Czechoslovak Military Units Formed in the USSR During the Second World War: Stages of Formation, Completion, and the Combat Path

Abstract

The article is based on documents of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It focuses on the stages of the formation, completion and combat use of the Czechoslovak military units created in the USSR during the Second World War. The special attention is paid to the identification of the trends and problems of the history of these formations. These topics were not developed in historiography. The history of the Czechoslovak military units passed several stages due to the creation and reorganization of these units. The Emigrant Government of Czechoslovak to eliminate these formations. The trends of the historical path of the Czechoslovak military units were, firstly, in the subordination of the formation of new, higher units due to the emergence of new mobilization contingents. The path of the Czechoslovak military units accompanied the diverse problems associated with their completion and supply. The overwhelming part of the problems was resolved only by the end of the war. The value of the Czechoslovak military units cannot be expressed in numbers, because their participation in the war was huge from the perspective of political importance for both Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In general, the formation and combat activities of the Czechoslovak military units should be recognized as a unique and very successful experience.