One of the toughest journeys in history - the march of the Czechoslovakian Legions

Stories like this make it clear that some people had it tough.

This is the first part of the oath, taken to the Russian Tsar. The second half is equally verbose, and deals with renouncing allegiance to the Hapburgs, and fighting alongside fellow Czechs and Slovaks for the purpose of establishing an independent state.

I, [name], promise and swear before Almighty God and His Holy Gospel that I will and must, truly and sincerely, serve His Imperial Highness, the true and legitimate Most Gracious Supreme Sovereign Emperor Nicolas Alexandrovich, Autocrat of All the Russias and the legitimate Heir of His Imperial Highness's All-Russian Throne, and that I will obey in all things, not sparing my body to the last drop of blood, and that I will guard and defend to the limits of my intelligence, strength, and possibilities, all the rights and privileges, stipulated and unstipulated, inherent in the absolute power and authority of His Imperial Highness. Furthermore, I promise that I will strive to promote as far as possible that in every instance redounds to the true service and state utility of His Imperial Highness; I will notify the proper authorities as quickly as possible of any threatened injury, harm, or loss to His Majesty's interests, and I will not only notify the authorities in good time, but endeavour to ward off and guard against such injuries, and I will faithfully preserve all secret information entrusted to my care; I will conscientiously carry out the instructions, regulations, and directives of the superiors placed over me; and I will not admit any profit, relationship, friendship, or enmity contrary to my duty and oath, and in this way I will conduct myself as behooves a true and faithful subject of His Imperial Highness, so as to be able always to render an account before God's terrible judgement, so help me Lord God, body and soul. So help me God. And to complete this oath, I kiss my Saviour's word and cross. Amen!

Picture credits:
Czech legion coat of arms

Trotsky image

Admiral Kolchak image

Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.

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[comradegeneralvladimirpoot]

What if you
wanted to have an independent state,
but Neville Chamberlain said
"Peace in our time"

[plutotheplanet]

Some tales and facts about the legions and life on a train:
It took the postal service to deliver a delivery from the east to the west of the Siberian trail only 3 days. Imagine your postal service doing that nowadays.

There are tales about Russian troops sending unmanned locomotives full speed towards the trains of the Czechs and also many Czechs getting into those high-speed locomotives and putting them in reverse, so they would return to the sender. "Dimitri, doesn't that incoming thing look familiar?"

The most valuable resource on the trail was sugar, it's said a prostitute would please a whole cart for a kilogram of sugar.

Those trains weren't only armoured carts with guns and ammunition. The Legions were equipped with mobile workshops for metalworking, gun maintenance, cooking, carpentry, making clothes and uniforms.

Trains would seem to be vulnerable to attacks towards the rails. Czech legions were capable of repairing a blown-up track in less than an hour. Also, there were carts with wood, tracks and tools on either end of the train and some in the middle.

Many soldiers wrote names of their home towns on the sides of the carts and would exchange news with others from their home regions.

It wasn't just a military force. It was a whole nation on wheels, a society.

[JagerLange]

"In the midst of a deadly civil war, on their way to the other side of the world, the Czechs accidentally capture the Imperial Russian gold reserve."
Karel's Heroes - in cinemas this winter.

[siriusschmidt]

If Lindy mispronounces a Czech word, he excuses. When he pronounces a French word, he simply doesn't care at all.

[antonisauren]

Fun story, one time they had been shelled by artilery from soviet ship on Baykal. So they highjacked another ship and sunk the Russians. Gratest action of the Czech Navy in history some says. :P

[lindybeige]

I see from the comments that people are making some objections over and over. Let me deal with them here:

1. The Legions were commonly referred to as the 'Czech Legions', not just at the time, but still today, as evidenced by several book titles. Yes, the state of Czechoslovakia was created before most of the Legions arrived there. Just 8% of the Legions were Slovakian. Slovakian is a very similar language to Czech. There were also Russians, Poles, and others with them, and extending the name to cover everyone there is a bit silly. I believe that I make it clear enough in the video that there were Slovakians involved. 'Czech Legion' is not wrong, and it is quick and easy to say, and I do sometimes say 'Czechoslovakian' in case any viewers need reminding. So far as I know, the command of the legions was dominated by Czechs. If any Slovakians have been greatly offended by my occasional use of the term 'Czech Legions', then I'm a bit surprised.

