One of the toughest journeys in history - the march of the Czechoslovakian Legions
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- Опубликовано: 28 фев 2019
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Stories like this make it clear that some people had it tough.
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This is the first part of the oath, taken to the Russian Tsar. The second half is equally verbose, and deals with renouncing allegiance to the Hapburgs, and fighting alongside fellow Czechs and Slovaks for the purpose of establishing an independent state.
I, [name], promise and swear before Almighty God and His Holy Gospel that I will and must, truly and sincerely, serve His Imperial Highness, the true and legitimate Most Gracious Supreme Sovereign Emperor Nicolas Alexandrovich, Autocrat of All the Russias and the legitimate Heir of His Imperial Highness's All-Russian Throne, and that I will obey in all things, not sparing my body to the last drop of blood, and that I will guard and defend to the limits of my intelligence, strength, and possibilities, all the rights and privileges, stipulated and unstipulated, inherent in the absolute power and authority of His Imperial Highness. Furthermore, I promise that I will strive to promote as far as possible that in every instance redounds to the true service and state utility of His Imperial Highness; I will notify the proper authorities as quickly as possible of any threatened injury, harm, or loss to His Majesty's interests, and I will not only notify the authorities in good time, but endeavour to ward off and guard against such injuries, and I will faithfully preserve all secret information entrusted to my care; I will conscientiously carry out the instructions, regulations, and directives of the superiors placed over me; and I will not admit any profit, relationship, friendship, or enmity contrary to my duty and oath, and in this way I will conduct myself as behooves a true and faithful subject of His Imperial Highness, so as to be able always to render an account before God's terrible judgement, so help me Lord God, body and soul. So help me God. And to complete this oath, I kiss my Saviour's word and cross. Amen!
Picture credits:
Czech legion coat of arms
By ThecentreCZ (talk) - Own workThis vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this: Legionarsky odznak cepice.gif (by Gumruch)., CC BY- SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Trotsky image
By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R15068 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Admiral Kolchak image
By Unknown - ISBN 5-235-02952-6, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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What if you
wanted to have an independent state,
but Neville Chamberlain said
"Peace in our time"
Hail Comrade Pootis!
@uncletigger Calling him a sir is a literal sign of hostility to us Czechoslovakians.
That man was a coward, a traitorous one at that.
@uncletigger For God's sake, Chamberlain was a disgrace who had every opportunity to know better than to do what he did.
That fucking plebbit spacing. Go home.
@David Konečný To be fair, UK didnt have ally contract with us. There was no obligation. France, on the other hand, is a different story as we were actualy alias...
"In the midst of a deadly civil war, on their way to the other side of the world, the Czechs accidentally capture the Imperial Russian gold reserve."
Karel's Heroes - in cinemas this winter.
Could you imagine the cast of Kelly's Heroes playing in that movie .... lol
I can just imagine a soviet official coming to inspect the gold reserves only to find the warehouse empty, bar a single note-"ours now, up yours, the Czech legion."
@@jameswhite153 The imperial gold reserve has already been loaded on a train, being evacuated as far as possible from bolsheviks. Czechoslovak legionaires just met the train at some siberian railway station and got hold of it.
You are lucky. Recently that particular note was found in Russian archive and during some diplomatic exchange. Basically from czech they sent back home to Russia some diplomats officially on vacation taking pictures of bases, powerplants and naked politicians...
Anyway Russians as a gesture of gratitude reveal that note you were writing about. And there was written:
Dear red comrades.
For your eyes only. Thanks for everything. We are not in to gold, but never say never and we didn't want down your kindness.
Gold is in good hands and we as Lenin asked distributing it amongst oppressed working class bit by bit. Seems to be a longterm job, but are ready to sacrifice spending to it to the very last ounce.
Anyway. Thanks.
From Czechs with love.
Hahaha i know where some of Kolchaks Gold still is Semyonov deposeted it in someone i knows dads bank and he grassed Semyonov off and got him deported his son dont know either haha
The French CAN'T
The Germans CAN'T
But the Czechs DID!
That's because the Russians were busy fighting themselves. So they called off the weather fairies inflicting maximum winter that year.
@@dr.lexwinter8604 Name checks out 🤔
Bc thé slavs
If Lindy mispronounces a Czech word, he excuses. When he pronounces a French word, he simply doesn't care at all.
Something about him being BRitish, no doubt :-D
And your point is? Czechs are distant acquaintances, the French are old relations.
@@noelnicholls1894 Are they? The only link I can think of is the father of Charles IV., John of Luxembourg.
Serza. Think Monty Python type humor.
@@noelnicholls1894 Alright...
Some tales and facts about the legions and life on a train:
It took the postal service to deliver a delivery from the east to the west of the Siberian trail only 3 days. Imagine your postal service doing that nowadays.
There are tales about Russian troops sending unmanned locomotives full speed towards the trains of the Czechs and also many Czechs getting into those high-speed locomotives and putting them in reverse, so they would return to the sender. "Dimitri, doesn't that incoming thing look familiar?"
The most valuable resource on the trail was sugar, it's said a prostitute would please a whole cart for a kilogram of sugar.
Those trains weren't only armoured carts with guns and ammunition. The Legions were equipped with mobile workshops for metalworking, gun maintenance, cooking, carpentry, making clothes and uniforms.
Trains would seem to be vulnerable to attacks towards the rails. Czech legions were capable of repairing a blown-up track in less than an hour. Also, there were carts with wood, tracks and tools on either end of the train and some in the middle.
Many soldiers wrote names of their home towns on the sides of the carts and would exchange news with others from their home regions.
It wasn't just a military force. It was a whole nation on wheels, a society.
Pluto:
They managed to create a better country than most places in the world today under the following conditions:
- ad hoc
- alienated from almost all sides
- badly outnumbered
- on board trains
- in the middle of the Russian winter
- while being attacked or met with hostility from most sides
- covering 6000 miles of tracks
- whilst only losing some 4000 of their numbers.
Why is this not taught in every history books in the world?
how did the czechoslovaks get enough food to survive the trip to vladivostok?
Hazzamati: They did manage do get hold of a large portion of the Russian imperial gold reserves, so I guess they bought it.
