years, children in French schools were taught that Algeria is part of France ^[3] . According to the Code of Conduct adopted in 1865 , Algerians remained the subjects of Muslim law and could be recruited into the armed forces of France; they could also request French citizenship. In reality, obtaining citizenship was difficult; by the middle of the 20th century, only about 13% of the indigenous population of Algeria had it. Accordingly, 87% of Algerians had the citizenship of the French Union , but did not have French citizenship, respectively, could not occupy high government posts, serve in some government institutions and bodies ^[4] .

About one million French colonists (known as Franco-Algerians , colonies, or “black-footed” noirs ) lived in Algeria, who owned 40% of the cultivated Algerian lands. The pied noirs were the most fertile and convenient for cultivating the land. Algerian workers received lower wages than pied noirs, even at the same job. 75% of Algerians were illiterate ^[5] . Despite this inequality, the indigenous population and colonies lived in peace for a long time. Colons were conservative; they considered themselves the builders of modern Algeria and treated this land as their homeland - many of them were really born and lived here all their lives. We can say that Algeria was a resettlement colony while maintaining the native majority, akin to South Africa . As for the Algerian population, the French did not begin to destroy the traditional institution of elders who retained their power in the field and therefore had no reason to be disloyal to the French administration. Algerian units existed in the French army — tyrallers, gums, camps, spagi — who fought for France in the First and Second World Wars , and then in Indochina .

After the publication of Wilson's “ Fourteen Points ” in 1918, some Algerian Ulema intellectuals began to express a desire for Algeria to gain autonomy and some self-government. In 1926, the North African Star ( Etoile nordafricaine ) national revolutionary movement was founded, which aimed to improve the working conditions of workers in all French colonies of North Africa. The movement ceased to exist in 1929 at the insistence of the French authorities (in the 1930s it was revived and disbanded again). In 1938, Ferhat Abbas created the Algerian People’s Union ( Union populaire algérienne ), later renamed the Manifesto of the Algerian People ( Manifeste du peuple algérien ), and in 1946 became the Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto .

During World War II, demands for autonomy or independence intensified in Algeria. May 8, 1945 , on the day the war in Europe ended, a mass demonstration was held in Setif , organized by Algerian nationalists. After a French policeman shot dead 26-year-old Buzid Saal for flying an Algerian flag, the demonstration escalated into riots that swept other cities. It is believed that in total during the unrest, 102 Europeans and Jews died. Colons and the French army responded with a massacre using artillery, tanks and aircraft. The repression lasted several months and claimed the lives of thousands of Algerians ^[6] .

There were so many corpses that they often could not be buried, so they were thrown into wells, dumped into mountain chasms in the mountains of Kabilia.

The famous French lawyer Jacques Verger in an interview in the documentary “Lawyer of Terror” says that the lowest estimates are 10 thousand dead, but, according to estimates of the American embassy, ​​45 thousand people were killed ^[7] . These events are known as the 1945 Algerian Uprising . After that, external calm was established in Algeria, but the atrocities committed by the French on May 8 could not be forgotten, as well as the fact that the French government still ignored the most modest requests of Algerians. Most of all, the columns opposed any reforms.

In 1947, the “Secret Organization” (OS) appeared, the armed wing of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Freedoms . Her first shares were unsuccessful. In 1953, the OS merged with the armed groups of the Democratic Union of the Algerian manifesto. These forces were subordinate to the foreign center, which throughout the war was in Egypt and Tunisia . The center of the uprising created the main thing that was required for the war - a military organization. The territory of Algeria was divided into six military districts - Vilaya . Each district had its own commander, who had a certain freedom of action. On November 1, 1954, the National Liberation Front (TNF) was created, the purpose of which was to achieve independence of the country by force of arms.

1954-1957

The war in Algeria began on the night of November 1, 1954, when rebel forces attacked a number of French targets in Algeria. The French government responded by sending new military units to the country in addition to those already stationed here. At the same time, in early 1955, Jacques Sustel was appointed Governor-General of Algeria, who planned to carry out a series of reforms aimed at increasing the welfare of Algerians.

