In our modern history, I guess there is not even a man who would do so much work for the Czechoslovak legions than General Maurice Janin. Thanks to his help, the still non-existent Czechoslovakia was able to take part in the battles of the First World War with an army of approximately 100,000 legionnaires. Such a large army, which fought for a non-existent state, immediately gained the attention of world leaders.
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To Russia
General Maurice Janin took an active part in the fighting of the First World War on the rivers Nancy, Marne and Yser. During the last battle, his health seriously deteriorated and he was transferred to the French headquarters (Grand Quartier Général – GQG) in Chantilly. Here he served as Deputy Chief of Staff, at that time Marshal Joffre, the hero of the first battle of the Marne River, who stoped the German attack on Paris.
The situation on the Eastern Front was not so optimistic and after initial successes began to deteriorate rapidly. The first French marshal did not like the progress of the Russian army. And he was not alone. Also worried was French President Raymond Poincaré, who was troubled by the deteriorating relations of Tsar Nicholas II. and the Russian Duma. The thought that the Eastern Front might collapse frightened the French.
Since the beginning of the war, two French generals have been replaced in the Russian capital – Stavke, but none of them has won the favor of the tsar and his suites. And there seems to have been no one more suitable for this job in the GQG than General Janin.
He spoke Russian fluently, he devoted himself to Russian literature and history… simply our Slavic world was no stranger to him. In addition, he was a royalist, and that was to help him get closer to the tsar. He has visited Russia several times before. And in 1912 he even worked as an instructor at the Military Academy in St. Petersburg.
Since he knew Russia too well, it was understandable that he did not want to go there. Moreover, the Western Front was more prestigious for the French than the Eastern Front.
In his notes he wrote:
During my stay in Russia, I got to know the internal conditions of the country. I saw a great hatred of part of the nation for government and a great indifference of all others. I was deeply concerned. These thoughts did not support me in my desire to travel to Russia. But in times of war, it is necessary to go where one is commanded.
General Maurice Janin
And so, in April 1916, General Janin, with clenched teeth and packed suitcases, left for Tsarist Russia as commander of the French military mission. He is in charge of two official tasks: to work for Romania to enter the war in cooperation with the Russian army, and to improve tactical training in the Russian army. President Poincaré also entrusts him with another, non-traditional task: to open Russian tsar eyes.
Tsar, Empress and Rasputin
After arriving in Mahil’ov, where the Russian headquarters – Stavka, was based, General Janin quickly won the favor of Tsar Nicholas. Finally, he met him during the tsar’s stay in Paris before the war, when he was assigned to him escort. He also spends a lot of time with the young Tsar Alexei, who reminds him of his own son. Their relationship is so close that Janin goes to the young Alexei to wish him good night.
He describes Nicholas II. as a non-conflicting, sharp introvert. In his book „Pád carismu a konec ruské armády“ (The Fall of the Empire and the End of the Russian Army), he describes it as follows:
Everyone who met him was enchanted by his simple demeanor and the true goodness seen in his big blue eyes.
General Maurice Janin about Tsar Nicholas II.
Despite his sympathies, however, he cannot fail to see the true state of the tsarist government. His contempt for politicians and diplomats, but especially the fact that he has no idea about the country he rules.
He was very poorly informed about current events. He had no opportunity to form his own judgment of the facts. He did not read newspapers, but only excerpts from newspapers. We can compare it to how daily light penetrates a dark cellar through a small window.
General Maurice Janin about Tsar Nicholas II.
The Empress herself and her German origins were also a problem. This did not go well with the time when Russian men died at the front under German gunfire. But more than the origin, people were concerned about her fanatical enthusiasm for Rasputin. Russian military officers, with gnashing teeth, suffered visits from the empress, which began participating in military negotiations. But when she asked for her spiritual guru Rasputin to come to Stavka, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich indignantly declared that if Rasputin appeared in Stavka, he would have him hanged immediately.
General Janin states:
It was apparently a deliberate campaign, but the Tsar and his family facilitated the campaign against them.
