Pierre Malinowski

In August 2015, Malinowski participated in the extraction of two French pilots in the Dominican Republic, known as the Air Cocaine affair.[21][22][23] He said to France 2 that he had participated in this as "military solidarity".[24][25][26][27]

In the years of 2016 and 2017, Malinowski organised an archaeological dig in Cormicy, France.[34] During this excavation, on December 24, 2016, he found the remains of a soldier of the Russian expeditionary force from World War I.[35] Since the end of the World War I, it was the first official case in France of finding the missing Russian soldier. During a second dig in August 2017, Malinowski found the remains of a second Russian soldier.[35] This case was presented to Sylvain Tesson and the Russian ambassador in France, Alexander Orlov.[35]

Malinowski researched about The Normandie-Niemen Regiment.[36] In 2012, he met the last French pilot of the regiment, Gaël Taburet.[37] In August 2018, after a year of research in the French and Russian archives, he found the location of the first Normandy-Niemen plane, the Yak-1 model.[38] The plane was found during his work with the Russia's Ministry of Defence.[39] In the media, this case is known as a symbol of the Franco-Russian friendship against Nazism.[40]

In May 2019, the Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historical Initiatives organized a major historical project between France and Russia.[41] An archeological expedition took place in the Smolensk region, Russia. The team of researchers was led by Malinowski and made up of different specialists, including topographers, historians, and French and Russian students.[42][43] The main excavation took place in the area where the Battle of Valutino took place, where more than 12,000 soldiers died.[44] As a result, the expedition found many artifacts, as well as the remains of soldiers and horses.[43][45]

General Charles Étienne Gudin (1768-1812), whose remains were unearthed during excavations carried out by Pierre Malinowski's teams.

In 2017, Malinowski organised an expedition to find the body of Charles Etienne Gudin, one of Napoleon's top generals.[46] The remains were successfully found by his team and research was supported by the Kremlin. The general's body was buried in the city of Smolensk, Russia. In 2019, the results of the DNA analysis confirmed, that the body belonged to General Charles Etienne Gudin.[47] This case is an international historical event and the body of General Gudin will be repatriated[48] to the Les Invalides in 2021 and will be buried during an official ceremony in front of two Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron.[49] Due to the fact that the French government refused to repatriate General Gudin, Pierre Malinowski decided to independently organize the procedure for returning the remains of the general from Moscow to Paris on July 13, 2021 via an Airbus A320 aircraft.[50] General Gudin was finally buried on December 2, 2021 at Les Invalides alongside Napoleon in the presence of Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq and Chief of the Armed Forces Thierry Burkhard.[51][52]

In September 2019, French and Russian teams, led by Pierre Malinowski, found 126 bodies of soldiers from Napoleon's army, including 3 women and 3 children drummers, killed during France's retreat from Russia in November 1812 during the Battle of Vyazma.[53] The soldiers were buried with military honors in Vyazma near the Saint-Catherine cemetery on 13 February 2021[54] after 4 months of preparations. This ceremony was organised and financed by the Foundation (25% from the price of the monument were financed by the Souvenir Napoléonien). The French Embassy was represented by the Defence Attache, General Martin and 6 other diplomats.[55][56] This ceremony, celebrating peace, united former enemies, such as Prince Murat, Grand Duke George Romanov and the descendant of Marsal Mikhail Kutuzov.[57]

From October 1 through October 20, 2020 took place the first major Franco-Russian archaeological project in Crimea[58] and Sevastopol.[59][60] Despite the international situation due to COVID-19, Pierre Malinowski managed to organize one of the only international cooperation[61] projects of 2020 in Crimea.[62][63] For 3 weeks, French experts such as Michel Signoli from the CNRS worked with their Russian counterparts from the Academy of Sciences to find soldier's bodies from the Crimean War.[64] Dozens of remains of French, English and Russian soldiers were found in Sevastopol, Inkermann and Alma.[65][33]

In addition, Russia and the government of Sevastopol have authorized Pierre Malinowski to organize the funerals[66] of more than 150 French soldiers,[67][68][69] found in 2013 in Sevastopol during construction work and which had since remained in plastic bags waiting for France to request their funeral, so that they could rest in peace.[70][71] They are now buried in the cemetery of Sevastopol, where more than 20,000 other French soldiers rest.[72][73]

From April 19 to 30, 2021 a project on the theme of the Battle of Stalingrad was organized in Volgograd.

On October 29, 2021, the foundation organized a gathering of veterans from Russia, France and the United States, in St. Petersburg at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, to pay homage to the defense of the Siege of Leningrad.[74][75]

On May 4 and May 5, 1917 in Craonne (Chemin des Dames), more than 275 young German soldiers[76] of the R.I.R 111 from Wurtenberg disappeared in a tunnel.[77][78][79] The nearly 300-meter-long tunnel was used to supply the front line with men, arms and ammunition.[80][81][82][83]

The French artillery managed to destroy the two entrances and the 275 soldiers remained stranded more than 20 meters underground.[84] Only three were saved a week later. After more than 20 years of research by his father, Alain Malinowski, to locate the Winterberg tunnel, Pierre Malinowski, his brother and his team found the tunnel.[85][86] He defines this tunnel as his most beautiful discovery and the "Pompeii of the Great War”.[87]