A nice informative comment, but... WHERE DID YOU ALL GUYS GET THIS DIMITRI FROM? It's "Dmitry"!
@@dmitrysofronov8624 My bad, guess I won't make that mistake again. Thank you, Dmitri.
Thanks to our legionares we have 100% naval winrate.
For a landlocked country that just requires a single win in a row boat on a lake. :P
@@dr.lexwinter8604 Yes, and it still counts!
@@dr.lexwinter8604 Yeah that's kinda the joke
@@aidangarvey7049 seems disrespectful to call their service a joke
@@trevorcorey7910 iam czech, its actually pretty funny to say that we have 100% naval winrate . i dont see anything disrespectful on it, but again, we have one of the most morbese and dark humor, so we dont find anything disrespectful :D
Fun story, one time they had been shelled by artilery from soviet ship on Baykal. So they highjacked another ship and sunk the Russians. Gratest action of the Czech Navy in history some says. :P
Well, given the Czechoslovak Legions were actually an army belonging to no state (there was no Czechoslovakia yet at the time), why couldn't we also have a navy without access to any sea? Maybe our own history is the reason why we Czechs do love absurd humor so much and why for example Poles have the idiom "it is like a Czech movie" when referring to anything crazy or absurd ;-)
Czech people are undefeated in a naval battle. It's because this was the only one we ever had.
@@tomasheller6072 that's only half true. As part of Australian-Hungary empire there were Czech naval forces too.
@ You are right. I meant that it was only naval battle that was fought by independent Czech military force.
P.S. Proč se tu bavíme anglicky?
@@tomasheller6072 aby rozuměli i ostatní. :-)
Lindybeige: Well done, as always. Also I have a one legionare story for you all. One of the legionares lived in my village (he died many many years ago, of course). But we know from his daughter (by that time a very old lady), from his journey across Asia, he brought an exotic saber. Right to 1938, he kept it in his house, but when Germans annected Czechoslovakia, he was afraid, soldier would confiscate such extraordinary weapon. So, what to do? In my village, there is a little medieval fort, dated at least to year 1361. And as every good old fort it had secret tunnels, connecting my village to next village a mile away. Even in 1938, those tunnels were heavily damaged and partly collapsed, but the part nearest to the fort was still relatively safe. So, the legionare took his sabre, went to those tunnels and hid it there. Somewhere there, nobody knows exact location. Sadly, Germans stayed many years, then the Russians came, so excavating the saber was not a good idea. To make things even more complicated, there is a pond, surrounding the fortress, and water lever risen quite lot since 1938 and elders said, those medieval tunnels are now completely under water and collapsed completely. So...There is 19th century (maybe older) Asian saber, brought by Czechoslovakian legionare, hidden in secret tunnels of medieval fortress in a little village in south Bohemia, waiting to be found. Call in Indiana Jones.
Do you know by any chance the name of the fort or the village? Could it be Blatná or something like that around Budweis?
Under Hitler the private ownership of guns and edged weapons was punishable by death. So they threw away their guns and cut off the tips of their swords and sabers.
to slyším poprvé
*_Fun Unknown Fact:_*
Lloyd is British.
Wow. Blew my mind!
thanks man if it wasn't for you i would have never know. by the gods you have changed my life i am forever in debt to you for this divine favour.
NO WAY!?
Dear god HOW COULD YOU KNOW?
Wow I thought he was Dutch
Yeah, I can empathise with the Czechoslovaks quite well, sometimes my school bus broke down and we had to walk to school and back.
Grim times indeed
@Jack Taylor
Uphill both ways? In the snow?
6000 miles, uphill both ways and it was cold.
Czechoslovaks* for fucking sake why can't people get it right?
My thoughts and prayers are with you
Oh lol
I see from the comments that people are making some objections over and over. Let me deal with them here:
1. The Legions were commonly referred to as the 'Czech Legions', not just at the time, but still today, as evidenced by several book titles. Yes, the state of Czechoslovakia was created before most of the Legions arrived there. Just 8% of the Legions were Slovakian. Slovakian is a very similar language to Czech. There were also Russians, Poles, and others with them, and extending the name to cover everyone there is a bit silly. I believe that I make it clear enough in the video that there were Slovakians involved. 'Czech Legion' is not wrong, and it is quick and easy to say, and I do sometimes say 'Czechoslovakian' in case any viewers need reminding. So far as I know, the command of the legions was dominated by Czechs. If any Slovakians have been greatly offended by my occasional use of the term 'Czech Legions', then I'm a bit surprised.
2. Yes, the language Polish existed long before 1918, and some people refer to groups of people as 'nations', and yes there had been various political entities involving Polish speakers, such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, and the Duchy of Prussia, and the Jagiellon Dynasty at various times had control over areas populated by Bohemians, Germans, Hungarians and others. That there are people in an area that speak a language does not make that area a modern nation state, nor does allegiance to a royal dynasty. An area as I describe in the video, with one border, homogeneity of language and citizenry within that border, ruled by a government, with one economy and one foreign policy - a modern nation state - is not what Poland was before WW1.
3. One viewer spotted the mistake I made when I said 'Lombard' for a language spoken in France. How did I not spot this in the edit? I'm fairly sure I meant to say Languedoc. There were many others, of course, such as Gascon, Catalan, Angevin, Provencal etc.
4. The quip I make in a caption about the Bolshevik flag is misleading if you don't know that the flag did not exist in this precise form in WW1, and was designed in the 1990s. Sorry about that.
I'm not offended but here in czech republic we really mostly call them czechoslovak legions or Legionaries which is used more for the people themselves but I have heard it used fairly often for the whole thing too (czech is a flexible language). Anyway, who cares what you call it if everyone knows what you are talking about.
lol do people really think Poles didn't exist before 1918?
Just one thing. You're mostly right, but even before WW1, in Napoleon era poles were trying to establish Polish nation state, with the help of Napoleon himself, that's why he's a hero figure for poles, as he established Duchy of Warsaw.
Lindy: Exactly. Before the French revolution and its example what "nation" can do, nobody usually thought about this stuff. The French revolution is the beginning of the modern nationalism, any historian could verify that. Germans tried to copy the French, and Itallians, Czechs, Poles, ... tried to imitate the Germans and the French.
