along the trans-Siberian line from Samara as far as Irkutsk, and had disarmed or scattered to the four winds the Bolshevik and Internationalist (Magyar and German prisoners) forces.
At first the Czecho-Slovaks announced that they were not aiming at any interference in the internal affairs of Russia, but were only assuring their safe passage throught to Vladivostok, to which point they were to proceed as soon as practicable. But what the Bolsheviks are pleased to call the “dark forces of counter-revolution”, or in short those who believed in a different kind of democracy than that of the Soviets, saw immediately that here was a golden opportunity to overthrow the Bolshevik tyranny, and establish a new government making for a truce democracy. An organization for this purpose had long since secretly existed throughout Siberia in the temporary Siberian Government, and the leaders of this organization had been but waiting for a favorable opportunity to bring about a coup-d’-etat. They rightly judged that no more favorable opportunity could be found than that afforded by the Czecho-Slovak movement, when the Bolsheviks had no arms with which to continue their terrorization of the people. The leaders of the Czecho-Slovaks were consulted, and, since the Bolsheviks would not allow them to depart, were persuaded to join in this attempt to free Siberia for ever of the Bolshevik yoke.
New local governments were established, those in Siberia centring around the Siberian government at Omsk, and those in Russia around temporary committees formed principally of members-elect to the Constitutional Assembly that the Bolsheviks disbanded in November 1917 because there was not a majority of Bolsheviks.
The people were enraptured over their sudden good fortune, and could not say too much of their gratitude to their deliverers, the Czecho-Slovaks. The newspapers were filled with articles and poems singing their praises, huge demonstrations were made in the cities they had freed from Bolsheviks rule. “Now we have shaken off the Bolsheviks here in Siberia, and we shall soon break their rule in European Russia; we shall establish a new government based on the decision of a popularly-elected Constitutional Assembly, we shall re-organize the Russian army, and with the help of the Allies establish anew the Eastern front against the Central powers and fight until every inch of Russian territory is freed from German influence.” This was the sincere and decided resolve made not only by the spokes man of the new governmental organizations, but by the common citizen. Feeling ran high, and the future at last began to look bright and rosy, after many months of darkness and despair. It seemed as if Russia were about to be saved; saved from the Bolsheviks, saved from the Germans, saved for the Russians. And the Czecho-Slovaks were the saviors. They were the heroes of the country.
But the Czecho-Slovaks were not deceived by their early victories into thinking that all was going to be plain sailing for them. If their decision to support the counter-Bolshevik forces and to make their battle their own was made quickly, it was nuot made without counting the cost. They were on the ground and were in a position to judge the Russian situation as no other non-Russian people, owing to their intimate knowledge of Russian affairs and the Russian people. They were cut off from the outside world, and could not consult with their supreme authority, the Czecho Slovak National Council, nor with the Allies. They were fully aware of the responsibility they took upon themselves, but were convinced that Professor Masaryk, their leader, and the Allies as well, would support them in their action, when all the facts were known. They began the battle for their own self-protection, but they continued it for the restoration of Russia to the Russian people, believing that thus they would be rendering a greater service to the Allied cause than they would by proceeding to the French front, as they had originally planned. But in spite of their confidence that they had taken the only course possible ,they were all greatly relieved and delighted when word came through from the Allied ambassadors at Vologda to the effect that the Allies thanked the Czechs for what they had done in Russia and Siberia, approved of their course of action and were beginning armed intervention in Russia and Siberia in the end of June.
From that time on the Czechs set to work to prepare the ground for the coming of Allied troops, the re-organization of the Russian Army, and the re-establishment of an Eastern front against the Germans, with whom the Bolsheviks were more and more openly allying themselves. Their first task was to open the way to the east so as to join forces with their comrades who had already reached Vladivostok and with any allied troops that might be there.
Neither the Czechs nor the Allies at Vladivostok expected that it would be possible for connection to be made with the main body of the Czech troops in Siberia and the Ural District before Spring. But the Czechs did many unexpected and unheard of things in the course of their campaign, and the utter amazement of all the authorities in Vladivostok and eastern Siberia General Gaida with his small force of Czechs and Russians succeeded in making connection with the Cossacks and Czechs operating in Manchuria in the early days of September.
General Gaida’s campaign across the steppes of Siberia and through the Lake Baikal region was one of the most brilliant achievments of the summer. Having at his disposal only a regiment and a half of Czech troops and a few raw Siberian troops, Gaida sent them scurrying along the railway lines againt one place after another, delivering one unexpected and telling blow after
