Siberian Red

Revolutionary Army, vowed to fight through to Vladivostok and continued with their journey.
    Most regional governments were no match for the Czechs and their armoured train convoys, but they encountered increasingly fierce resistance at Irkutsk. Further to the east, Czech trains were involved in heavy fighting around Khabarovsk.
    Czechs who had already reached the safety of Vladivostok stood ready to come to the assistance of their comrades, but were confused by contradictory reports about the clashes taking place, in some cases only forty miles away, and by Masaryk’s continued demands that all Czechoslovakians remain neutral.
    This confusion was resolved when, on June 28th, 1918, the Czechs learned that weapons being sent west by Bolsheviks in Vladivostok were being used against their countrymen. The Czechs immediately overwhelmed the Vladivostok Bolsheviks and, on July 11th, headed west to help their friends, using a spur of the Trans-Siberian Railroad which travels through China and is known as the Chinese Eastern Railway.
    Caught between Czech troops advancing from both directions was the city of Ekaterinburg. Unknown to the Czech Legion at the time, the Tsar and his family were being held prisoner in Ekaterinburg, in the house of a merchant named Ipatiev.
    Fearing that the Czechs would liberate Nicholas II, the order was given to execute the Tsar. The executions were carried out on the night of July 17th, 1918.  The bodies were then doused with acid and buried in a nearby forest, where they remained hidden for most of the twentieth century. In 1991, when they were finally exhumed and identified using DNA from surviving members of the Romanov bloodline, including Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
    Meanwhile, Czechoslovakian troops under the command of General Gaida succeeded in opening up the Trans-Siberian Railroad all the way from Vladivostok to Kazan, clearing the way for the remaining Czechoslovakians to reach the safety of the coast.
    Elsewhere in the world, the odyssey of the Czechoslovakians had not gone unnoticed. Impressed by their phenomenal accomplishments, the governments of Britain, France and the United States urged the Czechoslovakians to remain in Russia and continue fighting the Bolsheviks.
    All of these countries eventually dispatched expeditionary forces to Russia on what was optimistically referred to as a peace-keeping mission but was, in reality, designed to offer assistance in the event that the Reds could be overthrown by an uprising of anti-Bolshevik soldiers. With troops stationed near Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, as well as in the arctic port of Archangel in the west, the US and British governments failed to agree on whether to remain neutral or to intervene in the Revolution and thereby, if successful, to inspire Russians to continue the war against Germany.
    In spite of the urgings of world leaders such as Woodrow Wilson to remain neutral, local Allied commanders promised assistance to the Czechoslovakians. In most cases, this assistance never materialised, although British, French and American soldiers were drawn into other clashes with the Reds, and with disastrous results.
    As the situation among the anti-Bolshevik forces grew more and more confused, the Reds were gathering strength.
    On September 10th, 1918, troops of the Red Guard, led by Leon Trotsky, launched an all-out attack on the Czechoslovakians. Meanwhile, far to the west, the dream of the Czechoslovakians was coming true at last. On October 28th, 1918, with the end of the Great War less than a month away, the nation of Czechoslovakia was established.
    The effect on those Czechoslovakians still trapped inside Russia was dramatic. On that same day, disillusioned by Allied promises of help in combating the Bolsheviks, Czechoslovakian soldiers under the command of Colonel Josef Svec, mutinied. Despondent over the loss of his command, Svec committed suicide. Other mutinies soon followed. On October 20th, the 4th Czech Division refused an order to attack Red troops. On the 24th, the entire 1st Regiment of that Division revolted against its commander.
    The reason for these mutinies was simple. The Czechoslovakians had achieved their independence. They had nothing to gain by continuing to fight against the Bolsheviks. The Czechoslovakians simply wanted to get home, but their ordeal was by no means over.
    Although the Great War had officially ended, Siberia remained a battleground.
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