Although he grew up a strong anti-militarist, he ended up having a significant military career and was awarded military decorations by four countries: France (Croix de guerre), Poland (War Order of Virtuti Militari), Yugoslavia (Order of National Merit) and Czechoslovakia (several decorations including the Czechoslovak War Cross and highest order of Czechoslovakia, Order of the White Lion). He fought as a volunteer in International Brigades in Spanish Civil War and French anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. After World War II he returned to Czechoslovakia and took part in strengthening the dominance of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the years leading to, and immediately following, the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état. His military career culminated in the late 1940s when he became the general secretary of all communist organizations in the Czechoslovak Army. In the early 1950s he fell victim to communist purges and was sentenced to 12 years of prison. Served over five years in prisons and labor camps in uranium mines. In 1956, he was released and later fully rehabilitated. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he emigrated to Switzerland. Died in Yverdon-les-Bains in 1983.