- Radola Gajda
Radola Gajda, born as Rudolf Geidl, (
February 14 1892 Kotor ,Austria-Hungary –April 15 1948 Prague ,Czechoslovakia ) was a Czech military commander andpolitician .Early years
Geidl's father was an officer in the
Austro-Hungarian Army based in Kotor. His mother was a poor Montenegrin noblewoman. Later, the family moved toKyjov ,Moravia , where Geidl studied at a secondary grammar school. In 1910 he went through one year of compulsory military service inMostar . Afterwards Geidl left for the Balkans and likely took part in theBalkan Wars (1912–3). At the start ofWorld War I he rejoined the Austro-Hungarian Army and served inDalmatia andSarajevo . In September 1915 he was taken prisoner inVišegrad , Bosnia.Legions
Immediately after his capture, Geidl switched sides and was commissioned as a captain in the Montenegrin Army. Having some experience as an apothecary he pretended to be a
physician . [http://psp.cz/eknih/1929ns/ps/stenprot/110schuz/s110007.htm] Following the collapse of the Montenegrin Army in 1916, Gajda escaped into Russia where he joined a Serbian battalion as a physician.At the end of 1916 the battalion was destroyed and Gajda joined the
Czechoslovak Legions (January 30 1917 ) as a staff captain. Gajda proved himself as an able commander in the Battle of Zborov and quickly rose through the military hierarchy.During the evacuation of the Legion in 1918 via the
Trans-Siberian railway violence erupted between the Legion and theBolsheviks . Czechoslovak soldiers quickly occupied large tracts of the railway east of theVolga . Gajda commanded the area fromNovonikolayevsk (Novosibirsk) north toIrkutsk . Aggressive tactics, sometimes against the orders of his superiors, helped to defeat the Bolshevik forces and connect all units of the Legion. This contributed to his conflict withTomáš Garrigue Masaryk .Milan Nakonečný : [http://www.narodni-cest.cz/modules/gajda/clanky/09.pdf Zneuctěný a zapomenutý hrdina] (PDF ) cs icon]The most successful operation was the capture of
Perm (December 24 1918) where the Legion took 20,000 prisoners and seized 5,000 railway cars, 60 cannon, 1,000 machine guns and the fleet frozen in theKama River . Gajda's enjoyed widespread popularity amongst his troops and throughout theWhite movement . He was promoted toMajor-General and nicknamed "the Siberian Ataman" and "the Siberian Tiger." He later accepted an invitation fromAleksandr Kolchak to become a commander in his army.His career with Kolchak was less successful—the
Red Army has begun to take the initiative while Kolchak's forces dwindled away. Gajda, out of Kolchak's favor, was dismissed onJuly 5 ,1919 . After involving himself in the unsuccessful mutiny of Esers against Kolchak (17 November 1919 ) he escaped fromSiberia and took ship to Europe.Military career in Czechoslovakia
After arriving in
Czechoslovakia in early 1920 Gajda was given a pension and the rank of General, but was not assigned a command. In November 1920 he was sent to study military theory at the "École supérieure de guerre" inFrance . He also studied agriculture at the "Institute technique de practique agricole".Gajda returned two years later and on
October 9 ,1922 was given command of the 11th Division inKošice ,Slovakia . His involvement in the cultural life of the region soon endeared him to the locals. OnDecember 1 1924 he was named Deputy Chief of the General Staff in Prague under GeneralEugéne Mittelhauser , head of French military mission in Czechoslovakia. [http://www.army.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=3849] Gajda became a rival of Mittelhauser and Mittelhauser's predecessorMaurice Pellé . In this capacity, Gajda worked successfully to limit the influence of the mission, which was brought to an end in 1926. OnMarch 20 ,1926 he became Acting Chief of the General Staff. In his position he backed up former legionars against former loyalist Austrian officers.Under pressure from president
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Gajda was forced to retire. He had publicly shown himself sympathetic to Italianfascism . Combined with envy, political intrigue and fear of a military coup (similar to the contemporaryMay Coup inPoland ) this led to the dismissal of the ambitious general.Politician
Still a young man of 34, Gajda decided to turn to politics. At the end of 1926 he took part in the founding of the
National Fascist Community ( _cs. Národní obec fašistická, NOF), modeled onBenito Mussolini 'sNational Fascist Party and became its leader onJanuary 2 1927 . In 1929 the party took several seats in parliament. In 1931 Gajda was briefly imprisoned and stripped of military rank due to a prior scandal.During the night of 21/22 1933 the Židenice Mutiny broke out in
Brno . This was an attempt on the part of 70 to 80 local fascists to overthrow the government by means of a militarycoup . The mutiny was immediately suppressed. Gajda was arrested the next day and charged with inciting the coup. Initially he was absolved of wrongdoing but after political pressure the verdict was revised. Gajda was sentenced to six months in prison and the forfeiture of his military pension.The NOF was somewhat successful in the 1935 elections and Gajda obtained a seat in parliament, which he was to hold until 1939. At this time, the NOF had a strong anti-German orientation, supported a military buildup and favored war with
Nazi Germany over theSudetenland . (After theMunich Agreement Gajda, as a gesture of defiance, returned all French and British honors and medals.) In 1939 he was rehabilitated and restored to the rank of General. He also became active in the newly established Party of National Unity ( _cs. Strana národní jednoty).During March 1939 the Czechoslovakian political scene was in state of turmoil. Several coups were attempted, one in anticipation of making Gajda the new head of state. These amateurish coups ended in fiasco and several days later the remaining Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany.
Gajda was marginalized during the occupation and abandoned politics. He occasionally assisted the Czech resistance by helping army officers to flee into Poland and by hiding the resistance activities of his son. He was investigated by the
Gestapo but avoided imprisonment.When
World War II ended Gajda was imprisoned by theNKVD (May 12 1945 ) and interrogated under harsh conditions (he lost his eyesight while jailed). In April 1947 he was brought to trial for "propagation of Fascism and Nazism," for which the prosecutor requested a life sentence. Gajda's guilt was far from clear and the resulting sentence of two years allowed him to leave prison shortly thereafter. Penniless and forgotten, he died several months later.Footnotes
References
* "The Czech Fascist Movement: 1922-1942" by David Kelly (Columbia University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-88033-327-8)
* "Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 " edited byPhilip Rees (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)
* "Radola Gajda of Czechoslovakia" by Joseph F. Zacek in "East Central European War Leaders: Civilian and Military" edited by Bela K. Kiraly (Columbia University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-88033-140-2)
* "The Would-Be Führer: General Radola Gajda of Czechoslovakia" by David Kelly in Issue 12.3 of "The Journal of Slavic Military Studies"
* Antonín Klimek and Petr Hofman: "Generál Radola Gajda, vítěz, který prohrál" ("General Radola Gajda, the winner who lost"), 1995, ISBN 80-7185-033-0, [http://forum.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/p/163327 excerpts] .
* Jiří Fidler: "Generálové legionáři" ("Generals of the legion"), 2001, ISBN 80-7242-043-7
*Milan Nakonečný : [http://www.narodni-cest.cz/modules/gajda/clanky/09.pdf Zneuctěný a zapomenutý hrdina] (PDF ) cs iconExternal links
* [http://www.narodni-cest.cz/ the biggest database—photos, articles, informations] cs icon
* [http://www.cassovia.sk/gengajda/ Detailed biography, photos] (two pages) sk icon
* [http://zivotopisyonline.cz/radola-gajda.php Biography] cs icon
*Tomáš Pasák : [http://libri.cz/databaze/kdo20/list.php?od=g&start=3&count=1 short biography] cs icon
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