The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/From far-off Russia

 

FROM FAR-OFF RUSSIA

During the retreat of the Russian army from the Carpathians in the spring of 1915 Lieutenant-General Kornilov, commanding the rear guard, was captured and interned in Bohemia. In the summer of 1916 he managed to escape with the help of a Bohemian soldider, Frank Mrnak. For several weeks the two fugitives were making their way stealthily toward the Roumanian frontier, hiding by day and traveling at night. But one day in August they were surprised by gendarmes; the general got away and finally reached Russia, where he now commands an army corps. Mrnak was hit and captured, and later sentenced by the court martial in Pressburg to be shot.

It had been the Bohemian soldiers’s intention to enter as a volunteer into the ranks of the Czecho-Slovak brigade which has by this time grown into two divisions. That his name and his heroic deed should not be forgotten, the commander of the brigade issued an order to have Mrnak’s name inscribed first on the roll of Company A of the first regiment of the Czecho-Slovak brigade of sharp shooters. At every roll-call, when Mrnak’s name is called, the sergeant of the first squad shall answer: “Shot by Hungarian court martial in Pressburg for saving General Kornilov.”