Specifics of the formation and repatriation of the Czechoslovakian Legion, 1917-1920 (historiographical review)

Abstract

This article presents a historiographical review of foreign scholarship on the formation and repatriation of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia between 1917 and 1920. It traces the evolution of scholarly approaches from the heroic narratives of the 1920s and traditional military history to contemporary interdisciplinary research. The study identifies three main historiographical phases: the development of the “heroic narrative” in the 1920s, critical reassessment in the 1960s, and the diversification of research following 1989.

The results of the study show that within the Czech historiography, a central role is played by the seminal work of J. Papoušek (1928), which portrays the legionary movement as a key factor in securing Czechoslovakia’s independence. After 1989, significant contributions were made by K. Pichlík, B. Klípa, D. Zabloudilová, and R. Sak, who integrated political history with social studies approaches. Recent studies by J. Novák, J. Vaculík, T. Havlík, and M. Hošek have focused on specific aspects such as legal frameworks, gender relations, the organization of repatriation, military and technical issues.

The Anglo-American historiographical tradition originated with the military-historical essays of B. G. Baker, who examined the Czechoslovak Legion within a broader geopolitical framework. Subsequent studies by J. F. N. Bradley challenged the Soviet narrative of the so-called “Allied conspiracy” and demonstrated the spontaneous nature of the Legion’s anti-Bolshevik uprising in 1918. Contemporary American scholars such as J. Mohr and N. Fixler have reinterpreted the role of the Czechoslovak Legion as a quasi-state entity and explored the role of the press in shaping the international image of the legionnaires. German historians, in their examination of this topic, apply methods from military anthropology and gender studies, placing particular emphasis on the role of collective memory in the formation of national identity among the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legion. A central thesis of their work is that the legionnaires were the “first Czechoslovaks,” playing a pivotal role in the creation of the national myth.

The analysis of the body of major scholarly works reveals a methodological shift from macro-historical studies of military and political processes to micro-historical explorations of specific aspects of daily life among soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legion, such as legal frameworks, gender relations, and interactions with the local population. The source base has been significantly broadened through the inclusion of archival materials from various countries and a critical reassessment of earlier research. Several promising directions for Ukrainian historiography have been identified, i.e. researching the presence of legionnaires on Ukrainian territory and comparative analyses of the formation processes of Czechoslovak units and the specifics of establishing Ukrainian military formations from among prisoners of war, especially the “Bluecoaters” and “Greycoaters” Divisions.