Abstract
If we are to judge by the account T. G. Masaryk provides of his plans for the Czechoslovak Army Corps in Russia in Světova revoluce, his memoirs of his activities during the First World War, the matter was fairly straightforward. He went to Russia, he tells us,2 in May 1917 to organise a Czechoslovak army, and, in line with the agreement he had reached the previous year with the French government, that army was to be transferred to the Western front.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Much of the research used in this article, including that in the Archive of the Military History Institute in Prague, was carried out in the 1960s. I should like to express my gratitude to the British Council, which nominated me for a place on the exchange programme with Czechoslovakia and enabled me to carry out that research, and to those friends and scholars in Czechoslovakia who encouraged me in my efforts.
T. G. Masaryk, Světová revoluce. Za války ave valce 1914–1918 (Prague, 1925), pp. 194–5.
It is not my intention to impute to Masaryk any desire to distort the historical record. Unlike Beneš, he is not concerned to give a step-bystep account of his activities, and, in presenting an overall picture of his aims, the evolution of his policy, particularly as he responded to changing circumstances, is not always made clear.
See J. Křížek,;T. G. Masaryk a vystoupení cčeskoslovenských legií na jaře 1918’, in Československý časopis historický, vol. XIV, no, 5 (1966), p. 640. Among other works published in Czechoslovakia in the mid- 1960s and dealing in part with Masaryk and the Legion are two booklength studies int~nded for a popular audience: K. Pichlfk, V. Vávra and J. Křížek, Červenob ílá a rudá (Prague, 1967) and K. Pichlík, Zahraniční odboj 1914–1918. Bez Legend (Prague, 1968). The standard 1950s work on the Legíon was V. Vávra, Klamná cesta. Příprava a vznik protisovětského vystoupení čs. legií (Prague, 1958). The most recent study in English of Masaryk and the Legion is V. M. Fie, Revolutionary War for Independence and the Russian Question. Czechoslovak Army in Russia 1914–1918 (New Delhi, 1977), which covers the period up to the Corps’ departure from the Ukraine in March 1918. A second volume, The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion. The Origin of Their Armed Conflict, March to May 1918 (New Delhi, 1978) covers the outbreak of hostilities with the Soviet government.
H. A. Niessel, Le Triomphe des Bolchéviks et Ia Paix de Brest-Litovsk (Paris, 1940), p. 240.
Masaryk, Světová revoluce, p. 79.
E. Beneš, Světová válka a naše revoluce. Vzpomínky a úvahy z bojů za svobodu národa, vol. 1 (Prague, 1927), p. 181.
Ibid., pp. 126–30.
Ibid., p. 182.
Ibid., p. 194.
Ibid., p. 196.
Ibid., vol. m (Prague, 1928), pp. 573–4.
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 195.
Vávra, Klamná cesta, pp. 40––1; Fie, Revolutionary War, pp. 53–4.
On events at the congress, see Fie, Revolutionary War, pp. 55––60. The Subcommittee was divided into a number of commissions, including a presidial commission (dealing with policy matters) and a military commission.
In Masaryk’s eyes, 30 000 was a provisional figure which he hoped to see raised (See Světová revoluce, p. 196).
Vávra, Klamná cesta, pp. 59–60.
Masaryk, in Světová revoluce, p. 157, reports that Štefánik, newly returned from Russia, told him that senior Russian military officers believed ‘that the Russian soldiers’ advance against the Germans would now be stronger and more effective’.
Niessel, Le Triomphe des Bolchéviks, p. 13.
Fie, Revolutionary War, p. 75, reports that, independently of the Masaryk- Thomas agreement, two transports of around 400 men were organised, the first of which reached France in July 1917. The other left in October along with the first transport arranged as part of that agreement.
J. Kudela, S naším vojskem na Rusi, vol. 1., V době příprav (Prague, no date), p. 6. Kudela reports that the Corps grew to over 47 000 by May 1918.
P. Maxa (ed.), TGM: v boji za samostatnost (Prague, 1927), pp. 123––5.
Ibid., p. 123.
J. Papoušek (ed.), Masarykovy projevy za války, vol. 11 (Prague, 1920), pp. 171–3.
Archive of the Military History Institute, Prague, Archive of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris, Box 17, file 4, document no. 21, ‘Note sur le recrutement des Tcheques en Russie’, prepared by the French Ministry of War, 14 September 1917. This is one of a number of copies of documents concerning Czechoslovak matters which were sent routinely to Benes by the French Ministries of War and Foreign Affairs.
Pichlík, Zahraniční odboj, p. 269.
Maxa, TGM: v boji, pp. 125–30.
Beneš, Světová válka, vol. m, pp. 619–25.
Archive of the Military History Institute, Prague, Minutes of a joint meeting of the presidial and military commissions of the Subcommittee of the Czechoslovak National Council for Russia, Kiev, 24 January 1918 (11 January, Old Style).
Maxa, TGM: v boji, p. 126.
Papoušek, Masarykovy projevy, p. 43.
Maxa, TGM: v boji, p–. 127.
Masaryk, Světová revoluce, pp. 222ff.
Minutes of a meeting of the Subcommittee of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia, Kiev, 14 February 1918.
Minutes of a meeting of the Local Administrative Committee of the Subcommittee of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia, Piryatin, 4 March 1918. (This committee which included only available members of the Subcommittee was set up temporarily during the evacuation from the Ukraine.)
Minutes of a meeting of the Local Administrative Committee, Piryatin, 6 March 1918.
Masaryk, Světová revoluce, p. 231.
Minutes of a meeting of the presidial commission of the Russian Subcommittee, Kiev, 17 February 1918.
See Křížek, ‘T. G. Masaryk’, pp. 654–64, on Masaryk’s continued commitment to the Corps’ transfer to France until late July 1918.
Archive of the Military History Institute, Prague. Letter from Beneš to Masaryk, 28 July 1918 (in the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris archive, Box 3, file 5, document no. 7).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 School of Slavonic and East European Studies
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wightman, G. (1990). T. G. Masaryk and the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. In: Hanak, H. (eds) T. G. MASARYK (1850–1937). Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20576-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20576-9_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-20578-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20576-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)