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Czechoslovak Legions
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The Czechoslovak Legions (Ceskoslovenské legie in Czech and Slovak) were Czech and Slovak volunteer armed forces fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I.
l 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.
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The Czechoslovak Legions (Ceskoslovenské legie in Czech and Slovak) were Czech and Slovak volunteer armed forces fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I.
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 (Ceská 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.
In Russia
Initial formation
As World War I broke out, 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 ultimately gave his assent.
A "Czech company" (Czech setina or Družina, Ceská družina) was established in 1914 and attached to the Russian Army. From May 1915, the force included many prisoners and deserters from the army of Austria-Hungary who came from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. In February 1916, the unit was reorganized as the regimental-sized Czechoslovak Rifle Corps (Ceskoslovenský strelecký sbor) and, in May 1916, into the Czechoslovak Rifle Brigade (Ceskoslovenská strelecká brigáda) which was 7,300 strong. The future President Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and General Milan Štefánik came to Russia during spring and summer of 1917 to negotiate expansion of the units, to bring them under the control of the Czechoslovak National Council and to turn them into an independent Czechoslovak army. They succeeded on all counts.
The brigade consisted of three regiments:
- 1st Rifle Regiment (of Jan Hus), created in February 1916 from the "Czech company"
- 2nd Rifle Regiment (of Jirí z Podebrad), created in May 1916
- 3rd Rifle Regiment (of Jan Žižka z Trocnova), created in March 1917
In September 1917, the brigade was reorganized as the First Hussite Rifle Division, which consisted the four regiments: the three above and a newly created 4th Rifle Regiment of Prokop the Great). In October 1917, it was merged with Second Rifle Division (created in July 1917), forming the "Czechoslovak Corps in Russia" that numbered some 38,500 men. This strength of this considerable Czechoslovak Army peaked at around 61,000 men.
A total of 4,112 Czech and Slovak Legion members lost their lives in Russia in World War I.
Transit through Siberia
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 a 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, controlling their temporary territory through the use of heavily armed and armored trains. 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 Russian invovlement in 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.
Departure from Vladivostok
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 leader of the anti-Bolshevik army, Admiral Kolchak for free passage home (1920). Eventually, with the help of the American Red Cross and their own funds, most of the Legion—totaling 67,739 soldiers—was evacuated via Vladivostok 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 in 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. One interesting example was that of General Radola Gajda, who later became a leader of the Czech fascist movement and also provided significant arms to the Korean independence movement. These arms helped the Koreans win the Battle of Chingshanli in 1920.
The retreat through Siberia became an element of the heroic military cult around the legions, compared to the Anabasis of Greek mercenaries across Persia.
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".
Battle by Terron-sur-Aisne (in Czech: bitva u Terronu) was from October 18 to October 22 1918.
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 World War One.
In Serbia
The wartime formation of volunteer military units from captured members of opposing forces was a new precedent in international law and under the Hague convention. Thus, the formation of the First Serbian Volunteer Division in Odessa in 1916 paved the way for the formation of the Czechoslovak Legion.
Role of the First Serbian Volunteer Division
The formation of the Czechoslovak Legion took place after the First Serbian Volunteer Division was formed in 1916. Forming volunteer military units from prisoners of war (POW) was a case without precedent in international war law and the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention specified that POWS could not be employed in any task that would cause even indirect harm to their countries or origin. Because Czar Nicholas II of Russia was one of the original supporters of the 1898 Hague Conference, which ultimately led up to the Hague Convention of 1907, the Russian government initially hesitated to respond to requests to form volunteer units for foreign nationals. The Czechs and Slovaks were the first request it in 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, with Polish nationals soon following suit.
Similar developments occurred with respect to captured Serbs and, to a certain extent, Croats and Slovenes who were Austro-Hungarian subjects after Austria-Hungary's defeats in autumn of 1914. At that time, many Serbian POWs became subordinate to the Serbian embassy in Petrograd. Ambassador Miroslav Spalajkovic, upon receiving approval from the Serbian government, began negotiations with the Russians to form Serbian volunteer units. Later on, her received significant support from Colonel Lontkijevic, the Serbian military attache to the Russian Supreme Command (Stavka), and from Mr. Cemovic, the Serbian consul in Odessa.
