CZECHOSLOVAK LEGIONS MEMORIAL
It is the intension of this project to create and keep the full and detailed list of those members of the Czechoslovak legions, who fall or died for the freedom of our country on various battlefields between 1914 and 1920. In one of the hardest times of our history, these young men gave all they had to their homeland. Most of them could have lived without danger through the rest of the Great War in the POW camps and then return in full health back home. Instead of that, they had entered incipient Czechoslovak Army and went back to the fronts of the bloody war to fight for the freedom of their country, which was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many of them were not lucky enough to return home as the victors. Their graves are scattered all over the world, on the places of fight. Because many of them are destroyed or scraggly, nobody knows their location today. However, commemoration of them cannot die. During the period of First Czechoslovak Republic (1918 to 1938), the legionaries were fine example for next generations, which carried on their traditions during the Second World War, fighting for the freedom of Czechoslovakia. The members of Czechoslovak foreign army and home resistance could proudly stand side by side with these legionaries after the World War II. Between 1948 and 1989, during the communistic period, the memory and ideals of the Czechoslovak legions were supressed so intensively, that the most of people today do not know the history and the background of the birth of our independent state. More than five thousand have laid down their lives for the independency of our country. We owe them for our state, for the opportunity of developing our culture and finally for being able to match the other nations of the world as proud and self-confident nation. We can - at least - repay by not forgetting! We remember the words of the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic, T. G. Masaryk: "... Without legions there would have been no Czechoslovakia." Initiated by deceased general Rudolf S. Krzák, partial lists of Czechoslovak legionaries have been out recently in several districts of Czech republic. The publications are only a few and the most of people cannot gain them. The quality of these publications also differs. So this project came into existence and the basic information about Czechoslovak legionaries can be accessed virtually from anywere. This project started on May 9th, 2004 at the anniversary of heroic fight of the Czech company "Nazdar" near French Arras (May 9th, 1915). The data were being collected and they were gathered on the prestigious military and history server www.valka.cz. In one year, thanks to the effort of the members of the team, great ammount of data was gathered. Because the names of all these brave men are displayed nowhere in the Czech republic or Slovakia, we have done it here - for the ethernal commemoration of these men. The Virtual Memorial was officialy launched and made public after a year-long work on May 9th, 2005. lieutenant Bc. Pavel J. Kuthan |
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Czechoslovak Legions© Čestná vzpomínka 2005
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