The Czechoslovak Legion were volunteer armed forces comprised predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting on the side of the Entente powers during World War I and the White Army during the Russian Civil War until November 1919. Their goal was to win the support of the Allied Powers for the independence of Lands of the Bohemian Crown from the Austrian Empire and of Slovak territories from the Kingdom of Hungary, which were then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the help of émigré intellectuals and politicians such as the Czech Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the Slovak Milan Rastislav Štefánik, they grew into a force over 100,000 strong.
"Prague to Its Victorious Sons", a monument to the Czechoslovak Legions at Palacký Square
Memorial to the Czechoslovaks in the battle of Zborov at Blansko, Czech Republic.
A memorial plaque to the Battle of Bakhmach in Olomouc
Memorial for the dead of the Czechoslovak Legion in the battle of Zborov (1917) at the Kalinivka cemetery, Ukraine
The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.
Czech traditional costumes
Bedřich Smetana Among his Friends, 1865; oil painting by František Dvořák
The Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha
St. John of Nepomuk (Jan Nepomucký)