Czechoslovak legions

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A kind of logo of the legions

The Czechoslovak Legions , Czech (also in the plural) Československé legie (more rarely also called the Voluntary Revolutionary Army or later the Czechoslovak Army Abroad ), were military volunteer associations formed from Czechs and Slovaks during the First World War , which were set up in France, Italy and Russia, around on pages the Entente to fight against the Central Powers ; their strength was about 140,000 soldiers. The best known in the German-speaking world are the “Czechoslovak Legions in Russia”, less because of their role in the First World War than in the Russian Civil War .

The establishment of this foreign army, later the Czechoslovak legions , was part of a strategy of the exiled politicians under the leadership of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik , which was supported by foreign Czechs and Slovaks and the achievement of independence from Austria-Hungary and the Recognition as a sovereign and independent state.

The Czechoslovak Legions later formed the core of the new Czechoslovak Army .

designation

The designation Československé legie (Czechoslovak legions, German but not correctly in the singular) did not establish itself until the end of the First World War or in the post-war period. In the time before, people mostly talked about revoluční dobrovolná vojska (voluntary revolutionary armed forces ) or zahraniční československá vojska (Czechoslovak foreign armed forces ). The name Czechoslovak Legions referred to the entire associations of the legions as a whole as well as to the individual military associations in the three countries where the Czechoslovak legions were officially recognized and fought (Russia, France, Italy).

The Bolsheviks also referred to the legionary units operating in the Russian Civil War as the White Czechs because of their partisanship for the White Army .

These associations from the time of the First World War should not be confused with the Legie Čechů a Slováků from 1939. The Legie Čechů a Slováků , German Legion of the Czechs and Slovaks , also Československá legie (Czechoslovakian Legion) or Česká a slovenská legie (Czech and Slovak Legion, Polish Legion Czechów i Słowaków ), was founded in Poland in April 1939 and consisted of soldiers and pilots of the Czechoslovak Army who fled to Poland after the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . They fought together with the Polish Army during the German Wehrmacht invasion of Poland in 1939.

Overview and history

Legions

The military units and associations of the Czechoslovak resistance against the rule of the Habsburgs and for the independence of Czechoslovakia were gradually founded from 1914. The basis of the legions was created in 1914 in the tsarist army in Russia and France.

  • Czechoslovak legions in Russia
As early as 1914, the first volunteer units were formed who joined the Russian army, which was then still the tsarist army. As the forerunners of the legions, they were combined in the association called Česká družina and initially fought on the front as part of the Russian army. After her remarkable victory in the Battle of Zborów in July 1917, President Masaryk was able to negotiate with the Bolshevik leadership to further expand the legions in Russia.
Czechoslovak legionaries in the French barracks in Reuilly, July 1918
  • Czechoslovak legions in France
In France, too, Czech and Slovak volunteers from France, but also from Switzerland and England, registered for the Foreign Legion as early as 1914 , where the independent company (and later battalion) called Nazdar was formed. The associations of the Czechoslovak legions in France then emerged from it.
  • Czechoslovak legions in Italy
The formation of the Czech and Slovak prisoners of war into independent associations did not take place until 1917, and their official recognition did not take place until April 1918.

The individual regiments of the legions were designated as follows: In Russia starting with 1, in France with 21 and in Italy with 31. In the course of the war, a total of around 130,000 soldiers joined these army formations of the Czechoslovak legions (including volunteers in Allied armies) including about 61,000 in the legions in Russia, 9,600 in the legions in France, and 20,000 in the legions in Italy.

