prior to the writer’s permanent departure for the USSR. During this time Peshkov had a relationship with Irving Thalberg. He met him in Paris in March 1928, with a possible project of adapting his work on the Foreign Legion (published in English as The Bugle Sounds: Life in the Foreign Legion). During his many stays cut short by his command in Morocco, he played an important role in the Levant, particularly intervening with Shi’ite groups in Gabal Amil (now southern Lebanon). During this epoch, he met his second wife, Jacqueline Delaunay-Belleville, the widow of a diplomat, but this marriage, like the earlier one, was quickly dissolved. On the eve of global conflict, chief of battalion Peshkov commanded a unit in Morocco with panache and vigor; his celebrity brought him into close and regular contact with many personalities, members of high society and journalists. It was in this position in North Africa, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Foreign Regiment, that he learned of the collapse of the French troops facing the Wehrmacht in May 1940. The Gaullist diplomat After having heard the appeal of 18 June of General de Gaulle, then in refuge in London, he decided to join him. His project succeeded, but his first contacts with the head of Free France were difficult. Nevertheless, at the end of 1941, de Gaulle promoted him to the rank of colonel (he remained almost 20 years the head of battalion) and sent him on a mission to South Africa, where he organized the transport of arms for the Allied troops, while keeping an eye on Madagascar, which was relatively near. As was often the case, Peshkov succeeded in establishing confidential relations with the head of the armies in the region, General Smuts. The British occupation of the Big Island precipitated events. Uninterested in a critical and controversial involvement with the English, whom he liked, Zinovy then arranged to be sent to French West Africa, where he brilliantly organized the rallying of the colonies. Appointed Brigadier General in April 1944, Peshkov was soon sent as a delegate of the French Committee of National Liberation to the Republic of China to meet with Chiang Kai-shek, who had just broken with Vichy. Upon arrival at Chung King, the new capital of the country due to the Japanese occupation, Zinovy had to deal with the presence of another French mission sent by General