Register of the Czechoslovakia. Armada. Ceskoslovensky Armadi Sbov v SSSR, 1. Miscellaneous Records, 1941-1945

Box 1

CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS, ORDERS, DIARIES, and PAMPHLETS, 1941-45; 1950-52.

Scope and Content Note

Originals and copies of correspondence, orders, diaries, proclamations, and pamphlets collected by Dr. Michael Stepanek, dealing with the organization, training, and activities of the 1st Czechoslovakian Army under Gen. Ludvik Svoboda, which fought against the Germans on the Eastern Front.

Box 2

NEWSPAPERS, PERIODICALS, and PHOTOGRAPHS, 1939-45.

Scope and Content Note

Collected by M. Stepanek in his capacity as Commander of the Pressefunkstab of the 1st Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR, and left to him by Gen. Ludvik Svoboda after the cessation of the hostilities.

Box 1

a. Situation report of the battle at Sokolov (March 1943). Photocopies.

Staff map of the battlefield at Sokolov. First campaign of the 1st Czechoslovakian battalion in the USSR, 3-13 March 1943, west of Charkov.

Scope and Content Note

Original made for the Battalion Commander Ludvik Svoboda by his Press Officer, 1st Lieutenant Dr. Vojtech Eckstein.

Excerpts of the Fahndungskorrespondenz in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Pamphlet: Biography of General Ludvik Svoboda, published August 1945 (confiscated after the Slansky trial).

b. "O NOVEM KAZENSKEM RADY," (by) Michal Stemr (and) Karel Prasek. (1950). 73p.

Scope and Content Note

About the disciplinary regulations of the Czechoslovakian Army, signed by Clement Gottwald and Alexej Cepicka. With a preface by Gen. B. Reicin who later was sentenced to death in the Slansky trial and then was executed. The edition "O NOVEM KAZENSKEM RADU" is very valuable. This copy is most likely the only one saved, and contains an article by General Redrich Reicin. Gen. Reicin was arrested by the Czechoslovakian Volkspolizei at the time when the management of the Czechoslovakian military publishing house was preparing to distribute the publication. The activity was stopped and the employees worked day and night to tear the article out of the pamphlet. A few courageous employees were able to save two complete copies. Geldeb (?) and Dr. Stepanek.

"O RADU VNITRNI SLUZBY," (by) M. Stemr (and) K. Prasek. Praha, 1951. 83p.

Scope and Content Note

Regulations for the Czechoslovakian Army.

"TAK PRISAHAM!" (By) Michal Stemr (and) Vlastimil Koznar. Praha, 1952. 87p.

Scope and Content Note

Historical analysis relating to the oath of allegiance of the Czechoslovakian Army (p. 3: actual military oath).

c. "VALECNY DENIK 1. DELASTRELECKELW PLUKU V SSR" (original). War diary of the 1st Czechoslovakian Artillery Regiment in the USSR. (Boj v Dukla: Battle at the Dukla Pass, 30. 7. 1944 - 21. 10. 1944. )

Scope and Content Note

Description of the battle at Dukla Pass, the crossing of the Polish-Czechoslovakian border in the Carpathian Mountains on the 6th of October 1944, and the first battles of Czechoslovakian soldiers on Czechoslovakian territory. Author of the diary: Colonel Josef Rada.

d. Miscellaneous documents (originals and photocopies) from the photo and document collection "LESTOV BYOVE SLENY."

1) Cable to J.V. Stalin of February 11, 1943, concerning the tank fund, which was raised by members of the Corps while going to the Soviet-German front.

2) Letter of Klement Gottwald and Vaclav Kopecky, in which they congratulate the Corps on its early departure for the front.

3) Receipt from the State Bank in Micurinsk, where our soldiers delivered 100,000 rubles for tanks.

4) Description of battles from the war diary of March 8, 1943.

5) One of the camps around Cernovice, where the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR was created and where the soldiers lived in tents and shepherds' huts during summer training.

6) Record about the battle for Kiev of November 4, 1943, as described in the war diary of the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR.

7) Part of the war diary of the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR from Sept. 22, 1944.

8) Photocopies of confidential decrees and orders illustrating problems related to the battle for Kiev, in which our soldiers distinguished themselves.

9) Evaluation of the performance of the tank brigade in the battles near Opava, by the 373rd Soviet Artillery regiment.

10) Letter of the commander of the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR to Klement Gottwald, in which Lt. Col. Ludvik Svoboda asks the representative of the Moscow leadership of the Communist Party to visit our Corps.

11) This is the Novochoper road, which our soldiers used daily when they went to the training ground.

12) One page of the annals of the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR.

13) Congratulations from Army General Rokossowski to the I Czech Army Corps for the successful battles around Sokolov.

14) Special edition of For A Free Czechoslovakia.

15) Congratulations from Klement Gottwald to the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR for the battle of Bila Cerkev.

16) Cable of comrade Khrushchev, in which he congratulates and thanks the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR for its participation in the liberation of the Ukraine.

17) Letter of Generals Khrushchev and Valutin, in which they praise the participation of Czechoslovak soldiers in the Charkov operation, and wish further success to the Corps.

