Revolutionary War For Independence And The Russian Question

Revolutionary War For Independence And The Russian Question

by Victor M. Fic


The Russian Question emerged for the people of Czechoslovakia during the First World War When they organized the national liberation struggle to free themselves from the Hapsburg rule. The central problem was the question Whether and to what extent upon Russia, the big Slavic brother in the East, to break almost a millennium long hold of Germanic hegemony over their national destinies.


The study explains the origin of this national liberation movement and of its army of 50,000 men as they were organized in Russia between 1914 and 1917, the attempts of the Tsarist Government to make use of this army for promotion of Russia’s own strategic interests in the heart of Europe after the war, the defeat of the pro-Russian orientation within this army and, finally, the decision of its leaders to transfer it to French Front across the entire Siberia to continue the struggle when the Bolshevik Government took Russia out of war by separate peace with Germany in March 1918.


Special significance of the study lies in its account of the factors which led the leaders of this national liberation straggle to refuse to link the fate of ascending Czechoslovakia with the fate of Russia both Tsarist and Soviet. The study thus provides an analysis which assists us to understand the root of the anti-Russian and anti-Soviet sentiments produced in Czechoslovakia by her incorporation into the Soviet sphere as a result of the Communist coup d’etat of February 1948, and of the new and vigorous outburst of these sentiments even within the Communist Party under Dubcek and then following the Soviet military occupation of the country in August 1968. An indispensable source for understanding the central problem of the national existence of contemporary Czechoslovakia, the Russian Question. Superbly researched and documented.


About The Author:


Professor Victor M. Fic studied at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and then in Canada, United States and India. He holds B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; M.A., Certificate of Russian Institute and Ph.D. in International Law and Relations from Columbia University, New York; Diploma in Indology from the University of Mysore, India; and Ph.D. in Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.


Professor Fic taught at Rangoon University in Burma and Nanyang University in Singapore, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Government and Public Administration and Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He returned to Canada to teach at Brock University in St. Catharines, and served as President of the Canadian Society for Asian Studies from 1974 to 1976. His main research and teaching interests are in the Comparative Government, Communist Systems, and Governments and Politics of South and Southeast Asia.