Did the Czech Legion bring POWs to Czechoslovakia? And if so, why?
score:15
Yes, Czechoslovak Legion did bring POWs during the evacuation. Details are available on the Czech Wikipedia page about the Czechoslovak Legion.
Look at the section "Evakuace" and use Google Translate.
Between 1919 and 1920, they sailed from Vladivostok to Trieste, Marseille, Cuxhaven, and Naples. The POWs who were transported included Hungarian, Austrian, and German POWs – those had fought on the losing side of the First World War. Those were typically verified by armed U.S. guards. They had to pay for their transportation (well, much like all foreigners on the ships).
The evacuation was supervised by the Evacuation Bureau of the Czechoslovak Armed Forces in Rus'.
I suppose that from the Italian etc. ports, these POWs were allowed to go to their homelands – they weren't taken as gifts to be stored in the new Czechoslovakia forever – but I am not 100% sure. Let me look into my closet more carefully. ;-)
To answer the question why those POWs weren't given to the Japanese etc., well, it's because Czechoslovakia was a pragmatic newborn country respecting the principles of humanity, the Great War was over and passé, it was sensible for those POWs to get to Europe in some way, and with some compensation, there was no reason why the mostly Czechoslovak evacuation ships couldn't have fulfilled that role.
Upvote:3
Just to build on Lubos excellent answer.
First of all, the Czech Legion consisted of Czechs who were fighting on the Allied side, under Russian command, in World War I. That was a bit unusual, because what later became Czechoslovakia was part of Austria Hungary at the time. In a sense, these Czechs had "defected." Some of them might have been expatriates, and some POWs captured by the Russians. (Kind of like Polish forces that fought on the Allied side in World War II after Poland had been conquered by the Nazis.)
During World War I, these Czechs fought, and occasionally captured, members of the Austro Hungarian empire, including other Czechs. They were technically former enemies, but (probably) not seen as such. More like Czech "brothers." (Some of these POWs may have been members of the future Poland or Yugoslavia.) In any event, the Czechs took these "POWs" home.
During their stay in Russia, the Czechs supported their former sponsors "white" (Csarist) Russians against Bolshevik (red) Russians, and captured a few of these. Most of them would probably have been released on Russian soil when the Czechs left (e.g.) Vladivostok. But some of them wanted to defect and join the Czechs, and were gladly accepted. (After the Korean war, many North Korean and Chinese POWs elected not be "repatriated," and likewise, a few Americans stayed in North Korea.)
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