In consequence of the reports which B. Pavlů brought from London in April 1916, the League of Czechoslovak Associations in Russia decided to reply to Masaryk’s message to the Czechs and Slovaks in Russia by a telegram of greeting, referring to Masaryk as their leader, acknowledged by the will of the Czech and Slovak elements. Serious complications, however, arose when, at the beginning of June 1916, Dürich proceeded to Russia and was regarded by the Tsarist Government as a suitable person for placing in the foreground of the Czechoslovak revolutionary movement to counterbalance the influence of Masaryk. Štefánik, who was sent to Russia after Dürich, endeavoured to dispose of these difficulties with the support of the Petrograd group of Czechs. He succeeded in arranging what is known as the Kiev memorandum of August 29, 1916, in which for the first time all the Czechoslovak groups in Russia recognized not only the authority of the Czechoslovak National Council with Masaryk at its head, but also its supremacy as an organization above the League situated at Kiev. Soon afterwards, however, under the influence of the Russian Government, the question of the relationship between the League and the National Council met with fresh complications. The Russian Foreign Office refused to acknowledge the Kiev memorandum, induced Dürich to repudiate it, and drew up conditions connecting the establishment of a Czechoslovak Army and the leadership of Dürich in Russia. It also began to promote the idea of a separatist National Council managed by Dürich. Under the influence of this situation, a cleavage began to develop among the Czechoslovaks in Russia. As a result, those in charge of the League, harassed by the opposition in Petrograd and the discontent among the organizations dealing with prisoners of war, endeavoured to strengthen their position by making concessions to the Russian Foreign Office and to Dürich. In the middle of November 1916 this cleavage was publicly manifested, and from that date onwards the administration of the League at Kiev openly identified itself with the principles advocated by the Russian Foreign Office and by Dürich, to the effect that “the League could successfully negotiate only in complete agreement with the authorized and acknowledged representative of the nation, Deputy Dürich, who had placed himself at the head of our movement in Russia, just as Professor Masaryk had done in Western Europe.”