@@Null_Vampyrr No, Lindybeige was quite clear on that: the nation state we know as POLAND did not exist.
Loyd you forgot to mention Battle of Lake Baikal! With 100% win ration in naval battles we are practically a naval superpower :D
For a landlocked country it's not bad, really :D
An ancestor of mine fought in the legion and traveled trough Vladivostok back home. I am happy to see that the story of the Legions has gained some attention among international content creators and media in recent years.
I assure you, the Russia remember.
WHERE DID HE PUT THE GOLD??
@@eugenesmirnov252 Really? I've never heard of it.
@@lowskillcamper hmm.. Was you at school ? We've been told since 6th grade
@@eugenesmirnov252 Yes. 6th grade was in 1999-2000 for me. And both WWI and Civil War were big topics but I remember nothing like that. Had a course on Russian history again at university in 2008 and still no information about these events.
I did enjoy this (as I always do when Lloyd tells a story) but I must admit that I had a laugh when he skimmed past the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. As I remember it, Chamberlain with the French in tow more or less gave away Czechoslovakia and Lloyd didn't even blame the french... A missed shot I say ;)
Drat!
Indeed, that was one "mistake" I minded. It is hard to say France and Britain hoped for us to defend against Nazis when they literally blackmailed us to give them all the border fortifications with plenty of our weapons as an appeasement to Hitler.
@@Veellinn Hitler then proceeded to use those Czech tanks to blitzkrieg into Poland and later France, so I suppose it ended up biting them in the ass and certainly ended the career of Chamberlain as Prime Minister.
I like the picture of Chamberlain standing in front of cheering crowd waving a piece of paper and shouting: I'm bringing you peace!
It is easy to see in hindsight that Hitler was handled very poorly by the UK, France, etc; but things are rarely so clear at the the time and for the actors involved. For that reason I don't judge them as harshly as is common. BUT ... I draw the line with their abandonment of Czechoslovakia. That seems like it clearly ethically wrong, but also geo-politically stupid, stupid, stupid. Czechoslovakia was one of the best shots at a stable, long-term democracy to come out of that part of Europe after WW I. I'm an American who just loves history, so have no axe to grind or agenda to promote about this issue - I'd be open to hear arguments that this wasn't a catastrophically dumb move, but I don't see any right now!
Also, the Czech Legion's time in Russia is one of the coolest, most interesting stories in military history. I am surprised it is not better known.
I’m proud to say that my great-great grandfather was in the Czechoslovak Legion.
So you are proud that one of your family betrayed Kolchak and Poles fighting as Legion's rear guard?
@@mixererunio1757 If you actually watched the video you wouldn't write such garbage
Dolt28 stop being an ass hole man it's his family history let him be proud of himself!!!!
You have every right to be proud
@@mixererunio1757 His great-great grandfather probably wasn't the one making those decisions.
On behalf of all the Czechs and Slovaks here, I would like to thank you for talking about at least one of the moments in our history.
And they said never invade Russia in the winter. Amateurs
Just do it during a civil war
Tecnically they evaded Russia in winter ;-)
M M: I laughed out loud enough to wake up my pet rats! :-D
All you need is some gold
♪ All you need is gold
Dab-da-ba-dah
All you need is gold
Gold is all you need ♫
So, if you’re Czech, you’re excused from class today
But I'll stay anyway
Nonsense. We sit in the front row, nodding.
@Politely Correct Please refrain of doing anything like this in the future or I will have to burn your house down with lemons
Americans and Canadians love the Czech people. They've given us mighty hockey players. Long live Michal Kempny and Jacub Vrana.
@Politely Correct Now should I really make lemonade? - I think it would be a much better option to demand to see life's manager.
Several of my ancestors were in the Legion, my great-grandfather died in it in Russia while my grandfather was born back home. My great uncle survived but was deaf on one ear from a granade. He wore a Legionnaire beret until his death in the 1970s. A few broader historical notes that perhaps put things in better perspective:
- While there was no nation state in the 19th century, there used to be the Czech kingdom. The Austrian empire was therefore viewed as an occupying force by many, since it basically ended Czech reformation in the 17th century by force, germanized and re-catholised the country, and forced many people into exile.
- Many hopes were also crushed when (far less economically powerful) Hungary got dual monarchy status in 1867 while Czech lands didnt and the last Austrian emperor even refused to be crowned Czech king. Many Czech politicians saw it as the final spit in the face and changed their aim towards full independence.
- The Russian Tsars indeed encouraged panslavism and slavic nationalism for decades ,the problem was that for the Russians it was a vision of one-sided alliance under Russian rule (much like Germany later "uniting" with Austria and Sudetenland). It was also painfully obvious how that worked out in real life for "brotherly" Poles who got ruthlessly russified, slaughtered and imprisoned for decades by the Russians. As Czech 19th century classic put it: "The Russians love to claim everything Russian to be Slavic, so that they could in turn claim everything Slavic to be Russian"
- For obvious reasons, Czech military has historically been mostly unable to match armies of huge empires or win consecutive campaigns against them in the field. So instead they often chose to do these crazy daring stunts that would not decide the war in any military sense, but instead bring international attention towards their cause. Like, say, sending in paratroopers to shoot Reinhard Heydrich, clashing with the Germans in the worst possible terrain in the Dukla Pass, or Legions controlling the whole Trans-Siberian Railway. The goals were not military but often political, to shock people and gain support and show that the cause very much alive.
- For a long time, the Legion indeed fought for the Whites but there was soon the feeling of bitter disappointment in the low morale and lack of interest of the Russians to fight for their own cause and status quo. A known episode is the battle of Kazan, where the Legion was fighting off a huge Red invading force while the "White" citizens just patted them on their back while watching them with binoculars from their homes.
