Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion

Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion
Part of the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War
An armored train with Czechoslovak Legion soldiers on the Trans-Siberian Railway, July 1918
Date 14 May 1918 – September 1920 Location Former Russian Empire Result See aftermath
Belligerents
Russian SFSR	Czechoslovak Legion Supported by: White Movement
Commanders and leaders
Leon Trotsky Jukums Vācietis Sergey Kamenev Mikhail Muravyov † Alexander Samoylo Vasily Blyukher Mikhail Frunze Mikhail Tukhachevsky Reingold Berzin Filipp Goloshchyokin	Sergei Wojciechowski Jan Syrový Vladimir Kappel Mikhail Diterikhs
Strength
600,000 men (Peak; in 1920)	42,000 men (1918)
Casualties and losses
5,000 killed 3,800 prisoners	4,000 killed and missing

The revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion comprised the armed actions of the

In February, Bolshevik authorities in Ukraine granted the Legion permission to withdraw from Russia, by means of a lengthy rail journey to Vladivostok[7] after lengthy negotiations.^[8] On 18 February, before the Czechoslovaks had left Ukraine, the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front to force the Bolsheviks to accept its terms for peace. In early March, the Legion defeated a numerically superior German force attempting to destroy it in the Battle of Bakhmach, fought northeast of Kiev.^[7] Defeat likely would have implied summary execution for the soldiers of the Legion, as traitors to Austria-Hungary.

After the Legion succeeded in leaving Ukraine eastbound, executing a fighting withdrawal, representatives of the Czechoslovak National Council continued to negotiate with Bolshevik authorities in Moscow and Penza to facilitate evacuation.^[9] On 25 March, the two sides signed the Penza Agreement, in which the Legion was to surrender all but personal guard weapons in exchange for rail passage to Vladivostok.

The Legion and the Bolsheviks distrusted each other.^[10][7] Leaders of the Legion suspected the Bolsheviks of seeking favor with the Central Powers, while the Bolsheviks viewed the Legion as a threat, a potential tool for anti-Bolshevik intervention by the Allies,^[11] while simultaneously seeking to use the Legion to manifest just enough support for the Allies to prevent them from intervening on the pretext that the Bolsheviks were too pro-German. At the same time, the Bolsheviks, in desperate need of professional troops, tried to convince the Legion to incorporate itself to the Red Army.^[12] The slow evacuation by Trans-Siberian Railway was exacerbated by transportation shortages: as agreed in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Bolsheviks prioritized the westbound repatriation of German, Austrian, and Hungarian POWs.

Chronology

In late April, the Bolsheviks moved the Russian royal family to Yekaterinburg. In May, as Legion troops slowly traveled eastward by rail under insecure, tense conditions, former POW who remained loyal to the Central Powers, including even a few Czechs and Slovaks, traveled westward with priority under explicit Bolshevik protection. On 14 May at Chelyabinsk, an eastbound train bearing Legion forces, Czechs and Slovaks who favored the Allies and who sought independence from Austria-Hungary, encountered a westbound train bearing Hungarians, who were loyal to Austria-Hungary and the Central Powers and who regarded Legion troops as traitors.^[13][10]

An armed conflict ensued at close range, fueled by the rival nationalisms.^[14] The Legion defeated the Hungarian loyalists. In response, local Bolsheviks intervened, and arrested some Legion troops.^[14] The Legion then attacked the Bolsheviks, storming the railway station, freeing their men, and effectively taking over the city of Chelyabinsk while cutting the Bolshevik rail link to Siberia.^[15]

This incident was eventually settled peacefully but it was used by the Bolshevik regime to order the disarmament of the Legion^[14] as the episode had threatened Yekaterinburg, 140 miles away, and sparked wider hostilities throughout Siberia, in which the Bolsheviks steadily lost control over the railway and the region:^[15] the Legion quickly occupied more cities on the Trans-Siberian Railway, including Petropavl, Kurgan, Novonikolaevsk, Mariinsk, Nizhneudinsk, and Kansk.^[16]

Though the Legion did not specifically seek to intervene on the anti-Bolshevik side in the

In July, White Russian troops commanded by Vladimir Kappel took Syzran, while Czechoslovak troops took Kuznetsk. Anti-Bolshevik forces advanced towards Saratov and Kazan. In Western Siberia, Jan Syrový took Tyumen, in Eastern Siberia Radola Gajda took Irkutsk and later Chita.

According to

On 3 August, Japanese, British, French, and American troops landed at Vladivostok. The Japanese sent about 70,000 into the country east of Lake Baikal. By the autumn of 1918, the legion no longer played an active part in the Russian civil war. After the coup against the Provisional All-Russian Government, and the installment of Alexander Kolchak's military dictatorship, Czechoslovaks were withdrawn from the front, and assigned the task of guarding the Trans-Siberian Railway.^{[18]: 10–12, 182}

In the autumn, the Red Army counterattacked, defeating the Whites in western Siberia. In October, Czechoslovakia was proclaimed newly independent. In November, Austria-Hungary collapsed and World War I ended, intensifying the desire of Legion members to exit Russia, particularly as the new Czechoslovakia faced opposition by, and armed conflict with, its neighbors. In early 1919, Legion troops began to retreat to the Trans-Siberian Railway. On 27 January 1919, Legion commander Jan Syrový claimed the Trans-Siberian Railway between Novonikolaevsk and Irkutsk as a Czechoslovak zone of operation, interfering with White Russian efforts in Siberia.

Early in 1920 in Irkutsk, in return for safe transit eastward for Czechoslovak trains, Syrový agreed to hand over

• Ten Thousand - A force of 10,000 Greek mercenaries who found themselves trapped deep in hostile territory and had to fight their way back to their homeland after fighting for a losing side in a civil war of the Achaemenid Empire.

References