Resistance to the [G 04 / Bolsheviks] by the counter- revolutionary [G 22 / White] armies began in December of 1917. They were joined by the [G 07 / Czech Legion] in May 1918 when the Czechoslovaks became suspicious of Soviet good faith in their agreement for safe passage to France. Czechs already in Vladivostok decided to help their comrades fighting against the Bolsheviks in western Siberia who had been stalled enroute. On June 29 they overthrew the Soviet authorities in Vladivostok and appealed for [L3 206 / Allied help] against armed Austro-Hungarian and German prisoners-at-large who supposedly stood between them and their compatriots near [M 008 / Irkutsk]. At this, the [L3 207 / Japanese]were only too happy to jump into the fray. By August the Czechs had taken over most of the railway and telegraph system from the Volga River to the eastern shore of [V 008 / Lake Baikal].
The Legion was remarkable for the large proportion of well-educated soldiers. Among them were civil engineers who supervised repairs on the railway (a method was devised by which a 1,260-foot river causeway was constructed in only 16 days); doctors and chemists who prepared medicines for the troops; former financial experts and postal officials who set up banking and postal services; and on one train a lawyer who published a military newspaper. At the height of their power the Czechs controlled about 200 trains, including [L3 208 / broneviki].
Two counter-revolutionary governments at Samara and Omsk had formed a democratic, anti-Bolshevik coalition called the Directory. To the anger of the Czechs, this regime was overthrown in a coup at Omsk. On November 18,1918, Vice Admiral Alexander Kolchak proclaimed himself Supreme Ruler of Russia and assumed dictatorial powers. The Czechs, exhausted by months of combat and having no stomach for battle on behalf of the dictator Kolchak, wanted to go home. But the [G 01 / Allies] withheld evacuation transport from [M 014 / Vladivostok]. It was finally decided that they should patrol the Trans-Siberian from Omsk to [P 033 / Lake Baikal].
In the autumn of 1919 the Allies realized the futility of a possible [G 22 / White] victory and resolved themselves to withdraw. Kolchak abdicated his supreme powers and departed in six or seven trains (one contained Russian State Bank reserves valued at 633,600,000 gold roubles) under the protection of a Czech legionaire convoy. However, the Czechoslovaks, who detested the Admiral, surrendered him and the gold to the communists at Irkutsk in return for safe passage to Vladivostok and France. Early in the morning of February 7, Kolchak was executed by a Red firing squad outside the Irkutsk prison.