- The "Legionnaire" class was a phenomenon in the Czechoslovakia of the 1920s and 30s. Since it had no formal military structure, the Legion had to quickly produce a number of its own high military officers who didnt really have any education but had plenty of combat experience. So after the war, you had thousands of extremely young officers with no classical military training or university. At the same time, ex-legionnaires later recieved all sorts of support from the government which often lead to some animosity with other classes of the society. For example, disabled old Legionnaires recieved newsstands so they could make a living during the economical crisis. To this day, the expression "to recieve a newsstand" in Czech language stands for nepotism or favoritism and political corruption.
- After the war, Czech government created a big economical programme for Russian emigrés who fled Soviet Russia (The Russian Action) and indeed tens of thousands found their new home in Czechoslovakia, even founding russian-language schools and universities. They were unfortunately often highjacked by the Soviet NKVD (KGB) as soon as may 1945 and send to Gulag as class enemies and traitors despite typically having Czech citizenship already.
- The Russian outlook and interpretation of the Legion is of course quite ideological and distorted. While the mainstream Soviet historiography didnt really care about them as it didnt want to spark any nationalist animosities within the socialist camp, many Russian nationalists today picture them as stereotypical bloodthirsty savages that burnt down entire villages, complete with claims that they in fact STOLE the national gold reserve, which is entirely unfounded. Which is sort of ironic given that the Russian civil war alone cost some 10 000 000 lives, including well documented pogroms, torture and mass executions of priests and civilians, and noone is criticized or responsible at home, yet suddenly tiny Czech Legions, which lost only 4000 men, are the brutes and warmongers to blame. This reproach is especially funny coming from these self-proclaimed Russian nationalist-conservative types, for which the Legion fought in the first place.
In terms of distance, Moscow to Chicago is relatively the same as the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok
That's pretty crazy to think about.
That blows my mind actually
Would be funny if it would be true.
Look at a map...
@@sis4248 It's not quite true, but it's almost true.
Looking it up, it's a 9 hour flight Moscow to Vladivostok, and 12:45 Chicago to Moscow.
If he'd picked somewhere in the North Eastern states or even New York they'd have been even closer.
a ten-hour jet flight
always incredible how Lloyd does everything in one take
Alas, in this one, you can see my cutting corners to get the tale told. This explains the need for several captions.
@@lindybeige amazing format nonetheless.
@@lindybeige this video should have been longer... It felt rushed
I missed the tale of the one and only naval battle Czechoslovakia fought. It was on the Baikal lake. Czechoslovaks retrofitted two steamships with howitzer and attacked the port and train station at Mysova. They sunk an enemy ship and destroyed their objectives after which the Czechoslovaks, retreated.
@Avvira sooo true
But now Czechoslovakia has split, who got the 'o'?
The nation of O, of course. O are very proud people.
The Carpathian Ruthenia tried to petition for the O as a keepsake, but they were forced to drop it by the Ukraine.
@Comrade Corbachev that would explain a lot. That's why we have so many ASSES (people) here. This same sentence in Slovak: Preto tu máme tak veľa OSLOV.
Actually, I did. I was being given the 'o'. It's in my garage right now.
It's not O, it's zero. And who got it? Both nations. Zero profit from splitting...
Greetings from Czech republic! Nice job with the video. My Great grandfather was in Czechoslovakian Legions and went through the whole Sibirian railway. Iam very proud of having an ancestor like him!
@Andrei Kaledin My grandfather also fought in the legions and shot a couple of Bolsheviks. Dead Bolshevik, good Bolshevik.
Thank you from all czech and slovaks for telling this story!
@Terncote It wasn't that bad, we actually had a lot of fun. Food was pretty crummy though.
Demonde Laplace did you at least see any good sight?
@@midshipman8654 Lots of dead communists :)
@@patchesohoolihan666 That's always a good sight.
@Terncote I supposed it pretty accurate, may be in some parts quite brief, but you know, we learned it in some point of view influenced by national proud. So get a look from outside was interesting. I would like to see video about Hussites, it could be even more interesting from military point of view, because Hussites defeated four crusades and fifth was defeated by Czech king George who was Utraquists (protestant church based on Hussite's thought)
Greetings from Slovakia. I'm very pleased you've talked about this events.
Dzień dobry!
It's true that Czechoslovakia was used as a political pawn at the start of the WW2. But by the British, Lloyd. :D You forgot to mention that in the 1938 Munich Agreement western countries basically gave big part of Czechoslovakia (mostly its borders) to the germans as a way of calming Hitlers hunger for territory (the border is where most of the HUGE complex of fortifications made to stop the germans was build which basically killed any chance of defending the country in 1939).
I mention this in the video, near the end.
Well, I simplify to the annexation of the whole country. The video was long enough, don't you think?
@@lindybeige You must excuse my partial nationalism but when you, o great Lindybeige, make a video about czechoslovakia no video is long enough for me :D
@@lindybeige a) No video (about military history) from you is long enough b) I would like you to make video about Munich Agreement and you opinion on it.
@@lindybeige So, this video is short enough to describe horrors of Russia both white and red regime alike and to justify legion's action by saying "Well, it rather one man then legion", but it's too long enough to mention that Chamberlain (coincidentally british) literally sold Sudetenland to Third Reichh. Well, it's rather one part of land than lifes of allied soldiers, doesn't it? Of couse it's nothing to do with nationality of author.
Gandalf: Frodo, you need to take the Ring of Power to Mordor!
Frodo: Why me?! _Frodo cried_
Czech Legionary: I guess I can take a small detour. At least it's warm in there.
Also… a far east journey into an enemy land that has heavy industry and hates freedom? How original.
I really dont want to ruin the joke, but Mordor is freezing cold and unhospitable, the opposite of warm
Not just "industrial". industry that destroyed everything around it as it spread. The Eleves were industrialized as well just in a work WITH nature way.
@@MrPanos2000 You haven't been in Siberia in winter, were you?
@@Dakerthandark you havent read the books, have you
@@MrPanos2000 I did. But you missed part of the joke. The joke is, "yeah, Mordor is objectively cold, but still warm compared to the damned siberia tho".
Having recently visited Prague for the first time made me appreciate this story even more than I would normally have.
It's a beautiful city, and we had a great (Canadian) tour guide who told us a lot about the history of the country and the character of the Czech people (even though he had a pretty bad hangover I think xD). It's almost surreal to think about how that city and the country has seen 9 different regimes over the past century or so, and still managed to come out okay.
