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It’s curious if not comical that a Russian village that probably has no more than 200 inhabitants today and is located on a secluded island has an extensive Wikipedia page in Russian that also includes a section on the statue myth. On a different note, Cooper and his readers might find it interesting that Thomas More, the Italian Dominican friar, theologian and utopian theorist Tommaso Campanella, and English Protestant reformer and activist Gerrard Winstanley, leader of the so-called Diggers, among others, were indeed commemorated by the Bolsheviks on a repurposed Czarist obelisk near the Moscow Kremlin officially dedicated to ‘outstanding thinkers and personalities of the struggle for the liberation of workers’. I guess that is some potential fodder for anti-Protestant memes or something.
Regarding the Russian Civil War I would mention that the largest foreigner contingent (so to speak) on the side of the Reds consisted not of Latvians but of Hungarians. Of the about 400 thousand POWs of Hungarian origin that were still alive in Russian captivity at the time when the Czar was toppled, about 100 thousand joined the Red Army and the Cheka and basically none joined the opposing side. Mundane motivations were obviously in effect as well but were in this case rather different. The Latvian volunteers (correctly) assumed that the Whites opposed Latvian independence but the Reds were in favor of it (at least that was the situation then and in the foreseeable future). The Hungarians were mostly seeking a practical way to get home (in a Western direction) as soon as possible.
Funnily enough the Czech and Slovaks from Czechoslovak legion in Russia wanted to get to fight on western front for Allies, so it was agreed by Russians that they should evacuate by going east to be picked by allied ships Vladivostok - which eventually happened between 1919-1920. The whole rebellion started when they had conflict with white loyalist Hungarian soldiers in Chelyabinsk, who went west along the same railway but west to fight for Austrian-Hungary. Some legionnaires were arrested after the conflict by Russians, so the rest decided to free their battle brothers and took the whole city under control. The rest is very interesting history.
By the way later those Red Hungarians who did not return to fight for Austria-Hungary but chose to stay to fight for Bolsheviks were also among the leaders in Hungarian Soviet Republic including its leader Béla Kun, who was personal friend of Lenin. Also Czechoslovak legionnaires who returned home were also pivotal in defeating Red Hungarians in a war fought from declaration of independence in October 1918 to summer of 1919, so there was a rematch of a kind there also with Red Hungarians instead of the White ones and Czechoslovak legions in France and Italy and not Russia.
Are you sure that this is what indeed happened? As far as I know, only very few if any Hungarian POWs joined the Whites. I'm guessing you're referring to POWs of the Austro-Hungarian Army who were released according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and decided to voluntarily return home (as the treaty did not mandate their forced repatriation) but not necessarily to rejoin the army.
It's there in Wikipedia, this is also what I remember from history channels regarding the whole thing. Czechoslovak legion in Russia was originally okay with being transported to Vladivostok to leave, it was not until after this conflict in Chelyabinsk where the things escalated, and even that was forced by Germans who wanted loyalist Hungarians back ASAP. Nevertheless these loyalist/White Hungarians were seen as suspicious by Reg Hungarians post WW1, however these whites then in turn
formed the power base of admiral Miklós Horthy's government in Szeged(not these from Russia, but POWs from Italy and France) for his coup, which formed a government that endured up until WW2.Noted, thanks. But again, I'd point out that said POWs were not, and never did become, Whites.
They did back in Hungary. In early days the threath of international communist revolution was real. Horthy brought about white terror in Hungary and these loyalists Hungarians from Russia were backbone of his power. So the naming is legitimate
I'd argue you're mistaken. When the Hungarian equivalent of Freikorps, which is what these loyalist troops essentially were at the time, took power after the fall of the local Soviet Republic, they were indeed commonly called 'Whites' (I can't tell if they also applied this label to themselves but that's not really relevant). It's true that these were WW1 veterans. But very few if any of them were former POWs back home from Russia. As far as I know, those POWs who did return were interned in camps as they were seen as potential agents, agitators and subversives. Very few of them ever rejoined the army, much less the local Freikorps.
I stand corrected, you are right that all of them were indeed treated with suspicion and many of theme actually became targets of White Terror except of small cadre. Horthy's power was based on former POWs from Italy and France - same as Czechosovakia, but in our case it was due to time reasons as Czechoslovak legion in Russia did not come home until late 1919. Nevertheless they were celebrated as loyal anticommunists and acknowledged for their contribution toward better diplomatic position during Versailles and Trianon treaties, while legionaires from France and Italy did contribute toward early wars to safeguard borders. My bad to project this history onto Hungary, which was a different beast. So these loyalists were probably the most unlucky bunch of Hungarians who took it from both sides. Thanks for that, I learn something new every day.
You're welcome, no need to mention it. It bears mentioning here that Austro-Hungarian POWs in Italian or French captivity were not yet released at the time of these events, as there was no peace treaty in effect yet.
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