Czechoslovak Legions
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- This article is about a WWI formation. For WWII formation see Czechoslovak Legion (1939).
The Czechoslovak Legions (Československé legie in Czech and Slovak; sometimes shortened to only České legie or Czech Legion – which is understandably not appreciated by Slovaks) were Czech and Slovak volunteer armed forces fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I.
[edit] Overview
Small armed units were organized from 1914 onwards by volunteer Czechs and Slovaks. Their purpose was to help the Entente and win their support to the creation of an independent country of Czechoslovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later, many Czech and Slovaks captured during the war joined these units; with help of émigré intellectuals and politicians (Tomáš Masaryk, Milan Rastislav Štefánik and others) the Legions grew into a force of tens of thousands. The independence of Czechoslovakia was finally obtained in 1918.
After three years of existence as a small brigade in the Russian Army (Česká družina), the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia were created in 1917 (see below). Other Czech and Slovak units had been fighting in France since the war's beginning (including volunteers from America), and later in Italy and Serbia. Their membership consisted of Czech and Slovak prisoners of war in Russia, Serbia and Italy, and Czech and Slovak emigrants in France and Russia who had already created the "Czech company" in Russia and a unit named "Nazdar" in France in 1914.
The Legions were actively involved in many battles of World War I, including Vouziers, Arras, Zborov, Doss Alto, Bakhmach, and others.
The term "Legions" was not widely used during the war but was adopted shortly afterwards. It is primarily based on their French connection - they reported to France and were, in a general way, thought of as related to the French Foreign Legion.
[edit] Czechoslovak Legions in Russia
As World War I broke out, the ethnic Czechs living in the Russian Empire petitioned Emperor Nicholas to let them set up a national force to fight against Austria-Hungary and he gave his assent.
A "Czech company" (Czech sotnya or Czech Druzhina, Česká družina) arose in 1914 and was attached to the Russian army. From May 1915, the force was composed of many prisoners and deserters from the army of Austria-Hungary which were from the territories of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. In February 1916 it was turned into the Czechoslovak Riflemen Corps (Československý střelecký sbor) of a regiment in size, and in May 1916 into the Czechoslovak Riflemen Brigade (Československá střelecká brigáda, 7,300 persons). Masaryk and Štefánik came to Russia (spring and summer 1917) to negotiate expansion of the units, to bring them under their control and to turn them into an independent Czechoslovak army, which they succeeded in.
The brigade consisted of three regiments:
- 1st Riflemen Regiment (of Jan Hus), created in February 1916 from the "Czech company"
- 2nd Riflemen Regiment (of Jiří z Poděbrad), created in May 1916
- 3rd Riflemen Regiment (of Jan Žižka z Trocnova), created in March 1917
In September 1917 the brigade was turned into the First Hussite Riflemen Division and in October 1917 it was merged with Second Riflemen Division (created in July 1917) into the "Czechoslovak Corps in Russia", numbering some 38,500 men, which was already a genuine Czechoslovak army. The corps peaked at around 61,000 men.
4,112 Czech and Slovak legion members lost their lives in Russia in World War I.
[edit] The transit through Siberia (aka The Siberian Anabasis)
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik government concluded the separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks and the corps agreed to evacuate the Legion to France to join the Czechoslovak corps and continue fighting there. Because Russia's European ports were not safe, the corps was to be evacuated by a long detour via Siberia, the Pacific port of Vladivostok, and the USA. Although there was need to increase their fighting power and mobilization was officially announced (as officially as non-existing country can), no Czech or Slovak prisoner of war was forced to serve in the Legion - joining the Legion was voluntary and numerous Czechs and Slovaks declined this risky decision and returned home. 50,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles (made in the US from Russian models) were sent via Vladivostok to equip the Legions in Siberia to aid in their attempt to secure passage to France.
Masaryk advised the Legion to stay out of Russian affairs but, as it turned out, this was not possible.
