The hostilities, which in May 1918 covered a significant territory of the Urals, the Volga region, Siberia and the Far East, are considered by many historians as the beginning of a full-scale Civil War, which then spread to most regions of Russia. The impetus for them was the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, formed during the First World War from captured Czechs and Slovaks, who expressed a voluntary desire to fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary. This episode of national history to this day causes a lot of controversy in scientific circles and gives rise to the most controversial statements.
Creation of the Czech squad
Before we move on to talking about the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, let us briefly dwell on the prerequisites for the formation of this military formation on the territory of the Russian Empire. The fact is that in the period preceding the First World War, the lands that originally belonged to the Czechs and Slovaks were under the rule of Austria-Hungary, and, taking advantage of the start of large-scale hostilities in Europe, they launched a wide nationalliberation struggle.
In particular, patriotic emigrants who lived on the territory of Russia, repeatedly turned to Nicholas I with requests for assistance in the liberation of their homeland from the invaders. At the end of 1914, meeting such wishes, the sovereign decided to create a special “Czech squad” from among them. It was she who became the forerunner of the Czechoslovak Corps formed in 1917, whose rebellion played the role of a spark in the powder keg of post-revolutionary Russia.
In 1915, the Czech squad, transformed into the regiment named after Jan Hus, numbered 2200 people and fought valiantly in Eastern Galicia. Its composition was actively replenished by defectors, as well as captured soldiers and officers of the Austro-Hungarian army. A year later, the regiment grew to the scale of a brigade with a total of 3,500 military personnel.
Allied Initiative
In the same period in Paris, a political organization called the Czechoslovak National Council (ČSNS) was created from among liberal-minded emigrants. This happened at the initiative of Russia's allies in the First World War, who feared its ever-increasing role in the formation of the Czechoslovak state.
The head of the council was a well-known emigrant activist - Tomas Masaryk, who was later elected the first president of Czechoslovakia. In addition to him, the leadership included such prominent political figures as General of the French Army Milan Stefanik (Czech by nationality), astronomer Josef Dyurich,Edvard Benes (who also later became president) and a number of other well-known persons at that time.
The Council headed by them will play an important role in the fate of the Czechoslovak Corps, but this will be discussed below. Now we note that, striving to create an independent Czechoslovak state, its members from the first days began to seek permission from the governments of the Entente countries to form their own army and include national armed formations in it, regardless of which side they fought on.
In a difficult situation
After the February Revolution of 1917, the military personnel of the Czechoslovak Corps stationed in Russia expressed their loy alty to the Provisional Government, which called for continuing the war until victory, which was in their interests. However, after the October armed coup, they found themselves in a difficult situation - the Bolsheviks, as you know, sought to conclude peace with their former enemies. This led to a conflict that culminated a few months later in an open rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps.
Statement by the President of France
In the very first days after the seizure of power, the Bolshevik government received from the Czechoslovak military an assurance of neutrality and non-interference in the political events that engulfed the country. Nevertheless, part of their soldiers stationed in Kyiv supported the junkers during street battles with detachments of workers, which served as a pretext for distrust of the entire corps and the escalation of the conflict. With a certain degree of convention, thesethe events are usually called the 1st rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, although only a small number of servicemen took up arms then.
Members of the Czechoslovak National Council (ČSNS), the same émigré organization mentioned above, added fuel to the fire. At their request, French President Poincare recognized the corps, formed from their compatriots and then located in the South of Russia, as a foreign legion of the French army and issued a statement demanding its immediate transfer to Europe.
Background to the Czechoslovak uprising of 1918
The demands of the French authorities could serve as a peaceful solution to the conflict, but events began to unfold in a different direction. The main difficulty was that for their execution it was necessary to move about 40 thousand legionnaires across the territory of Russia, who categorically refused to disarm, and this was fraught with the most unpredictable consequences.
