Siberian Red

Kerensky proved to be more sympathetic to the cause of Czechoslovakian independence.
    Up until this time, Czechs and Slovaks serving in the Russian army had not been formed into a single fighting force. With Kerensky’s approval, and thanks to the efforts of two men who would go on to become leaders of the Czechoslovakian movement for independence, Thomas Masaryk and Edvard Benes, the Czechoslovakian Legion was founded in the spring of 1917.
    In October of that year, following the Soviet Government’s ‘Decree of Peace’, the Legion found itself in a serious predicament. Having taken up arms against the Habsburg Empire, they could not return to their homeland, since the Central Powers had not yet been defeated. To make matters worse, the well-trained, heavily armed Legion was now perceived as a threat by both the Bolsheviks and the Central Powers.
    Unwilling to abandon the cause of Czechoslovakian Independence, Masaryk suggested that the Legion now be placed under the nominal command of the French Army, which was still heavily engaged against Germany, the dominant partner in the Central Power Alliance.
    This transfer of command was accomplished in December of 1917, but that was by no means the end of difficulties for the Legion. The greatest problem was one of geography. How were more than 30,000 men of the Czechoslovakian Legion supposed to get from Russia to France? The two countries were separated by their arch-rival, Germany.
    It was then that the Czech Legion made the monumental decision to travel not west towards France but east, across the entire length of Russia, to the port of Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. From there, they would board ships that would take them to France, halfway round the world, so that they could continue the fight against the Central Powers.
    Meanwhile, faced with the threat of renewed attacks, the Bolsheviks signed a peace accord with the Germans, known as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in March of 1918. This treaty was both costly and humiliating to the Russians, and gave rise to the independence of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia‚ and Lithuania), as well as Finland and Ukraine. Czechs and Slovaks watched these developments with renewed hopes that their own independence might also be close at hand.
    At this point, the Bolsheviks were as anxious to be rid of the Czech Legion as the Legion was anxious to leave Russia. With permission from Stalin to travel unhindered to Vladivostok, the Legion set out on its historic trek. For this, they followed the path of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, not only because it represented the most direct route across the country but also because the Legion obtained access to trains.
    In spite of Stalin’s permission, as the journey progressed, the Legion encountered many difficulties from local governments demanding bribes in order to allow the Legion to proceed through their territory. Partly as a result of this, by the time the first Czechoslovakians reached Vladivostok  in May of 1918, the Legion was spread out over literally thousands of miles between Vladivostok and the city of Penza, far to the west.
    This dangerous situation was made even worse by an event which occurred on May 14th, 1918, in the city of Chelyabinsk. An east-bound train loaded with Czechoslovakian Legionnaires found itself opposite a train filled with Hungarian troops heading west. These Hungarians were former POWs on their way home, having been released as part of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.
    To the Hungarians, these Czechoslovakians were nothing more than traitors to the Habsburg Empire. Amidst a torrent of verbal abuse hurled between the two trains, one Hungarian threw an iron bar at the Czechs, killing a man in the process.
    The Czechs, who were not only armed but constituted a much larger force than the Hungarians, responded by attacking the Hungarians’ train and lynching the man who had thrown the iron bar. They then stormed through Chelyabinsk and freed a number of Czechs who were being held prisoner there, having been arrested by the local Soviet for taking part in the attack.
    The response from Moscow was swift. The diplomatic council representing Czechoslovakians, the Czech National Council, was ordered by Leon Trotsky, then Commissar of Foreign Affairs, to lay down its guns and surrender.
    Realising that this would be tantamount to suicide, the Czechs refused. In spite of Masaryk’s plea for it to remain neutral, the Legion renamed itself the Czechoslovak