The slow evacuation by the Trans-Siberian railway was exacerbated by transportation shortages – as agreed in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Bolsheviks were at the same time repatriating German, Austrian and Hungarian POWs from Siberia. Around this same time Leon Trotsky, the then People's Commissar of War, under intense pressure from the Germans, ordered the disarming and arrest of the Legion, thus betraying his promise of safe passage.
It was a confusing time. Various governments along the way, requested that the Czechs give up increasing numbers of their guns. It all came to a head in May 1918 with what is generally referred to as The Revolt of the Legions. There are a number of versions of how it all started. Clearly, there was a bit of conflict between trains of Legionnaires going to fight on the Allied side and German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners (including some Czechs and Slovaks) going back to fight for their side. As one version goes, the legionnaires stopped a Hungarian train at Chelyabinsk and shot a soldier who had apparently thrown something at their train. Then, the local Bolshevik government arrested some of the Czechs. To free them their comrades had to storm the railway station, and subsequently occupied the whole city. This incident triggered hostilities between the Legion and the Bolsheviks. All up and down the line, the Legion - clearly being denied their safe passage - fought back.
In the beginning, the various parts of the Legion were strung out and separated on the railway. A complicated series of battles took place with the primary objective of re-connecting the various groups and getting to Vladivostok - for their exit to the Western front. As it became clear that this was the only organized fighting force in Russia (the Red Army under Trotsky was still small and disorganized), the Allied governments largely agreed that the Czechs might be useful re-opening an Eastern Front. Elements within the Allied governments (notably Winston Churchill), concerned about the Bolsheviks, had a different agenda. And the Czechs, of course, had their agenda - do what the Allies said (they were technically reporting to the French and General Janin) so that they would be on the winning side.
At its peak, the Legion took over a considerable area around the railway from just east of Volga River all the way to Vladivostok. In the process, they captured large amount of military and civilian equipment and material and tried to provide a fair and orderly presence in the middle of the chaos of Russia and revolution. Their existence played a role in the rise of other anti-Bolshevik groups and Siberia-based independence movements. The Allies instructed the Czechs to push back up the line, which they did - reaching Yekaterinburg. The fact the Czech Legion was just a day away appears to have been one of the motivating forces behind the hasty execution of the Czar and his family.
Meanwhile, Masaryk and others were working to achieve Allied recognition. This was achieved, capped by the Pittsburgh Accord and the Oppressed Nations Treaty.
With the need to fight the Czech Legion as a clear motivation, Trotsky got his act together and the Red Army grew - with a number of German and Austro-Hungarian POWs as troops. Eventually, there were 3 million men under arms, and the Czech Legion was pushed back.
Meanwhile, with World War One now over, the Allies began the Siberian Intervention, with troops from the U.S., France, Great Britain, and Japan landing in Vladivostok, where the Czechs had been in charge for some time. In Vladivostok, however, the Allied rescue of the Czech Legion got sidetracked. The Japanese forces arrived in April with 500 Marines followed by 50 British soldiers in May and 500 Americans in June and 600 more British and some French in late June 1918. They arrived to find everything changed in their mission with open warfare going on between the Bolsheviks and Czech Legions and White Russians. On top of that World War One would end in a few short months, Nov 1918, making the whole mission to bring the Czechs and Slovaks to France and fight on the western front pointless. The confusion as to what to do now only got worse. The Japanese got themselves directly involved in the fighting on the side of the Czech Legion and White Russians as their Government saw this as an opportunity. By September 1918 there were 70,000 Japanese, 829 British, 1,400 Italian, 5,002 American and 107 Annamese troops under French command in and around Vladivostok. The chaos in Siberia included the arrival of eight train cars of gold bullion from the Imperial reserve in Kazan. The chaos also included atrocities by both Red Army and White Russian forces - particularly the Cossacks of Ataman Semenov, now in the pay of the Japanese.
