page_title: Heliodor Píka
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Heliodor Píka / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Heliodor Píka jako francouzský legionář v období 1. světové války.
context_page_description: General Heliodor Píka was a Czechoslovak army officer who was the first judicial murder of the Czechoslovak Communist show trials.
context_section_description: Heliodor Píka was born in a village of Štítina in Austrian Silesia, near Opava, then Austria-Hungary. During World War I, Píka served as a Czechoslovak legionnaire in the Russian theatres. He was captured at Berestechko on 5 October 1916, during the Russian campaign but by 1917 he had returned to duty as a member of the French Army and would later serve with the Czechoslovak Legions in France. By 1920, when the Legion was disbanded, Píka had risen to the rank of lieutenant.
  After the war, Píka studied at a French military academy, graduating in 1920.
caption: Píka as a young legionnaire.
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