grad there were the War Office, the General Staff, the Foreign Office and the Council of Ministers; at Moghileff there was General Headquarters; at Kieff, the chief of the Military District; and, finally, the Commander-in-Chief had a word to say, as well as the Commander and the Staff of the Army Corps to which our units were attached. There were continuous pilgrimages from Pontius to Pilate, and long journeys from town to town. Everywhere and from everybody we had to get a Bumaga, a “paper” of some sort, which took long to make out; for in Russia the army, like everything else, was bureaucratized. The Allied representatives helped us generously and, in a number of minor matters, backed us up in our dealings with the Russian authorities. The military attachés, who were generally stationed at Moghileff, helped us too.
The work was simplified by the setting up in Russia of the “Branch” of our Paris National Council. Both the “League” and the “Association” had taken a hand in the military business; and, alongside of the “League,” there had been Dürich’s pro-Russian “National Council.” Our “Branch” simplified all that. In accordance with its statutes, I became its head on reaching Russia; things grew more orderly; the work was more unified, and thus we gained the confidence of the Russians and of the Allied representatives alike.
We extended the “Branch” and divided up the work. Most of it, of course, had to do with the army and its development. The correspondence with our prisoners, singly and with whole camps, was immense. Members of the “Branch” and many officers and men had to visit the camps and direct the recruiting. Money troubles soon arose, but we amended an old scheme and issued a national loan. I simplified things as much as possible, even in the arrangements made by the Russians. Klecanda, the “Branch” secretary, whose premature death was a great loss, was of the utmost assistance to me. He was a dear fellow, devoted to the cause, and a tireless worker. My private secretary was was the young historian Papoušek. The Russian Government had entrusted General Červinka, a Czech by birth, with the technical organization of our army. He was a Russian soldier and, if only on that account, had some trouble with the “League” and with the “Association”; but he laboured devotedly for the Czech cause. If, as a Conservative, he was not altogether in agreement with me, that did not prevent our working together.
L
