Part 2
After the February Revolution, the decomposition of the Russian army began, but Chekhov did not affect this process. By the beginning of 1918, the Legion (about 50,000 bayonets) was one of the most combat -ready formations in the territory of the former Russian Empire. In March, the Bolsheviks signed the Brest world, and the legionnaires were invited to leave Russia through Vladivostok (then they were supposed to be transported to the Western Front). By May 1918, Czech echelons stretched for hundreds of kilometers. The liberated Germans and Austrians followed them. Their attitude towards the Czechs is understandable – the Slavs were perceived as traitors and future opponents. In addition, the general collapse of the railway system affected, the Czechs often demanded a bribe for the right to miss their compositions. But the immediate reason for the performance was the incident in Chelyabinsk.
On May 14, 1918, one of the Hungarian soldiers threw a fragment of a cast -iron stove into a group of Czechs on a platform passing by the Echelon station. The legionnaire received a serious head injury and lost consciousness. The Czechs stopped the train, found the culprit and linked on the spot. Further, everything happened very quickly – the local authorities began the investigation, arrested several participants in the incident. The legionnaires by force rescued their comrades, after which an order came from Moscow to disarm the Czechoslovaks. They refused, several clashes with the Red Army occurred, but there were no real forces to cope with the Czechs – the Bolsheviks – the Soviet government in Siberia, the Volga region, in the Urals and the Far East was liquidated in a few weeks.
In the corps initially command posts were held by Russian officers. Some of the late 1917 – early 1918. They left the entrusted units, but many, including Sergey Voitskhovsky, remained with their fighters. It was he who led the Chelyabinsk group of legionnaires during the May events.
By the end of 1918, the relations of Chekhov and Kolchak worsened greatly. This was facilitated by the proclamation of Independence Czechoslovakia on October 28 (it is symbolic that this happened on the birthday of Voitsakhovsky), the authoritarian style of the reign of Kolchak and the general fatigue from the war. As a result, in March 1919, Wojciekhovsky left Legion and returned to the Russian service. Ahead of the general had victories and defeats, emigration, gaining a new homeland and returning to Siberia, already as a prisoner. In 1996, he was rehabilitated by the Decree of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office of Russia, and in 2003, a memorial plaque in memory of Sergei Voitskhovsky was solemnly opened in the Czech city of Brno.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