18) Decree of the Presidium granting the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" to Lieutenant Otakar Jaros.

19) Proclamation of the commander of the Corps to J.V. Stalin about departure of the I Czech Army Corps in the USSR for the front.

20) Our soldiers in Buzuluk - young and old - they started with basic training, in order to become masters of their arms through diligent preparation.

e. Testimonies of German prisoners of war in the Slovakian national uprising (23 captured SS-men).

Physical Description: 21 documents.

f. News releases of the 2 Czechoslovakian Paratroop Brigade from the time of the Slovakian national uprising. (Secret communications of the 2 Czechoslovakian Paratroop Brigade).

Physical Description: 22 documents.

g. 1) List of names of soldiers of the 2 Engineer Battalion of the 1st Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR who were killed in the battles at Dukla Pass in fall and winter 1944-45.

2) Military training program of the 4 Czechoslovakian Training Battery, 20 - 25 March 1944 (original).

3) Proposal for military manoeuvres.

4) Original work of Colonel B. Lomsky (Minister for National Defense (1956-1968), with handwritten annotations. Personally typed and handwritten evaluation of the battles of the 1st Czech Brigade in the USSR in the area of Kiev-Bila-Cerkov-Zhaskov from Oct. 1943 until March 1944. This work has never been published; it was given as a lecture at a conference of the General Staff by Gen. Lomsky on Dec. 14, 1947.

5) Proclamation to the town of Horna Lehota by the commander of the 2 Czechoslovakian Paratroop Brigade in the USSR, 1st Lieutenant V. Prikryl, and the Soviet Commissar of the Brigade, Capt. Eng. M.M. Glider, during the national uprising (original).

6) Mapping of the defenses of the village Potucek, a key position on the Polish-Czechoslovakian border at Dukla Pass, by the 1st Artillery Regiment of the 1st Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR, 1st Battery of the 1st Division.

7) Letter of a captured German soldier who was interrogated by M. Stepanek in the battle at Kiev (Nov. 2, 1943). The soldier was killed on Nov. 5 (original).

8) 2 Czechoslovakian Engineer Brigade.

9) 1st concert of the "Army's artistic group" welcoming Nejedly in Prague, May 1945.

h. Extract from a "Biography of Gen. Ludvik Svoboda," by M. Stepanek.

Box 2

Newspapers of the 1. Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR, World War II.

a-g. Za svobodne Ceskoslovensko. Denik 1. Ceskoslovenskeno Sboru V SSSR. (For a free Czechoslovakia. Central newspaper of the 1. Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR). First published in August 1944, during the march of the 1 Czech Army from the Bucovina to the Carpathian Mountains (Polish-Czech border)

August 1944 - May 1945

Physical Description: (miscellaneous issues)

h-i. Front-line newspaper of the Czechoslovakian units in the Soviet Union.

Nase Vojsko V SSSR (Our military forces in the USSR. (Originals) (Dailies)

April 1944 - May 1945 (#17: last war edition)

Physical Description: (Miscellaneous issues)

Box 3

a. Front-line newspapers of the units of the 1 Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR, mimeographed in three languages (Czech, Slovakian, and Ukrainian) for Carpatho-Ukrainians, at this time still subjects of Czechoslovakia. Very rare copies.

Nase vojsko v SSSR

Plamen slobody

Nova Sloboda

Denny Zpravy

Smer Zapad

Bojovnik

1943-1945

Physical Description: (miscellaneous issues).

b. Individual issues of periodicals.

Nase vojsko (Published in the first weeks after Germany's capitulation, while Czechoslovakia was still in the state of war. Illustrated magazine, original photographs, which were confiscated after the Slansky trial).

Cas (Central organ of the Democratic Party in Slovakia) 1st year of publication, 1944.

Ceskoslovenske listy. 1944

Physical Description: (2 issues)

Cechoslovak. London. (Weekly). 1944

Physical Description: (3 issues)

Pravda. (Central organ of the Communist Party of Slovakia). Special edition on the fall of Berlin, May 2, 1945.

Physical Description: (1 issue).

Denne spravy. (Daily news). 1st year of publication, 1945.

Physical Description: (1 issue: no. 1)

Krasnoarmejec. (The Soviet soldier); Soviet illustrated magazine for soldiers, propaganda for Czechoslovakian soldiers and women soldiers) 1944.

Physical Description: (2 issues)

c. Nase noviny. Daily newspaper of the Czechoslovakian 2nd year, 1941.

Physical Description: (nos. 1-33)

d. Partyzan. I, 1946.

Physical Description: (nos. 1-24) (vol. 1)

Scope and Content Note

(Volume of a Czechoslovakian resistance magazine which was published in the first half of 1946, dealing with the resistance movement 1939-1945, confiscated immediately after its publication).

e. Photographs which were confiscated after the Slansky trial

Physical Description: (printed copies).

f. Photographs (printed copies).

Women in the Czechoslovakian units in the USSR.

Fragments of the first photo publication of the 1 Czechoslovakian Army in the USSR. Confiscated after the war.

Series Description

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