The historian announced that he was waiting for Paris' permission to transfer the remains of the Russian soldier.

The French authorities must decide the fate of the remains of a soldier of the Russian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, whose descendant wants to bury them in Russia. Pierre Malinowski, a French historian, search engine, and president of the Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historical Initiatives, told Izvestia on February 26.

"This is a unique case. For the first time in history. If French President Emmanuel Macron says yes, we will arrange a transfer of the diplomatic plane to France, and they will return the body to Russia. This decision can only be made by politicians. If he agrees, we can even arrange a DNA examination," Malinowski said.

It is noted that we are talking about the remains of a soldier found in the French commune of Courcy, where soldiers of the Russian Expeditionary Force served. They died during the attack in April 1917. One of the dead, soldier Alexander Bushuev, had descendants in Russia. After the war, Alexander and his son Semyon were declared missing.

"I spent two years searching in Kursi, in a village where 6,000 Russian soldiers died in two days in 1917. Russian graves. And after two years of searching, I found a huge mass grave in a trench, and inside was the first Russian soldier. I stopped the excavation and called the police and the French archaeologists," the historian said.

First, the remains of six people were found. Examinations were immediately ordered, as there were badges with the names of the soldiers in the grave. One of them had a surname on it — Bushuev.

"I was asked to search the archives of Russia. And we found it in the [archives] The Ministry of Defense spent his entire life finding that he and his son, Semyon, had died together on April 19, 1917. And now they're holding the body, you know, French politicians are holding the body because the excavations haven't finished yet," Malinowski said.

Experts note that at least 15 bodies were found in the grave. However, there may be 22 of them in total. It is quite possible that in the future the remains of the son of the fallen warrior will be discovered.

"Imagine that they have all the tokens, documents, everything. In uniform, with a helmet, with a backpack, with a weapon. It's like a story, like a movie. We can still find on them, I don't know, maybe wedding rings, photos. But now I'm not doing the excavation myself," the search engine added.

According to Malinowski, if the issue of repatriation of Bushuyev's body is resolved positively, it will open up opportunities to search for relatives of other fallen soldiers. The descendant of the warrior in Russia, Yuri Bushuev, wrote an appeal for help addressed to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in which he noted that "the return of the remains of Alexander Mikhailovich [Bushuev] is the most important matter of honor" for their family.

The fighting near Kursi, according to Malinowski, took place from April 16 to April 19, 1917. The losses of the Russian troops amounted to about 900 people killed or missing and about 2.5 thousand wounded.

Last November archaeologists have discovered a large mass grave in the Polish town of Stargard with the remains of almost 200 prisoners of war from a Nazi camp during World War II. According to the researchers, the graves found were mostly Red Army prisoners of war, but elements of Polish and Belgian military uniforms were also found there. Now scientists intend to establish the exact causes of death of those buried.