The author of the book, journalist and traveler Vasily Zhuravlev, talks in it about the world's most multilingual military elite unit of the French army - the French Foreign Legion - based on archival materials and personal communications with legionnaires. Little is known about the difficult service in the legion - more often there is an opinion about it as a collection of criminal elements doing dirty work in different parts of the world. The author manages to eliminate the negative perception of the legion’s activities by demonstrating a huge layer of bright personalities - privates and officers who served at different times. He explains why our compatriots also serve in the ranks of the legion, although Russian legislation prohibits this and punishes it as mercenarism. It will become clear why service in the legion is prestigious, why the spirit of honor, loyalty, self-sacrifice reigns in it, there is no racism and “hazing” and what is behind the motto “Our Motherland is the Legion!”