Other combat units

In addition to these units, which formed the Czechoslovak legions, the following army formations of Czech and Slovak volunteers should be mentioned:

  • Czechoslovak volunteers in Serbia
A few Czech and Slovak volunteers joined the Serbian army as early as the summer of 1914, were first assigned to various units of the army and took part in battles with the Austrian army; After the Serbian front collapsed in autumn 1915, the 1st Serbian Voluntary Division was established in Odessa in early 1916, which also included around 600 Czechs and Slovaks. In this context, however, they never talked about the Czechoslovak legions .
  • Československá domobrana v Itálii
Československá domobrana v Itálii (German about Czechoslovak Home Defense in Italy), also called "druhá" armáda (second army), were made up of Czech and Slovak prisoners of war. These combat units did not come into existence until October 28, 1918 (the establishment of Czechoslovakia), which meant that the soldiers were no longer bound by their oath to the Austrian army.

In addition, many Czechoslovaks were volunteers in other participating armies: there were around 32,000 soldiers in the French and US armies alone.

France

Preissig's military poster in favor of the army in France

In France, too, Czech and Slovak volunteers from France, but also from Switzerland and England, registered for the Foreign Legion as early as 1914 , so that an independent company (and later battalion) called Nazdar was formed there on 23 August 1917 could. The associations of the Czechoslovak legions in France were formed from it. From mid-1917 about 4,000 volunteers came on adventurous routes from the Serbian theater of war, about 1,100 men from Russia and about 2,500 from the USA . A major step forward was an agreement - signed by the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and von Beneš for the Czechoslovak National Council - to set up the Czechoslovak National Army as an autonomous association within the French armed forces. The prisoner of war camps, from which numerous volunteers volunteered for the legions, also formed a reservoir.

One of the most famous successes was the company's participation in the Battle of Arras , which began on May 9, 1915. The Foreign Legion Company Nazdar , consisting of Czech and Slovak volunteers, was deployed in the fighting over the Vimy hill north of Arras and suffered heavy losses. Another well-known battle in which the units of the Czechoslovak Legion in France took part was the Battle of Poix-Terron (October 18-22, 1918)

Italy

In January 1917, a Czech volunteer corps was set up in a POW camp in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Italy . First, it formed labor battalions, from March 1918 a division strong task force , which under the command of General Andrea Graziani , among others, in the Battle of the Piave was used. A treaty was concluded on this in April 1918, which for the first time became valid under international law.

Russia

Russia was the main area of ​​operation for the legions. The Moscow Czechs submitted a project for a Czechoslovak volunteer force to the Russian government on August 4, 1914, which was approved in August. In the same month the formation of Czech units began in the Kiev military district . The Česká družina (Czech Guard, Czech Allegiance) formed its own units as an integrated part of the Russian tsarist army , which by the end of the year comprised around 1000 men. Czech prisoners of war from the Austro-Hungarian army have not yet been accepted.

The further expansion met with resistance from the Russian military, but a rifle brigade of around 5,700 men was formed with prisoners of war by the end of 1916. After the February Revolution of 1917 and negotiations between Czechoslovak politicians in exile such as Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , the military council of the now provisional Russian government ordered the organization of a Czechoslovak army.

At the end of June 1917 the legions took part in the Kerensky offensive , achieved a surprise success in the Battle of Zborów despite being inferior and led 3000 mostly Czech soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian Army into captivity. The construction was now driven forward rapidly, so that by the end of 1917 a Czechoslovak army corps with two divisions as well as support and supply troops with a strength of approx. 35,000 men had been built. According to other sources, the legions are said to have comprised between 50,000 and 60,000 men in early 1918.

Legionaries who were captured by the Austro-Hungarian Army were to be executed as traitors. Executions are documented on the Italian and Russian fronts.

October Revolution 1917

Soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legions in Siberia

The Russian October Revolution fundamentally changed the situation of the legions. The country fell into chaos, the Soviets initially only acted locally and regionally; some of them refused access to the Council of People's Commissars and the interim government made up of Bolsheviks and left-wing Social Revolutionaries . In view of the collapse of the tsarist army, the legions now obtained supplies by forcible requisitions .