This story fits neatly in there, I'm glad it had a happy end (for the most part).
Dear god, the Czech march! One thing I never expected to see, one thing I greatly look forward to seeing.
You can see some Czech armoured train in the movie about admirał Kolchak - russian film "Admiral". Crazy story worth movie on itd own
Most of the heavy artillery that were used in Austria-Hungary, some of which was used in the Schlieffen Plan, were Czech-made Škoda howitzers. These were competitive with Krupp as far as the greatest heavy artillery in the world.
The Skoda works being of excellent quality is something I thought was well known. There's a reason Hitler wanted them so badly
Skoda was quiet possibly the best gun manifacturer up until the 40s.
Best was german fat Berta but we was second best and i talk about distance.
Hey Lindy, don't know if you knew this or not but "Druzina" is not a name. In most Slavic languages including Czech "Druzina" quite literally means "Fellowship" or "Companionship. Love the videos!
Original fellowship of the ring (gold) :-D
The Druzina/Druzhina was a name given to a royal retinue back in the Middle Ages. At least in Poland and Russia.
as far as i know Družina actually was the name of the unit in the beginning.
As Martin Hulik said, Družina, or sometimes Česká Družina, was the actual name of the unit
In Slovene družina means family.
Greetings from Czech Republic! I was just recently in a museum/train that was a 12 vagon recreation of part of the train - it was of course all cleaned up but it was still insanely packed. Each vagon represented a different part of the train (the officer's vagon, food vagon, crude infirmary vagon, soldier accommodations vagon, etc.) and there were also descriptions infront of every vagon as to the goings-on within it - I destinctly remember that one of the accommodations vagons (about 10mx4mx3m) had 4 bunk beds which made up half the vagon, a stove and an officers mini desk.
And I was thinking like - "this isn't so bad, it's actually pretty cozy" - then I read the description and it said: "between 2-3 dozen soldiers would inhabit such a vagon" - just damn
The October Revolution didn't actually overthrow the Czar, that was the February Revolution. The October Revolution was a Bolshevik revolution against the provisional government set up in the aftermath of the February Revolution. Lenin didn't appreciate that the workers councils (or "Soviet", fun fact), didn't have all the power, or that the Mensheviks were continuing the war.
Yes, the royal family was killed off several months later.
@Pasha Staravoitau Dead most likely. Untreated hemophilia is frequently lethal even with care and attention.
@Pasha Staravoitau It's good to see what the communists still haven't changed...
Sadistic, amoral, power-hungry fucks.
@@lindybeige I hope I didn't come off as jumping down your throat with that. I just figured it would be a nice bit of trivia for those scrolling the comments, seldom talked about in the West.
@@SonofSethoitae Oh lordy - don't worry about that. One has to be thick-skinned to be a RUclipsr!
My great-great-grandfather was part of the legions, it's quite a story. Unfortunately I don't really have many stories about him or what he did and experience. The only one my mother remembers was that when they got to Panama (as they were going through the Panama Canal), they saw a pineapple plantation and they were all utterly fascinated by the way pineapples are grown. I guess they all thought pineapples grow on the trees.
Oh and you didn't even mention the greatness that is the Battle of Lake Baikal, where the legions fought probably the only naval engagement by a purely Czech military force. And they won! Total badasses.
I am Czech and I'm so proud that this has been brought up to light on this channel! My grand-grand-(even one more grand, not sure at this point)-father fought in the legions in the Russia and participated in this march! We still have his photographs, postcards from Vladivostok, Japan and US etc. However, it is worth noting that the legions are viewed as controversial by some people as they consider their behaviour in Russia as war crimes and some people call them dishonorable deserters, because they defected from the Austrian army. There are surprisingly few depictions of the legions in the popular media and if there is any, it's usually wrong (the rather unintentionally hillarous russian movie "Admiral" to name a one example).
i dont think i ever heard anyone from the Czech republic or Slovakia saying anything bad about them
The Emperor
That's because they hadn't committed their war crimes in Czech republic or Slovakia.
What did the movie "Admiral" got wrong about the Legions? I watched it some years ago, but I recall that the Legions were merely shown in few scenes, discussing with Kolchak in French?
Dzień dobry!
My great-grand father was on of those legionaries. He went through the whole campaign, on trains over Siberia and than, after civil war in Russia ended, back to CZ thru Japan, USA and oceans.
What a behemoth of a video. About a subject I'd never heard of.
A mercenary legion that fought their way to the promised land, and actually found it. How very romantic.
I think calling it "mercenary" is simplifying the matter quite a bit.
Isn't that more of the story of the Lombard mercenaries in Italy?
1,000 years ago the Czechs, Moravian's, Silezians and Rusyns were united in the Great Moravian Empire under King Svatopluk, which had made networks for the gold for Slovakia all the to Denmark and Greece, secured by a Roman style heavy cavalry (Jan Steinhubel: Nitrianske Kniezatstvo). After his death a civil war broke out and the land came under foreign occupation. In the 15th Century Jakob Fugger founded the first industrial syndicate in the World, working the gold, silver and copper mines in Slovakia and Tirol, financing all the crazy endless wars of conquest. He became the richest man on this Planet ever. His company operates to this day in Augsburg, Bavaria. Czechoslovakia won independence again in WW1 thanks to their Legion and the financial support from the Slovak billionaire fraternal groups in USA.
For legal reasons the Allies incorporated the Czechs and Slovaks in the French Foreign Legion, as they have done with the Serbs first, so they would not be hanged as traitors, if captured. The Czechoslovak Legion was not paid from 1917 to 1919, after the Russian revolution. With many skilled artisans among them they lived off the grid and secured their own logistics using barter for services to the locals. They did secure the Russian Imperial treasure and kept part of it in lieu of their back pay. In 1945 the Russians came to Prague, cleared out the Legionnaires bank and killed all the Legionnaires they could find. The Legion's mission was to secure the Siberian railway , built with the help of French engineers and finance, using 5 armored trains, commanded by the French Foreign Legion, with Slovak General Milan Rastislav Stefanik as a liaison officer. He was also instrumental in getting the political support for Czechoslovakia in France, England and USA. France is demanding payment for their loans to this day. Putin offered $200 Billion. France wants the interest also. Will see what happens after Putin. This matter has been taboo until 1991. Now it is wide open on the Internet.
