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During World War I, a specialized Russian battalion comprised of ethnic Czechs and Czech and Slovak prisoners of war--the Legion--became a pawn in an international game of power and deceit. The Legion's detour through Siberia became the greatest human interest story of the war, chronicled weekly in the New York Times and New York Herald. More than half of the Legion's troops lost their lives as the evacuation of Czech and Slovak POWs through Vladivostok precipitated the murder of the Russian royal family and forced the Legion to act as protectors of the Russian treasury and the Trans-Siberian Railway while the White and Red armies battled. For political purposes, tales of the Legion's odyssey have been buried or expunged. This volume offers the seminal account of this hidden yet epic journey, shedding light on a fascinating but forgotten facet of World War I.… (mehr)
Take a group of approximately 140,000 men, put them in the position of either having to fight for the wrong side in a war or deserting and go over to the other side, have the other side both welcome them and view them with suspicion, take those that are accepted by the other side and form them into incredibly efficient fighting units, overthrow a government, put these men in the position of having to evacuate by rail over a distance of more than 5,000 miles, toss in the entire gold supply of a nation, a Great Locomotive Chase* lasting for months and involving hundreds of cars and locomotives, war lords, war criminals, marauding bands of every political stripe and moral suasion, burning towns, shooting and looting, double and triple crosses by individuals and nations, and a housewife from San Diego** and you have what might sound like a movie script written by a Hollywood screen writer suffering from an overheated imagination.
In fact, what you have is a book documenting the history of the actions of the Czech and Slovak Legion in Russia between 1917 and 1922. These men left the Austro-Hungarian forces, went over to the Russians, fought for the Russians on the Eastern Front until the collapse of the Tsarist regime and then used the Trans-Siberian railway to withdraw to Vladivostok where they were ultimately evacuated by ships from several nations. Their withdrawal coincided with the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Legion presence on the Trans-Siberian (and their near complete control of that line from end to end) attracted the attention and political aspirations/ambitions/schemes of the Russian White Army, the Russian Red Army, Great Britain, the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia, France, Japan, and the United States. This stew of politics, intrigue, and double cross turned what should have been a straightforward withdrawal into an odyssey of epic proportions.
Courtesy of two “embedded” reporters, Herman Bernstein of the New York Herald and Carl Ackerman of the New York Times, their exploits were front page news around the world and elements of the Legion were welcomed in Washington D.C. and personally greeted by President Wilson…and then, due to a combination of failed aspirations on the part of Britain, France, etc. and a desire on the part of the new Soviet Union to forget a less than stellar episode in the history of that country they, and the entire effort were forgotten.
Fortunately for them and for the reader, Author Joan Mohr has done an excellent job of bringing this remarkable group of men and their unbelievable exploits to our attention once again. The book is well written and has the page turning pace of an adventure novel. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in 20th Century world history. (Test length - 225 pages, Total length - 254 pages)
*The Great Locomotive Chase was an event of one day duration (April 12, 1862) which occurred during the American Civil War on the Western and Atlantic Railroad and involved two locomotives – The General and The Texas – and a distance of approximately 100 miles.
** This epithet was directed to the author (she has a PhD in history) by an academic with an overwrought sense of self importance. ( )
Die Informationen stammen von der englischen "Wissenswertes"-Seite.Ändern, um den Eintrag der eigenen Sprache anzupassen.
When we were just little kids, my father used to grab onto us, try to get us to listen to him in that thick accent of his. But we were all ashamed, just kids trying to be real Americans, so we ran away. And he finally quit trying. Later, when he was an old man, I would see him sitting there quietly remembering. We never knew what it was that happened to him out there. He never said and I never asked. Now all these years later, I wonder, I really wonder. – Stephanie Majaers, 1999
Widmung
Erste Worte
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Thomas Masaryk, a coachman's son from Hodonin, spent his childhood living on various Austrian-owned estates in southern Moravia.
