At the end of World War 1, the question of the significance of the Czechoslovak Legions as the new fighting power started appearing in the Austro-Hungarian documents. The top command of the Austro-Hungarian Army recognised that the activity of the legions consisting of Czech and Slovak volunteers, who were still the citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, casts an unfavourable light on the Monarchy as a whole, pointing out to its tense internal political arrangement. Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian Army made an effort to enforce the propaganda among the public that these units consisting of Austro-Hungarian citizens only form a small and insignificant part of the fighting troops. In particular, the memo they wanted to spread about the Czechoslovak units located in Russia was that they were only fighting against the Bolsheviks as a part of the very diverse anti-Bolshevik coalition. However, the high command of the Austro-Hungarian Army realised that their actual effort upon concluding the Peace of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 was to move from Russia to the Western front, where they could engage in the fights again, in the last stage of the World War 1. Relevant documents on this topic can be found in the Military Archive in Vienna, in the Armeeoberkommando collection. We provide their transcription followed by a translation to Slovak language and references.
The historical personality of M. R. Štefánik as a scientist, officer, diplomat and founder of Czechoslovakia has already been presented and analysed in countless studies based on standard archival and documentary sources. The authors of the study have chosen an inquiry approach based on: a/ documentary sources of information less considered under-appreciated so far; b/ more rigorous comparative and confrontational analysis of accounts in relation to Štefánik by his contemporaries; c/ new perspectives even regarding the hitherto long-established and seemingly verified understandings of Štefánik and his historical significance.
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.
In the published material, the author introduces the readers to the life stories of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force pilot of Slovak origin, Ľudovít Dait. He was born on 2 January 1894 in the municipality of Cajla (nowadays a part of Pezinok). After the outburst of the World War 1, he was presumably recruited for the Hungarian Home Guard. In 1916, he joined the air unit, Fliegerkompanie 9, which operated at the airport Podhajce at Ternopiľ in Halič. In 1917, he was transferred to Fliegerkompanie 1 in Novi Sad. He died on 30 August 1917 during a flight accident and was buried in Novi Sad. During his short life, he received several accolades – Karol’s Military Cross, II. Class Silver Medal for Bravery and I. Class Silver Medal for Bravery. The text is suitably accompanied by photographs of Ľudovít Dait, his pilot license, preserve in the Small Carpathian Museum in Pezinok, as well as the Hansa – Brandenburg biplane.
The study deals with the topic of legionary humour which was aimed at entertaining, making laugh as well as reflecting the deficiencies and criticising the conditions, the Czechoslovak legionaries were dissatisfied with. Members of the Czechoslovak Foreign Army and later, in 1919, even the domestic troops (in particular the educational unions where usually the former journalists, writers or teachers were serving), published a number of different hand-written, printed as well as illustrated periodicals. These contained prose, poetry, dialogues, drawings and illustrations, some of them at high level, some average as well as quite poor, published due to a lack of better material.
Without a doubt, the material and construction conditions are some of the basic aspects of smooth operation in every modern army. Within the wide range of objects, fortifications and areas administered by the army, the military barracks serving for accommodation and military training have become the basis of its construction fund. The study describes and clarifies not only the architectural but also the historical and social development of these objects in the territory of today’s Slovakia, since their first appearance during the ancient Roman Empire until the end of the World War 1 and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The research defines the most important architectural signs and the breakthrough events defining their final structural form, focusing on the period after the Austro-Hungarian compromise and establishment of the dualist monarchy. A special attention is paid to the works and innovations of the military engineers who determined the basic spatial, technical and operational requirements of the barracks projection and construction, thanks to the intense international discourse. At the conclusion of the study, the great importance of the barracks in military history is also documented by the information about the number and intensity of the construction thereof in the last years before the outburst of the world war.
In the study, the author deals with the operation of Jozef Kiss, a native of Bratislava that belonged to the most successful pilots of the Austro-Hungarian aviation. He achieved 19 confirmed victories, serving in the Flik 24 units (or Flik 24F) and Flik 55J units, finally falling in the aerial combat on the 24th May 1918. The author studied archival documents stored in the Roman military archive as well as in the Roman aviation archive, containing interesting and little known facts from the life of this aviator. Moreover, they aptly complement the data from the funds stored in the Vienna Kriegsarchive. The study deals with the operation of Jozef Kiss on the front in South Tyrol, clarifying the equipment of his home field airport in Pergin as well as operations of the enemy Italian aviation over the Valsugana valley area. Italian archival documents also contain information about the air victories of Jozef Kiss, in particular on the 25th August 1916 and 13th July 1917, achievements of his Flik 55J fighter unit in the fall of 1917 or in the last flight of this pilot.
In this article, the author briefly presents the history of building the Przemyśl fortification complex, which had been the most important Austro-Hungarian fortress since the 19th century, analysing the implementation of individual fortification projects. One of the fortresses in the Halič territory built during the rise of Austria-Hungary was intended to play the role of protecting the easternmost part of the Monarchy, as well as the protection of roads to the east. In the early 20th century, this was one of the largest fortresses in Europe. During the World War 1, the fortress became the arena of a number of bloody battles. The author summarises that since 17 September 1914 until 3 June 1915, with a few breaks, Przemyśl survived 182 battle days, taking the lives of about 100,000 of Austro-Hungarian, Russian and German soldiers, as well as civilians. After acquiring Przemyśl from Russians, the Austro-Hungarian general staff did not consider transforming it to a fortress again. They decided to turn it into a temporary fortified bridgehead for the protection of the important road and railway roads. Nowadays, Przemyśl is a small Polish town in terms of area and population (67,000). It is located on the Polish-Ukraine border and a part of the forward forts belonging to the I Salis-Soglio fort lies on the Ukraine side. The remaining forts of the Przemyśl complex lie on the Polish side of the border. It is the I Salis-Soglio fort that belongs to the best preserved and we may say also the most magnificent remains of the once powerful Przemyśl. In conclusion, the author mentions the work of the National Museum, which administrates this famous fortification complex, making it accessible to the public. The contribution also mentions the current condition of its individual parts.
In the study, the author sums up the activity of the imperial and royal camp and reserve brothels, established in 1915 by the military authorities of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, operating during the World War 1. The organisational rules of the camp and reserve brothels originating within divisions with the aim to prevent the spread of venereal diseases in the army and to protect the soldiers’ health (in 1915, 12% of the troops were infected) are introduced. The author zooms in on the regulations regarding the brothel activity, obligations of the staff and prostitutes as well as the effort of the authorities to build a whole network of brothels. Readers will learn about the headquarters regulations, issued to prevent the spread of venereal diseases among soldiers (raising awareness, medical check-ups several times a week, handing out free protection, etc.), uncovering similar civilian and military health regulations issued for the rear areas as well. The author informs about the operation of brothels established in the territories occupied by the Austro-Hungarian army (according to the Serbian example) and the hygienic and other regulations for the prostitutes working there. The author briefly informs the readers about the works of significant contemporary expert physicians and their work in the field of edification in order to suppress the spread of venereal diseases.
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