General Maurice Janin
At first, Janin doesn’t understand how the tsar can stand idly by. Over time, he discovers that Nicholas II. – it seems – he has no idea. He has been thinking for a long time about how to fulfill the role assigned to him by the French president. How should he open the tsar’s eyes? He also turns to Tsar’s close friend Admiral Nilov. But he advises him to keep his mouth shut if he wants to stay in the circle of tsarists. The influence of the Empress on Nicholas is omnipotent, as is the influence of Rasputin on the Empress.
General Janin decides to remain tactfully silent, and the Russian Tsar will therefore call him his friend for the rest of his life. Neither of them has any idea that this life will not last that long.
Meeting with Štefánik
Immediately after his arrival in Russia, General Janin will begin to take steps to bring Romania into the war alongside the Ally armies. Although he will fulfill his mission and Romania will actually take part in the fighting of the First World War, his joy of success will quickly be replaced by disappointment from a series of defeats.
Romania’s entry into the war was initially successful. However, they sent us requests of every kind. We quickly found out that the Romanian army was missing everything. They turned to France or Russia with their demands. The Russians immediately passed these requests on to us, because they themselves were not very rich.
General Maurice Janin
After requests for material, requests for reinforcements will begin to arrive. Cár Mikuláš comments on this:
It costs us more than they earn. To all this, we have inconveniences.
Tzar Nicholas II about the Romanian army
A strange news from France pulls him out of the stuffy atmosphere in Stavka. Two diplomatic missions are heading to Russia with the intention of recruiting Czech and Slovak prisoners into the French army. Janin is initially as confused as the Russians. Why do they send two missions?
Josef Dürich and his companions arrive first. Later, it turns out that he is a supporter of the creation of the Czech Kingdom with an orientation towards Russia, and therefore his mission is strongly supported by the Russian authorities. They do not allow a meeting with General Janin for the French air lieutenant Milan Stefanik, who arrived in Russia immediately after him. This will arouse his interest and intervene vigorously.
Although he had never met Štefánik before, it was not an unknown character to him. He knew him thanks to his scientific work before the war. Štefánik’s friendship with Marshal Foch, for whom he set up the first meteorological station in the French army, did not escape the general’s attention either.
Po prvom osobnom stretnutí Janin poznamenáva:
Small, slender, with a shaved face, blue eyes and a bald head. He looks intelligent, passionate and nervous. He speaks French with a slight foreign accent. Even though he speaks slowly, he always speaks exactly to the point.
Gen. Maurice Janin about Štefánik
He will quickly understand that Štefánik represents the real interests of Professor Masaryk, who is pro-Western. In the end, this also suits the French. And so he starts to help the likeable air lieutenant in every possible way. He will introduce him to the Russian officers in Stavka and arrange for his reception at the tsar.
The result of their cooperation is the unification of Czech and Slovak expatriate associations, the exclusion of Josef Dürich from the Czechoslovak National Council and the consolidation of the position of Professor Masaryk, as the only leader of the Czechoslovak foreign resistance.
And not only that. Despite the great age difference, both men become friends. This friendship will last throughout their cooperation and will never be disrupted by any conflict.
In Russia, however, it is launching a revolution. The majority of Czech and Slovak soldiers will remain imprisoned in a country that will be swept away in the civil war for the next few years.
Revolution in Russia
The revolution in Russia was not just one, but two. In the first, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. and the Provisional Government was elected. In the second, the Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks. The situation in Russia was such that it is not possible to say exactly when the revolution began. Some claim that it began on December 17, 1916 with the assassination of Rasputin. Workers in factories began to strike in February of the following year. And Lenin occupied the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on November 7, 1917.
At present, the prevailing view is that Germany is largely responsible for the revolution in Russia. Yes, it was Germany that transported the Bolshevik leader Lenin and about 400 other revolutionaries to the country. And yes, it was Germany that ultimately benefited most from the revolution, as the Eastern Front collapsed, with the signing of the Brestlit Peace Treaty. But … it wasn’t Germany that started the revolution.