Greetings from Czech Republic!
If you want don’t want to embarrass our country, you should at least write its’ name correctly.
@@moravianmargrave6509 ?
Do you mean they should have said Czechia?
@@moravianmargrave6509 They did. If you mean they should've written "Czechia," then you'd be wrong in the assertion that "the Czech Republic" is incorrect. The so-called "name change" wasn't a change at all, "Czechia" simply became an officially recognised *option*. "The Czech Republic" is still the official name of our country. It's the same with how Russia can be called "Russia" in official documents, but the full official name is still "The Russian Federation."
People on both sides are outraged about the "Czechia" thing and they never do any research about it. It's pitiful.
Nazdar!
@@kettufox4915 čus
There was a more mundane reason why Czech POWs joined the legion. Being a prisoner in Russia was no joy. Those who were assigned as farmhands were lucky, those who ended up in POW camps suffered from hunger and diseases, due to widespread incompetence and neglect by the Tzar's regime. The camp where writer Jaroslav Hašek (author of The Good Soldier Švejk) was held lost 2/3 of men (cca 10k) due to typhus in Winter 1915/16. Joining the legion was a chance to save oneself from certain death.
In later stages of the war, after the revolutions, the Legions ordered every Czech and Slovak in their reach to join them. This how they more than doubled their numbers.
And I think that was how my great-grandfather joined them - he was a farmhand POW somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and even being a farmhand like that was no joy because there were long distances to travel in harsh conditions and very sub-par equipment.
Joining the legions was, at that point, basically his only chance at getting back home.
I a usually proud of being British.
But the way in which Britain and France let Germany invade Czechoslovakia was terrible.
well shit happens
Well there was an instant karma at least for the French, when Czech tanks were advancing towards Paris. We had super modern well trained army of 1M men. Still believe that the war would take just a few months if us and UK with France would hit Germany. Yet instead of that the superior czech industry was given to Hitler on a golden plate...
Well I'd say we could blame Neville Chamberlain for that. What a weak leader.
And not just any Germany, but *that* Germany. The worst Germany there's ever been or ever will be.
Well, you did the same to Poland, who you were supposed to ally in the event of war. And then phoney war happened.
A long lindy video, just what i needed.
I just wanted to say that I really, really appreciate this video. In less than a month I'll have my history exam, the marks from which will be used to decide which university I will be heading to, and naturally, proper preparation is key. It was very insightful to see this video, since in Russia, the March is actually more often called 'the Czechoslovakian revolt/uprising', and the entire march (at least in my school) was largely glossed over. Extra detail like this, and hearing it in such a succinct and well presented manner was very helpful.
Thank you, Lindy!
The magic in Lindybeige videos is that you can watch a 40 minute video with no fancy graphics or cute animations from start to finish without getting bored or fall asleep, Lindy you've got charisma, use it, get in to politics.
I wish yo will 1M subscribers before the summer. Very few youtubers can afford to make such long videos.
Proud Czech here! Three of my great-great granduncles died in Siberia while serving in the Legion. Thank you for covering this topic!
A video on the Czech's raid resulting in the taking of the Imperial gold reserves sounds like a good video to do in the future!
Many think this whole "stolen gold" history is just a myth. However... My great-*-grandfather was in the "Czechoslovak Legions" and when he returned he's said to have brought with him enough gold to buy a farm which stands to this day near where I live.
@@filip_sedlak My grandmother remebered one member of the Legion and she said he returned rich AF.
I think you could make a video about Hussites wars. It's quite insteresting story
Lol u are called like One wow RUclipsr I watch
You are such an amazing story teller. Without having lots of pictures, but just telling the story about these people. I am amazed.
I am a youtube vet, I can't think of any other channel that has this level of quality that doesn't have edits. So I guess well done being prepared and having a very high verbal IQ. Cheers!
Lloyd reenacting the Russian Civil War?
I didn't know this amount of happiness was possible
Lol
It was a very good video, I especially liked how you explained the situation in Central Europe in the 19th century and before(since many people like to look at history from the perspective of someone who is from 21st century), though some small things I would point out:
The name "legion" was used because (as you mentioned) they were officially under the command of the French army and in the French army, they "belonged" to the French Foreign Legion, therefore (Czech(oslovak) ) Legion
Actually, the vast majority went home via the Indian ocean, Suez canal and then to an (nowadays) Italian harbour called Terst.
(Just a little fun fact when you were talking about tunnels near the lake Baikal) While traveling by the lake Baikal, actual a small naval battle (skirmish rather) occurred - the Legion took control over 2 steamships, armed them with howitzers (4 of them, 100mm caliber ). It was the first and last battle of the "Czechoslovak navy", the legion was victorious
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Munich Treaty at all when you talked about annexation in 1939, since many Legionnaires took it as a betrayal from the French side, since (apart from the official Treaty about Mutual Defense between France and Czechoslovakia) they fought with them in the First World War (this was mainly the case for Legionnaires who fought in France, but it included some from Russia as well) and because of that they returned the medals they received from the French Army and sent them back to France in 1938.
Also, some people who say that Czechoslovakia shouldn't listen to the Munich treaty and that it should have defended itself point out that the Czechoslovak military was way more experienced because while Nazi Germany army had mainly fresh new recruits, the Czechoslovak army had many experienced veterans from the Czechoslovak Legion.
Still as I said, well made video
Great video. A few years ago, I had the chance to interview a guy who circumnavigated the globe under human power. He had trained in the Canadian Prairies and thought he was ready for the bicycle journey through Siberia in winter... until he got there. There is nothing that can prepare you for Siberia, and how big and cold it is. His partner quit part way through. Later on his journey he rowed across the Atlantic in hurricane season, but said that was easier than crossing Siberia in winter.
My great-grandpa was a part of the Legions and was one of the lucky ones to return back home! I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. Sobering thought! Thank you for the video!