At the same time, the situation that preceded the outbreak of the Civil War contributed to the desire of the opposing forces to attract such a large military contingent to their side and prevent it from leaving Russia. Both the Bolsheviks, who created the Red Army in those days, and the White Guards, hastily flocking to the Don, tried to persuade the Czechs and Slovaks to participate in the upcoming battles on their side. The governments of the Entente countries also prevented their evacuation, realizing that, once in Europe, the legionnaires would inevitably oppose them.
In pre-storm conditions
Foreign servicemen themselves tried with all their might to leave Russia, but without fail with weapons in their hands to continue the national liberation struggle they had begun. On their way, they met opposition from various political forces, aggravated by the hostile attitude towards them from the local population. Such a situation served to escalate tension in their ranks and, as a result, provoked the Czechoslovak uprising in May 1918.
The beginning of the uprising
The detonator of the events that followed was a seemingly insignificant incident - a domestic conflict between the legionnaires stationed in Chelyabinsk and the captured Hungarians who were there. Started over a trifle, it ended in bloodshed and led to the fact that several of its participants were arrested by the city authorities. Considering this an attempt to prevent their departure, the legionnaires decided to break with the new government and break through to their homeland by force. The Bolsheviks continued to insist on their complete disarmament.
At that time, the Red Army was still being created, there was no one to seriously counter the rebels. At the first attempt to disarm them, made on May 18, 1918, active resistance followed and blood was shed, marking the beginning of the Czechoslovak uprising and the Civil War, the fire of which began to spread with unprecedented speed.
Military successes of the rebels
In a short time, in the hands of the rebels and the opponents of Soviet power who joined them, there were suchlarge cities like Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk and Zlatoust. A little later they captured Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Kurgan and Tomsk. As a result of the fighting that broke out near Samara, the way through the Volga was opened. In addition, government troops suffered heavy losses in the territories adjacent to the Trans-Siberian. Along this entire railroad, the Bolshevik organs of power were abolished, and provisional committees of self-government took their place.
Legionnaires turned marauders
However, their military success was short-lived. Very soon, having suffered a series of crushing defeats from units of the Red Army, which by that time had completed the main stage of its formation, the participants in the Czechoslovak uprising were forced to leave the positions they had won earlier, which, however, they did not try to hold.
By this time, their actions, which were previously of a political nature, acquired a clearly criminal color. The echelons in which the legionnaires tried to go further to the rear were filled with goods stolen from the civilian population, and with their atrocities in the occupied territories they surpassed even Kolchak's executioners. According to historical data, the rebels took with them at least 300 trains of various valuables.
The way to the east
It is known that, taking into account the situation that had developed by that time on the fronts of the Civil War, the legionnaires had only two ways out of Russia. The first - through Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, but it was fraught with the risk of becoming a target for German submarines and ending up on the seabed along withall trophies. The participants of the Czechoslovak rebellion refused it and preferred the second one - through the Far East. This route, for all the inconvenience associated with its length, was less dangerous.
Along the railway, along which the echelons of legionnaires were moving east, Kolchak's troops, defeated by parts of the Red Army, retreated in the same direction - it was an endless stream of people, exhausted from hunger and a long transition. Their attempts to seize the wagons inevitably ended in fierce firefights.
It is curious to note that, moving towards the harbors of the Far East, the legionnaires captured eight echelons that were at the personal disposal of Kolchak, leaving him only one wagon. It is assumed that at the same time they also had a gold reserve in their hands, about the fate of which a variety of assumptions were subsequently made. They held the Supreme Ruler himself hostage for some time, and in 1920 they handed him over to the Soviet authorities in exchange for sea vessels provided for their dispatch.
Departure spanning a year
The departure of legionnaires from the ports of the Far East dragged on for almost a year due to their large number. At the beginning of the Czechoslovak uprising, the number of its participants was approximately 76.5 thousand people. And even taking into account the fact that about 4 thousand of them, according to statistics, died in battle or died of disease, the sailors had to take out a huge number of people.
