Czechoslovak Legion

A further factor was the Czechoslovak Legion, composed of Czech and Slovak deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army, whom previous Russian governments had allowed to form their own units. In March 1918 the Bolshevik government agreed to let these units leave Russia by the Far East, but in May violent incidents…

The Czechoslovak Legion, released and armed by the Kerensky government, at first declared neutrality toward Russian politics, but when the Bolsheviks tried to disarm them, skirmishes ensued, and the legion became strung out along the 6,000-mile-long Trans-Siberian Railway. The Allied interventions also became entangled in the…

…using for this purpose the Czechoslovak Legion composed of ex-prisoners of war, Japanese troops, and small contingents of their own forces landed in the northern port cities of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (Archangel). But these efforts proved unsuccessful, driving the beleaguered Bolsheviks ever closer into the arms of Germany. In a…