bravery and strategical skill. Our lads were officially commended, the name of the Czech Brigade became known throughout Russia and, as a recompense, the Supreme Command ordered the formation of a second division.
Its actual formation was, however, put off more and more. There was a fundamental difference between the Revolutionary Government at Petrograd and the Army and its command. Though Liberals and Socialists held political power, the superior military authorities were either monarchists or men of purely military mind, and the whole military machine was unchanged. Milyukoff and the Liberals recognized me, the Paris National Council and our policy, but the soldiers continued to tread their wonted path. Indeed, before the battle of Zboroff, we were opposed even by Socialists and Liberals of all shades, who thought us Chauvinists. The Liberal and Progressive Russians had always been in opposition to the Government and to its official Nationalism. Therefore they were likewise against our national aims, especially when the antagonism between the Right and Left wings of our movement showed that many of our people were reactionary, either tactically or on principle. For this reason Kerensky, as War Minister, ordered that our brigade should be disbanded; and the new Commanding Officer of the Kieff district, a Social Revolutionary named Oberutcheff, did the same. To Kerensky I explained the position in a memorandum on May 22, and I persuaded Colonel Oberutcheff also to be more moderate. But the change was wrought chiefly by the battle of Zboroff.
In explanation of Russian distrust, it should be said that, after the Revolution, all official archives fell into the hands of the new Government, and that in them were found a number of reports, official and unofficial, which compromised several of our people. Moreover, from liberal officials whose lips were now unsealed, I heard what had happened in the Russian Foreign Office and elsewhere under the Tsarist Government. An influential member of our “League” was alleged to have been in direct contact with the Okhrana, or secret political police, and with Protopopoff. Hence, our army had been disliked in military as well as in official quarters, for even the decent Russian Conservatives objected to Protopopoff and the Okhrana.
Our position emerges the more clearly if the lot of our brigade be compared with that of the Serbian Legion. Permission to form a Serbian Legion out of the Austro-Serbian prisoners of war had been easily obtained by Spalaikovitch,