Constructive criticism: the red bar along the bottom border of the thumbnail makes it look at a glance like I've already watched this video.
Love your content!
yeah, fooled me too for a second.
Uncle of my grandmother was one of those chaps so thank you Lloyd for covering this topic.
Now some fun facts:
1 - Maybye that some of you know writer Jaroslav Hašek (author of quite known novel The Good Soldier Svejk: And His Fortunes In The World War). He was one of those legionaries who fought on the Battle of Zborov and later defected to Reds. He became political commisar of the Red Army, XO of Bugulma district and - according to some surces - he was in close contact with Trocky.
2 - Radola Gajda was one of the high commanders of Legion. He also fought in the Battle of Zborov as a commander of 2nd regiment (well real commander of the regiment was some russian officer but he was drunk so...). Later - under his command - Legion captured Irkutsk, fought on Baikal Lake and his units captured those tunnesl Lloyd spoke about etc.. He was in the close contact with admiral Kolchak. Later he become general and in 1926 was leader of Národní obce fašistické which was czech fascist party.
3 - Another Zborov's and Legion's veteran was Ludvik Svoboda. Commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR in the Battle of Dukla Pass during WWII and was the president of the ČSSR during "Prague summer" in 1968.
4 - And that mentioned Battle of Baikal Lake was probably the only one naval engagment of Czechoslovakian naval forces. And yeah, they even sunk one ship (icebreaker Baikal).
So ... Czechoslovak Legions .... such a story :D
Coming here after the "The last train" trailer, i want to thank you for this invormative video.
Quite the tale indeed!
As Czech, I'm always happy find out outsiders talking about our great ancestors, those Legions are legends here, so cool
Much love for you and this video, it was nice to listen :)
Wow! I really learned some history from this one! Thank you!!!
Good video, loved it! It is so interesting to learn about little known battles or subjects in general.
But u didnt finish it yet ;-;
Bless you lindy!! I'm glad to see prominent RUclipsrs discussing this fascinating story
New lindybeige video.... times to get out my crumpets and relax
Thank you for making this, my great-grandfather František Polák served in the legion in Russia. He reached the rank lieutenant. He came back home in 1923 ( one of the last conveys to leave Vladivostok ). He never spoke about his experiences due to the fear of endangering the family because of the Communist Government. Respect from the Czech Republic!
Incredible. My family is from Chelyabinsk and I doubt any one of my relatives knows of this.
Well I guess it was not the most favorite story of the Soviet propaganda back in the time.
well during the soviet time czech legions were quite fraud uppon
Yaaaaay another full length lindybeige video.. I'm so happy
This is great, Lindybeige talking about forgotten history. Thanks!
Jaroslav Hašek author of The Good Soldier Švejk was with them after being captured in WW1 then switched to the Bolsheviks.
He was not captured, he departured for some negotiatons and than switched. For some unknown reason...
Joined the AH army, captured by the Imperial Russians and joined the Czech-Slovak Legion.
@@alexwood1142 Yes, sorry. He had quite rebelious nature, but more than bolshevik he was an anarchist. Nobody knows, why he switched. Later he fled to Czechoslovakia, hated by legionaries as same as communists. "Luckily" he died very soon, so he could be later transformed into a leftist icon.
He didnt really switched to Bolshevics. Being an anarchist and ruthless satirist, while within the legions, he issued a magazine depicting and mocking some aspects of life in the legions, for what he was strongly criticised and later even encouraged to leave. After some time of wandering around, he joined Bolshevics as there was nothing else he could really do in the situation. Soon he started to have the same kind of problems while being with the Bolshevics and at some point, three different warrants were issued for him by three different powers - The Czech Legions, The Bolshevics and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
And then he left his rusian whife and retur home :-D end of story of mr HAšek flirt with Bolshevism
My great-grandmother's sister had something to do with this Czech legion and we still have her papers and photographs. She was from a family of Czech immigrants who settled in America's Indian territory (Oklahoma) and then ended up over in Vladivostok, Russia with the American Red Cross: Siberia Division when the Czech legion wound up there. At some point she married a Czech legionnaire and they were evacuated and repatriated to Prague. Unfortunately he soon died (1926) and she came back to the US in 1930. Her father was living in California at the time and had to sign an affidavit of support stating that the family would pay for any of her expenses so she would not become a burden to the state. She later became a close associate of Alice G Masaryk (daughter of Thomas Masaryk, first president of Czechoslovakia) and helped work on her biography. We still have a large box full of photos, letters, and other documents belonging to Alice Masaryk, including many letters between Alice and her sister Olga Revilliod.
My man, if you would contact a Czech embassy in USA about these letters, you would be rich as hell😮
Wow, what an incredible story! Thanks for sharing Lindy, I always learn do much from you.
Thank you for uploading Llyod! I always find your videos interesting and entertaining.
The National Bolshevik flag shown at 14:42 has nothing to do with this story, it's the flag of a subversive Russian radical political party from the 1990s who opposed Yeltsin's neoliberal regime (and had much fun in the process). The Reds in the Civil War were a much more uniform force than the Whites, which is part of the reason for their success. They were basically Bolsheviks with some support from left-leaning agrarian socialists (known as "left SR"), while the Whites were: 1. Mensheviks 2. The right SR 3. Liberals 4. Monarchists/conservative republicans, probably the biggest and most well known group that for some equals the Whites as a whole. Naturally, when your movement comprises both monarchists and socialist revolutionaries like Mensheviks and the SR, you may get some problems with coordinating your actions, which the Reds didn't have.
@Eltaccos nope. its a flag of nazbols from 1990s
Wow yeah that is a huge mistake. The 1990 National Bolsheviks have no lineage whatsoever to the ones in the Civil War.
The Polish nation is VERY OLD. BUT they lacked a country.
Thank you!
@@lindybeige YW Lindy
Poland existed as a nation before the late 18th century I believe. As a Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, and had done so for 2 centuries, before which it had been just Poland for 5 centuries I believe. So the polish identity and nation had been there for a fairly long time, but as DawnOfTheDead said, they lacked a country at the start of WW1.
Check out Brian Downing’s book on the Military Revolution for a great analysis of the early modern intersection of war and political systems that led to the eventual elimination of Poland.
