knowledge abroad, arraigning Austria openly and charging her with persecution and cruelty. In the young sculptor Sapík the spirit of the people was finely revealed. Mobilized and sent to the Russian front, he said, in bidding farewell to his friends at Prague, “I know I shall fall, but I will fire no shot against Russia.” Hardly had he reached the front when he fell—having kept his word. Of such as he there were many thousands. The civilians, too, who were executed under the Austrian military terror; or who, like Dr. Kramář and Dr. Rašín, were condemned to death and imprisoned; and those whose property was confiscated or who were made to suffer in other ways, all bore their part in the work of liberation—they and the nameless souls in all classes of the Czech people for whom Austrian persecution made bitterer still the bitter time of war. Our freedom was truly bought with blood.
Other factors in the struggle were the diplomatic action and the propaganda of our National Council abroad. We formed the Legions, developed them into an army, and turned their share in the war to political account. The National Council abroad was the organ of men at home who discerned the nature of the world war and took the fateful decision either to carry on our revolt in foreign countries or to support it effectively by subterranean action at home. Everywhere, even in Russia, the main task was to break down traditional pro-Austrianism; and in this we succeeded.
We, who were abroad, managed besides to convince the Allies of our historical and natural right to independence. We revealed to them the true character of the Hapsburg absolutism. We showed that, under cover of constitutional appearances, a minority ruled over a majority in Austria-Hungary and that things in Austria and Hungary were as anachronistic and anomalous as was the Caesarism of Prussia and Russia. This the Western peoples understood as regards Prussia and Russia, and it was our business to persuade them that the Caesarism of Vienna was no better, nay, in many respects, worse. We dwelt upon the cruelty of Austria towards those of her peoples who were not of her mind, upon her dependence on Germany and pan-German policy, and upon her heavy share of war guilt; and, by showing what part our people had taken in the development of European culture, we justified our claim to independence. Even among the masses of the Allied peoples our four years’ propaganda spread these truths and drove them home.
Pro-Austrianism did not consist merely of a liking for Austria and Vienna, but was inspired by the traditional view