2. Yes, the language Polish existed long before 1918, and some people refer to groups of people as 'nations', and yes there had been various political entities involving Polish speakers, such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, and the Duchy of Prussia, and the Jagiellon Dynasty at various times had control over areas populated by Bohemians, Germans, Hungarians and others. That there are people in an area that speak a language does not make that area a modern nation state, nor does allegiance to a royal dynasty. An area as I describe in the video, with one border, homogeneity of language and citizenry within that border, ruled by a government, with one economy and one foreign policy - a modern nation state - is not what Poland was before WW1.

3. One viewer spotted the mistake I made when I said 'Lombard' for a language spoken in France. How did I not spot this in the edit? I'm fairly sure I meant to say Languedoc. There were many others, of course, such as Gascon, Catalan, Angevin, Provencal etc.

4. The quip I make in a caption about the Bolshevik flag is misleading if you don't know that the flag did not exist in this precise form in WW1, and was designed in the 1990s. Sorry about that.

[ondrasvoboda]

Thanks to our legionares we have 100% naval winrate.

[ondracekivo]

Lindybeige: Well done, as always. Also I have a one legionare story for you all. One of the legionares lived in my village (he died many many years ago, of course). But we know from his daughter (by that time a very old lady), from his journey across Asia, he brought an exotic saber. Right to 1938, he kept it in his house, but when Germans annected Czechoslovakia, he was afraid, soldier would confiscate such extraordinary weapon. So, what to do? In my village, there is a little medieval fort, dated at least to year 1361. And as every good old fort it had secret tunnels, connecting my village to next village a mile away. Even in 1938, those tunnels were heavily damaged and partly collapsed, but the part nearest to the fort was still relatively safe. So, the legionare took his sabre, went to those tunnels and hid it there. Somewhere there, nobody knows exact location. Sadly, Germans stayed many years, then the Russians came, so excavating the saber was not a good idea. To make things even more complicated, there is a pond, surrounding the fortress, and water lever risen quite lot since 1938 and elders said, those medieval tunnels are now completely under water and collapsed completely. So...There is 19th century (maybe older) Asian saber, brought by Czechoslovakian legionare, hidden in secret tunnels of medieval fortress in a little village in south Bohemia, waiting to be found. Call in Indiana Jones.

[keithlarsen]

The French CAN'T
The Germans CAN'T

But the Czechs DID!

[P-YT-CH]

Yeah, I can empathise with the Czechoslovaks quite well, sometimes my school bus broke down and we had to walk to school and back.
Grim times indeed

[slechtd]

An ancestor of mine fought in the legion and traveled trough Vladivostok back home. I am happy to see that the story of the Legions has gained some attention among international content creators and media in recent years.

[Gjoufi]

I did enjoy this (as I always do when Lloyd tells a story) but I must admit that I had a laugh when he skimmed past the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. As I remember it, Chamberlain with the French in tow more or less gave away Czechoslovakia and Lloyd didn't even blame the french... A missed shot I say ;)

[lucasrollinferreira]

always incredible how Lloyd does everything in one take

[martinsedlak]

Loyd you forgot to mention Battle of Lake Baikal! With 100% win ration in naval battles we are practically a naval superpower :D

[firstalt]

On behalf of all the Czechs and Slovaks here, I would like to thank you for talking about at least one of the moments in our history.

[matejzelenak]

Greetings from Slovakia. I'm very pleased you've talked about this events.

[jason]

And they said never invade Russia in the winter. Amateurs

[MrDavehor]

Greetings from Czech republic! Nice job with the video. My Great grandfather was in Czechoslovakian Legions and went through the whole Sibirian railway. Iam very proud of having an ancestor like him!

[lebidu]

I’m proud to say that my great-great grandfather was in the Czechoslovak Legion.

[seriousoldman]

Recently I came across a Czech detective series called The Prague Mysteries set in the 1920s.The inspector had been in the Czech Legions ; he met regularly with veterans in an association.
I had never heard anything about this before and have become quite fascinated by the whole history surrounding this remarkable event.
Much appreciated video Sir.