The moment to start the uprising was chosen quite well. Over the past decade and a half, France has experienced the humiliating surrender of 1940 , the occupation and devastation, the unpopular colonial war in Indochina, and the catastrophic defeat at Dienbienf that occurred just six months before the start of the Algerian events. The Indochinese colonies have just been lost; the most combat-ready troops were still in Southeast Asia, awaiting evacuation. At the same time, the TNF itself was very weak. According to various sources, his military forces at the beginning of the uprising consisted of only 500-800 full-fledged fighters ^[8] ( Mujahideen ), and even with such a small number they experienced a shortage of weapons.

The initial actions of the TNF and the opposition of the French army were not widespread. The rebels were still too small, and France needed time to deploy reinforcements to the country and launch anti-partisan operations. It is believed that the real war unfolded after the Philippine massacre in August 1955, when the rebels first massacred civilians (123 people, including 71 "Europeans") in the city of Philippville (now Skikda ) ^[9] . The French army and the militia of the colonies reacted to this in the same way as in 1945, killing hundreds, and possibly thousands of Algerians - estimates differ by an order of magnitude. The position of the TNF improved significantly in 1956 , when the neighboring French colonies of Tunisia and Morocco gained independence; camps of Algerian rebels immediately appeared on the territory of both countries. In August, the formation of the National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the TNF, was completed: now it has received a tactical structure - military ranks and units. The largest unit was the battalion , although in practice the partisans rarely acted with the forces of more than a company ^[10] .

The forces of the TNF adhered to guerrilla tactics: they attacked army convoys, small garrisons and posts, blew up bridges, and destroyed communication lines. An “ideological” war was also waged: children were forbidden to attend French schools, ordinary residents were forced to give up alcohol and tobacco, thereby forcing themselves to obey Sharia standards, and at the same time striking a certain sector of the French economy ^[3] . Suspects in collaboration with the French were killed, sometimes in the most brutal way.

The French opposed the guerrilla movement quadrilage tactics, widely used in the first half of the war. The country was divided into areas (squares), each of which was assigned to a specific unit responsible for local security. In general, the French army quite clearly distinguished two types of units: the elite forces of paratroopers and the Foreign Legion waged a mobile war, conducting operations in various areas, and all other units controlled the situation on the territory allocated to them ^[11] . In Algeria, for the first time in the history of wars, helicopters were widely used to transfer units; The concept of air mobility was analyzed by the U.S. military and a decade later found application in the Vietnam War .

In May 1955, the French government called on 8 thousand reservists and announced plans to extend the life of 100 thousand draftees. In August of that year, deferrals from conscription were limited. In 1955, the number of French troops in Algeria more than doubled - from 75 thousand in January to 180 thousand in December. In the fall of 1956, a third of the French army was concentrated in North Africa. By the end of 1956, 400 thousand French soldiers were serving there ^[12] .

Quite a great success was achieved in winning the sympathy of Algerians. In 1957, the Section Administrative Spécialisée was created . Their task was to make contact with the local population in remote regions and, if possible, to fight against nationalist ideas, inciting the peasants to the loyalty of France. The same units recruited local volunteers into militia units, the so-called “ harkis ,” who defended their villages from partisans of the NFO. French secret services waged their secret war in Algeria; in a number of cases, they managed to throw disinformation on the enemy about the alleged betrayal of certain commanders and activists of the movement, thereby provoking bloody internal “purges” that seriously weakened TNF ^[3] .

In the fall of 1956, in an effort to draw the attention of the French and the international community to its struggle, the TNF launched a campaign of urban terrorism in the city of Algeria . Almost daily, bombs exploded on city streets, columns died, and innocent Algerians became victims of addressless retaliation. The campaign of urban terror proved effective and aroused serious concern of the French government. In January 1957, a major strike began in the city, dedicated to the discussion of the Algerian issue at the UN . This was the beginning of the so-called “battle for Algeria”: the 10th parachute division was introduced into the city, and its commander General Jacques Massoux received emergency powers. Skydivers began raids and searches throughout the city, detaining all suspects of collaborating with the TNF. The use of cruel torture, which often ended in fatal outcome for the interrogated Arabs, provided information on the structure of the partisan forces in the city. Many documents, weapons, and TNF funds were seized in Algeria. According to Soviet sources ^[13] , "The connection between the military districts and the city from which weapons, equipment, medicines, money came from, almost completely ceased ... During 1957, the French authorities managed to defeat the main forces of the Fidei in other cities." The flip side to restoring order in Algeria was the negative reaction of French society to information about the widespread use of torture.

