the czech legion

[Balrog]

i am looking for photos and information on the czech legion. i am especially interested in the commanders of the legion and their prior careers in the austro-hungarian(hapsburg) army. photos of the the commanders in the austrian army and later the legion would also be appreciated. i believe this unit was orginally made up of captured hapsburg soldiers of czech nationality. i have read on the forum that some czech's actually deserted the hapsburg's army just to join this unit. does anyone know what percentage of the legion were deserters vs. POW's who joined to get out of prison camps? what year did the czarist russian government form this unit? what was it's first battle? one website i read said that most were not POW's but voluteers. is that correct? the legion had 100,000 soldiers.

[Peter H]

General Rudolf Gajda of the Czech Legion formed the Czech Fascist movement in the 1930s.Sacked from the army in the 1920s due to an attempted coup he carried on his right-wing politics elsewhere.

Ironically the later General Ludvik Svoboda who commanded the 1st Czech Corps on the Eastern Front in WW2 was also a veteran of the Legion.

Five pages of Czech Legion photos:

http://www.remotepoint.com/~jims/czech/ ... oto's.html