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

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

"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.

The French CAN'T The Germans CAN'T But the Czechs DID!

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

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.

Thanks to our legionares we have 100% naval winrate.

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: 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.

Fun Unknown Fact: Lloyd is British.

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

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.

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

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.

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 ;)

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

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.

And they said never invade Russia in the winter. Amateurs

So, if you’re Czech, you’re excused from class today

Several of my ancestors were in the Legion, my great-grandfather died in it in Russia while my grandfather was born back home. My great uncle survived but was deaf on one ear from a granade. He wore a Legionnaire beret until his death in the 1970s. A few broader historical notes that perhaps put things in better perspective: - While there was no nation state in the 19th century, there used to be the Czech kingdom. The Austrian empire was therefore viewed as an occupying force by many, since it basically ended Czech reformation in the 17th century by force, germanized and re-catholised the country, and forced many people into exile. - Many hopes were also crushed when (far less economically powerful) Hungary got dual monarchy status in 1867 while Czech lands didnt and the last Austrian emperor even refused to be crowned Czech king. Many Czech politicians saw it as the final spit in the face and changed their aim towards full independence. - The Russian Tsars indeed encouraged panslavism and slavic nationalism for decades ,the problem was that for the Russians it was a vision of one-sided alliance under Russian rule (much like Germany later "uniting" with Austria and Sudetenland). It was also painfully obvious how that worked out in real life for "brotherly" Poles who got ruthlessly russified, slaughtered and imprisoned for decades by the Russians. As Czech 19th century classic put it: "The Russians love to claim everything Russian to be Slavic, so that they could in turn claim everything Slavic to be Russian" - For obvious reasons, Czech military has historically been mostly unable to match armies of huge empires or win consecutive campaigns against them in the field. So instead they often chose to do these crazy daring stunts that would not decide the war in any military sense, but instead bring international attention towards their cause. Like, say, sending in paratroopers to shoot Reinhard Heydrich, clashing with the Germans in the worst possible terrain in the Dukla Pass, or Legions controlling the whole Trans-Siberian Railway. The goals were not military but often political, to shock people and gain support and show that the cause very much alive. - For a long time, the Legion indeed fought for the Whites but there was soon the feeling of bitter disappointment in the low morale and lack of interest of the Russians to fight for their own cause and status quo. A known episode is the battle of Kazan, where the Legion was fighting off a huge Red invading force while the "White" citizens just patted them on their back while watching them with binoculars from their homes. - The "Legionnaire" class was a phenomenon in the Czechoslovakia of the 1920s and 30s. Since it had no formal military structure, the Legion had to quickly produce a number of its own high military officers who didnt really have any education but had plenty of combat experience. So after the war, you had thousands of extremely young officers with no classical military training or university. At the same time, ex-legionnaires later recieved all sorts of support from the government which often lead to some animosity with other classes of the society. For example, disabled old Legionnaires recieved newsstands so they could make a living during the economical crisis. To this day, the expression "to recieve a newsstand" in Czech language stands for nepotism or favoritism and political corruption. - After the war, Czech government created a big economical programme for Russian emigrés who fled Soviet Russia (The Russian Action) and indeed tens of thousands found their new home in Czechoslovakia, even founding russian-language schools and universities. They were unfortunately often highjacked by the Soviet NKVD (KGB) as soon as may 1945 and send to Gulag as class enemies and traitors despite typically having Czech citizenship already. - The Russian outlook and interpretation of the Legion is of course quite ideological and distorted. While the mainstream Soviet historiography didnt really care about them as it didnt want to spark any nationalist animosities within the socialist camp, many Russian nationalists today picture them as stereotypical bloodthirsty savages that burnt down entire villages, complete with claims that they in fact STOLE the national gold reserve, which is entirely unfounded. Which is sort of ironic given that the Russian civil war alone cost some 10 000 000 lives, including well documented pogroms, torture and mass executions of priests and civilians, and noone is criticized or responsible at home, yet suddenly tiny Czech Legions, which lost only 4000 men, are the brutes and warmongers to blame. This reproach is especially funny coming from these self-proclaimed Russian nationalist-conservative types, for which the Legion fought in the first place.

In terms of distance, Moscow to Chicago is relatively the same as the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok