12.8. 1914 Volunteers living founded the Czech Companion

The Czech retinue was formed in August 1914, its base consisted of Czechs, citizens of Austria-Hungary who worked in Russia, and Czech settlers, especially from Volhynia and the Caucasus.Bythe end of 1915, 2 225 volunteers had joined this "unit".
The oath ceremony took place in Kiev on 28. The Czech troops thus became the basis of the Czechoslovak troops in Russia.
The application for the formation of a Czechoslovak volunteer detachment and its positive execution was the joint work of the Moscow and St. Petersburg associations and their agent Zdeněk Rejman. On 18 August 1914, according to the Gregorian calendar, the General Staff issued Decree No. 2843, which officially authorized the establishment of "special military detachments of Czech volunteers".
Before that, on 14 August, the Chief of Staff of the Kiev Military Region, General Khodorovich, received a report on the planning of Czech volunteer units. "This was confirmed on 20 August by decree no. 2871/298, which stipulated that the building of Czech troops would be carried out in Kiev because of its particularly convenient location," the book Zborov 1917-2017 reads.

On the same day, Lieutenant Colonel Lotocki was appointed commander, who issued the first order on 28 August. It read as follows.

The following day the first Russian officers were assigned to the unit and the old Kiev Mikhailovsky Monastery was chosen for accommodation. The Chekhoslovan kept informed of the formation, so that volunteers began to report immediately after the national unit was authorized. First from the big cities, later also from the countryside, where the news was slower to arrive.

"The first 259 volunteers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nikolayev, Odessa and Kiev were enrolled in the Czech detachment on 3 September. The unit was formed according to Russian standards, but the volunteers, following the Sokol model, introduced a fraternal spirit, took"The collective of authors writes in the book about Zborov.

The unit was involved in the first battles at the Battle of Tarnovo, then at Biele na Dunajci and Radlov. By the end of 1915, 2,225 volunteers had joined the Czech Company, 31 of whom were killed.

Sources: Memories of Legionnaire Karel Prášil, www.wikipedia.org, www.vhu.cz