Czechoslovak Legion Coat of Arms.
Source: Wikipedia Commons

They were men without their own country, living split up among not one, but two mighty empires. When the Great War came and those empires began to crumble, those men took up arms in the struggle, and fought so that one day they too would have their own nation. These were the men of the Czechoslovak Legions. First, this is not about Czechs and Slovaks during and before the war and how their nation came to be. This is about those men actually fighting the war, and how the Legions themselves came to be. Who were these men? They were Czechs and Slovaks fighting in France, Italy, Russia, and even volunteering in Serbia. Why Legion? Since Czechoslovakia did not yet exist, these volunteers, not allowed to fight in the regular armies, fought in units that were officially part of the French Foreign Legion, that’s who also paid them.

The Czech situation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not ideal before the war. They hadn’t received the recognition that Hungary did. Even though they were the industrial heart of the empire and its third largest nationality. Also, the largest Slavic one and Slavs were half the empire. The Bohemian crown lands were actually as well-developed as Germany or France were, unlike much of Austria-Hungary, so morale was fairly low among the Czechs when the war broke out. With the outbreak of war, that meant that soon they were fighting fellow Slavs and even Czechs and Slovaks in the Entente nations. Those men in those Entente nations weren’t yet Czechoslovak Legions but they’re worth mentioning - those volunteers in Serbia, the Rota Nazdar in France, and the Ceska Druzhina in Russia.

Rota Nazdar: the first Czechoslovak military unit operating in France, was formed on August 31st, 1914. Though recruitment had begun a week earlier. It consisted of 341 Czech and 2 Slovak volunteers, who became an integrated company in a Moroccan Division of the French Foreign Legion. In June 1915 at Arras, they suffered huge casualties and the company was disbanded and dispersed among other Foreign Legion regiments, however, they had laid the foundations for independent Czechoslovak armed forces. Over the next couple of years, Tomáš Masaryk, future Czechoslovakian President, and General Milan Štefánik began to organize Czech and Slovak troops in France. In addition to this, whole units reported from Russia and Romania, and American Czechs and Slovaks arrived beginning in 1917. French President Raymond Poincaré signed the decree that allowed autonomous Czechoslovak units within the French army in December 1917, and the 21st and 22nd Rifle Regiments were soon established, forming the 1st Czechoslovakian Brigade, which fought over the summer of 1918 on the Western Front.

Red Dot: Battle of Caporetto
Blue Dot: Battle of Arras
Violet Dot: Battle of Zboriv

Typical uniform worn by Czechs and Slovaks on the Italian front

In Italy the situation was different. The Italian army did not easily warm to the idea of Czechoslovak Legions. Before the war, there had only been a few hundred Czechs and Slovaks living in Italy, far fewer than were in France or Russia. For Italy to commit to the formation of a Czechoslovak legion would mean committing to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and initially, Italy only wanted land from The Austro-Hungarian Empire, not the end of the empire. Many of the POWs that Italy took were Czechs and Slovaks. By January 1917 there were Italian POW camps by nationality. During that same month the Czechoslovak Corps of Volunteers was created. These men were at first used as scouts for the Italian army, since they spoke German or Hungarian, and they knew Austro-Hungarian tactics. They were great for gathering intelligence, though they didn’t have autonomous units in Italy until after the Italian defeat at Caporetto and intense negotiations. In April 1918, Czechoslovak Military Forces in Italy were approved. By the end of the summer, there were over 13,000 soldiers and over 480 officers in the Legion, and the division saw heavy fighting at the front. Just after the war, the Czechoslovak Army Corps in Italy was formed, to fight for its new nation’s territorial integrity. Also, the Czechoslovakian National Guard was created there from former POWs just after an independent Czechoslovakia was recognized. It was 60,000 troops strong, still going home in 1919.

In Russia, over 100,000 Czechs and Slovaks were already living there before the war, many had Russian citizenship. At the very beginning of the war, those who wished to fight against Austria-Hungary formed Ceska Druzhina, which would become the base for the future Legion there. They never operated as a whole unit, and were tasked with small attacks, getting enemy information, and convincing Czechs and Slovaks on the battlefield and in POW camps to change sides. There were also around hundreds of Czech and Slovak volunteers in the Serb volunteer Corps in Odessa. They wore Serbian uniforms and were under Serbian regulations.

By 1916, since the Serbs had no plans for the Czechoslovak troops to have independent units, a majority of them left to join the Czechoslovak Rifle Brigade that formed in the Russian army that May. They wanted independent units with the belief that fighting for the Allies would get them support for their national aspirations. The problem with that had been that those who were still legally Austro-Hungarian citizens were breaking the 1907 Hague Convention and were technically traitors. The Tsar in particular, though he appreciated their bravery, saw them as traitors to a brother monarch and was a supporter of the Hague Convention, hence his hesitation to have volunteer forces of foreign nationals in his army. Masaryk argued that just the willingness to fight against the Central powers demonstrated loyalty, and that since the Central Powers used poison gas and unrestricted submarine warfare the Hague Convention was broken, and the Entente could legally use Czechoslovakian soldiers against their former nations.

Czech Troops in Russia, Circa 1918
Source: Wikipedia Commons

The greatest moment for the Czechoslovak Legions advancing their cause was the fighting of the 1st Czechoslovak Rifle Brigade at the Battle of Zborov in July 1917. 3,500 men under Russian Colonel Trojanov were in the trenches holding a 6 kilometer/3.7-mile line opposite a force of largely Czechs and Slovaks in the Austro-Hungarian army. On July 2nd, the second day of the new Kerensky Offensive, the Legionaries attacked as shock troops. They breached the barbed wire, advanced deep into enemy territory, and took four lines of trenches, 3,300 prisoners, and 20 big guns that day. That’s about as many prisoners as their whole unit’s size. Legion losses for the day were just 167 killed and around 900 wounded. This battle meant little for the war in general but was a real milestone in legion history. The brigade gained international attention, and the battle did wonders for new recruiting, and for Masaryk’s negotiating position.

An enlargement of the brigade followed and by October 1917 the Czechoslovak Army Corps was formed with two divisions and two artillery brigades. There were so many volunteers they even had a reserve brigade and a shock battalion. Soon Masaryk had set up an autonomous Czechoslovak Corps of more than 50,000 soldiers. This was declared part of the autonomous Czechoslovak Army, headquartered in France, in February 1918.

However, the Russian Legion was going to have a hard time making its way to Western Europe. Ukraine signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers on February 9th, and after Russia did the same the following month, it was too dangerous for the Legion to head to Archangel or Murmansk in the north, they couldn’t go west or south without reaching enemies, so they had to head east. This would mean crossing Siberia to reach Vladivostok and then around the world to fight in France… and that is where we will hold for now. The tale of the Czechoslovak Legion crossing Russia will be another time. This might be the most exciting part of the Legion’s adventure. But in order to get there, we had to start here, with the origins of the Czechoslovak Legions and their actions in the First World War.

Until next time.

Appendix

Entente Nations - The Triple Entente describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between Paris and London, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907.
Tomáš Masaryk - was a Czechoslovak politician, statesman, sociologist, and philosopher.
Milan Štefánik - was a Slovak politician, diplomat, aviator and astronomer. During World War I, he served at the same time as a general in the French Army and as Minister of War for Czechoslovakia.
Raymond Poincaré - was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France.
1907 Hague Convention - The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Written by: Erick Johnson