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Now the Legion is strung out across Siberia - looking to get to Vladivostok and then to the Western Front. Masaryk had warned them to stay out of Russian affairs. “Beware my boys,” he said. But you can’t always get what you want. Middle game.
 
the story continues...
Things change.
Stuff happens.
Now Lenin was in charge of Russia
And Leon Trotsky was in charge
of The Red Army, which, at the start, wasn’t much of an army.
The Treaty of Brest-Ltovsk was total Bolshevik surrender.
The Germans took half the Czar’s gold and pretty much had their way.
Count Mirbach, German ambassador to Russia felt very very strongly...
that a Czechoslovakian army in Russia was a really bad idea.
They forced Trotsky to go back on his guarantee of safe passage.
Count Mirbach wanted The Legion disarmed - or worse.
Lenin and Trotsky agreed. (They had to.) But then...
The Legion took over. Outnumbered by the Bolsheviks,
they battled in the cities, and up and down the tracks, until...
they consolidated control of the Eastern half of the Trans-Siberian.
But it wasn’t just battles. It was everyday life as well.
40,000 to 50,000 men were living in box cars on the Trans-Siberian
There were about forty men per box car.
And there were still 24 hours in a day. 7 days a week.
Some box cars were converted into bakeries
to feed a growing fighting force.
Many Legionnaires decorated their traveling barracks
with images from home
paintings of pride and patriotism
the history of their homeland
and those waiting at home where they hoped to return
though they seemed to be moving further away every day.
America was just entering WWI. Masaryk had a new battle to fight.
The Professor now had to win the heart of America. He had help...
he was in the world’s second-biggest Czecho-Slovakian country - the USA.
He worked his way from San Francisco
to New York.
Stopping off in Omaha
Lots of Czechs in Nebraska.
Slovaks, too.
And red, white, and blue are Czechoslovakia’s colors, too.
He visited a sokol camp.
Funny hats optional.
Or perhaps they’re required.
Then to Chicago (he’d taught at the University of Chicago)
where the Professor returned to a hero’s welcome.
Cleveland came out to greet him. And even though Czechoslovakia
wasn’t even a country yet, Wall Street loaned them $10 million!
The French sent over Stefanik, now a General in the French Army.
They gained the support of US Secretary of State Robert Lansing
and President Woodrow Wilson.
Here is Masaryk signing the Oppressed Nations Treaty.
A Free Czechoslovakia became part of the American agenda
The Czechoslovak Legion was organizing itself across Siberia
and even down into Mongolia and Northern China.
They now had the tools
and the resources
with an armory
machine shops
and even tea rooms – thanks to the YMCA.
They found themselves in charge of the Eastern half of the
Trans-Siberian Railway. One of the world’s great engineering projects.
They were guarding bridges
and making britches.
Keeping things fixed up
to keep it all running.
Working together
to keep things on track.
They even organized a postal service,
maintained telegraph connections (and tapped the Bolsheviks’ lines),
and had their own weekly newspaper.
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