Book Review by Fred G. Baker:
Dr. Joan McGuire Mohr, The Czech and Slovak Legion in Siberia, 1917-1922, (Jefferson, N. Carolina, McFarland & Co., Inc., 2012), 254 p.
During the First World War a number of Czech and Slovak leaders saw an opportunity to create their own independent nation from the controlling Austro-Hungarian Empire. They sought to form a common country from the Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak portions of that empire. They created an international movement for their new country, negotiated with Britain, France, the United States and Russia to provide a fighting force of Czechs and Slovaks to fight with the Allies against the Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In exchange for this support, the Allies agreed to grant them recognition for their new and independent state, Czechoslovakia.
The story of the exploits of that fighting force that they helped create, the Czech and Slovak Legion, the Legion’s unparalleled battlefield success and then their desperate exodus from a hostile Bolshevik Russia across the whole of Siberia is one of the greatest stories seldom told. In her comprehensive work, Dr. Joan Mohr describes the politics behind the creation of this new nation and the history of the Legion. Using a wide variety of sources including letters, diaries, photos and official records, she constructs a complete history of these seminal events. The book is a very readable account of the many actions, battles and holding actions carried out by the Legion along the length of the Trans-Siberian Railroad that served as the life-link that held the many battalions of the Legion together for more than four years. It is a complex story, clearly sourced and well documented.
This is a portion of history that has been long overlooked in major discussions of the First World War. Little has been said about the Allies (Entente Forces) attempt to create a second front against Germany within Russia after the withdrawal of the Russian Bolshevik Government from the war in early 1918. The fact that the coherent fighting force called the Czech and Slovak Legion was the spearhead of that effort has not been given its due in histories of the war and its aftermath. This is a story of one of the greatest adventures and military feats of the twentieth century. It is a good history read for those who wish to know more about these important events.
The only addition I would make to the book is to include a few additional maps to help the reader follow the many parts of the story and it would help correct a few geographical errors in the discussion. A brief timeline or table of key dates and events might also prove helpful to the reader.
