People of the Revolution and the USSR

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Most people

Any Czechoslovakia state institutions 2

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Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia state institutions 2
Position(set)
Any Counter-revolutionary forces 2 Socialist-bloc reform leader 4 Dissident 5 Fascists and Nazis 1 Western Marxist theorists 1 Marxism and communism 2
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Era
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People of the wider world

The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 2
Counter-revolutionary forces Background: Czechoslovakia Clear all

Stanislav Čeček

Stanislav Čeček
Czechoslovakia state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces Czechoslovakia Czech 1886–1930 ○ Natural causes

Commander of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia

In May 1918, about 8,000 Legion riflemen were concentrated at Penza under Čeček's command.

Čeček was an officer who linked the Czech national movement in the First World War with the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. In 1918 he commanded the largest Legion concentration, about 8,000 men at Penza, and led the capture of Samara, helping create the conditions for the Komuch government. His course shows how Legion commanders took political and military initiative in clashes with Bolshevik forces rather than simply awaiting orders from above. In interwar Czechoslovakia he carried that battlefield experience into the construction of the national military establishment through senior staff and aviation work.

Career timeline
  • 1907Lieutenant, Prague 102nd Infantry Regiment
  • 1914Joined the Czech Družina in the Imperial Russian Army
  • 1917Commander of the 4th Regiment, Czechoslovak Legion
  • 1918Commander at Penza and commander-in-chief of Komuch's Volga Front
  • 1920Deputy chief of the Czechoslovak General Staff
  • 1921–1923Studied at France's École supérieure de guerre
  • 1924–1926Chief of the President's Military Office, then head of the Defence Ministry aviation department
  • 1929–1930Commander of the 5th Infantry Division and military commander at České Budějovice

Radola Gajda

Radola Gajda
Czechoslovakia state institutions Fascists and Nazis Czechoslovak Czech 1892–1948 ○ Natural causes

A legion commander who carried battlefield success into White politics

After capturing Yekaterinburg, Gajda set up his headquarters in the very Ipatiev House where the Romanovs had been murdered by the Bolsheviks less than a week earlier.

Radola Gajda was a Czechoslovak Legion commander who rose to prominence in the First World War and the Russian Civil War, later becoming a general and politician in interwar Czechoslovakia. In 1918 he led the Legion's eastern group, seizing the railway from Novonikolaevsk to Irkutsk and pressing the argument for armed struggle over neutrality. He joined Kolchak's White forces, lost his command, and returned home to serve as acting chief of the general staff before leading the National Fascist Community. His military anti-Bolshevism became fascist politics in Czechoslovakia, while during the Nazi occupation he aided resistance networks.

Career timeline
  • 1910–1911Served in the Austro-Hungarian Army
  • 1915–1916Officer in the Montenegrin Army
  • 1917Company and regimental commander, Czechoslovak Legion
  • 1918Commander, Legion eastern group, directing the capture of Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg
  • 1918–1919Commander of Kolchak's Siberian Army
  • 1922–1926Divisional commander and acting chief of the Czechoslovak General Staff
  • 1927–1939Leader of the National Fascist Community and parliamentarian