# The Czechoslovak anabasis across Russia and Siberia/Chapter 6

VI
How the world regarded the Czechoslovak anabasis
UP to the time when the newspapers reported the sensational news that somewhere in Siberia a mysterious army of Czechoslovaks had made its appearance as if by magic and was fighting its way through vast territories, few had heard even of the name, and still less was known of the political and constitutional questions and international problems which the name implies. Of course the head-quarters and staffs of the Allies knew well enough that Czechoslovak troops were fighting in the ranks of their armies, and that they were volunteers who were mostly subjects of Austria-Hungary and were anxious to break the yoke imposed upon their native country by that Power. The Commanders-in-Chief of the Russian and French armies, and later those of the Italian and Serbian armies, made frequent references in their dispatches to the heroism of these volunteers, who were called by the Russians themselves, as early as 1914, the “Battalion of Victory or Death.”To this day the French generals well remember that from the beginning of the war Czechoslovaks fought together with their own poilus, that they distinguished themselves before Arras, at Neuville, St. Vaast on May 9, 1915, that they stood ​in the front ranks at Verdun and in the Champagne. The British Tommies came to know them well in Flanders, and the Canadians in their Siberian expedition. King George, in sending the Order of the Bath to Generals Syrový, Čeček and Gajda in Siberia, was the first sovereign to acknowledge the heroism of the Czechoslovak army fighting there. The Anglo-Saxon world was full of admiration for the Czechoslovak anabasis through Russia and Siberia, for the boundless energy which did not falter in their struggle for the freedom of their nation even under the hardest conditions, in the remotest parts of the globe and in an environment full of revolutionary chaos, civil war and all the horrors of guerrilla fighting.
It was only after the sensational exploits of the Czechoslovaks in Siberia that the great masses of the people in all the Allied countries began to be interested in a nation which, though numerically not among the greatest peoples of the world, had proved that in its struggle for law, order and freedom, it could achieve great things. In the summer and winter of 1918 and throughout 1919 the Press of the world was full of exciting news about the share of the Czechoslovaks in the reconstruction of Russia and their conquest of Siberia. From that time dates the truly international character of the Czechoslovak national movement, and also the deeper interest of the foremost political and intellectual leaders in the Allied countries. On June 29, 1918, the French President, M. Poincaré, delivered at the front, near the frontier of Alsace-Lorraine, a remarkable address to the Czechoslovak volunteers, to whom also he handed the colours presented by the city of Paris. Among other things he said:
​“At the moment when Austria, the faithful servant of German ambitions, struck Serbia in the face with an insulting ultimatum, and, not content with the humiliation of her defenceless neighbour, made an unexpected attack so that Germany might declare the long-desired war against Russia and France, we never thought of regarding as enemies the Czechoslovaks living on our soil, and especially their students at our universities. We knew their ideals and desires. We relied upon their friendship. Many of them, far from taking shelter behind indifference and neutrality, asked for the honour of fighting by our side. For nearly four years they attracted attention by their courage in Flanders, Picardy, in Champagne, and, in fact, wherever they were sent by their commanders. They were mentioned in dispatches and earned the highest distinctions. After so many centuries of oppression and enforced silence the warlike ardour of Jan Žižka, Prokop the Great and George of Poděbrady was roused in them. Soon the handful of volunteers increased. Czechoslovaks who had been enrolled against their will in the Austro-Hungarian army and who by incredible exertions had succeeded in shaking off their yoke, and others coming from all parts of the globe at the call of their brethren, gradually assembled under the auspices of the National Council until their forces were sufficiently strong and uniform to be organized as a separate army under national colours.
“It is a new army, daily increasing, and every day joined by new and enthusiastic volunteers. May the day come soon when these ranks will be increased by the heroic Czechoslovak troops who after remarkable military exploits, while fighting their way through Siberia, ​maintained their military independence and energy in an environment full of snares and in spite of hardships, thus supplying a future Xenophon with a subject which is grander even than that treated in the Anabasis, more stirring than a March of the Ten Thousand, and which to future generations will be a sublime example of moral force, endurance and national consciousness.”
But flattering words of praise were not the only reward for the courage and devotion of the Czechoslovaks. Their military exploits, and especially their struggle in Siberia, brought about international recognition of the Czechoslovak nation. The supreme political and organizing body of all the Czechoslovaks who lived outside the frontier of their native country as political émigrés or military volunteers and fanned the resistance against Austria-Hungary, was the Czechoslovak National Council which had its seat in Paris during the period of the war. Its president was a professor of Prague University, Dr. Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, to-day President of Czechoslovakia; and its members consisted of Dr. Milan Štefánik, a Slovak General and first Minister of National Defence of Czechoslovakia (who met with a tragic death in an aeroplane accident on May 3, 1919, just as he was returning to his liberated native country), and Dr. Edward Beneš, to-day Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs. This National Council of three members had been given full authority by the Czechoslovak political representatives, backed by all the patriotic Czechoslovak Deputies in the Austro-Hungarian Parliament; their policy of defiance served the movement abroad, and together with all the Czecho​slovak cultural leaders they guided their nation until October 28, 1918, when Czechoslovak independence was declared.
