IV
The attempt to reconstruct in Russia the former eastern front against the Central Powers
THE interest of the Allies in the events in Russia and in Siberia, the enthusiasm of patriotic Russians over the fall of the Soviet régime in the liberated regions, and the hope of its abolition in all parts of Russia, led to a decision regarding the further sphere of action of the Czechoslovak army. It was no longer to be brought to France, but was ordered by the Allied Supreme Command, the authority of which it had always loyally acknowledged, to remain in Russia. Its task was to hold as long as possible the occupied territories and regions, and the Trans-Siberian Railway, and to form the nucleus of an army which was to build up a front in the Volga district from the steppes of Orenburg to Kazan and Penza, and then advance westward to the frontiers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The destruction of the Soviet régime would have followed, the attitude of the Russian population at that time being what it was. Everywhere the Russians joined the colours of the Constituent Assembly which in January, 1918, in Petrograd, had been forcibly dissolved by the Bolsheviks. This Constituent Assembly was to be convoked again in Moscow and was to decide on the
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