* * * * *
The most picturesque army raised during the great war was that formed by
large numbers of Czecho-Slovaks, formerly prisoners of war in Russia and
deserters from the Austrian armies. This force fought its way through
Russia and Siberia, opposed by the Bolsheviks who had promised them safe
conduct to France. A description of these famous fighters is contained
in the following pages.
THE FIGHTING CZECHO-SLOVAKS
MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS
[Sidenote: The romantic Czecho-Slovak army.]
The Czecho-Slovak Expeditionary Force is one of the most romantic armies
of the ages and an important step toward world democracy and idealism. I
learned to know the Czechs in a journey across Siberia on one of their
trains. They furnished me a bed when beds were scarce, transportation
when transportation was scarcer, and shoes when shoes were necessary. I
have never seen a real Czech that I could not endorse.
[Sidenote: Two methods of travel in Russia.]
[Sidenote: A journey on a Czecho-Slovak train.]
Last March there were two ways to travel in Russia. If one was an
American--relief worker, correspondent, Y.M.C.A. man--one could get a
private car. Many Americans rode that way for a trifling cost and
without inconvenience. And it was in such cars that some of Russia's
severest critics traveled. The other way was intimate travel with the
common herd. I started thus. It was at Irtishevo, a junction point near
the lower Volga, that I changed.
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