Russian military and political leaders blamed mainly the English. General Janin recorded their opinions in a diary, and so these little-known facts have been preserved for us.
The English liked a fragmented Russia that would depend on them. It was a vast country rich in minerals. At the time of the outbreak of the First Revolution, St. Petersburg was teeming with English agents. And it was impossible not to see that the Provisional Government formed after the revolution was completely oriented towards England. However … somehow the revolution began to spiral out of control. And the cards were eventually shuffled by the Germans with their pack of revolutionaries.
General Janin states:
It is not good to destroy the throne of the sovereign, who is an ally and relative of the king, but it is not the first throne that has happened.
Gen. Maurice Janin
Please remember the English and their failed revolution, we will come back to that.
However, it would be wrong to say that the revolution in Russia was the sole responsibility of foreign interests, whether England or Germany, as emphasized in contemporary Russian historiography. If the revolution did not have a breeding ground for millions of dissatisfied and poor Russian people, it would never have reached such proportions.
He expected the Russian Revolution, as did many other people, and so did I. After all the messages he received, he saw it approaching and it was necessary.
Gen. Maurice Janin about Štefánik
And what was happening on the streets of Russia? We can read about it in the memoirs of Czechoslovak legionaries. One of them, Cyrill Pauliny, writes:
On the one hand, luxury, debauchery, on the other, misery and hunger. As I watched the natural hatred of the street against the uniformed officials of yesterday’s imperial government, I was not surprised by the excesses perpetrated by the people above them. (…) Enthusiasm, clarity, manifestations, brotherhood, promise, slogans, speech on every street corner, a kind of festive mood for everyone without distinction, the formation of all sorts of committees, the preparation of new elections, the declaration of universal suffrage!
Czechoslovak legionary Cyrill Paulina
General Janin walks around the front and finds out in horror:
Throughout the day, none of us noticed a hole from fresh grenades and none from the old ones.
Gen. Maurice Janin
The offensive undertaken by the Russian army as a last resort ends in a total fiasco.
I have no doubt that the Russian army is over. Needless to see more.
Gen. Maurice Janin
He writes the general in his diary and begins to prepare for his return to his homeland. He decides to spend the last evening before going home with the French financier Darcy, who lives near the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Around nine o’clock they will be surprised by a sharp shot and a volley from the battle cruiser Aurora. It is November 7, 1917, and something is currently taking place in Russia, which will later be named the Great October Revolution. The next morning, General Janin leaves.
Russia is no longer our ally and its prosperity ends for a long time.
Gen. Maurice Janin
He writes in his diary.
Rue Bonaparte 18
As soon as General Janin unpacks his suitcases in a hotel room in Paris, Milan Štefánik knocks on his door. He asks him to become the commander of the nascent Czechoslovak army. Janin assures an enthusiastic military officer of her friendship for the Czechoslovak nation, but does not want to accept the position. He doesn’t find it very significant.
In fact, the function could not develop in practice, because the individual parts were not united, and the Russian legions remained in Siberia.
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Wrote President Masaryk in his book „Světová revoluce“ (World Revolution).
The Czechoslovak legions were scattered in three countries; in France, Italy and Russia. During the war, they could not be physically merged into the army corps, because the interests of individual countries did not allow it. General Janin was therefore to command the theoretical army rather than the actual army. The idea that the Italians would let the French commander intervene in their army was unrealistic, and the development of later events eventually confirmed this. And in Russia, where there were the most legionnaires, there was a civil war and it was not possible to transport all the soldiers to France.
But „Non“ is not an acceptable answer for Milan Štefánik. You know, you throw him out the door, he’ll come back through the window. He convinces the general until he obtains his consent. Thus, at the beginning of 1918, the seat of the Czechoslovak National Council (ČSNR) on Rue Bonaparte was extended by the second floor. The General Staff of the Czechoslovak Army, headed by General Janin, is moving there.
I was actually the Minister of War of the National Council.
