They can best tell their own story. Lieutenant B---- of my English class
was typical.
"When war was declared, I was in Switzerland," he told me. "Late in July
I climbed to the heights overlooking Austria. I could throw a stone over
into that land of oppression. That very day, when I went down into the
Swiss village, I heard that the Austrian mobilization had been ordered.
I could not believe that war would come. I returned to the land I hated
and in two days I had joined my class. We were to fight Russia. This was
unthinkable. Better to mutiny against our German and Magyar officers
than murder our brother Slavs.
[Sidenote: Czech regiments went over to Russia by companies.]
"And so it was that the word was secretly passed through whole regiments
of our men to desert to the Russians. The opportunity came when we faced
Brusiloff's army. The Russians knew and were ready to receive us. We
walked over in companies, with banners flying and bands playing and men
falling before the shots that rang out behind us. We hoped to turn and
fight against our oppressors. And for a while some of us did. But one by
one those of us who had entered the Russian ranks were removed and sent
to prison camps, whence we were scattered among the homes and factories
of Russia. My own band of companies was soon thoroughly broken up and
dispersed from Turkestan and the Caucasus to Tobolsk and Irkutsk. As
German influences strengthened at the Russian court we were sent to
worse and worse positions, malarial and barren territories.
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