The decree on peace of October 26th jul. / November 8, 1917 greg. accordingly, the Bolsheviks conducted peace negotiations with Germany, which in March 1918 led to the peace of Brest-Litovsk . The Czechoslovak legions saw themselves as a force of the Triple Entente , which was ready to continue the fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Masaryk managed, in association with representatives of the Entente and the Bolsheviks, to conclude an agreement in which the Bolsheviks assured the legions of armed neutrality and free withdrawal from Russia to France. There it should be incorporated into the western front .

Considerations about the route of departure led to the decision to travel through Asian Russia with the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific coast and from there by ship via the USA to France. The central Russian areas, which should have been crossed on the way to the west or to the White Sea , were under the control of the Bolsheviks. A transport in small, controllable contingents was agreed, which should only carry weapons and ammunition as for the security service. Instead, the Czechoslovaks filled the trains with more than 1,000 men each, hidden machine guns and took as much ammunition as possible.

The transport began, and by April and May 1918 the entire legions had spread out from Penza to Vladivostok over a distance of over 9,000 km. In between stood Bolshevik troops or international military units, mostly Hungarians or Germans prisoners of war. On the way, the Czechoslovaks also took in scattered White Guards, whereby the legions grew to over 90,000 men. They were increasingly anti-Bolshevik.

On May 14, 1918 an incident occurred in the Urals in the city of Chelyabinsk , which caused the new war commissioner Leon Trotsky to forbid the march and to order the violent disarmament of the Czechoslovaks. They resisted, and on the night of May 25, their uprising began.

Then began the fighting over the railway line. Within two weeks, the legions took possession of a section from the central Volga (Penza, Kazan ) to Irkutsk on Lake Baikal and by September the entire stretch to Vladivostok. Due to the interruption of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the supply of the Red Army with goods from Siberia was severely disrupted. The Red Army was at war in the west against the newly established Poland , against the White Army under Anton Denikin in the Black Sea region and against the intervention powers Great Britain and France, which had landed in the Arkhangelsk region . As a consequence, the legions deviated from their absolute neutrality in the Russian disputes - an essential principle of Masaryk. From June 1918, the legions also publicly viewed themselves as a vanguard of Western and Japanese intervention troops in Russia. They now acted as the spearhead of the Allied intervention forces and the white counter-revolution. However, according to some historians, the turn against the Bolsheviks was not ideological. The legions hoped it would give them a better chance of survival. Bolsheviks and Czechoslovaks probably felt threatened by one another. At the 2nd Congress of Delegates of the Legions, a minority of the Czechoslovaks joined the Bolsheviks.

retreat

Czechoslovak legions in Siberia (Russia), 1918

After the conquest of Kazan, the limits of the legions became apparent. The population was extremely reserved, the workers sympathized with the Bolsheviks, the appearance of the legions and whites was provocative and sometimes cruel. At the same time, Trotsky's measures in the renewal of the Red Army showed initial success, so that it could now take an offensive along the Kama and Volga. From the beginning of September 1918, the legions therefore had to break free from their clutches with heavy losses and withdraw completely from the Volga regions towards the east.

The troop, which had been so successful so far, fell into crisis. In November, the Russian Admiral Alexander Kolchak against the moderate nationalist conservative white government in Omsk coup , several officers went over to him, the legions themselves but distanced themselves publicly from his regime. Their commander, who later became Prime Minister Jan Syrový , resigned supreme command of the entire white front, and on February 1, 1919 he became the commander of the Czechoslovak Army in Russia, which emerged from the Česká družina on January 7, 1919 and which became part of the Czechoslovak Home Army understanding.

In Russia, the Czechoslovak army comprised around 60,000 men at the beginning of 1919, divided into three divisions of four regiments each, a replacement regiment, two cavalry regiments, three light artillery regiments and three heavy artillery battalions, a railway artillery battery, a small aircraft unit and a large number of supply and supply units technical troops.

