history · 14 May 1918 · 106 years ago
Trouble flaired on the Trans-Siberian railway at Chelyabinsk, Russia when a train carrying Hungarian prisoners of war who were being repatriated under the terms of the Brest-Litocsk treaty drew up alongside several trains filled with troops of the 3rd and 6th Czech regiment. The Czechs had been kept there for several days waiting for authority to continue, and their tempers were badly frayed and the sight of these Austrians on their way home did nothing to improve matters. Insults were hurled between the trains, and a Czech soldier was injured by a piece of iron thrown by a Hungarian. Impassioned the Czech soldiers boarded the Hungarian train preventing it from leaving, seized and lynched the culprit. A detachment of Red Guards now arrived on the scene and took away a number of Czechs to a nearby town to be held as witnesses pending an inquiry. When two days later a Czech officer went to secure their release he was arrested and imprisoned. The Czechs were furious; forming two battalions they marched on the town and forced the Soviets to hand over the imprisoned men and also seizing a quantity of weapons from the town arsenal.
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