Zitate
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Five hundred men from Gajda’s Seventh Regiment marched through the mountains to encircle Kultuk from behind. If the Seventh made it, these men would act as Gajda’s rear guard while he launched a frontal attack on the Kultuk depot. If the Seventh did not make it, Gajda’s frontal attack would be cut to pieces. Under cover of darkness, Cossack guides led soldiers over foggy , wet and slippery goat trails through pine forest toward the rear of the town. During three days and nights, resting minimally, the legionnaires followed their guides through the steep wilderness, their silence interrupted only occasionally by the rumble of thunder or the crash of waterfalls in the distance. Before dawn of the third day they came down upon Kultuk’s quiet mist-shrouded buildings. The Bolsheviks had not stationed sentries on the mountainside so maneuvering into place proved relatively easy. As the Seventh Regiment descended upon the center of town, Bolshevik troops scrambled from their beds. The Czechs and Slovaks made as much noise as possible, screaming, discharging weapons, and banging on nearby buildings to startle the enemy. Keeping watch over the train during the battle, seven legionnaires hid under an overhanging cliff by the depot. It was up to them to keep local Bolshevik militia from moving the explosives. Suddenly, a deafening roar stunned the soldiers as the ground jolted – rocks, earth, and mountain foliage slid down into the streets, crashing through cottages. Soldiers broke and rushed to escape the ensuing shower of twisted metal. Water from Lake Baikal sprayed into violent plumes as hot metal pierced its surface. The Bolsheviks grabbed cars, horses, even engines, anything to make their escape. Suddenly, just as quickly, all was still. Where the station once stood, a deep red scar remained. The depot was a mangled wreck of steaming wood and twisted track. In the fighting, a stray bullet had struck the explosives hidden on board one of the boxcars. No legionnaires were killed, but several of the station employees and Bolshevik guards vanished forever in the blast.
Letzte Worte
Die Informationen stammen von der englischen "Wissenswertes"-Seite.Ändern, um den Eintrag der eigenen Sprache anzupassen.
During World War I, a specialized Russian battalion comprised of ethnic Czechs and Czech and Slovak prisoners of war--the Legion--became a pawn in an international game of power and deceit. The Legion's detour through Siberia became the greatest human interest story of the war, chronicled weekly in the New York Times and New York Herald. More than half of the Legion's troops lost their lives as the evacuation of Czech and Slovak POWs through Vladivostok precipitated the murder of the Russian royal family and forced the Legion to act as protectors of the Russian treasury and the Trans-Siberian Railway while the White and Red armies battled. For political purposes, tales of the Legion's odyssey have been buried or expunged. This volume offers the seminal account of this hidden yet epic journey, shedding light on a fascinating but forgotten facet of World War I.
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In fact, what you have is a book documenting the history of the actions of the Czech and Slovak Legion in Russia between 1917 and 1922. These men left the Austro-Hungarian forces, went over to the Russians, fought for the Russians on the Eastern Front until the collapse of the Tsarist regime and then used the Trans-Siberian railway to withdraw to Vladivostok where they were ultimately evacuated by ships from several nations. Their withdrawal coincided with the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Legion presence on the Trans-Siberian (and their near complete control of that line from end to end) attracted the attention and political aspirations/ambitions/schemes of the Russian White Army, the Russian Red Army, Great Britain, the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia, France, Japan, and the United States. This stew of politics, intrigue, and double cross turned what should have been a straightforward withdrawal into an odyssey of epic proportions.
Courtesy of two “embedded” reporters, Herman Bernstein of the New York Herald and Carl Ackerman of the New York Times, their exploits were front page news around the world and elements of the Legion were welcomed in Washington D.C. and personally greeted by President Wilson…and then, due to a combination of failed aspirations on the part of Britain, France, etc. and a desire on the part of the new Soviet Union to forget a less than stellar episode in the history of that country they, and the entire effort were forgotten.
Fortunately for them and for the reader, Author Joan Mohr has done an excellent job of bringing this remarkable group of men and their unbelievable exploits to our attention once again. The book is well written and has the page turning pace of an adventure novel. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in 20th Century world history. (Test length - 225 pages, Total length - 254 pages)
*The Great Locomotive Chase was an event of one day duration (April 12, 1862) which occurred during the American Civil War on the Western and Atlantic Railroad and involved two locomotives – The General and The Texas – and a distance of approximately 100 miles.
** This epithet was directed to the author (she has a PhD in history) by an academic with an overwrought sense of self importance. (