Gen. Maurice Janin
General Janin describes his work alongside Milan Štefánik and Edvard Beneš.
By the way, the embassy of the Czech Republic is still located on this Parisian street. But back to 1918.
The French Ministry of War plans to integrate various autonomous troops into the Foreign Legion with French officers and thus deploy them on the Western Front. This is in complete contradiction to what Masaryk is planning with the legionnaires. That is why Štefánik asks to meet General Pétain, who was a good friend of General Janin.
Yes, it is the same Philippe Pétain who 20 years later will go down in history by collaborating with Nazi Germany. But back to 1918, when the fate of the Czechoslovak legions depended on his decision.
One by one, we told the general how important it would be morally if the Czechoslovak army went to the front under its own banner. Štefánik in particular told him about the persecution of people in his homeland. We won completely.
Gen. Maurice Janin
Mentions General Janin in his book „Moje účast“ (My Participation).
Pétain listens in disbelief to a young lieutenant colonel with a foreign accent and constantly turns to his friend to testify to him that everything he hears is true.
The Czechoslovak legions therefore remain autonomous thanks to the intervention of General Janin and Milan Štefánik, and work on building our army corps can begin.
The general manages to assemble and train two regiments of volunteers, which Štefánik will transport to France from different countries of the world. These are the 21st Regiment in Cognac and the 22nd Regiment in Jarnac. About 10,000 men. At that time, Štefánik spent a lot of time in Italy, where he worked with the local authorities to enable the recruitment of 30,000 prisoners to the Czechoslovak legions. Although the Italians agree to the creation of legions, they firmly refuse to send them to France. And about 50,000 men are waiting in Siberia.
General Janin realizes that he must get to his army as soon as possible. He received permission for this in July 1918, when the French Ministry of War, as commander in chief of the Czechoslovak legions and also commander of the French military mission, sent him to Siberia. Marshal Foch, the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces, appointed him commander of all Allied forces in Russia on August 24, 1918. Milan Rastislav Štefánik, the general at the time, became his representative and political representative of Czechoslovakia.
By the way, Štefánik’s dizzying military career, which perhaps has no parallel in the history of the French army, is also the work of General Janin.
He told me in Paris that he wanted a higher rank. It would help him in the negotiations in Italy. I negotiated with the Ministry of War to help him. Negotiations were difficult. I had to persuade them for a long time.
Gen. Maurice Janin
The general writes in his book „Milan Rastislav Štefánik“.
Both generals know that their role in Siberia will be challenging and the outcome uncertain. But neither of them knows how much. It breaks Štefánik’s bad health and destroys Janin’s career.
To be continued.
Sources:
- T. G. Masaryk – Světová revoluce, 1925
- Gen. Maurice Janin – Moje účast na čsl. boji za svobodu, 1926
- Edvard Beneš – Světová válka a naše revoluce II., 1927
- Gen. Maurice Janin – Pád carismu a konec ruské armády, 1931
- Gen. Maurice Janin – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, 1932
- Jozef Gregor Tajovský a Ferdinand Písecký – Sborník rozpomienok ruských legionárov Slovákov, 1933
- La Tchécoslovaquie honore le général Janin, L’Ouest-Eclair, 1937
- Bohdan Pavlů – Le Général Janin, Ambassades et Consulats – Revue Diplomatique Et Mondaine, 1938
- Štefánik vo fotografii, 1938
- Korespondence: T. G. Masaryk – Edvard Beneš, 1914 – 1918, 2004
- Korespondence: T. G. Masaryk – slovenští veřejní činitelé, 2007
- Korespondence: T. G. Masaryk – Edvard Beneš 1918–1937, 2013
- Sergio Tazzer – Vlastenci alebo zradcovia?, 2018
- Dušan Kováč – Milan Rastislav Štefánik a Maurice Janin: Príbeh priateľstva, 2020
- Janin, Pierre-Thiébaut-Charles-Maurice (1862-1946)
- Maurice Janin, RO Wikipedia
- Rue Bonaparte 18
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