1958-1960

In 1958, significant political events took place in France, provoked by the fourth year of the Algerian war. It all started with the fact that in January, a French patrol on the border with Tunisia was ambushed by the TNF and suffered heavy losses. In the same area, near the Tunisian village of Sakiet-Sidi-Yousef, two were shot down during the month and one aircraft of the French Air Force was damaged ^[14] . Intelligence reported that there is a large stockpile of weapons. On February 8, French aircraft bombed the village, killing approximately 70 civilians. The consequence of the air raid was a crisis in Franco-Tunisian relations, which caused a great international response (the issue of bombing was supposed to be discussed at a special meeting of the UN Security Council ). In this regard, the French government decided to agree to the "good services" offered by the USA and Great Britain in mediation. Prime Minister Felix Gaillard was proposed the idea of ​​creating a defensive pact in North Africa with US-British participation. But when he voiced it in parliament, this caused a wave of indignation from a number of right-wing deputies who considered the consent to the intervention of third countries in France’s North African policy a betrayal. In the end, on April 15, the cabinet was forced to resign. An acute domestic political crisis has begun in the country; the candidacy of the new prime minister could not be approved for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the columns in Algeria watched the crisis in the metropolis with irritation. In early May, it was reported that partisans killed three captured French soldiers. On May 13, Pierre Pflimlen was appointed Prime Minister, who was supposed to begin negotiations with the TNF. This was the last straw that overflowed the patience of both the columns and a number of French generals. A demonstration in Algeria that day in memory of the dead soldiers escalated into riots. A so-called Public Security Committee was formed, led by General Raul Salan . The committee demanded the adoption of the new constitution of France and make Charles de Gaulle the prime minister. It was actually a putsch. In case of refusal to fulfill their requirements, the rebel generals planned to land a parachute landing in Paris ^[3] .

By this time, de Gaulle, who had become the national hero of France during the Second World War, was already in the political shadow for some time. He was not involved in government decisions on the Indochinese and Algerian problems and turned out to be an acceptable figure for all parties. The ultra-right believed that de Gaulle would not allow “surrender of Algeria”, all the others also hoped that he would be able to lead the country out of the political crisis and solve the Algerian problem in a worthy manner. The Fourth Republic fell; it was replaced by the Fifth . On June 1, de Gaulle took over as prime minister. Immediately after that, he made a trip to Algeria, where he declared to the colonels and generals: "I understand you." In fact, de Gaulle was pessimistic about the fate of French Algeria. He recognized that the decolonization process could not be stopped and that the Algerian problem would not be resolved by military means.

The fighting in Algeria itself did not stop. Since 1956, the TNF has been given the opportunity to recruit new refugee fighters in Tunisia and Morocco, and train them here. Partisans in Algeria received reinforcements and weapons across the border. Realizing this, in 1956-1957, the French military built fortified lines designed to "seal" the borders. The lines (the most famous was the line on the Tunisian border, nicknamed the “Maurice line” named after the then Minister of Defense) was a combination of barbed wire fences, minefields and electronic sensors that made it possible to detect an attempt to break through and timely transfer troops to the threatened area. Throughout the first half of 1958, the TNF tried to break through these lines, but was unsuccessful and suffered heavy losses. From January to July, in the course of perhaps the most fierce battles of the entire war, the loss of partisans, according to French data, amounted to 23 thousand people killed and captured ^[15] . For TNF, a difficult period has come.

The diplomatic front of the struggle for independence remained successful - the Algerian war was discussed by the world community and undermined the international prestige of France, and in September the Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria ( Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne ) was proclaimed, located in Tunisia. However, in everything else, the TNF began to fail. He did not succeed in breaking the referendum on a new constitution in Algeria; an attempt to launch terrorist activities in the European part of France was quickly thwarted by the police. Groupings in Tunisia and Morocco continued to build up strength, but could not break through the border and help troops in Algeria. In 1958, the French began the forced relocation of residents of several regions of the country to the so-called "regrouping camps." The living conditions in such camps were generally unsatisfactory, which did not add to Algerians sympathy for France, but the rebels could no longer recruit recruits and receive food in the evicted areas. In the fall, de Gaulle unveiled a five-year plan for the economic development of Algeria (the “Constantine Plan”) and, to please the ultra-right, promised a major military attack on the partisans. In addition, he put forward the initiative of the so-called “world of the brave”, which provided for an amnesty for rebels who voluntarily laid down their arms. Until now, both sides have usually killed captured prisoners and there was no particular motivation for surrendering to the partisans, but now it has appeared, which worried not only the TNF leadership, but also the colonies ^[15] .

