Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/55

 for it, our committee had, with the consent of the Revolutionary Government of Russia, summoned a National Czecho-Slovak Assembly in Kieff. It'met at the end of April, and there were twenty six delegates from all parts of Russia. They unanimously accepted all the provisions of the National Assembly in Paris, and ten days later Professor Masaryk arrived. General Stefanik had been in Russia from July, 1916, to February, 1917.

From the month of May, 1917, onward, we were therefore under the authority of our recognised Government. During the summer months of that year our two divisions continued their preparations for a serious campaign, and not one of the least difficulties was to obtain the necessary outfit, the war material, ammunition, and artillery. Much was left to the resourcefulness and enterprise of our individual commanders. Everything tended to disorder and disruption in Russia. The army was falling to pieces. Material which no longer existed was often assigned to us. There was still plenty of ammunition and artillery in reserve in many depôts at the rear, but it was a question of knowing where it was and getting an order to take it. Our companies which were stationed near the front took a shorter route. They went, as it were, foraging for guns and material and collected the batteries, ammunition, and equipment abandoned by the Russian soldiers at the front.

It would have been easy to supply several new armies with the material which the Russian deserters abandoned, and much of which afterwards fell into the hands of the Germans and Austrians. What our men took away was so much saved from falling into the hands of the enemy. In September we were thus able to form two artillery brigades, one for each division, which were abundantly supplied with guns and ammunition. Our splendid equipment later on gave no little concern to the Bolsheviks and the German agents, especially the famous Count von Mirbach, at Moscow, and it was the knowledge of all the material we possessed that made them demand with such persistency the disarming of all our regiments before we should be allowed to continue our famous retreat through Siberia.

The month of September passed, and the fatal month of October came, with its Bolshevik rising and disaster. It not only meant ruin for Russia, the disappearance of order, stability, and respect for the most sacred principles of civilisation, but it also threatened to swallow us up. What were we, a handful of Czecho-Slovaks, in the midst of the millions of Russia, among whom the mad theories of Bolshevism were let loose? The danger was very real!