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Updated: June 27, 2025
The following is the text of the resolution passed by the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague, in conjunction with the Union of Czech Deputies, on September 29, 1918, and suppressed by the Austrian censor: "Our nation once more and with all possible emphasis lays stress on the fact that it firmly and unswervedly stands by the historical manifestations of its freely elected representatives, firmly convinced of the ultimate success of its highest ideals of full independence and liberty.
It was not until the shameful peace of Brest-Litovsk in February, 1918, that Professor Masaryk decided that the Czecho-Slovak army should leave Russia via Siberia and join the Czecho-Slovak army in France. The Bolsheviks granted them free passage to Vladivostok. This journey of some 5000 miles was not, however, an easy task for an army to accomplish.
In order to be able fully to appreciate this achievement, we must remember that this was an army of volunteers, organised by the Czecho-Slovak Council without the powers of a real government. At the beginning of the war the Czecho-Slovaks not only had no government of their own, but not even any united organisation.
"We make this declaration in a specially solemn manner at a moment when great political events call upon all the nations to take part in decisions which will perhaps give Europe a new political regime for centuries to come. "Assuring you of my devoted sentiments, believe me to remain, in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government, Minister for Foreign Affairs."
Finally, on October 2, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak deputy Stanek, President of the Union of Czech Deputies to the Parliament in Vienna, solemnly announced that the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris is to be considered as the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak armies and that it is entitled to represent the Czecho-Slovak nation in the Allied countries and at the Peace Conference.
On May 23, 1918, the Czecho-Slovak troops welcomed the Prince of Wales to Rome, and soon afterwards they distinguished themselves on the Piave and were mentioned in one of General Diaz's dispatches and also in the official Italian communique of September 22, 1918. From the recognition of the Czecho-Slovak army followed the full recognition which the National Council obtained from the Allies.
"Following the decision of our nation and of our armies, we are henceforth taking charge as a Provisional National Government for the direction of the political destinies of the Czecho-Slovak State, and as such we are entering officially into relations with the Allied Governments, relying both upon our mutual agreement with them and upon their solemn declarations.
The Bolsheviks now arrested prominent members of the Moscow branch of the Czecho-Slovak National Council on the ground that they were "anti-revolutionaries." They alleged also that they had no guarantee that ships would be provided for the Czechs to be transported to France, and that the Czechs were holding up food supplies from Siberia.
Lansing issued the following statement: "The Czecho-Slovak peoples having taken up arms against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, and having placed in the field organised armies, which are waging war against those empires under officers of their own nationality and in accordance with the rules and practices of civilised nations, and Czecho-Slovaks having in the prosecution of their independence in the present war confided the supreme political authority to the Czecho-Slovak National Council, the Government of the United States recognises that a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks thus organised and the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.
It is a national organ and its sole aim is to work for the welfare of Bohemia, without any regard to Austria. It stands above all party politics and is the supreme organ to which all disputes are referred that may arise affecting Czecho-Slovak national interests.
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