Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/56

 The Bolshevik revolution started on Oct. 26 in Petrograd. A handful of Anarchists, instigated by Lenin and Trotsky and their ac the Winter Palace and the Government buildings. One of our Assembly delegates was in Petrograd at the time. He was negotiating with the Republican Government on Oct. 25, and woke up the day after the “coup“ to see that Government gone and none to take its place. The Bolsheviks became a danger to our men. They sought them out separately and collectively when they could, talked and argued with them, and tried to fill them with Bolshevik ideas. When translated into Russian, our National Organisation became the Czecho-Slovak National Soviet! It was easy, therefore, to create a confusion. If our soldiers adhered to our Soviet, it was naturally argued that they should have the same ideas as the Bolshevik Soviets! It was only when our men began to see the excesses of the Bolsheviks that they fully realised the difference between our own democratic aspirations which went side by side with principles of order, discipline, and respect for authority. A rude awakening came when our own leader, Professor Masaryk, very nearly became a victim to Bolshevik riots. They bombarded Moscow, as is well known, indiscriminately, and the shells struck the Hôtel Métropole, where he happened to be staying. He and our other delegates had to remove to Kieff.

The Bolsheviks at once started preaching the necessity of ending the war by simply ceasing to fight. The soldiers were invited to throw down their rifles and to walk over to the Germans to induce them to do the same. The organisation of our legions to fight against the Germans and Austrians no longer seemed to have an object. The whole Russian military system was tottering and going to pieces, and our legions remained the only organised force to fight against the enemy. A more immediate danger threatened our two divisions when it began to be rumoured that Ukrainia was going to treat separately for peace with Germany and Austria. This was the hardest blow of all, as the question was what were we to become in that case. Prisoners of war a second time, handed over bound hand and foot to our worst enemies?

At the time of the Bolshevik revolution in October, both our divisions were in Ukrainia doing reserve duty immediately behind the front. Our artillery regiments were with them. The first division was in Volhynia, its base was at Borispol, near Kieff, and its staff command was at Polonoe. The second division was in the Government of Poltava, holding the railway line and doing garrison duty. As soon as Ukrainia proclaimed itself a separate and independent Republic, it announced its intention of treating for separate peace with Germany and Austria.