Exhausted by their trek across Siberia, disgusted by the brutality around them, and eager to return to their brand new nation, the Czechs cut a deal with the Bolsheviks – gold and the-then leader of the anti-Bolshevik army Admiral Kolchak for the free passage home (1920). Eventually, with the help of the American Red Cross, and their own funds, most of the Legion - altogether 67,739 soldiers - were evacuated via Vladivostok[1] and returned to become the core of the army of the First Republic.
A small number of Czech and Slovak communists stayed behind. (One early Legionnaire to join the Bolsheviks was Jaroslav Hašek, later the author of The Good Soldier Švejk. He returned to Czechoslovakia a more comfortable way, with a Russian bride to boot - which surprised his Czech wife, but not others who knew him.) A few others stayed with the White Russian forces for a while, and, as an interesting sidebar, General Radola Gajda, who later became boss of the Czech fascist movement provided significant arms to the Korean independence movement. These arms helped the Koreans win the Battle of Chingshanli in 1920.[2]
The retreat through Siberia became an element of the heroic military cult around the legions, compared to the Anabasis of Greek mercenaries across Persia.
[edit] Czechoslovak Legions in France
Enrollment of Czechoslovak volunteers in the French Foreign Legion started in Paris on August 21, 1914. August 31 marked the creation of the 1st Company, Battalion C of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Foreign Legion in Bayonne (In some sources this company is noted as "compagnie C1, 2e Régiment de Marche Étranger"). Meeting in the city the soldiers greeted each other with „Na zdar!“ (a greeting used by members of the Sokol movement) and hence arose the name „Nazdar!“ Company ("rota Nazdar" in Czech). The company was part of the French army's Moroccan division, and took part in heavy combat during assaults near Arras on May 9 and June 16, 1915, where it suffered heavy casualties. Because of these, Battalion C, as well as "Nazdar!" Company, was disbanded, and volunteers continued to fight in various French army and Foreign Legion units.
An autonomous Czechoslovak army was established from December 19, 1917 by decree of the French government. On January 12, 1918 the 21st Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment was formed in the town of Cognac. It fought as part of the French 53rd Infantry Division. On May 20, 1918 the 22nd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment was created, initially fighting as part of the French 134th Infantry Division. On June 29 the government of France officially acknowledged the right of Czech and Slovaks to independence, and the next day both regiments took an oath of allegiance in presence of the French president Poincaré as well as Czechoslovak independence movement officials, including Edvard Beneš. Today, June 30 is celebrated as the "Day of Czech Armed Forces".
In 1918 a Czechoslovak brigade, under command of the French general Philippe, consisting of the 21st and 22nd Rifle regiments, was formed in France, and saw combat near Vouziers. The brigade returned home in the autumn of 1918. It had about 9,600 soldiers.
650 Czech and Slovak legionnaires died in France during WW I.
Sources
[edit] Czechoslovak Legions in Italy
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[edit] Czechoslovak Legions in Serbian forces
The formation of the voluntary military units from the captured members of one of the forces at war was a precedent from the standpoint of international law and the Hague convention. Thus, the formation of the first Serbian voluntary division in Odessa in 1916 paved the way to the formation of the Czech legion.
[edit] The role of the First Serbian voluntary division in the formation of the Czechoslovak legion
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The formation of the Czechoslovak legion followed the formation of the first Serbian voluntary division in 1916, since the formatoon of voluntary military units by war prisoners was a case without precedent from the standpoint of the international war law and the Hague convention. Following the Hague convention, it was not allowed to engage war prisoners even in tasks which would indirectly cause harm to their fatherland. And as the Russian Tzar Nicolas the second was one of the initiators of the Hague conference in 1898, the consequence of which was afterwards the Hague convention of 1907, the Russian government hesitated to respond to the desire to form voluntary units, the Czech and Slovaks were the first to express such a wish already back in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War, followed soon also by the Polish.