From the beginning of 1919 the legions began withdrawing in sections towards Irkutsk and accompanied the withdrawal of Kolchak's army. After the collapse of the white front, they only fought for self-defense. They carried most of the Tsar's gold with them. In early 1920, a treaty with the Soviets regulated unhindered onward transport to Vladivostok. At the same time, the commander-in-chief of the Allied intervention forces in Siberia, Maurice Janin , placed Kolchak under the "Allied protection" of the legions. In return for free withdrawal, the Czechoslovak legions in Irkutsk received 30 wagons of coal and handed over the white military leader, Admiral Kolchak, to the Bolsheviks who executed him.

The first ship left Vladivostok on January 15, 1920, the last on September 2, and the soldiers of this transport reached Prague on November 20, 1920 . In total, over 60,000 legionaries left the civil war country.

losses

630 Czechoslovak legionaries died on the French front and 350 on the Italian front. For these two parts of the legion, higher figures are sometimes given, since French and Italian legionaries who died after November 1918 in the border wars of Czechoslovakia against Hungary and Poland were taken into account. The number of deaths on the Russian front and in Siberia up to 1920 is given as 4112.

Significance of the legions for the establishment of Czechoslovakia

The successes of the fighting units of the Czechoslovak legions, be it in the Battle of Zborów , Battle of Bachmatsch , Battle of Doss Alto or others, made it possible to achieve international recognition of the right to create an independent Czechoslovak state. When a unit of the Czechoslovak Legions was transferred to the front in Alsace at the end of June 1918, the French Foreign Minister solemnly declared that it was an independent unit of the Czech-Slovak army and that France recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as the basis for the next Czechoslovak government. His British counterpart announced that Britain regarded the Czechoslovaks as an allied nation and recognized the three Czechoslovak armies in Russia, France and Italy as the only army waging war against the Central Powers. At the beginning of September 1918, the United States of America also joined this and recognized the Czechoslovak National Council de facto as the Czechoslovak government. The way to the establishment of Czechoslovakia was clear.

literature

  • David Bullock: The Czech Legion 1914-20. Osprey, Oxford 2008 ISBN 978-1-84603-236-3 .
  • Richard G. Plaschka : Odvanzo and Piazza Venezia. On the establishment of Czechoslovak volunteer associations in Italy during the First World War. In: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 29, 1987, ISSN  0080-3790 , pp. 459-475.
  • Konstantin W. Sakharow: The Czech legions in Siberia . Hendriock, Berlin 1930, (Writings of the Political College) , (Reprint: Konstantin V. Sacharov: The Czech Legions in Siberia . Edited by Willi Kahlich. Dolz, Munich et al. 1995, (Historical reprints) ).
  • Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1970, ( Marburger Ostforschungen 30, ISSN  0542-6537 ), (At the same time dissertation at the University of Mainz , 1967).

