Russian civil war [1917-1923]

"A red and white ribbon for Bohemia, a mortal skull for death, there is no life without the Czech state, freedom or death." It was the motto, energy and life philosophy of strikers, which is the name for members of the 1st Czechoslovak separate assault battalion.

general information

The Novgorod engraver Sverdlov and his wife gave the world not only the leader of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, but also a French general and an American banker.

After the outbreak of fierce fighting between units of the legionary Czechoslovak Army Corps and the Soviet government in Russia in May 1918, after the so-called Chelyabinsk incident and insidious raids by Czechoslovak trains by Bolshevik units without a previous declaration of hostility, the corps' situation was all the more complicated because its troops fought the enemy's superiority in several isolated groups, far from each other along the Trans-Siberian highway ...

During the First World War, there was an unprecedented development of various motor vehicles, which, in addition to tanks and aircraft, included armored cars. Although the idea of a passenger car retrofitted with machine gun armament was realized in the first years of the last century, the first mass-produced vehicles, equipped with armor and one or two rotating turrets, saw the light of day on the battlefields of the Great War. The fact is that armored cars were produced by virtually all major states that took part in the conflict. And several such vehicles were also in the arsenal of our foreign troops.

The first armored train of the Russian army was built already at the beginning of August 1914, i.e. at the very beginning of combat operations, by the 9th Railway Battalion in Tarnopol. Interesting is that a number of its elements came from the enemy. Initially consisted of captured Austrian locomotives fitted with armour, and three cars, one with gun and two with machine-guns. This whole armament came from the loot captured from the enemy.

The emergence of Polish troops in eastern Russia and Siberia is directly linked to the beginning of defensive battles of the Czechoslovak Army Corps in Russia ( also called the Legion ), moving from Ukraine to Vladivostok. The struggles of this corps, which in turn provoked Allied intervention in the Far East, enabled the emergence of units of the Polish army, which in such a remote area, in difficult material and natural conditions, indelibly inscribed in the military history of Poland.

Fighting Czechoslovak legionnaires around Bachmač.

It loosely follows the article Alexander Bridge 1918, Lipjagy 1918 and partially precedes the article Samara 1918.

He was highly valued by others for his bravery and tactical balance. According to other members of the company, he was very hardworking, and in addition to his extraordinary talent in strategy, he constantly tried to improve the training of other strikers. He compiled for the members of the strike battalion a manual on hand grenades of all known types with drawings. He translated the operating instructions for American machine guns from English. He was also recognized for his armaments skills, where he often taught other strikers to control captured weapons.

Biography of the cavalry colonel Miroslav Brož, the Russian legionnaire "Starodružiník" and the first republican cavalry officer, the last commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment "Siberian".

On May 14, 1918, an incident occurred in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, which changed the course of our and world history.

"After the withdrawal of the Czechoslovak Army Corps from Ukraine, after the famous fighting near Bachmač in March 1918, there were difficult negotiations with the Soviet government to move the corps across Russia to the port of Vladivostok, from where the corps was to transport the corps to France on the Western Front. officially part of the Czechoslovak army in France) to continue the fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary, but the Soviet government tried to detain the Czechoslovaks and use their combat potential. enmity between the Soviet government and the Czechoslovak Army Corps. These events became the beginning of the most famous part of the history of the Czechoslovak army of Russia - the Siberian anabasis ... "

The decoration of a military group that was considered heroes in the previous regime and is now gradually falling into oblivion.

We have already written about the 1st Czechoslovak separate assault battalion. As for this martial art based on the traditions of strike (elite) units, it was still controlled by the Czech association in Czechoslovakia. an engineer battalion called the Czech Kornilovs (named after General Kornilov), who fought in the ranks of the White Guard Voluntary Army against Bolshevik Russia. Today, the Czech Kornilovs are a completely forgotten stage of our famous military history. Why?

Not much is known about the regiment, which was founded on the Don in 1918, it is mostly confused with the Kornilov Strike Regiment, with which it had nothing to do. What they have in common is that they fought side by side against the Bolsheviks. Here is the story of its origin, struggle and way home from the Russian Civil War.

The first Czech commander of Czechoslovak company and regiment during the First World War, one of the supreme commanders of our legionaries in Russia and a top official of the newly formed Czechoslovak Army, a man who became a legend during his lifetime.