Rudolf Viest
Rudolf Viest (24 September 1890 – 1945) was a Slovak military leader, member of the Czechoslovak government in exile, member of the Slovak National Council and the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak army during the Slovak National Uprising. He was the Slovak with the highest military function and the only Slovak general during the interwar period in the First Czechoslovak Republic.
Early life and family
Viest was born on 24 September 1890 in Revúca, Austria-Hungary. His father Gustáv Viest was a craftsman, later he was an employee of the town office. His mother Jana (born Grnáčová) came from a family of tailors. He had two brothers (Ivan and Dušan) and two sisters (Oľga and Anna). He studied at local primary Lutheran school and later at high school in Revúca. His older brother Ivan studied in Budapest. The whole family moved to Budapest in 1905 after the death of their father. Their household became a place where several nationally conscious people met in time of their studies. He studied building construction and worked briefly for a construction company in Budapest. In October 1911, he joined the army as a volunteer in the 7th infantry regiment in Graz. He finished his military service and became a cadet on 1 September 1912.[1]
First World War
He joined the army again during the general mobilization on 1 August 1914. He started as a squad commander and continued as a company commander from November 1914. He was captured during the Russian offensive near Kraków on 24 November 1914. Because of his strong Slavic feeling, he joined the Serbian army on 1 August 1915, then he fought with Serbian volunteers regiment against Bulgarians. He was injured but after healing he returned to Serbian units.[2] In February 1917, he requested to be assigned to Belgorod to form Czechoslovak legions. From June 1917, he served as a second lieutenant and organized the recruitment of volunteers. In 1919, he became commander of the Czechoslovak camp for Slovaks in Irkutsk.[2] The new Soviet government did not allow legionaries to return home by the shortest way and Viest with others had to fight his way home across Siberia. He returned home through Japan, USA and Canada in 1920.[3]
Czechoslovakia
When he returned to Czechoslovakia, he entered the general staff course and started his professional career as a major. He graduated from the Military Academy in Prague. In the interwar period, he worked on several military and diplomatic positions (military
After the Munich Agreement in 1938, he disagreed with the radicalization of the political scene in Slovakia and with negative events like the formation of the Hlinka Guard and seditious anti-Czech propaganda. As a Slovak with the highest position in the army, he was delegated by central government for negotiations with Hungary in Komárno led by the new prime minister of autonomous Slovakia Jozef Tiso. Viest warned him about the negative impacts of radicalization to the security of the state. According to Viest's memoir, general Lev Prchala offered him to perform military cataclysm and take power in November 1938, but Viest considered it too dangerous because formation of borders was not finished yet.[5]
Slovak Republic
Rudolf Viest belonged to a group of anti-Fascist officers and was against the break-up of
Hungary, not being satisfied with territorial gains from the First Vienna Award, attacked Slovakia on 23 March 1939. Viest became a member of the common Slovak-Hungarian commission which was responsible for establishing a new border. According to his memoirs, he finally decided to emigrate during escalation of German-Polish conflict in August 1939. He used for this purpose the official meeting of the commission in Budapest (28 August 1939 - 2 September 1939). He got a visa from the Romanian embassy in Budapest and moved to Bucharest where he obtained a false French passport from the French embassy with the help of his Czechoslovak contact. Due to his function of general inspector he had access to all secret materials, however investigation did not prove that he took any of them.[7] Viest was sentenced to death, degradation to the lowest army position and loss of state citizenship on 28 March 1942.[note 1]
Exile
On 13 September, he arrived in Paris. He became a member of the Czechoslovak national committee and commander of the Czechoslovak army in exile. From 1 January 1940, he was commander of the Czechoslovak Army Ground Forces, later transformed to the 1st Czechoslovak Division in France. After the Nazi occupation of France in June 1940, he moved to Britain and joined Edvard Beneš on 10 July. On 10 October 1940, he became a member of the Council of State and minister on 27 October 1940. On 8 May 1940, he became deputy of minister of national defence in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile.[8]
Slovak National Uprising
On 8 May 1944, Czechoslovak representatives signed an agreement with the Soviet Union which guaranteed the Soviets would pass the administration of liberated territory to the exiled government in London. Rudolf Viest became the deputy delegate for liberated territory responsible for this task, and in August 1944 travelled with the Czechoslovak delegation to the
Viest tried to escape from German encirclement and reach the Red Army. On 3 November 1944, he was captured with Golian in
After his death, he was honoured in memoriam with the Order of Slovak National Uprising 1st class (1945), the Czechoslovak Military Cross (1945), and many other honours awarded by Czechoslovakia and other countries, listed below. In 1945, Viest was also promoted posthumously to the rank of General in the Czechoslovak Army.
Honours
Czechoslovak:
- Rad Sokola s mečmi 1918–1920
- Československý vojnový kríž 1918
- Československá medaila víťazstva (1922)
- Svätováclavská medaila
- Rad Slovenského národného povstania I. tr. in memoriam (1945)
- Rad červenej zástavy in memoriam
- Československá revolučná medaila
- Strieborná medaila I. tr. za zásluhy o ČSR
- Československá medaila Za zasluhy I. stupňa (1944)
- Československý vojnový kríž 1939 in memoriam (1945)
- Rad M. R. Štefánika III. tr. in memoriam (1991)
- Pamätný odznak a Medaila Štefánika III. tr.
Slovak:
- Order of Ľudovít Štúr, 1st Class, military in memoriam (1995)
Czech:
- Kříž obrany státu ministra obrany České republiky in memoriam (1995)
Polish:
- Order Odrodzenia Polski II. kl (1941)
- Order Odrodzenia Polski II. kl (1943)
Yugoslavian:
- Orden Jugoslovenske krune
Serbian:
- Orden Miloša Velikogo
- Military Cross
French:
- L'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur (1926)
- Croix de Guerre
British:
- Military Cross
Notes
- ^ As in other cases, Slovak military courts sentenced to death mostly when deserters were already in safety. His family relatives were not persecuted and his brother Ivan preserved a high position in the Ministry of Transportation.
- ^ "Boj za slobodu Československa sa nekončí, bude pokračovať v horách" (The struggle for the freedom of Czechoslovakia doesn't end, it will continue in the mountains)
References
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, pp. 10–12.
- ^ a b Láník 2005, p. 317.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, pp. 12–15.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 17.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 20.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 23.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Láník 2005, p. 318.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 34.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 41.
- ^ Jašek, Kinčok & Lacko 2012, p. 242.
Sources
- Viest, Rudolf M. (2009). Call to arms came in 1938: General Viest's notebooks. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris. ]
- ISBN 978-80-7451-246-9.
- Láník, Jaroslav, ed. (2005). Vojenské osobnosti československého odboje 1939–1945 [Military Personalities of Czechoslovak Resistance Movement 1939-1945] (in Czech and Slovak). Prague: Ministerstvo obrany ČR - AVIS. ISBN 80-7278-233-9.