@@andrek6920 Very simply saind, before the French revolution, modern nations didn't exist. There were Poles, there was Polish kingdom, but the Polish kingdom wasn't the kingdom of the Poles.
This entire video is extremely captivating and I've shared it with my friends, thanks Lloyd
I love his clear presentation, depth of knowledge and enthusiasm
"If you're Czech, you know about the march of the Czech legions." Ha! Our history education is abysmal.
This is usual coverage of WW1 in the last year of primary school: "The war began in 191- *bell rings* IN 1914 I DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD GET UP JUST YET! Alright, now you can. Enjoy your summer holidays."
This is the usual coverage of WW1 in the last year of secondary school: "As both of you still taking this class know, the political situation in late 19th century Europe was *bell rings* alright, we'll be starting the revision next week, so just prepare sections A through G, that is Stone Age to the Hussite Wars."
Hey, my history lessons at grammar school were much better than that!
(Not too surprisingly perhaps, but it came as a surprise to the teacher, about half of all people in the two parallel classes - so basically a class's worth of people - decided to graduate in history, which was a lot more than average.)
It's even worse when it comes to communism. In schools, it is almost like that time didn't exist.
@@beth12svist That is a shame, they chose the easy subject.
@@Pyrochemik007 They chose the subject that was interesting. "Easy" and "difficult" comes in different flavours - in this case, "easy" did not mean "something I don't have to think about", rather the opposite; it meant "something I feel I actually have a chance of understanding and presenting well instead of having to cram a lot of info that I have no relationship to and that I will immediately forget again". THAT is the difference between a good and bad teacher.
Interesting story about forming official Czechoslovak army during WWI, is life and achievements of general Milan Rastislav Štefánik, one of three people who "made" Czechoslovakia
I found your channel recently and I've been bingeing.
A videogame studio from brno is making a videogame about these guys where you're going to be completing a journey to vladivostok in real time strategy missions, as well as managing the train in between, including everyone's health and food. The train will have a limited number of legionaries, and when they all die, it's game over. It's called Last Train Home. If anyone here is interested, go check it out.
I see anything about the legions of my country I hit that like button. :)
where have you been?
You can check his Facebook linked in the about section of this channel
@@michaelvins3215 Or you could just tell us since you imply you know the answer
@@1970DAH Why are you being so accusative? Do you expect me to summarize his life over the last month? I am giving you a pointer so that you can see what he's doing now and in the future if you're interested.
Michael Vins im sure u coulda told
us in the time u took to write the last paragraph of why u are offended
Michael Vins: "Accusative"? I could stretch myself as far as to consider Scott Gordon's post "inquisitive" with a ever-so-subtle touch of disdain. Furthermore, not all viewers here are facebook members.
Loved the tale of your experience wiht the reenactment dramatic. So found this so I could get a full story, you were lacking in details for good reason there. So glad to see.
Thanks for yet another informative and entertaining video on the kind of subject that interests me too. I vote for Lindybeige as Britain's latest official 'national treasure'! I had been worried that the shabby and arbitrary way RUclips had decided to treat you (and others) may have resulted in the end of this wonderful channel of unexpected delights - I'm more than a little pleased to see that is not the case.
You should do a video on the historical accuracy of the game Kingdom come : Deliverance. Focuses on medieval europe and it's main premise is accuracy. you would probably have a field day with it. Cheers!
Omg, czech legions! I cannot like this video enough!
Well, just keep creating RUclips accounts and liking this video until you get bored
@@yourleftnostril835 hmm... Actually good idea :D
My great grandfather fought in the Yellow Brigades. They wore early track shoes and were known for running very quickly.
My late father did a printing pressman apprenticeship in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1925 - 1927. There was some Czech heritage there and it wasn't that long after the events. My father as an apprentice was taught that some of the trains of the Czech Legion had cars that were set as printing shops to not only get newspapers out, but to print postage stamps and their own currancy.
A 40 minute video? This has made my day
39:56
Where did you get the idea that there were Finns in the battle of Zborov?
Edit: I 'czecked' (pun intended) this and the Russian units had no finns in them but their units were named as Finnish rifle brigades because they were stationed in Finland before WW1.
I've missed you bud! :) Lovely to see you again! Cheers! To your health!
Thank you for learning us about this remarkable and (for me) unknown epic history!
Have you thought about making a video about the Hungarian Black Army. A mercenary army in the middle ages commissioned by Matteas Corvinus (I think), largely influenced by the writings of Caesar. It's a popular historical anecdote in Hungary and I think you could do it justice. Keep up the good work.
they were mostly czech husites too, hatemails!!
The Great War RUclips channel covered this great escape in a video - wonder if the follow on channel the Second World War will ask LB to do some videos together? Also final question have you been to Bletchley Park?
Lindy as a czech fan I am overjoyed to see you cover this sequence of mostly unfortunate events.
I would like to thank you for doing so and making my day with this video.
These new videos that Lindy has been making have reminded me that he has dedicated himself quite intensely to improving his channel, and it works. Thank you Lloyd.
I'd be interested in a video about modern day (say, post WW2?) sieges
Thank you for this video. ♥️
The long videos are the best. Cracking stuff!
Love your study, Lindy. Brightens my day :)
Can you make a British infranties/other standard soldier kit video?
TILL 1798 there was a kingdom of Poland... - since 1569 most of the central and eastern europe spoke polish as a common language, equal to latin (and italian 'cause of Bona Sforza princess)...
Russian support to minor slavic nations was due to weaken the rule of Austiran, Polish and Hungarian bonds...
@Pasha Staravoitau But Many families of ruthenian origin changed their religion to catholic and language to polish in aim for better position and higher culture
I think the serfs spoke their mother tongue, and outside the Polish Kingdom, what conquered Lithuania as well, it wasn't very common. The common language was Latin, and after in the late early modern ages the French. The Polish Court and most of the nobility and aristocracy spoke Polish, I'm sure, but apart from them, maybe some interpreters
When I watched the movie Admiral I was wondering what the Czechs were doing so far away from in Siberia... this video explains it quite well, thank you Lindy!
Great video! One of the best.