The negotiations were difficult and slow. Russian aristocratic circles considered the military oath as sacred; once given, it could never be broken, for any reason. There was also a realistic fear of reprisals against Russian POWs in hostile hands and against close and remote relatives of the volunteers. But Russia's primary concern was the potential for violating the Hague Convention. The principle espoused by supporters of volunteer units, namely that the volunteers wished to fight not against their own countries but against an oppressor, was not considered adequate. The Russians and other Allied powers relented only when they received proof of Austro-Hungarian violations of the Hague Convention.
The first unit of volunteers, primarily Serbs, was dispatched to Serbia via Odessa and Romania but did not reach Serbia until 1915, shortly before the country was finally overrun. The volunteers joined the Vlasina unit, which was depployed against the invading Bulgarians. The next volunteer unit was held up in Reni, a small Russian town by the confluence of the Danube and the Prut rivers, because the Serbian Army had already retreated from Serbia through Albania and Montenegro. This volunteer unit ended up returning to Odessa, where it received additional troops, growing in size to a battalion and later a regiment-sized unit. When the Serbian military emissary in Russia reported to the Serbian government in exile on the island of Corfu that around 12,000 volunteers had already gathered in and near Odessa, the unit was reorganized into a division, with Odessa as its temporary headquarters.
The Serbian government dispatched 130 people from Corfu to Odessa, including regimental, battalion and other unit commanders, administrative personnel, as well as a medical detachment. This group had to travel to Odessa via, Italy, France, Great Britain, Norway and Sweden. This was to satisfy international and legal standards; the Serbs had to demonstrate that, regardless where it was located and on which front it fought, the first Serbian Volunteer Division was unequivocally on the side of the Allied Powers; in this case subject to the Government of Serbia. The highest command posts were therefore entrusted to officers who were Serbian by citizenship as opposed to nationality. That the division, even without the influx of Serbian Army personnel already was 90% Serb by nationality did not matter; the key issue was legal precedent, and this procedure would have been followed regardless of the nationality mix in the division.
In May 1916, the Serbian volunteer division was subjected to high-level inspections . On May 16 (by the Gregorian calendar), Nikola Pašic, the Prime Minister of the Serbian Government, inspected the unit. He was followed by General Brusilov, the commanding officer of the Russian front, on May 21. Czar Nicholas II himself inspected the unit on May 22. The volunteers took new oaths to Serbian King Peter I Karadordevic the Liberator. The language of command was Serbian, and the unit followed official Serbian protocol. At the end of June 1916, the division received the colors of the former 2nd, 6th, 7th and 11th Serbian regiments in a ceremony in front of the Odessa cathedral. This was a signal to the entire world that the Russian government has officially formed volunteer units from foreign nationals, paving the way for the formation of volunteer units of nationalities that did not have independent countries, such as the future Czechoslovakia.
The First Serbian Volunteer Division contained a number of Czech and Slovak officers, non-commissioned officers and private soldiers since the Czecho-Slovaks did not yet have a unit of their own. When the formation of Czechoslovak regiments began in Kiev at the end of August 1916, the Czechs and Slovaks were given the option to transfer to them. A total of 86 Czech and Slovak non-commissioned officers and soldiers left the First Serbian Volunteer Division, which was then stationed in Reni, awaiting, with Russian units, Romania's entry into the war. Of the 75 Czech or Slovak officers in the Serbian division, none transferred to the new Czech-Slovak units, citing their reluctance to leave troops and comrades with whom they had trained and whom they now knew well. All 75 of these officers went with the Serb division to Dobruja, where they fought bravely, losing eight of their number. After the war, they were all awarded medals of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which were personally delivered to the survivors or to family members by general Stevan Hadžic, the former commander of the first Serbian volunteer division and Minister for War at the time.
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.
Bank of The Czech Legion, Legend of the Czar's Gold
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 (Legionárská 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 Porící" 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. 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 Legií) 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.
See also
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 Monographs, 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.
External links
- (pictures from the Czech Military History Museum; these photos are from a book published in the 1920s - the Soviets destroyed all the negatives)
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