A similar movement occurred among the captured Serbs and to a certain extent Croats and Slovenes, Austro-Hungarian subjects, after Serbian victories over Austria-Hungary in autumn of 1914. At that time many of the Serbian war prisoners reverted to the Serbian embassy in Petrograd, e.g. ambassador Mr. Miroslav Spalajković; who upon approval by the Serbian government began negotiations with the Russians, with a lot of support later on by the Serbian military attache in the Russian supreme command, colonel Lontkijević and the Serbian consul in Odessa Cemović.
The negotiations were not only tough, but also slow. The Russian aristocratic circles, considered the once given military oath as sacred, which could not be annulled for any reason. Whereas there was a fear from the pragmatic point of view of reprisal against the already captured Russians; and then also reprisals against close and remote relatives of the volunteers. Still, the negative standpoint of the Russian government was related mostly to the issue of the violation of the Hague convention. The opposed principle by the supporters of the voluntary movement about the voluntary dedication to fight not against one's fatherland, but against the oppressors, was not considered as sufficient. A change in the standpoint of the Russians and the allies came about only following the presentation of proofs by the Serbian government about the violation of the Hague convention by the Austro Hungarian's main power was poots.
Thus, only in autumn of 1915 did a group of volunteers, mainly Serbs, reach Serbia through Odessa and Romania, just a little before its collapse, to join the Vlasina unit in the fight against the Bulgarians. The following one was stopped in Reni (a Russian little town where the river Prut flows into the Danube) because of the withdrawal of the Serbian army through Albania and Montenegro and had to go back to Odessa.
The Serbian voluntary unit was formed from it, then battalion, then regiment. And when the Serbian military emissary in Russia reported to the government on Corfu, that around 12,000 volunteers had already gathered in Odessa and on the road to it, in February 1916 a division command unit was formed and in Odessa its temporary headquarters.
While the Serbian government sent from Corfu to Odessa 130 people: regiment and battalion commanders and other units' commanders, clerks of all units of arms and formations, including also the medical unit members. The group had to go around through Italy, France, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden to Russia.
It was necessary to show that the first Serbian voluntary division belonged by international and legal standards to one of the sides in war, at that time the kingdom of Serbia, wherever it was located, on whatever front it waged the war. Thus the highest command posts in that division were entrusted to the Serbian officers, not by the criterion of nationality, but by citizenship. The decision factor was thus not the fact that the division was by its voluntary composition before that, following the criterion of nationality, and without these 130 sent Serbian citizens, 90% Serbian. Even if the proportion had been different, it had to be done this way from the standpoint of the precedent.
Spectacular[citation needed] inspections followed: On May 16 (following the Gregorian calendar) by the prime minister of the Serbian government Nikola Pašić, on May 21 by the chief commander of the Russian front general Brusilov, on May 22 by Tzar Nicolas the second, although the division was armed with old stuff. The volunteers took new oaths to the Serbian king Peter the First the Liberator. The commands were in Serbian language; and following the official Serbian protocol; and end of June 1916, the division was given in a ceremony in front of the cathedral in Odessa the flags of the former Serbian infantry regiments of the second calling: 2, 6, 7 and 11. The complete world public was thus informed about what this was all about. The road was thus also paved to the formation of similar voluntary units from the still non-existent countries at the time, such as Czechoslovakia. Thus, the first Serbian voluntary division was joined, in the lack of better choices, by a certain number of Czech and Slovak officers, noncommissioned officers and solders.
However, when the formation of Czechoslovak regiments began end of August 1916 in Kiev, the Czech and Slovak members of the first Serbian voluntary division at the time, were given the right to choose. 86 Czech and Slovak noncommissioned officers and soldiers left the first Serbian voluntary division, stationed in Reni, which was waiting together with the Russian units for Romania to join the war, however among these there were none from the 75 Czech and Slovak officers, who said that before going to the front they could not leave the soldiers with whom they had exercised all the time and become very familiar. All 75 officers went to Dobruja, fought bravely, and eight got killed. After the war they were all awarded medals of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which general Stevan Hadžić, the former commander of the first Serbian voluntary division and the military minister at that time, personally gave to the survivors or the family members.
