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Czech Legion, also called Czech-Slovak Legion was an armed force attached to the Russian army during the World War I. It was
composed of the prisoners and deserters from the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which were from the provinces of Bohemia and Slovakia. The leader of Czech nationalist movement
Tomas Masaryk helped to expand the Legion. The Legion peaked to around
50,000 men.
Initially the Legion fought against Austro-German forces. When Russia concluded the separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, it was agreed between the Bolsheviks and the Legion to evacuate the Czech Legion to France to continue fighting. Because of the strong Bolshevik presence in the European front, the evacuation was done
by a detour via Siberia by the Trans-Siberian railway, in a rather slow way.
During the evacuation the Legion was provoked to fight against the Bolsheviks. Briefly, in May 1918, the Legion forcibly freed a group of
their soldiers supposedly falsely accused, and Leon Trotsky, the then
People's Commissar of War, ordered to disarm the Legion. As a
result, the Legion took over a considerable area around the railway just east of Volga River, however it didn't take active part in the Russian Civil War, mostly providing its own retreat.
Eventually, most of the Legion was evacuated via Vladivostok, but some
part joined the army of Admiral Kolchak.
The last Tsar, Nicholas II of Russia was executed along with all of his family when units of the Czech legion
approached Yekaterinburg, where the tsar was being held. Their presence
in the area was incidental as they made their retreat out of Russia. The bolshevik jailers of the tsar feared that the Czechs
would take the town and free the tsar, so the safe course seemed to be the immediate liquidation of the imperial family.
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