Czechoslovak Legion

In August 1914 Czechs living in Russia formed the Czech Druzhina in Kiev, at first about 700 volunteers. Prisoners of war and deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army joined it. The legionaries won fame at the Battle of Zborov in July 1917. After the Bolshevik coup the corps, 40,000–50,000 strong, was placed under the French army and was to sail from Vladivostok to the Western Front. Smaller legions also fought in France and Italy.

When on 25 May 1918 Trotsky ordered the Czechoslovaks to be disarmed, they took up arms and seized the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Volga to the Pacific, and in August they took Kazan. Their rising made possible the anti-Bolshevik governments in Samara and Siberia and became one of the reasons for the Allied intervention. In 1918 the Allied powers recognised the Czechoslovak National Council, and the legionaries went home via Vladivostok in 1919–1920.