The offensive promised by de Gaulle began in February 1959 . He was led by the new commander of the troops in Algeria, General Maurice Chall , and his plan of warfare was called the “Chall Plan”. This was a series of operations that continued in various areas until the spring of 1960 with the aim of defeating the main forces of the partisans and their base camps; local troops blocked the partisans' probable retreat, while highly mobile paratroopers and the Foreign Legion combed the surrounding area. The effect of these operations was devastating. Already in March, the TNF command ordered its forces to disperse and act in groups of no more than a squad — platoon. According to Soviet data, in 1959, the TNF lost killed up to 50% of the command staff, the commanders of all military districts were disabled. According to French statistics, from the end of 1958 to the end of 1959, the enemy lost more people than in all the previous 4 years of the war ^[16] . According to the Canadian researcher Eric Ulle, by 1960, the French army, in essence, won a military victory in Algeria ^[17] .

On September 16, 1959, de Gaulle delivered a speech in which he first recognized the Algerian right to self-determination. In ultra-right circles, this caused fury. They began to realize that they were mistaken in their choice and brought to power a man who, perhaps, would destroy French Algeria. The first speech against de Gaulle occurred in late January 1960, when a group of students tried to rebel in the Algerian capital and began to build barricades. This time, the army as a whole remained loyal to the government, and the rebellion failed, entering the history of the war under the name of "Week of the Barricades."

1960 was “the year of Africa” - 17 countries of the continent gained independence, but Algeria was not among them. The war continued, although not with the same intensity as before. In the summer, negotiations between representatives of the French authorities and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic took place for the first time, ending, however, to no avail. De Gaulle made a series of statements over the course of the year, implying the possibility of changing the status of Algeria. On January 8, 1961, a referendum was held on the fate of the Algerian problem. For the granting of independence to Algeria, 75% of the survey participants ^[18] . The far-right's response to this will was another coup in Algeria, which began on April 21 . It was organized by four generals (for which it was called the “Patch of Generals” ) and a few days later failed because it was not supported by war conscript soldiers. After the suppression of the rebellion, several military units and units were disbanded, which stained themselves by participation in it.

In the summer of 1961, active hostilities in Algeria almost ended, since both sides no longer saw the point in them; only minor skirmishes continued. After making sure that de Gaulle simply could not be stopped, the “ultra” resorted to their last trump card - terrorism. Since the beginning of the year, the Secret Armed Organization (SLA) has been operating; in order to save French Algeria, the French killed the French. By the end of February 1962, in ten months the group carried out 5000 assassination attempts in Algeria and 657 in France. On April 12, the list of OSA victims in Algeria totaled 239 Europeans and 1383 Arabs ^[19] . Over the entire period of its activity, the OSA has organized more than a dozen attempts on de Gaulle. The effect of these events turned out to be the opposite of what was wanted: terrorist acts completely discredited the ultra case in the eyes of the majority of the French.

Negotiations between the French government and the TNF resumed in the spring of 1961 and took place in Evian-les-Bains . On March 19, 1962, the Evian Agreements were signed, ending the war and opening the way to independence for Algeria. At the April referendum, 91% of the French expressed support for the agreements ^[20] . SLA stopped the hopeless struggle only on June 17 . On July 1, Algerians in a referendum almost unanimously supported the independence of their country, which was officially proclaimed on July 5 .

