POČIATKY VOJENSKEJ KARIÉRY MICHALA LOKŠÍKA A LIST GENERÁLA PARISA

• Authors: Vavruš Ján

Title variants

EN

The beginnings of Michal Lokšík’s military career and the letter from General Paris

• Languages of publication: SK

Abstracts

EN

In the published article, the author addresses the beginnings of the military career of Michal Lokšík. According to the study, he came from a modest background of Slovaks living in Vienna. He studied at the cadet school in Innsbruck and Prague. As the officer of the 71st Infantry Regiment on the Russian front, he was awarded three honours in five months. On the13th September 1915, he fell captive and only returned in February 1918. In December, he joined the Czechoslovak Army and actively participated in the fights against the Hungarian Bolsheviks. After the battles at Kisterenye, with the remains of the 2nd battalion, he retreated and fought at Tornaľa where the regiment commander, Cpt. Stuchlík, fell. The regiment was reduced to a single battalion and Lokšík became its commander since 15th June 1919. Through the bypass manoeuvre at Rožňava, he contributed significantly to the defeat of the Bolshevik army, for which he was decorated with the CSL War Cross. Later, he was allocated under General Hennocque and served also as the personal aide of General Paris. Since 30 January, he worked at the intelligence department (2nd Bureau) of the District Military Headquarters for Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. In spite of the requirements of the French military mission to be promoted to a Captain, he was relocated to the 29th regiment by an order. However, he never entered the service, returning to his home Vienna. As an Austrian citizen, wrongly recruited to the CSL Army, he was acquitted from the desertion charges by the court. Lokšík perceived the relocation to the Czech regiment as a plot of the legionary command, which was also the reason of his later political radicalisation. The author also states that there is a Czech translation of a letter from General Paris in Lokšík’s estate, with Lokšík’s own handwritten notes in German. The letter is enclosed as an attachment. The document is interesting also due to the fact that Lokšík did not write any memoirs about his abundant military intelligence activity and did not leave any private diary behind. The lesser known facts about the early days of Lokšík’s military career were not evaluated sufficiently even in the newer historical literature.

Keywords

EN

MILITARY HISTORY; LOKŠÍK MICHAL; MILITARY CAREER; WORLD WAR 1; INFANTRY REGIMENT; CS ARMY

• Publisher: Vojenský historický ústav Bratislava
• Journal: Vojenská história
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 149 - 169

Contributors

author

Vavruš Ján

• ARDIG GesmbH, Porschestrasse 39, A-3100 St. Pölten, Austria