[edit] After the war
Members of the Legions formed a significant part of the new Czechoslovak Army. Many of them fought in the 1919 war with Hungary over Slovakia.
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[edit] The Bank of The Czech Legion and the Legend of the Czar's Gold
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The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008) |
A common version of the story is that only seven train cars of the seized Imperial gold were returned to Moscow and the Legion kept the eighth to buy or lease ships in Vladivostok. What was left was then used to set up the Legion Bank (Legionářská banka or Legiobanka) in Prague.
Czech historians point to historical documents, such as protocols between the Legion and the Bolsheviks, that quite clearly state that all of the gold was turned over to Soviet representatives. Additional documents and articles argue that the Legion Bank was funded by a variety of enterprises and Czech thriftiness; there were, after all, over 50,000 soldiers saving virtually all of their payroll for two years and quite a bit of additional enterprise.
However, there is some evidence - not all of it circumstantial - that some of the gold made its way to the Czechs. William Clarke in The Lost Fortune of the Tsars cites records from the Vladivostok branch of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. Shay McNeal in The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar refers to San Francisco banking transactions. The most dramatic evidence, however, is circumstantial. First, $323 million in gold shrank to $200 million by the time it reached the Bolsheviks.
Even more dramatic, however, is the fact of the bank itself. The Bank of the Czech Legion - Legiobanka - with its headquarters on Prague's "Na Poříčí" street is a masterpiece of First Republic Czech architecture. Its façade features scenes of the Legion's retreat through Siberia and sculptures of Legionnaires top the pillars. The building interior is a unique combination of Moravian graphic themes, art deco, and Czech craftsmanship. It has been widely admired, though was also an object of resentment and suspicion. The Soviet Red Army looted the bank in May of 1945 and shipped its material assets to Moscow. They also took their revenge on any Legionnaires still alive.[citation needed] The Legion Bank Building was restored by the Czech Export Bank and recently sold to a developer. The bank still maintains a branch on the ground floor.
The Legion Bridge (Most legionářů) in Prague is named after the Czechoslovak Legions. The highest peak of the Carpathians was renamed Štít legionárov (literally "Peak of Legionaries") by the new Czechoslovak government erasing its previous imperial name. Now it is called Gerlachovský štít.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://drfaltin.org/archive.htm a collection documenting the trans-Siberian trek of the Czech legion during the Russian Revolution
- ^ Bradley, John F.N., The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914-1920,East European Monographs, Boulder, 1991, p. 156.
[edit] Further reading
- Baerlein, Henry, The March of the 70,000, Leonard Parsons/Whitefriar Press, London 1926
- Clarke, William, The Lost Fortune of the Tsars, St. Martins Press, New York 1994 pp183-189
- Fic, Victor M., The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion, Shakti Malik, New Delhi 1978
- Footman, David, Civil War in Russia, Faber & Faber, London 1961
- Goldhurst, Richard, The Midnight War, McGraw-Hill, New York 1978
- Hoyt, Edwin P., The Army Without a Country, MacMillan, New York/London 1967
- Kalvoda, Josef, Czechoslovakia's Role in Soviet Strategy, University Press of America, Washington DC 1981
- Kalvoda, Josef, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia, East European Mongraphs, Boulder 1986
- McNeal, Shay, The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar, Harper Collins, New York 2002 pp 221-222
- Unterberger, Betty Miller, The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 2000
- White, John Albert, The Siberian Intervention, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1950
Note: There were quite a few books on the Legion written in Czech that were published in the 1920s, but most were hard to find following Soviet victory in World War II.
[edit] External links
- Czechoslovak legions Memorial
- Czechoslovak legions
- Czech Legion Project Page (pictures from the Czech Military History Museum; these photos are from a book published in the 1920s - the Soviets destroyed all the negatives)
- Czechoslovak legions 1914-1920
