Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/70

 echelons as far from one another and to disarm them as much as possible, and then to fall upon them when they would be completely at their mercy. Whether this came from German intrigues, or from the fear of Lenin and Trotsky that we might join some Russian forces, we did not know. From whatever source it came, there seemed to be a general understanding to make our progress very difficult, if not altogether impossible.

By the end of April our movement was entirely stopped. Our last echelon was still at Rkiscevo, and our first was already at Vladivostock. The distance between them was about 8,000 kilometres! It may be stated that at the beginning a formal authorisation for our troops to proceed to Vladivostock was signed and given by General Muraviev, the commander-in-chief of the Bolshevik army, but the Moscow Soviet soon took the matter out of his hands, and his signature no longer counted for anything. One of our echelons was held up a whole month at Tambov, just because the local Soviet and commander had so decided. It was enough to hold back all the other echelons behind it. The situation was intolerable.

On May 9 the Vice-President of our National Assembly, Professor Maxa, took the risk of going to Moscow to protest to the Soviet. The journey was a hazardous one. On two previous occasions our delegates had been badly received. One group, consisting of our members, was imprisoned at one place, tried by a Bolshevik court-martial, and sentenced to death. Our delegates suspected what was in store for them, and they succeeded in escaping from arrest before the sentence could be carried out, and eventually returned to our troops disguised as Bolshevik soldiers. It was a clear indication that we Czecho-Slovaks had come to be regarded as enemies by the Bolsheviks in Moscow and other places. The climax was soon reached, and we were in a declared state of war with the Bolsheviks in the whole region of the Volga and from one end of Siberia to the other. Our supremacy was not achieved till after we had severe engagements, resulting invariably in victories, at Pensa, Sysran, Kazan, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, the Baikal region, and Vladivostock.

The incident that led to the culminating point took place at Cheliabinsk, the first station in Siberia on the other side of the Ural region. Towards the end of April, when the situation become very strained, the delegates and members of our National Assembly, or at least as many as could be informed, were convened for consultation at Cheliabinsk. The last of them had left Piriakin and travelled by various routes to Siberia, where they left they would be more secure, and many had