The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/The Czechoslovak Armies

The Czechoslovak Armies.

The world little realizes even at this late day that when war broke out and Austria invaded Serbia, the attack was aimed at the Austrian subjects of Slav and Latin race just as much as at Serbia.

There had always been a strong realization of kinship between the Czechoslovaks, Serbs and Russians. During the Balkan wars the Czechoslovaks aided in all possible ways the anti-Turkish coalition, even by mutinying at the Austrian mobilization in 1912. And when it is recalled that bitter memories of oppression and loss of independence through German violence rankled in the hearts of the subject Slavs, it was to be expected that Czechoslovaks would desert from the Austro-Hungarian armies. Not from cowardice, but because fighting against Serbia and Russia was in their eyes high treason to their national ideals. The whole world knows now that these unwilling conscripts went over to the Serbians and Russians, and later to the Roumanians and Italians, in large numbers. How large, it is difficult to ascertain. Russian figures gave only the number of Austrian prisoners regardless of their racial relationship, but it is safe to say that the number of Czechoslovak prisoners of war in Russia alone exceeded 300,000.

The Czechoslovaks were not content to abandon the German side. They desired an opportunity to fight against their ancient enemy and to strike a blow for the freedom and independence of Bohemia. But to do so was far from easy. In Russia there had been formed at the very opening of the war volunteer detachments, composed of Czechoslovaks settled in Russia, but legally Austrian subjects. The first larger unit, numbering between 800 and 1000 men, called itself the Hussite Sharpshooters’ Brotherhood and rendered valuable services to the Russians by reconnaissance work for the armies campaigning in Galicia. This first Czechoslovak force got as far as Cracow in 1915. Very grudgingly the Russian Government gave permission to some of the captured or surrendered men to join the legion. During the year 1915 the Hussite Brotherhood grew into the First Czechoslovak regiment of John Hus, and later on there was organized the second regiment called John Žiška after the great Hussite general, and then the third, known as the regiment of George Poděbrad, the last king of Bohemia of Czech blood. During the winter of 1916–17 the Czechoslovak prisoners of war, scattered through internment camps in Siberia, through munition factories and farms, tried to get permission to join the fighting units, but the old government looked upon them as revolutionaries and the local authorities placed many obstacles in the way of these volunteers.

Kerensky himself was originally opposed to the creation of an army with a nationalistic, as against an internationalistic, program, but after the June offensive he changed his mind. At Zborov in Galicia the firstCzechoslovak brigade accomplished deeds of bravery and won successes that did away finally with the hesitation on the part of the provisional government. At that time there was in Kiev depot enough volunteers to organize a second brigade. The army grew rapidly into a division and then into an army corps. This is the army that has recently entered upon its heroic march of six thousand miles through a hostile country to reach the sea and be transported to France. Since they no longer could fight the Germans in Russia, they determined to reach the front where they could be used, and not merely thrown away in a last desperate stand, against their enemies. The last reports, now two months old, gave the number of these fighters at 60,000. But there was even then 50,000 more men enlisted who had not been able

By courtesy of Sokol Americky.

From the Czechoslovak Army in France.

Scenes from Czechoslovak victories in Galician during the last Russian offensive, June 1917.

on account of the disorganization of the railway traffic to join the army. The majority of them were in Siberia and it is certain that a large number have by this time succeeded in reaching their comrades. In fact it is known that many thousands of Roumanian prisoners of war from Siberia preferred to attach their fortunes to the disciplined Czechoslovak army and go with them to France. It is not far from truth to estimate the number of Czechoslovak soldiers strung all the way from the River Volga to the Pacific Ocean at one hundred thousand.

Just how the conflict arose between them and the Bolsheviki is not yet quite clear. The policy of the Czechoslovak Council, the political direction of which is followed by the army, has been to remain absolutely neutral in Russian internal affairs. It is for the Russians themselves to decide, what their government shall be and how they will achieve a stable rule. The only aim of the Czechoslovaks is to fight Austria-Hungary and Germany. In February of this year an agreement was reached between the Bolshevik authorities and Professor Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak National Council, that these troops would be allowed free and unmolested passage from Southern Russia to France by way of the Pacific, or by any other route that might be available. If the Bolsheviki violated this agreement at the inspiration of the Germans, as seems most likely, the Czechoslovak National Council is set free of its obligation, and its future tactics will be dictated according to the changed situation and the needs of the moment.

Not much has been said in the war reports of the fighting done by Czechoslovak volunteers, recruited from prisoners, in the Slav legion which operated in 1916–17 in Dobrudja in co-operation with the Roumanian army. Those of them who remained alive, together with some thousands of men who went over from the Austrian side to the Roumanians, have already been transported to France with a few hundred volunteers from Russia. These men were the foundation of the Czechoslovak army in France, augmented by volunteers from the United States and by drafted men of Czechoslovak race in France. Two of their regiments are now at the front.

The third Czechoslovak army is fighting on the Italian front. The number actually engaged with the Austrians is 18,000, but the army is still growing. This army is recruited from prisoners of war who had gone over to the Serbians in 1914 and who had retreated with the Serbians in the terrible march across the Albanian Mountains; out of 30,000 men only 18,000 reached the sea. They are also recruited from the Czechoslovak soldiers who are constantly pass ing from the Austrian lines to the Italian and who simply change their uniforms and fight again, this time in real earnest. For fighting is for these heroes a very serious matter. During the recent disastrous Austrian offensive 300 of the Czechoslovaks were captured, and the desperate Austrian authorities hoped to stop the practice of going over to the Italian side by hanging all three hundred. The Czechoslovak National Council has instructed their soldiers on the Italian front to proceed to reprisals, and the world may be prepared to hear soon of German and Magyar prisoners of war hanged by the Czechoslovaks. One may expect that the enraged comrades of the Czechoslovak victims will make special efforts to capture an Austrian general, and if at all within the range of possibility, a Hapsburg archduke, and show the blood thirsty tyrants that the game of hanging can be played by both sides.

If one could include the Bohemian and Slovak boys in the United States army, the number of the Czechoslovak fighters would be raised still higher. But counting only the men who stand under the orders of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia, France, Italy and even on the Macedonian front, there are 150,000 disciplined, devoted men, an army more numerous than that of Belgium or Serbia or Portugal, an army of fighters coming close after the American, English, French and Italian armies.

The significance of these troops is obvious. They mean that the Czechoslovak nation is in an armed revolt against Austria-Hungary, and that the Czechoslovaks have broken completely and finally with the Hapsburgs. But the significance goes further than that. An army is today the main attribute of sovereignty. We can imagine a state deprived by the enemy of all its territory; Belgium and Serbia control only a tiny strip of land, but they are still real states, because they have armies.

Once an army comes into being and becomes subject to central political control, a new government has come into existence. It follows that the new Czechoslovak state already exists, and that the Czechoslovaks are not merely revolutionists, but that they are waging war against Austria-Hungary under their own standards and as the allies of America and the Entente.

It remained for the Allies to give out ward recognition to this fact. Not only by recognizing the Czechoslovak National Council as a representative body of revolutionaries, but as the provisional government which it de facto is. The Czechoslovaks should be declared officially by the Allies to be co-belligerents and their armies given a status entitling the soldiers to the treatment of prisoners of war. The Council should be recognized as the actual government of an allied nation, for such a step would be the best possible guarantee that the Allies will not accept a compromise at the peace conference on the question of Bohemian independence.

France has taken this step. Let America follow.