Remarks

  1. ↑ In various other sources, however, numbers of up to 250,000 soldiers can be found (for example in Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig: Taschenlexikon CSSR , Leipzig 1983, p. 241) - but they obviously also take into account soldiers who did not belong directly to the Czechoslovak legions.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Českoslovenští legionáři v Rusku, 1917 , publication of the Vojenský historický ústav (Military History Institute VHÚ) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, online at: vhu.cz / ...
  2. ↑ Institute marksizma-leninizma (ed.): VI Lenin. Biography . Dietz, Berlin (East) 1976, p. 591.
  3. ↑ Jiří Plachý: Krakov, 30. dubna 1939. Zahraniční vojenská skupina československá v Polsku , publication of the ÚSTR Institute , online at: ustrcr.cz / ...
  4. ↑ Markéta Bernatt-Reszczyńská: Před 80 lety začala 2. světová válka, na straně Polska bojovali pouze Češi , report of the portal Paměť národa of August 30, 2019, online at: pametnaroda.cz / ...
  5. ↑ a b c d Československé legie v letech 1918 - 1920 , publication of the Vojenský historický ústav VHÚ (Military History Institute) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, online at: vhu.cz / ...
  6. ↑ Jak vznikly ruské legie , publication of the publishing house and portal Codyprint, online at: www.codyprint.cz / ...
  7. ↑ a b Zdeněk Špitálník: Prapor 2. pochodového pluku 1. pluku cizinecké legie , publication of the Vojenský historický ústav VHÚ (Military History Institute) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, online at: vhu.cz / ...
  8. ↑ a b c d e f (Čsl. Legie) , publication by the publisher and portal Codyprint, online at: codyprint.cz / ...
  9. ↑ Pavel J. Kuthan: Bitva u doss Alto (1918) , material from the Památník Čestná vzpomínka portal, online (archived) at: pamatnik.valka.cz / ...
  10. ↑ a b c Tomáš Jakl: bitva u Zborova , publication of the Vojenský historický ústav VHÚ (Military History Institute) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, online at: vhu.cz / ...
  11. ↑ Pavel J. Kuthan: V těžkých dobách , material of the portal Válkas.cz, online at: valka.cz / ...
  12. ↑ Ferdinand Nečas , in: Internetová encyklopedie dějin Brna (Encyclopedia of the City of Brno), online at: encyklopedie.brna.cz / ...
  13. ↑ Milan Mojžíš: Československé legie 1914-1920 , 2nd edition, Nakladatelství Epocha, Prague 2017, ISBN 978-80-87919-27-9 . P. 7.
  14. ^ A b Emil Strauss: The emergence of the Czechoslovak Republic. Prague 1934, p. 94f.
  15. ^ Edvard Beneš: The revolt of the nations. The World War and the Czechoslovak Revolution. Berlin 1928, p. 114f.
  16. ^ Karl Bosl: Handbook of the history of the Bohemian lands. Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 361-363.
  17. ↑ May 9, 1915 Bitva u Arrasu československých legionářů , online at: lovecpokladu.cz / ...
  18. ↑ Slavné bitvy čs. legií - bitva u Terronu , portal of the Českoslovenká obec legionářská, online at: csol.cz / ...
  19. ↑ Richard G. Plaschka: Odvanzo and Piazza Venezia. On the establishment of Czechoslovak volunteer associations in Italy during the First World War. In: Roman historical communications. 29: 459-475 (1987).
  20. ^ A b Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 17–21 and p. 23.
  21. ↑ David Golinkow: Fiasco of a counter-revolution. The failure of anti-Soviet conspiracies in the USSR. Dietz, Berlin 1982, pp. 133f.
  22. ↑ Vladimir Petrowitsch Potjomkin (Ed.): History of Diplomacy, Volume Two (Die Diplomatie der Neuzeit, 1872-1919). Berlin / Leipzig 1948, p. 454.
  23. ↑ Ernst Hanisch , Herwig Wolfram (Ed.): 1890–1990. The long shadow of the state. Austrian social history in the 20th century. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1994 ISBN 3-8000-3520-0 , p. 15.
  24. ^ Tomas Masaryk: The world revolution. Memories and reflections 1914–1918. Berlin 1925, p. 184.
  25. ^ Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legions in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Wiesbaden 1970, p. 31.
  26. ↑ Vladimir Petrowitsch Potjomkin (Ed.): History of Diplomacy, Volume Two (Die Diplomatie der Neuzeit, 1872-1919). Berlin / Leipzig 1948, pp. 453f.
  27. ^ Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legions in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 46-48.
  28. ^ TG Masaryk: The world revolution. Memories and reflections 1914–1918. Berlin 1925, p. 199
  29. ↑ Peter Broucek: Military Resistance. Studies on the Austrian state sentiment and Nazi defense. Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 3-205-77728-X , p. 211.
  30. ^ Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 65-67.
  31. ^ Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 90-92.
  32. ↑ a b John Francis Nejez Bradley: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914-1920. Boulder / Columbia University Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-88033-218-2 , p. 156.
  33. ^ Oswald Kostrba-Skalicky: Armed powerlessness. The Czechoslovak Army 1918–1938. In: Karl Bosl (Ed.): The First Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , pp. 439-528, here: pp. 444f.

Web links

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