In many important diplomatic Notes the Czechoslovak National Council was recognized as the Czechoslovak Government de facto. As early as June 29, 1918, Dr. Edward Beneš received a Note from M. Pichon, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs as follows:
“At the moment when Rifle Regiment No. 21—the first unit of the independent Czechoslovak army in France—receives its colours and prepares to leave its camp and to occupy its section of the front between those of its French brethren in arms, the Government of the Republic, as witness of your efforts and of your devotion to the interests of the Allies, deems it necessary and just to proclaim your nation’s right to independence and to recognize publicly and officially the Czechoslovak National Council as the supreme organ for the administration of all the interests of the nation and as the basis of a future Czechoslovak Government.”
On the 1st July, 1918, after Poincaré’s address to the Czechoslovaks, the English Cabinet Minister, Balfour, wrote to Pichon:
“His Majesty’s Government wishes to endorse heartily the sentiments so ably expressed in the address of the President of the Republic.”
And on August 9, 1918, the British Government announced in Balfour’s special declaration:
“Since the beginning of the war the Czechoslovak nation has resisted the common enemy by every means ​in its power on three different battle-fields and attempting, in Russia and Siberia, to arrest the Germanic invasion.
“In consideration of their efforts to achieve independence, Great Britain recognizes the Czechoslovaks as an allied nation and recognizes the unity of the three Czechoslovak armies as an allied and belligerent army waging a regular warfare against Austria-Hungary and Germany.
“Further, Great Britain recognizes the right of the Czechoslovak National Council, as supreme organ of the Czechoslovak national interests and as acting representative of the future Czechoslovak Government, to exercise supreme authority over this Allied army.”
Similar Notes, all of them referring to the decisive share of the Czechoslovak army, especially in Siberia, in the success of the Czechoslovak movement, were sent to the National Council by the United States, Italy, Japan, Serbia, Belgium, and the other Allies. The Japanese Note was most emphatic:
“Under these circumstances the Japanese Government is delighted to consider the Czechoslovak army as an allied and belligerent one, waging a regular war against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and to recognize the right of the Czechoslovak National Council to exercise supreme authority over this army. Moreover, it is willing to enter into relations with the properly accredited representative of the Czechoslovak National Council, whenever the necessity may arise, to confer upon all matters concerning the mutual interests of the Japanese and Czechoslovak forces in Siberia.”
​These Notes received by the Czechoslovaks in 1918, that is at the time of the great German and Austro-Hungarian offensive, when the Central Powers were full of hope in a decisive and for them satisfactory termination of the war, did not remain unknown to the world, nor to the Austro-Hungarian Government. But it was not until October 7, at a time when the Central Powers had gradually to abandon their dreams of victory, that Austria-Hungary turned to the Allies with a peace proposal in which she declared her willingness to give her oppressed nations a certain “autonomy.” In his reply to this proposal Robert Lansin, in the name of President Wilson, stated (October 18, 1918):
“The President considers it his duty to inform the Austro-Hungarian Government that he cannot accede to their present proposals, in consideration of other events of great importance which have happened since the delivery of his Note of January 8 of the present year, and which have substantially altered the position and responsibility of the Government of the United States.
Among the Fourteen Peace Points stipulated by the President there was the following: ‘To the nations of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see secured and safeguarded, shall be given possibility of autonomic evolution.’ Since the time when this sentence was pronounced, in the Congress of the United States, the Government of the United States has recognized the existence of a state of war between the Czechoslovaks and the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and also the Czechoslovak ​National Council as a de facto belligerent Government invested with full authority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czechoslovaks. The justice of the national aspirations of the Yugoslavs to freedom was, likewise, fully recognized.
“Therefore the President cannot agree to a mere ‘autonomy’ of these nations as a basis of peace and must insist that they and not he be the judges on any undertaking of the Austro-Hungarian Government, which is intended to fulfil their aspirations and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the Family of the Nations.”
This Note sealed the fate of Austria-Hungary. The Dual Monarchy fell to pieces, and there exist no sound and buoyant forces which might successfully renew, in one form or another, either former Austria or former Hungary. Moreover, it is in the interests of the health of mankind not to renew what was rotten to the core and founded entirely on violence and on the tyranny of a minority over a majority.
All these events were largely due to the Czechoslovak march through Russia and Siberia and to the universal interest it excited in all countries. And it brought about more than the removal of Austria-Hungary. Its influence was perhaps even greater and deeper. Of this the telegram of Lloyd George to T. G. Masaryk, of September 11, 1918, sent on the occasion of the victory of the Czechoslovak army in Central Siberia and of the junction of its Central and West Siberian groups, is very suggestive:
“In the name of the British War Cabinet I send you our sincere congratulations on the amazing success ​which the Czechoslovak military forces achieved over the German and Austrian armies in Siberia. The history of the ventures and triumphs of this small army is truly one of the greatest epics of history.
“The valiant perseverance of your countrymen has filled us all with admiration. It shows what can be achieved, triumphing over time, space and shortness of material supplies, by keeping alive the spirit of freedom in the hearts of the troops. Your nation has rendered an invaluable service to Russia and to the Allies in their struggle for liberating the world from despotism. We shall never forget this.”