Russian General Ivan T. Belaieff in the Green Hell
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/dd/2026.2.6Keywords:
Paraguay, Bolivia, Chaco War, Russian immigrants, Indigenous peopleAbstract
The article brings together important Spanish-, Portuguese-, and English-language sources on the Chaco War and sets them alongside Russian sources on Russian immigrants in Paraguay in the 1920s and 1930s. The most important among them was the former Russian general, Ivan T. Belaieff, who began laying the foundations for a modern military defense plan that proved crucial to Paraguay’s later victory over Bolivia in the Chaco War. Even before the war, he explored the entire Chaco region and built the first bridge between Indigenous tribes and the Paraguayan government. During the war, he served as an advisor to the Supreme General Staff, and a strong Russian immigrant community formed around.
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