Radola Gajda

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Radola Gajda
Radola Gajda's grave. The recording was made in 2003.

Radola Gajda (actually Rudolf Geidl , born February 14, 1892 in Kotor ; † April 15, 1948 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak officer who fought in the Czechoslovak legions on the side of the White Army in the Russian Civil War against the Soviets.

Life

Gajda was the son of an Austro-Hungarian officer and a Montenegrin noblewoman. Even an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, he was captured in 1915 and switched sides. First a member of the Montenegrin Army, he later fought as a member of the Czechoslovak Legions on the side of the White Army in the Russian Civil War against the Soviets. As the youngest general of the Czechoslovak legions, he achieved great fame. He proved himself in the Battle of Zborów in July 1917 , commanded parts of the unit when the Trans-Siberian Railway took over in 1918 and even commanded an army of Kolchak in his 1919 campaign.

Interwar period

After his return, however, his popularity seemed to be a hindrance to him, because after a few years in his home country he again caused a sensation. He was charged with subversive activities and espionage for the Soviet Union in Czechoslovakia , despite being a radical anti-communist himself . Disappointed by the civil society, the highly decorated turned Major General the fascism to. In 1925 he founded the National Fascist Society ( Národní obec fašistická ), which was built on the model of the party of Benito Mussolini and was incorporated into the Party of National Unity ( Strana národní jednoty ) in the Second Republic . With his movement, Gajda represented a strongly anti-German and at the same time anti-Jewish position. In 1927/28 there were several trials. In 1929 Gajda was finally demoted to a soldier and dishonorably discharged from the army . In January 1933, a few days before Hitler came to power in Germany, Gajda and his movement carried out an unsuccessful fascist putsch in the Brno district of Židenice (Schimitz).

Period of occupation and World War II

On March 15, 1939, the day of the German annexation of the Czech Republic , Gajda contacted General Eccard von Gablenz in Prague, introduced himself to him as chairman of the Czech National Committee and promised him loyalty and cooperation. After an intervention by President Hácha , who explained to the German representatives that Gajda and his committee had not enjoyed his trust, contacts between Germans and the Národní souručenství organization ended . During the occupation in World War II , Gajda was detained by the Gestapo on suspicion of engaging in subversive activities. After the country was liberated by the Red Army , he was imprisoned again by the NKVD on May 12, 1945 and lost his eyesight during interrogation. In April 1947, prosecutor Josef Urválek demanded a life sentence during his trial for “promoting fascism and Nazism” . However, he only received a two-year prison term and was subsequently released from prison for a short time. Penniless and forgotten, he died a few months later.

His grave in the Olšany Cemetery in Prague was devastated in April 2007.

Works

  • Moje paměti: Generál ruských legií R. Gajda. Československá anabase zpět na Urál proti bolševikům Admirál Kolčak. 4. vydání, Jota, Brno 1996, ISBN 978-80-7217-584-0 ( Czech ).

literature

  • Jozef Duchoň: Rozprávanie o podivných osudoch generála Gajdu . In: Košický večer of January 5, 2001 (Slovak).
  • Antonín Klimek , Petr Hofman: Vítěz, který prohrál. Generál Radola Gajda . Paseka, Praha 1995, ISBN 80-7185-033-0 ( Czech ).
  • František Elector: Radola Gajda - Rudolf Geidl. Legenda a Skutečnost . Albatros, Praha 1926 ( Czech ).
  • Konstantin W. Sakharow (Sakharow): The Czech legions in Siberia . Volk und Reich, Berlin 1930 (Reprint Dolz, Munich 1995).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gajda, Radola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geidl, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak general
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Kotor
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1948
Place of death Prague