ČESKOSLOVENSKÉ LÉGIE VO SVETLE RAKÚSKOUHORSKÝCH DOKUMENTOV

At the end of World War 1, the question of the significance of the Czechoslovak Legions as the new fighting power started appearing in the Austro-Hungarian documents. The top command of the Austro-Hungarian Army recognised that the activity of the legions consisting of Czech and Slovak volunteers, who were still the citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, casts an unfavourable light on the Monarchy as a whole, pointing out to its tense internal political arrangement. Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian Army made an effort to enforce the propaganda among the public that these units consisting of Austro-Hungarian citizens only form a small and insignificant part of the fighting troops. In particular, the memo they wanted to spread about the Czechoslovak units located in Russia was that they were only fighting against the Bolsheviks as a part of the very diverse anti-Bolshevik coalition. However, the high command of the Austro-Hungarian Army realised that their actual effort upon concluding the Peace of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 was to move from Russia to the Western front, where they could engage in the fights again, in the last stage of the World War 1. Relevant documents on this topic can be found in the Military Archive in Vienna, in the Armeeoberkommando collection. We provide their transcription followed by a translation to Slovak language and references.