After the war ended, in September 1962, the Algerian government turned to the USSR with a request to assist in the clearance of the country's territory. A group of sappers from the Moscow Military District were sent to help the Algerian government, which cleared 1350 km² of the country's territory and destroyed 2 million anti-personnel mines ^[21] . As the mine clearance clause was not included in the Evian Agreements to End the War, the French side did not transmit minefield maps to the Algerian government. Meanwhile, the mining of the terrain in the interests of France was carried out not only by the French military, but also by foreign military specialists (including German). The main part of mines shot by Soviet sappers were French mines AR1D and ARMV, American fragmentation mines M2A1 (some of them were closed with concrete, which made it impossible to extract the fuse) and M3, but there were also high-explosive, illuminating and other mines of other systems. The USA denied the use of US-made mines by France, but such mines were used in Algeria and were removed by Soviet sappers ^[22] .

The policy of the TNF in relation to the colonies immediately after the end of the war is characterized by the short slogan put forward “Suitcase or coffin” ^[23] . In the very first months after the signing of the truce, about 1 million settlers left their homeland, emigrated to France and turned into refugees.

On July 5, 1962, on the day of the declaration of independence of Algeria, a crowd of armed people arrived in Oran , who began to kill Europeans. The massacre was stopped after several hours by the intervention of the French gendarmerie. The list of those killed and missing that day lists 153 people ^[24] .

The number of victims of the war is difficult to estimate. At the peak of hostilities in Algeria, there were more than 400 thousand French troops. The losses of the French army immediately after the war were estimated at 18 thousand dead; this is the most common figure. Some sources give higher estimates - from 25 to 35 thousand dead ^[25] ; it is not clear what caused this discrepancy in numbers.

According to official French statistics, in the course of the war, 3,300 "black-footed" pieds-noirs, Algerians of French origin, were killed and went missing. In France, 4,300 people died - victims of the conflict between Algerian movements ^[26] .

Algerian sources use numbers from 1 million to 1.5 million dead and 3 million Algerians displaced to concentration camps ^[27] , but most modern historians consider this figure to be overestimated ^[28] .

Based on the pensions paid to the families of the dead Mujahideen fighters, both civilian and military, Benjamin Stora gives the figure of approximately 150,000 killed, that is, one of two fighters. It is necessary to add to this about 12 thousand victims of internal conflicts between the National Algerian Movement and the National Liberation Front (one example of a bloody confrontation between them is the massacre in Meluz - the killing of several hundred supporters of the Movement by TNF activists). As for the "Europeans," this author writes about 4,500 people ^[29] .

As for the civilian population, taking into account the comparison process by the age pyramid, French historians estimate the number of Algerians who died during the war from 300,000 and 400,000 (about 3% of the population) ^[30] .

According to Alistair Horne, author of the classic A Savage War of Peace study, the real number of victims lies somewhere between the French and Algerian estimates.

After the independence of Algeria, Algerian loyalists of Muslim descent (the so-called kharks ), loyal to the current legislation and taking part in hostilities on the side of France, were arrested in defiance of the agreements and control of the International Red Cross; many of them were killed. The death toll of Harki varies, according to various sources, from 10 to 150 thousand people. The most likely estimate is from 15 to 30 thousand ^[29] .

Victims include French activist and peace activist Simon Tanner Chaumet , who was killed on May 25, 1962.

Already in 1961, a Cuban ship arrived in Algeria with a load of weapons and ammunition, which on the way back took the wounded and children ^[31] .

• Little Soldier (France, 1960)
• Unconquered (France, 1964)
• The Battle of Algeria (Algeria — Italy, 1966)
• Missing Squad (USA, 1966)
• RAS, in the Russian translation “Nothing happened” (Italy, Tunisia, France, 1973)
• Chronicle of the Fire Years (Algeria, 1975)
• Interrogation with addiction (France, 1977) ^[32]
• The honor of the captain ( Fr. L'Honneur d'un capitaine ) (France, 1982)
• Simon: English Legionnaire (UK, 2002)
• Close Enemies (France, 2007)
• Outlawed (France, 2010)
• Genies (France, 2010)
• It's like a day in the middle of the night (France, 2012)
• Я вас понял ( фр. Je vous ai compris ) (Франция, 2013)

• Hauser, William L. The French Army After Algeria . // Military Review . — August 1972. — Vol. 52 — No. 8 — P. 3-11 — ISSN 0026-4148

• Algerian War Reading
• Algeria celebrates 50 years of independence – France keeps mum RFI English